Helping people climb out of the rabbit hole of Q or other conspiracy theories

KSera

Posted May 23, 2021

I this article yesterday about how people can get out of a conspiracy theory rabbit hole or help others do so. I need to get better about not always trying to go the facts route. It’s been well demonstrated that doesn’t work and that kindness and friendship go a lot further. Anyway, thought some others might have people in their life they might find this helpful information for.
https://amp.abc.net.au/article/100153732

From the conclusion:

‘After posting her views on Facebook, Tanya received a message from a concerned friend, who had a background in science.

Over several Zoom calls, Tanya's friend explained how science works and how she separates fact from fiction in her research, such as tracking down reliable sources of information in a sea of content on the web and finding the right journal articles.

After talking with her friend, Tanya realised the way she was gathering information online to back up the conspiracy theories she believed in was driven more by fear than logic.

But most of all, it was her friend's compassionate approach that helped her see the misinformation she was consuming for what it was.

"She took the time to explain a lot of things to me, giving me proper forms of research, rather than what I was doing," Tanya says.

"It alleviated a lot of my fear. The world is not that bad, it's OK."

Kindness from others has also been key to Mr Jadeja's recovery from QAnon.

Shortly after he abandoned his beliefs, he wrote a Reddit post about how he had been misled and the guilt he felt for pulling his father into the rabbit hole with him.

While he expected users to "rip me apart", he received waves of supportive comments from the online community.

"It was like they gave me permission to retain some semblance of self-worth and dignity," Mr Jadeja says.’