I don't think this author really understands conspiracy theorists. The gist of what he's saying is that they just have preconceived notions, and tend to reject

I don't think this author really understands conspiracy theorists. The gist of what he's saying is that they just have preconceived notions, and tend to reject arguments that challenge those notions. But this is a universal human problem, and is not limited to people who think the earth is flat or people who think the US presidential election was stolen. Most mainstream journalists and politicians are equally guilty of this behavior, and we don't notice because we're all susceptible to it too. >> One must recognize that this is a person who already mistrusts what most authoritative sources say. One should ask calm questions, inviting the conspiracy theorist to explain and reflect on his beliefs, rather than advance evidence or quote the experts He's close to the truth here. He's right that we should take someone's existing mistrust into account. But he doesn't say the most important thing we should do when talking to people like this: we should stop saying things that aren't true! Put another way, we should know what we're talking about. Anyone who wants to really have their views on conspiracy theories challenged should read Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon Ronson (and/or watch the accompanying documentary series, The Secret Rulers of the World). Ronson showed that in fact most of the details of the most outrageous conspiracy theories are objectively true. For instance, if I had told you I believe that many of the most important and influential people (politicians, industrialists etc.) get together in the forest every year and engage in a bizzare pagan ritual that involves burning a human effigy in sacrifice to a giant stone owl, and they enjoy a total media blackout, and therefore the world is obviously being run by a secret satanic cult, how would you react? Before Ronson's book, most people would have reacted by saying I'm nuts, because if such a thing happened, we'd know about it right? The media would have a field day with something like this and there's no way they could be persuaded to stay silent about it right? Even now most people would probably react that way. But actually all the factual details of this statement are basically true. The only part that's not is the last part i.e. that this behavior proves that the's a secret evil cabal running all the worlds affairs. The rest is all true and now well documented. So it's a question of interpretation. It's probably more appropriate to see it as an expensive, elaborate frat party for high powered people. But imagine how it feels to be told that things you know for a fact are not true! It's incredibly frustrating, and tends to drive conspiracy theorists deeper into skepticism. When you refuse to accept or even entertain beliefs that someone has proof of, you are the one being irrational, and that's why you can't "get through" to conspiracy theorists.