I strongly disagree. Ignoring them allowed them to fester and grow in communities online. Our survival depends on figuring out how to reach these people.
This is the completely buried lede in this entire thing. That reddit is very specifically a self-selected group interested in listening. That describes virtually no conspiracy theorists.
I know there are many fellow skeptical movement participants here on BB, and we talk about this stuff a lot because it’s basically our mission statement- how to convince people to correctly identify reality. The advice offered by this MIT study is patently useless. The one thing that does not work is dropping truth bombs. People are not swayed by facts in these moments. More on this below.
Luckily, none of that is correct in the long term. Our default position is certainly to take an emotional position and defend it, and yes there is a short term backfire effect, but peoples’ minds are changed every day. It’s very possible, and our survival as a species depends on it.
First and foremost, to everyone giving up at the idea of convincing anyone, I understand. However, you need to stop being defeatist about it, because our civilization depends on learning how to speak to people like this.
As I said at the top, the skeptical community has done a lot in this area, and there is plenty of science to back up the approach. First and foremost, you must learn about the person. People believe silly things for a reason. When you get to know them, maybe you find out they believe in alien abductions because they suffer from sleep hypnogogia but didn’t know that was a thing many people experience. Or perhaps they believe in ghosts because the loss of their mom hit them really hard and this is their way of coping. Or they believe in flat earth because all their friends do and it makes them feel loved and special. You must approach with empathy. If you go in determined to “fix stupid” with “facts” you will 100% fail and drive people away.
Instead, give up on the idea that you can convince people in the moment. That never happens, but people think success is impossible because of that. Untrue! Skeptics talk about “planting the seed”. Make a personal connection with someone and then nudge them in the right direction with open good faith questions like “how do you suppose we could check if ghosts are real?”. You will not convince them in the moment, but you have planted a seed. Years later, when they are emotionally ready to let go of that belief which has helped them cope with the world, your seed is in there and they’ll come around on their own. Not before.
Most scientists and normal rational folks make the mistake that thinking the problem is a lack of facts. “People don’t believe in climate change because they haven’t seen enough line graphs”. That is demonstrably false and there’s research on that as well. It’s never an information gap. We are all swimming in information. You must instead reach and understand the person. Similarly, it is not all about misinformation. Fox News and the like are certainly pouring gas on the fire, but people would find excuses to keep believing what they do regardless. Flat Earth is the perfect data point in this- there’s probably no more irrational belief a person can have, and even Fox News isn’t trying to convince anyone of that.
All you cynics in this thread throwing up your hands, well, I get that it’s frustrating, but if we give up then the next Trump will be worse. Do. Not. Stop. Fighting. Join the skeptical movement (Skeptics Guide To The Universe is a good place to start) and learn how to talk to folks like this.
