People who feel powerless and vulnerable are susceptible to buy into conspiracy theories like you described.

There’s a certain type of person who embraces Evangelical religions, and you’ll see the pattern again and again. Often they feel powerless, and find their power in this and other cults. They band together and feel a sense of power in sharing “knowledge” that the group possesses, but everyone outside the group doesn’t.

Often these are people who have made very bad decisions in their lives, and run to this rather than take responsibility for their lives.

The level of self deception and denial is unbelievable, because their entire identity is now dependent on NOT seeing reality. It is likely that you will never get through to her.

My father and I had a similar relationship, but his “thing” revolves around guns, to the point where he couldn’t afford food for the family, but he never missed a gun show. My sister was caught searching for food in a trash can by a school administrator.

Our family suffered an extreme amount of neglect and abuse from him, and it deeply affected us socially and emotionally. To this day my sister is unable to function in society.

As I became an adult and it became apparent how badly I was neglected (it didn’t occur to me because I had no idea what was “normal”), I confronted him. I asked him to acknowledge and take responsibility for the ways in which he impacted the family, and I listed specific items.

He denied wrongdoing, gaslit me, and refused to take responsibility. I didn’t want to have someone who didn’t take responsibility for their life around my kids. He said that he’d rather have no relationship with his grandchildren than accept responsibility. So we parted ways, and he hadn’t talked to them since.

He died last week.