My parents have always been left-wing hippies and entertained the odd conspiracy theory, but during the pandemic they got lost down YouTube rabbit holes and bought into Q-Anon and anti-vax ideas. They still don’t believe Covid is real (even though they blatantly had it…).
We’ve just kind of agreed not to talk about it anymore, but they’ve steadily become more and more batshit and I think they believe I have been brainwashed.
Anyone else’s familial relationships changed forever?
One of my wife’s friends lost her baby to COVID because her mom wouldn’t stay masked, and lied about having COVID when she visited shortly after the baby was born. The abject selfishness boggles my mind.
Holding my 3 months old baby while reading this broke my heart. I don’t think I’d ever recover.
Not family, probably because my father passed away just before the pandemic. But it has changed friendships forever. I was surprised by the lack of empathy from people. Like the mild inconvenience of wearing a mask was worse than people dying…
“I WiLL nOt BeCoMe a ShEeP!”
[breathes on strangers while running errands, spreads COVID, kills vulnerable people in their community]
To be fair that sounds very un-sheep-like.
Much before that covid, everything change when there is too many adults around.
I have some anti-vax people in my family, but we just don’t talk about it. I brought it up lightly in the thick of the pandemic, but didn’t drive at it hard, as I knew that wasn’t a way to change minds, nor did I think it was worth throwing away the relationships. The biggest statement I made was skipping certain family events, or sitting in a different room during meals where I had to take my mask off to eat. One of those events I skipped was one where they all ended up getting COVID. I think I’m the only one in the family who never got it (at least not that I know of, and I took a test every time I sneezed).
Now that COVID isn’t really dictating anyone’s life, it’s mostly a non-issue. I do hope they don’t jump on any similar trains. They were already on the fence about vaccinations when having kids. Thankfully they got their kids vaccinated against the normal stuff, but at one point it seemed like that was going to be questionable. With that existing skepticism it wasn’t surprising where they fell on the COVID stuff.
My family have gone full libertarian after covid. Ranting about wef and trudeau
Man, a colleague I had never heard talk about politics in 10 years suddenly became just like that… He was on the hill for most of the convoy bullshit, can’t shut up about Trudeau, WEF, WHO, Ukraine and so on… Very glad I changed job!
Yes and no.
My parents are thankfully at the age at which they just don’t give much of a shit. They think that there was a lot of shady political shenanigans surrounding the whole thing (and I’d say they’re objectively correct about that), but they cynically expect that and mostly ignore it. They talked to their doctors and came to understand that covid is real, and dangerous, and that the vaccines do have some risks, but the benefits outweigh the risks, and that was enough for them to take it seriously and take proper precautions.
My brothers on the other hand…
I’m the oldest of three, and they’re both… well… angry, spiteful, delusional, Fox News and talk radio consuming, gun-toting, Trump-voting, road-raging reactionaries. So they both lined right up and marched in lockstep with the expected dogma, to my complete lack of surprise.
So yes - our relations have been strained over it, but really it’s not quite accurate to say that it’s because of that, since that’s just one of the many, many MANY things on which we disagree.
Did they also waffle along with their leader about how Covid is not a big deal, but the vaccine was the best thing ever, and China is responsible but Biden is responsibler, that it can be cured by over the counter or, uh, through-the-horse methods but you can’t trust a damn thing Big Pharma’ll sell you?
Last I knew, yes. In fact, I almost mentioned that, just because it amuses me so much.
I sit and listen (well - more accurately, I used to - at this point I leave the room as soon as they start), and it’s honestly astonishing.
The middle one is the one that does it most obviously, since he’s actually very intelligent and just fell down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole and hasn’t found his way back out. I think what happens is he cones to see the holes in his current conspiracy theory, so he… just replaces it with another.
The younger one constantly shifts too, but that’s because he’s mostly defined by who he hates, so as his focus shifts, so does the purported blame.
Ribbit
It’s been about three years since I’ve heard from my mom/sister. I have no idea how they’re doing other than they’re down in Florida the last I checked.
Not really. We probably won’t give a shit about the next pandemic due to how badly covid was handled. My grandfather spent the last of his life locked up in a Nursing home, only to die from stage 4 lung cancer.
My parents have always been pretty conservative but it didn’t make too much difference until I came out as trans and then covid happened. I try not to stand up to them too much because I don’t want to be kicked out.
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Let’s be honest. This all started with Harambe
No amount of dicks being out will bring him back!
Probably would have if I didn’t completely cut my parents off decades ago because of their David Duke supporting religious ways. They didn’t support me being gay anyways, so I had no reason to have them be a part of my life.
And my grandmother, the only one I still keep in contact with and visit, is fully pro-science (even if such things don’t involve her life much at her age) and she got all of the vaccinations and boosters during the pandemic. She stayed perfectly healthy and never caught it as far as we know, unless she was asymptomatic, and it’s been quite an achievement at her mid-80’s age.
As for my friends, I’ve only ever surrounded myself with pro-science and supportive people. Why would I associate with anyone not like that? Certainly not going to associate with conservatives that hate that I, as an LGBT person, exist in the first place.
I frequently have to nodd and smile along to people trying to tell me an illness that hospitalised and almost killed my brother didn’t exist or was overreacted to . It’s easier than trying to change minds at this point.
Hope your brother is doing better.
That’s exactly the thing that frustrated me the most during the lockdowns. Lots of people trying to inject their FB doctoral studies into all their convos and any argument, however logical, won’t work on the type of mindset that rejects scientific evidence.
Its infuriating to have to be the bigger person but I think thats the best way to go. I try to smile and make light of it when the crazy talk comes out. Maybe it helps a bit to allow people some room to change their minds if they can save face without an “I told you so crowd” waiting on them. Ive had some close coworkers who were covid-deniers come around when reality landed in their backyard and they had real people they loved and cared about affected.
His doing better thank you , annoyingly he refuses to get vaccinated which is why it was so bad. Not because he denied the severity of COVID he is just very afraid of injections and things entering his body that way. He was careful as could be otherwise but eventually it’s going to catch up with you.
My dad has COPD and other conditions that made him endangered so when it first hit we isolated for six months I literally didn’t leave my house not even to the garden . thankfully he was fully vaccinated when he eventually got it and was relatively okay as a result.
Be honest. Your parents don’t believe that “Covid isn’t real”.
They live in a very rural part of the UK on a commune (which is a bit culty) and don’t really interact with anyone outside their bubble. At the beginning they didn’t know anyone who got ill, and later on they just explained any illness away as being flu or something else.
Even when me and my siblings all got covid they didn’t believe us, which honest really hurt. I’ve always had a good relationship with my parents.
I haven’t spoken to my brother since late 2016 for other reasons. His daughter and son also have cut him off and last I heard his wife was planning to divorce him.
Gosh dang liberals ruining his life.
Probably actually believes that.
