What was it that got them into it? Were you able to maintain a relationship with them or did you have to cut them out of your life? How on Earth do they do the mental gymnastics to believe something that is so farcically untrue?
Yeah, one of my friends has fallen for it. I kinda feel like it’s my fault he got into it; he’s a really credulous/uncritical sort of guy and I started talking to him about UFOs which spurred him to start watching all these ancient aliens YouTube vids and shit and the algorithm got him (aliens>govt coverups>NWO/illuminati>pizzagate>qanon). He never really talks about it and he really is a good guy so we’ve stayed friends; I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to do some sort of intervention on him.
I believe/entertain a lot of extremely out-there notions myself, but qanon stuff is just so dumb and obviously fucking made-up fascist propaganda that I still can’t fully wrap my head around it’s gotten such a foothold, even in people prone to paranoid/magical thinking. So frustrating watching people get brainwashed
ancient aliens
Someone else on here pointed this out, but every time I read those two words I mentally replace them with ‘i can’t believe it’s not white people building world wonders’
Right? As a self-identified crank I personally buy a decent amount of paranormal shit, and I wouldn’t be surprised if aliens have been hanging around fucking with us since the dawn of humanity (with a healthy dose of skepticism and knowing I’m playing fast and loose with belief/knowledge claims) but like the ancient wonders were never things that struck me as requiring any paranormal explanation unless you’re a racist. (Plus the evidence/arguments are mostly dumb) I was all happy he wasn’t calling me crazy for talking about ufos but then he’s like yo ancient aliens? And I’m like noooo not that kind of crank nonsense
