They are citing ONS figures of excess deaths as proof the vaccines are killing people. I tried to explain that not being able to get a doctor’s appointment, staying home and getting fat, etc explain the figures (official sources have said it too) but they said it’s “gaslighting” and then said their family doctor wouldn’t get the vaccine.
When everybody agrees so perfectly. When conformity is so absolute. When dissent is so rare. It makes one suspicious.
“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.
Hypothetically speaking, how do you tell the difference between truth and propaganda here?
“Bye.”
Then leave and stay gone.
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.
I’ve been waiting for over a year now for my dad to send me his source for “the new information that’s come out about the vaccines” when he asked me if I regretted getting it yet…
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’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 <whatever topic>, “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.
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.
The exact same thing could be said about the other team too.
By definition it cannot.
Speaking as a person who had 2 family members die within a year of taking the vaccine (heart attacks), this whole thing stinks.
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Must be just a bigass coincidence then
One of the reasons i don’t make policy decisions: my solution yo the antivax problem is to develop a bioweapon and a corresponding vaccine. Secretly add the new vaccine into all other vaccines for two years. Warn people that the coming flu season is going to be bad and that a new dangerous strain of covid is spreading to increase vaccination rates. Then deploy the bioweapon. No more antivaxxers.
