I have a friend. I have known her for 2 decades. She always had fussy thinking. I tried to teach her skepticism, but she always refused because she did not want to lose the magic in the world. She now believes that the Illuminati who are lizard-people run the world but Trump will save us.

I cannot know a counterfactual, but if schools would teach critical thinking and skepticism, she might have used critical thinking and skepticism for staying grounded in reality and rejecting illusions. It certainly could not have hurt.

Wut?

6623194

A friend believing that skepticism would remove the magic from life has gone batshitcrazy. Skepticism and critical thinking may not have kept her grounded, but it could not have hurt.

6623249
I feel sorry for you, dude.

My Mother is the very definition of that stereotype that "there are no atheists in a foxhole": she gives lip service to rationality, but give her five minutes with a good salesperson, and she'll be totally sold on investing on a "miraculous, positive-polarised" light bulb covered in tinsel, for a thousand bucks. Often enough, I remember that the only reason she could be capable of affording such things is that I handle both her investments and the household budget.

6623406

Well now, I guess that my friend has a broken brain. Sorry about your mother. At least we can cry on each others’ shoulders.

It's less that the brain is broken and more that it's got some fundamental flaws. Our brains after all are the result of a many generations-long transition process from tree-dwelling monkeys to people posting comments on MLP fanfiction. It's like spaghetti code. Faulty pattern recognition and our own tendency to craft narratives are the big flaws. We're also all suckers for good stories. Our sense of higher reasoning is good enough that we can work around it and prepare for it, but we can't really do anything to outright shut it down. And if one isn't properly grounded in reality for whatever reason...

That's how conspiracy theories linger. That's how pseudoscience persists. That's how toxic memes get spread in our culture. That's how people regardless of their educational background continue to fall for cons like Ponzi schemes.

6623464

I tried to teach her Skepticism for years (she was into newagereligion and astrology), but she did not want to “lose the magic in the world”. Now, she believes that cannibals rule the world, but God sent Trump to liberate us. It seems to me that she has gone off of the deep end and has delusional believes. She certainly seems to deteriorate fast:

In 2012, she like the Green Party, but was smart enough to vote for the Democratic Party. Now, she believes that President Obama and the Clintons eat children. Her mind deteriorates fast. Hopefully, she will not shoot up a pizzeria anytime soon.

6623132 Thinking patterns develop in childhood. You should accept that your friend will never be a critical thinker. If she had it in her, she'd already break free. In cases like this, it's better to accept the person as she is and not try to change her. Everybody has pluses and minuses. This is your friend's minus. Accept it and embrace her for her pluses. Those are the reason you're friends with her.

6623771
Clearly she spent way too much time in the wrong chatrooms and subreddits. It's clear that she's someone who, for whatever reason, falls into narratives very easily. And rightwing propaganda has invested a LOT of time and effort and money spreading stories of how the Democratic Party are the devil.

At this point you're better off just leaving her to her fantasy. You've obviously had no success dragging her out back when she was only sampling the Flavoraid. Now that she's practically swimming in it...

6623789

The think is that she did not hold the delusion that cannibals rule the world and now she does. She has gone from soft-headed to brain-rot in a few years. If this keeps up, she might be totally insane by 2020.

6623806 It's not that her condition is deteriorating, it's just that her mind is opened to irrational stories. Even if you cured her of one delusion, another would take its place eventually.

By trying to change her, you risk ruining a good friendship and wasting precious time of your life.

This is how you two are now:

You'll both have a blast of your lives if you focus on the green area. Avoid the blue area by any means. It is what it is, you have no place there.

6623800

Congratulations on remembering that it is Grape-Flavored Flavor Aid. for some strange reason, getting this right does not raise my mood as it usually does (most people believe that the cultists drank Kool Aid).

I know that she did not own guns before, but ¿who knows about now? Hopefully, the pizzerias around her have insurance for being shot up by Right-Wing Nuts.

6623836

I hope that you are right.

I'm going to be the pessimist here. It seems like you're at a point where you are starting to question whether your friendship is even worth maintaining. It's gone from having a "quirky" friend to worrying about whether your friend is genuinely dangerous. That green area in the Venn diagram is shrinking, and the Blue is becoming not only larger but increasingly scary.

Your friendship is becoming a toxic one. And it's probably not going to get better. It seems like you've already tried and failed to change her. But trying to stick with this friend will likely only change you. And not for the better.

6624874

I worry because she has gone off the deep end —  ¡cannibals rule the world! I do not know what she will do.

6624881
Well, I had this friend like 15 years ago, who had the positive quirk of liking to dress like Johnny Deep characters, especially Jack Sparrow. He was quirky, but fun to be around. Nowadays, he's covered in tattoos from horror movies all the way up to his cheeks, and nowadays hangs out with lowlifes. And, while I am not hostile to him, I am somewhat concerned that he still considers himself my friend.

6624883

It sound like all friends go crazy eventually.

6624881
If you're sincerely worried that she might be the "dangerous" sort of odd and not the "fun" sort of odd, you need to end the friendship. End it cordially, but end it. It can be tough to end a friendship that has lasted for two decades, but that sort of thinking is falling into the Sunk Cost Fallacy. It can cover time and emotional investments as well as monetary investment.

You don't need to have a lot of common ground with someone to stay a friend. But you do need to at least, at the very least, be able to hang out with that person without worrying if they're dangerously unstable.

But I wouldn't say all friends go crazy. All friends change, because people change. But that change isn't always a bad thing.

6624885

I shall try to be her friend, but all of this crazy has me on edge.

6625406
Just don't expect you'll ever be able to change her. And if you think her madness is becoming too scary for you...leave. You can be scared FOR a friend, but you should not be scared OF a friend.

6625467

I suppose that as long as she does not start believing that our leaders are lizard-people, she is not too far gone. Looking at the last sentense, it seems like a joke, but when written in seriousness, it is chilling.

6626162
Well, you obviously know your friend better than I do. Just remember that a real friendship shouldn't be causing you this much stress and fear. And remember that you're under no obligation to stay if you feel threatened, and don't feel that the time you were her friend will somehow have gone to waste if you do end the friendship.

6626250

It is a bit disconcerting for her to suddenly proclaim that President Obama is a cannibal and God sent Trump for saving us from Evil Hillary Clinton.

6626563 To be honest, I'm more worried about you than your friend. You can't seem to put her out of your mind. You're driven, obsessed even. You should take a step back to evaluate. You seem too involved on a personal level.

6626574

Okay.

6626585

Gonna have to agree with Bad Dragon here. Step back, and try not to think about this so much. Maybe spend time with other friends who don't think Trump will save us from the lizard-people Obama Clinton conspiracy.

6627447

Okay. Actually, I am not certain whether she believes that our leaders are lizard-people; when she said that she believes that our leaders are cannibals, I thought to myself that David Icke got to her. I shall have to ask.

Technically, if they are lizard-people who eat humans, it wouldn't be cannibalism.