She keeps texting me propaganda filled with fake news!

That would drive me mad. Could you ask her to stop as Covid makes you feel anxious and these aren't helping? Or as others have said maybe just delete. Good luck

H phoned his cousin. Lots of banter and laughing, so I got the feeling cousin wasn't taking conversation too seriously, either.

That was Sunday but by some miracle the texting has stopped. I asked H, "what exactly did you say to them?" H replied "I mentioned you were having a problem with your phone so to please stop sending text messages with pictures, videos or external links".

This morning, she made a nice comment about something I posted on Facebook, so I'm guessing all is well

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Tedious isn’t it? I have a family member who is doing this. We are at opposite ends of the scale politically. She absolutely loathes this government, is a staunch remainer and won’t hear a word of reasoned argument. Everything gets turned into a political rant. I avoid discussing politics with her as she becomes very shrill and angry very quickly and I’m actually very fond of her. We get on swimmingly in every other aspect. She must have noticed by now that I never ‘like’ her Facebook posts.

Dealing with in laws is harder than dealing with your own relatives. With our own family we generally know where the boundaries are and, if we offend them, it will affect us and not our partners so much.

It can potentially cause wider rifts in the family if other members take sides. Even not taking a side can be risky.

I’d temporarily unfriend her and if you miss some family news just say you don’t check your social media accounts so much as it lowers your spirits.

You can also report and block the click bait if you want but I’ve noticed some posters must be posting under different guises.

Yes, I agree with many others on this; just ignore and delete the propaganda stuff she sends. Alternatively, play it another way, thank her for the posts but state that they are of NO interest to you and you would far sooner received some chatty catch up news about family.

Just tell her to stop. Tell her you don’t like the posts/ messages and would rather not see them. If she still continues or gets angry well just delete her and if anyone asks why tell them the truth, that life is too short to have to put up with crap

I don't think she can take offense at that.

Just say please don't send me anything political as I'm.being bombarded by so many people at present and they are cluttering up my inbox. If she doesn't stop just delete them.

Could start with 'Dear ………., You know I love you to bits but this lock-down situation has given me pause for thought.I am no longer prepared to listen to anyone else's views about any sort of politics and I have totally lost interest in politics full stop. I like to hear about normal family stuff so I will look forward to hearing from you but no politics please'.

You say you can't block or unfriend her - you can, on your 'phone, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Do it. She sounds a menace.

Hi, I think it’s perfectly fine to simply say that you are having a detox from any news at all... and that you would like to decide where to put your attention and mental/emotional energy. It’s surely fair enough?

Can you just delete them when they come im without looking at them. Then you could either just not mention them at all. Or you could tell her that you don't want any political messages and also tell her you delete them all without reading them.

willa45 It sounds awful Willa. To receive so many each day is overwhelming. She must spend all her time researching this kind of material.
It might not be easy to just say you are not interested but I would certainly start by asking her not to send you any more information of this kind. Nobody needs this at the moment, we are already a bit low and trying to keep our spirits up and look forward to things getting better. Say you don't see things that way, be brave, that might deflate her a bit.
However, I suspect she has some kind of drive to tell people what she feels she has 'discovered' and that others do not know. Saying you are not interested in anything to do with the subject might work. You might have to be a bit brutal and simply say you do not have time to read it all and that deleting it is rather a chore you could do without, so from now on she must stop.
I like Jilly's approach. Would it work on her?

I am sorry, I guess you've already done all this! I think she finds passing on this kind of material somehow important. If one can get across that it is wasted on you that might stop her. I would find it very depressing. In fact I find some things I read anger me! I like to know the facts behind them!
I suppose you could set said 5 mins a day to delete all her texts. If she knew you did this without reading them she might not send them.
Good luck willa45! Let us know how it goes!

I have a half sister whose idea of 'keeping in touch' was to send me a daily bible message. never anything personal. I ended that by telling her that my soul was in good hands. She needn't worry. Her Facebook posts are all about pushing her political agenda. Both her church and her political party of choice have become cult-like in nature and she is so radical that I feel I have no sister. BTW we are American

Here’s an idea. Copy and paste a link to Snopes. Or another site that fact checks.

Reply to the family references as normal.

Then copy and paste the link to the fact checking websites without comment regarding the rest.

This disengaged you from her viewpoints whilst still maintaining the family connections and everyday chitchat.

Could that be worth a try?

Just ask her to stop that you’re not interested in conspiracy. A friend of mine when Covid first entered our lives kept sending me jokes about Boris and things related to Covid. I just said I’m really sorry but I don’t appreciate these jokes etc - end of.....

PS....I will let you know how things turn out.

Thank you all for your valued responses.....I've read your posts and there's so much good advice here! It's also comforting to know that some of you have had similar experiences and can commiserate. Lots to think about and a few approaches to consider.

I wasn't aware for instance, that there are other options besides 'unfriending' on FB. I have deleted her texts (repeatedly), only to receive even more! My H is also offering to give his cousin a call to see what's up with her.

My issue may seem trivial compared to everything else going on in the world, but truly she's driving me (us) crazy......So, thanks once again my virtual friends and do stay healthy and safe.

Best, Willa

Just be direct - say you're avoiding the news/politics so could she take you her circulation list for these texts, although you are of course extremely happy to hear any family news. She surely wouldn't take offence to that.

On Feb you can stop seeing her posts without unfriending her, a very useful tool, I do this to anyone who post stuff I don’t want to see. They don’t know you’ve done this.

@ Coco51 I quite understand where you're coming from . In my own situation, it's my daughter who is pushing Political Propoganda. Her long-time b/f has become very involved with a group of people who I consider to have very 'dubious motivations' - and she is 'following him like a sheep'. She has never had a political thought in her entire life - in fact, she was full of 'pop music/Take That' until around two years ago. Now at the age of 40, she's getting involved in protests - some of them violent - and even had a clash with her daughter's school Head Teacher, because she had taken her to meet some of her 'new friends'.

Throughout the lockdown, they've been having 'family group get-togethers' - usually at some rural area where the children and adults are wandering around woodlands etc.

It's breaking my heart to see how she's become recently - and I hardly ever see my granddaughter any longer, which is so upsetting to me

I'm praying that she outgrows this phase of her life and that their 'so-called leader/instigator/big-mouth' ends up back in prison again ......................... preferably for a very long time!

I had similar regular texts from two friends. I told them that with the lockdown I was finding these conspiracy theories and political texts stressful so could they only send me lighthearted texts. They understood and stopped. Sometimes you have to be politely firm and say how you are feeling.

Just delete them. If you don't respond , she will hopefully give up or either you will have to be blunt and tell her to stop doing it! Truly - what does she hope to gain?

I had a similar problem with a good friend who has this problem, lovely in every other respect. After a bombardment including the 5g masts stuff, and some hysterical diatribe about other things I had to be firm as kindly as I could but I found it very hard. It was also starting to make me very unsettled even though I knew most of the content was codswallop.
Afraid the only thing is make it clear that your views are yours and you don't want to be pressurised by anyone else's, whoever they are. I wish you so much luck but it's seemingly the only way with fixated people.