What kind of professional help is there for conspiracy theorists?
My Dad has started delving into the realm of internet conspiracies. He’s convinced that there is an international shadow government, that the Illuminati or the Rothschilds are controlling everything. Anything bad that happens eventually gets written about by some idiot on the internet and my dad eventually finds it in multiple places and claims that it is proof that it is verifiable information. And this stuff isn’t like accusations of aliens or occultism or anything un-scientific, just conspiracies of mundane but horrible financial and political manipulations and control. The theories are both unprovable but also incapable of being disproven because the required information doesn’t exist for our perusal. We are incapable of having a meaningful and rational debate about these theories.
I am very unhappy with the yelling arguments our phone chats have devolved into. He was raised before the internet was invented in a time when you could more or less trust most printed sources of information more than you can now. Now you are taught from an early age to check your sources, to make sure you can back something up. If it’s on Wikipedia, follow through with the related source at the bottom and verify its reliability. This kind of stuff was hammered into us from middle-school through college.
I just want to know if there is some kind of strategy for intervention or help with someone who continually starts to believe in totally bazaar ideas. Perhaps something clinical or something that a psychiatrist can suggest? It just seems that he can find a bogey-man behind everything. I’m not saying there isn’t any truth to the online conspiracy theories, but I think the people on the internet completely blow them out of proportion, out of context, mix them up and connect them in completely arbitrary and self-gratifying ways.
Please help!!!
Answer by SethSpeaks
There is no need for you to argue with him. If he wants to believe this stuff, it is his business. Just avoid the conversation. There is no need to debate about something that you just can’t agree on. So to save your relationship with your dad, just avoid subjects that he has these theories about. Or if he brings it up, just say well you know I don’t agree with you on that, but you are entitled to your opinion. By arguing with him, you only drive him to go further into his ‘research’. It isn’t your job to have an intervention just because you disagree with him and think his ideas are wacky. He has his opinion and you have yours. He is probably right about some things, and you are probably right about others. No need to make it a fight or think he needs an intervention just because you guys don’t see eye to eye.
What do you think? Answer below!
Boy, I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but your dad may not be quite the nut you think he is. I aman investigative reporter. and I respect what you say about the internet, however, all you have to do these days to get the —- scared out of you is read the Congressional Journal.
Every time I see one of those things that I think, “Ah, that can’t be true. This is still America” I search after the truth like a hound after a rabbit and, guess what. More often than not, the rabbit turns out to be really freaky.
But, don’t worry. Soon the internet will be under government control and ol’ dad won’t be getting anything but a rosy picture of our state of affairs. Yeah, right…. well, perhaps you’ll respect these opinions:
Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, said the bills would overdo it — giving copyright holders and government the power to cut off websites unreasonably. They could be shut down, and search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo could be stopped from linking to them.
“The solutions are draconian,” Schmidt said Tuesday at the MIT Sloan School of Management. “There’s a bill that would require ISPs [Internet service providers] to remove URLs from the Web, which is also known as censorship last time I checked.”
Maybe give dad a break. After all, you love him and he loves you. Just make a deal with yourself: the next time he calls, PROMISE to just listen to him without trying to prove him wrong. Maybe now and then say something like, “Yeah, Dad. I can see where you might think that.”
Pretend he’s your professor. Even if you disagree, give him the same respect that you would give the old prof. After all, he thinks he’s telling you something that will help you be more aware and just wants you to listen. Good Luck
Nothing you or anybody does is going to change his beliefs. It seems to me that all you have to say is, “Look, I don’t want to talk about it.” If that doesn’t work, call a psychologist and say you need to modify some behavior. If that doesn’t work, call that top secret government agency whose job it is to silence UFO reports.