Very understandable, I had to make myself loose too from a set of friends long time ago. Never looked back and no regrets whatsoever.
I've became pretty friend-less since, at best one semi-friend at work. Feeling pretty OK by that, although my ex-relation has become 'strictly a friend' and we still live under one roof so there's no loneliness in that regard. But hanging out with friends hasn't been for decades and while I was afraid that would be awe full it never felt a such. Be your own best friend is a poor solace but there's truth in that. It feels luxurious to notice one can be okay more or less independently. I'm trying to motivate you if this is what you need right now

I find it a hard thing to deal with.

If you just meet someone and they start the CT rambling, sure, move on and forget about it. But what if it's someone you already consider your friend? In my mind, just leaving them behind is akin to not helping a friend who is wounded or sick.

I have one of these. I wouldn't even care that he believes all this stuff, if only he could avoid talking to me about it. But he can't resist, he keeps injecting those ominous hints in our conversations, and getting mad if i don't want to hear it, or worse, if i say that i see it differently.

I don't think it is necessarily about setting them straight in the sense of removing the misinformation and replacing it with facts. After all, many of these stories take place in realms where factual information is hard to come by. To me, it's mostly about that these people live in a constant state of paranoia and want you to join them.

They keep telling everyone to do their own research, question or forget any and all things you were ever told, but they're ready to accept the most convoluted 'cosmic good vs evil battle' explanation without blinking an eye. They won't shut up about it, yet never tell you the whole story. They say it's too dangerous to talk about it. Or if you don't see it, you're a sheeple.

I think if paranoia can't be solved, it must be dissolved. All i'd like to do is open up a tiny crack for some sunlight to shine in. Like, i don't care if you're a warrior, we're drinking tea now.


This is the best advice i've ever heard on this matter.

One thing I've recently learned about: bullshit receptivity. Apparently it's a measure recognized by psychology.



According to a study:

In other words, people believe stuff not so much because it fits their pre-existing worldview / they want to believe it, but because they don't think critically.

The best way to prevent misinformation is to arm yourself with the most up to date knowledge and then make sure that all your knowledge is true so that you know that you are not an active participant in spreading disinformation. I suspect that people who are spreading things like the "5G" want somebody to be in control. If somebody is in control they can look to those people and blame them. The reality is that no one "cooked" this disease up. There is no one to blame its a force of nature and has to be treated like one.

[quote=Jagube]One thing I've recently learned about: bullshit receptivity. Apparently it's a measure recognized by psychology.



That test sounds like it could have been the promo material for any one of the ayahuasca new age retreats out there!

One more thought...

Perhaps people repeat / regurgitate what their friends post on social media and 'like' it and post comments like "100% agreed!" and "Yeah, those bastards are trying to impose NWO on us, we'll never succumb to them! Hugs lovely xxx" because it's more important for them to feel connection than to seek the truth. And they feel connection can be achieved through agreeing on an issue, while disagreement leads to disconnection. It's that "It's more important to be kind than to be right" thing misinterpreted and mis-carried-over.

Oh yes, something has been miscarried alright. A total miscarriage of facts, logic and data whilst paranoia enjoys it's successful delivery to the digital curtain twitchers.

I have many social media friends who already liked a dip in the deep end, but now they're completely submerged in it. They complain about brainwashing, paranoia and control whilst they willfully allow themselves to controlled by their own paranoia as they brainwash others who will do the exact same! It's like a mental plague.

I think this is pretty accurate to a large degree. However, whatever peoples' motivations, it doesn't excuse their behavior.

I've seen actual offline friends in the past three years giving thumbs ups, and little hearts, and encouraging winky-winkies to all kinds of horrific things, from re-posting anti-Semitic cartoons that are lifted directly from neo-Nazi websites, to racist videos, to arguments for a US ethnostate. I don't give a rat's ass what motivates their complicity. They ARE complicit, and in their brainless quest for online connection they are absolutely promoting vile, disgusting ideologies and contributing to their spread.

It's also amazing to me that when I've tried to speak to friends about how destructive and ugly this is, their reaction is ALWAYS one of being attacked and unfairly maligned, and 10 times out of 10 they will then publicly post about how they have been persecuted, encouraging their online peanut galleries to pile on and to validate their overall goodness and lack of culpability. They will ALWAYS delete their offending posts first so there is no context or evidence, and they will ALWAYS endlessly whine and cry about how folks these days all just want to be offended.

If you don't understand what it is you are "liking" or sharing with large groups of people, just keep that filthy shit to yourself. Do your fucking research first. Be an adult for god's sake. Take responsibility for the hateful shit that YOU, YOURSELF are putting out into the world. And if you see this crap (or miscellaneous, toxic misinformation) in your feeds, unfriend and move along. You are the company that you keep. There are consequences for collaboration.

Yes, it's a cult of victimhood.

But sometimes, someone manages to get out of that cult. People do get cured from this disease.

Maybe, if we will get through this crisis and the economic fallout following, most people will realise that the positive forces, that keep society from falling apart, are stronger than the negative ones, and present in everyone around us. (Or almost everyone)

Maybe they'll realise that the world isn't such a dark place after all and that we most likely will never run out of toiletpaper.

the marketplace has always been noisey...

Salutations Jagube,



M'well, maybe it an April 1st joke, or an issue of Facebook itself...

IMO life's too short to spend it over futilities, if Facebook must disapear then so be it: that would still be much better than offer an echo to something which should receive no more attention than what futilities are worth for. Try YouTube instead, some of the words worth being spoken are getting heard out there; it's give 'n take but at least it leaves the mind free for constructive purposes, shared by creative people.

What's the point fighting obviously absurd statements anyway, if not to express a conviction that even idots have freedom rights...

By chance the span of subject items is immense, starting with music alone which is quite a life enhancer all by itself, so why trash precious time over such etheral futilies, really!

No. IMO it's OKay to tell Facebook about it, via money talk e.g. clics, whatever... But then lets leave them the frustration of having created a wild ugly monster as there are other media to pick from where content allows us to contribute to our own advancement instead of wasting time in pure vain. Facebook shall try to adapt before it dies, hopefully.

Not to mention the time spent to read and write about that specific Fake News far exceeds what it's worth, to be honest... Sorry falling for it too.

Good day, have fun!!

I seem to failing spectacularly at the "not losing friends" part. My normally extremely low level of BS tolerance is nearly non-existent....

Mine as well, and there is more bullshit to tolerate than ever before it seems.

For me personally the word "bilderberg" is the magic word.
The moment someone uses that word, i find it extremely hard to take them seriously ever again, and i lose all interest in any further conversation.

Why smart people believe coronavirus myths

Some interesting points in there, e.g.:

Dear Jagube, İ have known you as a passionate follower of Science. We differ in this respect, as I make a considerable space for spirit, intuition, and subjectivity alongside my connection to Science. You are also aware of my distrust of modernity and unease with the huge alterations modern society has been doing to the Earth.

From my perception, the 5G project appears as a huge alteration to the Earth. I don't know if it can be a factor in worsening covid19 disease symptoms (for example through affecting the immune system) and as far as I know, there has been no research done on this. But permanently altering the night sky to the point of rendering astronomy from land impossible, and the serious pollution of Earth's ionosphere really bothers me.


https://www.google.com/a...space-junk-2019-11%3famp

I believe this topic needs research. I believe scientific research and critical thinking has to be done beyond what is easily accessible, served on a plate. I believ mainstream institutions are not necessarily acting for the highest good.

I wonder, which part of this do you agree with, and the which part you don't?

I think indeed, that people sometimes claim to be believing something that they actually know to be rubbish.

For a lack of better words we could call this phenomenon "strategic malingering".

It can be one of the less subtle ways of virtue signalling or dogwhistling. If someone starts to deny or question the holocaust, we instantly know of what political affiliation this person is without him having to explicitly state it.

It can be a form of gaslighting. Deliberately trying to cause confusion. For instance when people at the same time "believe" that flight MH17 was shot down by an ukrainian fighter jet, and a ukrainian anti-aircraft missile, and the CIA.
Or that there is no climate change, there has always been climate change and there is nothing new, that CO2 plays no role in climate change, and CO2 does play a role but human activity has no significant effect on it.

It can also be a form of agression. To discredit people with false accusations. Like when people accuse hillary clinton of running a pizza restaurant with a secret sex dungeon for pedophiles, or having killed mr epstein, or some other people.
The politically very effective tactic of smear.

Or a combination of any of these three things.

People are often more rational than they seem. You don't realy have to believe in bullshit to subscribe to it. In many cases, it is an extremely succesfull strategy.

Thank you Dithyramb for chiming in. I think 5G deserves its own thread.

And then, Starlink is a different thing altogether.

Some things - like Starlink - are a matter of weighing out the pros and cons.

Others, such as the statement that Covid-19 is caused by a virus, are objective facts and making preposterous claims only discredits one camp or another (maybe that's their purpose in some cases?) and doesn't help us find the truth.

I also embrace intuition, Spirit and subjectivity, but suggesting to people that they play a Youtube video with a special frequency instead of washing their hands can have effects on the population that are far from subjective.

I find myself not saying anything on Facebook at all, because if I do, people will turn away from me.

For example, I saw a post today about Ninawa Pai da Mata (the famous Kaxinawa leader) getting vaxxed (whether it's true or not - but he doesn't speak English so I guess he's not exposed to anti-vax stuff). An animated discussion in the comments.
I wanted to add to the discussion, but I knew if I did, 90% of my friends are anti-vaxxers and might not want to see me anymore.

You may wonder, why are my friends like that? Because they're aya people; otherwise I wouldn't have met them. When you drink, that's the kind of people you meet...
Still, I love them. They're great people, just misguided and brainwashed.

I've interacted with people on the Nexus who may be followers of science, but are arrogant sometimes and when they are, I'd rather not interact with them.

Jagube, I think what you said in this quote sums up quite well what you are experiencing yourself.