Well, history is full of examples of demagoguery via media. So in that sense this conspiracy theory situation /should/ be an old hat.

Except this time it's far weirder and more chaotic, because it's not some coherent political entity pushing a long term agenda (although there might be some meddling), but rather a mostly crowdsourced fantasy world made up on the spot. Feels somewhat like a fever dream with its frantic twists and turns and absence of anything but short-term memory.

And starting from just a few "trolls"* and internet crazies on message boards/social media it has developed into this huge trainwreck.

Must be disturbing to have relatives like this. I probably would have intervened early and installed web filters / parental controls (this acquired an entirely new meaning) combined with education about the medium where I could. Naturally this is no longer feasible for those too far gone.

At any rate, hope this gets fixed soon. Move fast and... have society break itself.

* At this point this really has become a euphemism

My ex wife and I are in our early sixties. I've gradually watched her slip in this direction.

She recently told me I should stock up on canned food. At the time I thought it was just random her.

Reading this article was a shock of recognition.

Sad, shocked, despair, resignation, ...

My mom for pretty much my whole life has been a prep lord, not because of QAnon but because of the local news. One of the pastimes of the Washington news media when they have nothing better to do is to talk about "THE IMPENDING BIG ONE" (earthquake). My mom interprets the "IMPENDING" part very literally. The overall paranoia spills into any other stupid petty crime that gets reported (which in the local news broadcast is a lot). Everyone wants to steal our mail, everyone wants to hijack the signal from our car keys, everyone is camped out waiting to steal our Amazon packages.

I don't find that to be a healthy way to live at all, but she's always been like that, I don't think there's an answer.

I sometimes wonder if we're getting too much plastic on our diet. Or if we're encountering a new form of mass alzheimer's. Maybe from plastic.

Or maybe that's my personal paranoia.

It's sad to see people sperated in this way, and some filled with fear for nothing.