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?
I think you’re mistaken about the type of person who can fall prey to this type of exploitation. It’s much more broad than the specific group that you described.
I don’t have any widespread data to site but I can tell you just from my own life that some of the anti-vaxxers I’ve come across come from all varieties of backgrounds with all types of financial situations and careers. That’s also true from what many of my friends have told me with regards to people they’ve met.
And I sympathize with the people who get played like violins. The 24-hour news cycle is pernicious, there’s a lot of bad things that happen in life, and it’s easy enough to let yourself get angry and confuse that anger with careful thought and progress. And once you fall into the trap, is your pride going to let you climb out of the pit that you willingly threw yourself into?