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Giving them legit sources does nothing. They don't want legit sources, they WANT conspiracies. People turn to end of the world stuff in times of tumult, and n
by xen2xen1 6y ago
Giving them legit sources does nothing. They don't want legit sources, they WANT conspiracies. People turn to end of the world stuff in times of tumult, and now is no different. The left is doing it, the right is doing it, it's part of uncertain times. They need comfort, not facts.
Sorry for not answering your question.
- auslegung 6y agoThis is the best answer so far. See Last Week Tonight’s response to COVID conspiracies, very helpful for situations like this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0b_eHBZLM6U https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0b_eHBZLM6U
- soganess 6y agoLWT is great and all, but I thought that whole segment, even through the tongue-locked-in-cheek filter, was incredibly patronizing. The parent touched on the idea that conspiracy theorist don't want facts. I couldn't agree more. How do you expect to get through to someone who has a framework that insulates them from those type of fact? I'm likely being overly influenced by this recent RI talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80dwLniVwVw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80dwLniVwVw I would take it further and ask, can you clearly nail down the specific reason driving that person's desire to be fooled? Can you then engage with those fears/concerns/whatever to the point where it starts a real dialogue? Getting there seems like the real groundwork one needs when attempting to redirect a conspiracy theorist. But that is a lot of legwork, like many conversations, and sometimes we don't want to do it. I know I sure as shit don't. It sort of reminds me of the old software development wisdom about getting to bottom of what is driving someone's specific feature request.
- xen2xen1 6y agoI'd say work at the fear behind it (the world isn't ending), with both facts and reassurance? Hard road to hoe.