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"If you think the world's top scientists are trying to kill you, then why would you listen to any expert about anything? They'll save you from yourself when you're wrong anyway. Would you do the same for them? That's why they're trustworthy, and you and your sources are not."
Not everything requires a response and at some point you have to pick your battles. They have revealed to you that they are an idiot. It is not your job to fix them.
Seriously, I've had multiple conversations with my BIL where he comes over to me and says something insane, and my response is just "huh okayyy...." and I walk away without saying anything else. I don't care to be polite anymore.
Sometimes the best response is no response at all. Silence can be deafening.
I'm often a dick. I probably wouldn't say anything immediately, and then use that asinine opinion to dismiss anything else the person says later. Forever. They say something about , "Yeah, but you also think vaccines kill people, so we already know you are an idiot." Just on repeat on every opinion they voice, until they never want to say anything around me or talk to me.
Yup. This is the answer.
You can't logic someone out of something they didn't logic themselves into, and they definitely got emotionally attached to antivax before they found "statistics" to back shit up.
Tell them that you're a sheeple, and got the safe dose of the vaccine, since they want to keep the compliant people around. Tell them it's too bad they're on "the list" of bad people.
I generally reframe it from a perspective even they think they understand: Money.
Governments want their money. Less Population = Less Taxes for them to take, ergo, no government is trying to lower their population. And do they, the audience, think that the government is willing to have less money?
I don't think so!
Maybe not the answer you’re looking for, but I have an uncle like that.
I suggest going no contact if you can.
Reason being, they don’t care about facts, nothing you say will convince them.
Tell them that's completely true, and that if they keeps spreading the truth the black vans will come for them, they know too much.
The birds have already heard the rumors, and the clock is ticking. They better do something and shut up before they end up in "the facility".
You just stop talking to them entirely. Sorry.
A lot of people are saying cut them off, but I have a family member who was into the anti-vax conspiracy theories and kinda still is, but it's much less of a focus now and is pretty obviously just being carried forward by cognitive dissonance at this point. There will never be total victory, but there can be a reasonable truce.
What I'd suggest is the most counter-intuitive strategy - show genuine interest. Say "Ok, I want to know more, but I need you to be specific. Tell me what your theory is and what the evidence is, I'll take my time looking at it, and respond in detail."
Keep in mind, they probably won't pay attention to whatever your respond with. That's ok. The response isn't the point, pinning them down on what they think is. So often these things are purely emotional, and forcing them into a logical framework will make them do the work for you. As for the response, odds are it's some combination of cherry-picked data and spurious correlations, if not outright made up facts. Think of alternate explanations for what they're showing you that are more plausible than a vaccine killing people. And remember that if the vaccine really was killing people, it would be really obvious, not something we need look deep into the matrix to find.
My sister once tried to come at me with the 5g antenna vaccine thing.
"Do you have a source? That sounds like fox news."
She spent almost an hour on her phone trying to find something credible and then never brought it up again.
Wow, wasn't expecting a reasonable and emotionally grounded response as one of the top comments.
Keep up the good work my dude.
"If that were true, I'd be trying even harder to make you take it."
If you think they’d be open to it, try Bayes’ theorem. Ask them to give percent likelihoods for the following:
A. The odds that the government (or whoever) is trying to kill everyone, before taking the evidence of excess deaths into account
B. The odds of seeing excess deaths for any possible reason, not just their conspiracy hypothesis
C. The odds of seeing excess deaths if the conspiracy hypothesis were true.
Then logically, the odds of the conspiracy being real given the excess deaths should be A*C/B. If you disagree with them on the outcome, you must disagree on one or more of the assumptions (probably A—if it’s B, you can find the objective odds by checking historical data).
If you still disagree on the prior assumption (A), you can set aside the excess deaths argument and ask what other evidence led them to form that prior assumption. Then you can repeat the process until you either reach agreement or they’re left with an assumption they have no evidence for.
...You are asking people who.. willfully choose to be idiots to... do science?
I mean, you do you, but at the point someone is willing to believe "the top scientists in the world are trying to get you killed" you might as well consider them lost, as they are ignoring elementary-level statistics.
Don't bother. Anything bad you say will be dismissed as a 'smear' campaign against that person because 'they' (big pharma, the millions of scientists who are all in on "it") don't want you to know and they'll just shut off against you. Just take a step back from the dolt.
Disengage and choose your family
They don't need a vaccine to depopulate when heart disease(695k/y), car accidents(40k/y), overdoses(82k/y), abortion(1m/y), and suicide(49k/y) kill far more people than the vaccine could possibly be linked to the COVID vaccines(8k in total).
Don't at me for including abortion, I support abortion access and want it to be a free service, but we are talking about depopulation means and abortion is a means to depopulate.
What's the best way to respond to a family member who says the COVID vaccines are being used to depopulate?
"You are a fucking idiot" usually does the job.
"That is a fucking idiotic idea."
Attacks the idea, not the person. Probably will be the same result, because they probably were a fucking idiot to believe that stuff, and they are very attached to stupid ideas.
Ask for the comparison in excess deaths comparison of vaccinated versus unvaccinated.
Every time he lies about vaccines you break one of his fingers and tell him lying is bad for his health.
Jokes aside, ask him who his doctor is, call up his doctor on speaker and ask the doctor if they'd recommend vaccines. He is almost certainly lying to you because he thinks "you believe doctors, ergo I will lie and say a doctor supports my position in an attempt to manipulate you".
IIRC there was a study where people with strong opinions talked to an Al and the process changed their minds.
Edit:
Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq1814
I heard You'll die in six months at Thanksgiving one year.
"Really? Holy fuck, I'm immortal! Call the press! Wait, no, I don't want to be locked in a room and tested for 40 years, maybe we all just keep this our little secret."
You stop speaking to them.
They'll either come to realize that there are real world consequences for being a dumb asshole, like their friends and family abandoning them....or they won't. Either way, you win.
This is an easy one:
Ask them to point to the depopulation occurring.
On the graph the fuzzy dot is on June 2021 which was around the time that vaccines were in full availability. According to their logic we should see a decline occurring from the "depopulation" occurring from COVID vaccines. Where is that decline?
encourage them to go to therapy
My mom said basically the same thing, putting a date of 2 years on anyone who got the vaccine. Here we are way past that mark.
She's still a lunatic, and I've been low contact with her for months now.
I told their grandmother how silly they are.
Straightened them right out. (Happened with my close friends family)
in 2025? Vaccines have been available for how many years now? Why does anyone even think about COVID vaccines anymore in this year? We would have figured out any adverse effects by now if there were any.
Agree with them. Tell them that yes indeed there is a deep state that wants to kill as many people as possible by spreading disinformation causing morons not to take the vaccines so more stupid people die. It's eugenics really and very, very heinous. Wait wasn't that what they meant?
It's been three years, where are all the bodies? Where are the people crying out for their lost loved ones?
Oh that's right, the ones who died, died of disease and you can talk to their families online and learn about what happened.
Just mock them.
"Yeah, sure. It's all apart of Elvis's plan to return as the antichrist."
I had this problem.
I stopped talking to them.
You are allowed, and sometimes encouraged, to not say anything.
I’ve had about 9 boosters at this point, and my nuts are so swollen from spike proteins that when I go to Walmart, they accuse me of trying to steal basketballs.
Well I guess we agree that we should respect body autonomy.
But please be cognizant of the social consequences of not having herd immunity to protect the vulnerable and the perfectly reasonable judgement that your actions will result in the death of children, potentially including your own.
Their bullshit causes a risk that someone else hesitate or pass on vaccination. You did an attempt at convincing. The responsible alternative is to make them feel uncomfortable bringing up the subject.
Remind them abortion is illegal in many places, that women are to be awarded certificates for having a "litter", and show them the article about the brain dead woman kept on life support for months to deliver a child slightly over one pound that now needs months in the NIC unit to survive.
Not deliver. They autopsied the woman to collect the baby. They had to collect it because the lady's body was decomposing. Because she was dead. Not brain dead. Dead.
Thanks for pointing this out.
It's almost like the woman was just a lab experiment at this point, in an effort to create a baby incubator.
