Someone I loved very much died because he thought the Covid vaccine would kill him. Before he fell down the alt-medicine rabbit hole, he was one of my favorite uncles. He was a good guy.
He had four kids, all still in grade school, and a wife who’s now a single mom. He didn’t deserve to become a casualty of a confidence scam. He deserved to live. It pisses me off when people look at the death toll of a believable lie and gloat about how it’s removing the ‘right’ people.
They fell for a scam. That doesn’t merit the death sentence.
Edit: I didn’t think that publicly showing some vulnerability by talking about a dead loved one was such a god damned controversial take. Humans are a social species. We are hardwired to trust our peers because it is part of how we evolved to survive.
When that evolutionary advantage is exploited by con artists and cult leaders, it is difficult to fight. No one is immune to believing a lie. No matter how smart, sensitive, or cynical, we have the same fundamental weakness; we trust our in-group before we trust an unknown outlier. Consider the last time you found out that a fundamental part of your worldview turned out to be part of a broader deception, and how difficult it was to overcome that in spite of the mountain of obvious evidence.
I asked for people to remember that, and have empathy. Nothing more. The reason? The only way to convince someone to get out of a cult is to give them some empathy, and wait. To quietly demonstrate, through sustained neutral interactions, that a piece of their worldview doesn’t work. That strategy fails when you alienate them. Alienating them validates their conditioning and drives them deeper into the deception and the alternative reality it offers.
Someone you love believes something that isn’t true. And eventually, they’ll run into evidence that denies their view. For my uncle, that opportunity to change his mind came too late. Lies kill people. That is a fact. Have a god damn heart, and be patient. Unraveling your whole world is a terrifying undertaking, and they need a hand when that moment comes, not hatred…
Is everyone who falls for a scam–whether it’s crypto, alternative medicine, or MAGA–a good person? Hell no. Should you make that effort for everyone? Again, no. All I’m asking is that if someone you love falls for a trap, try to pull them out of it before it’s too late.
A couple I knew in college, basically they’d been together since elementary school, moved to rural Minnesota to live their newfound conservative principles. When COVID hit, they were vocally anti-vaccine and antimask, even crusading to ban masks from their little community.
The whole family got sick, and the husband died on a government-provided respirator. The wife and her grown kids still blame Biden.
But most subscribe to an ideology that is becoming more and more akin to Nazism.
But yeah, there are people of all sorts that are just weird about vaccines and doctors and it may have nothing to do with their political beliefs. People believing that all anti-vaxxers are MAGA Nazis is just another thing MAGA Nazis have ruined for us.
Someone I loved very much died because he thought the Covid vaccine would kill him. Before he fell down the alt-medicine rabbit hole, he was one of my favorite uncles. He was a good guy.
He had four kids, all still in grade school, and a wife who’s now a single mom. He didn’t deserve to become a casualty of a confidence scam. He deserved to live. It pisses me off when people look at the death toll of a believable lie and gloat about how it’s removing the ‘right’ people.
They fell for a scam. That doesn’t merit the death sentence.
Edit: I didn’t think that publicly showing some vulnerability by talking about a dead loved one was such a god damned controversial take. Humans are a social species. We are hardwired to trust our peers because it is part of how we evolved to survive.
When that evolutionary advantage is exploited by con artists and cult leaders, it is difficult to fight. No one is immune to believing a lie. No matter how smart, sensitive, or cynical, we have the same fundamental weakness; we trust our in-group before we trust an unknown outlier. Consider the last time you found out that a fundamental part of your worldview turned out to be part of a broader deception, and how difficult it was to overcome that in spite of the mountain of obvious evidence.
I asked for people to remember that, and have empathy. Nothing more. The reason? The only way to convince someone to get out of a cult is to give them some empathy, and wait. To quietly demonstrate, through sustained neutral interactions, that a piece of their worldview doesn’t work. That strategy fails when you alienate them. Alienating them validates their conditioning and drives them deeper into the deception and the alternative reality it offers.
Someone you love believes something that isn’t true. And eventually, they’ll run into evidence that denies their view. For my uncle, that opportunity to change his mind came too late. Lies kill people. That is a fact. Have a god damn heart, and be patient. Unraveling your whole world is a terrifying undertaking, and they need a hand when that moment comes, not hatred…
Is everyone who falls for a scam–whether it’s crypto, alternative medicine, or MAGA–a good person? Hell no. Should you make that effort for everyone? Again, no. All I’m asking is that if someone you love falls for a trap, try to pull them out of it before it’s too late.
But it wasn’t believable.
No one should have believed it.
People falling for the “scam” aren’t fooled, they are buying in to an ideology that they want to support.
A couple I knew in college, basically they’d been together since elementary school, moved to rural Minnesota to live their newfound conservative principles. When COVID hit, they were vocally anti-vaccine and antimask, even crusading to ban masks from their little community.
The whole family got sick, and the husband died on a government-provided respirator. The wife and her grown kids still blame Biden.
Well they can’t blame themselves. That’s a sign of weakness!!!
Its sad but inevitable. Gotta suck it up
They’ve been falling for the scam so long that it’s nobody’s fault but their own now.
He wasn’t a good guy, and the world is a better place without him.
Imagine having no empathy, as if that will make the world a better place.
Nazis don’t get empathy. They deserve to be put underground.
No idea what this sentiment has to do with my reply. Not everyone that refuses the covid vaccine or uses alt medicine is a nazi.
True.
But most subscribe to an ideology that is becoming more and more akin to Nazism.
But yeah, there are people of all sorts that are just weird about vaccines and doctors and it may have nothing to do with their political beliefs. People believing that all anti-vaxxers are MAGA Nazis is just another thing MAGA Nazis have ruined for us.
Eh. Our conservative leaders are telling us empathy is a weakness (literally).
Go fuck yourself. Feel free to talk shit about your own family. Don’t talk shit about mine.