Two of my coworkers frequently mention shows like “Encounters” or “Ancient apocalypse” or whatever. I’m not the best at debating or forming arguments against these though I do feel strongly that bold claims require better evidence than a blurry photo and an eyewitness account. How do you all go about this?
Today I clumsily stumbled through conversation and said “I’ll need some evidence” and was hit with “there’s plenty of evidence in the episode ‘Lights over Fukushima’”. I didn’t have an answer because I haven’t watched it. I’m 99% sure that if I watch it it’s gonna be dramatized, designed to scare/freak you out a little and consist of eyewitness accounts and blurry photos set to eerie music. But I’m afraid I just sound like a haughty know-it-all if I do assert this before watching.
These are good people and I want to remain on good terms and not come across as a cynical asshole.
(Sorry if language is too formal or stilted. Not my native tongue)
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Yeah even showing incredulity will keep the other person engaged, just be as boring a conversation partner as possible during the subject, try at every opportunity to change the subject, and eventually they’ll either get the hint, or just start bugging someone whose more fun to talk about it with
“How to deal with Ancient aliens in the workplace?”
Man, for a second I thought you are talking about older, immigrant co-workers.
If they take a netflicks show as evidence, I seriously doubt you will be able to convince them otherwise.
Yeah. Also it’s not my place to raise adults. But a part of me wishes to plant a seed of skepticism. I have a hard time nodding and going along with it. I feel compelled to question it rather than going along with this kind of small talk.
Your answer is right there. Plant seeds of doubt. Ask questions about it. Wow! Did they get footage?! Really? There must be two sources for such a wild thing to have happened! What does Snopes say? Lmfao
This isn’t the hill you want to die on. If they ask for your input, just say that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and shrug. Most people follow these things because they’re exciting in an otherwise unexciting life, not because they’re dedicating their lives to discovering alien life or invading area 51.
If they try to debate you, just say ok and smile. You’re not going to logic someone out of a position they didn’t logic themselves into.
If you’re feeling up to it, you could just tell them about the invisible dragon in your garage, or the teapot that’s currently orbiting the sun.
Perfect. Refuting unfounded beliefs isn’t worthwhile. Being honest, kind and interesting is about as much as we can do.
You’ve managed to outline how to do that perfectly. I recognise the jist from my time in the atheism areas of Reddit.
You might be taking some friendly debate as more sinister than it is. It’s okay to tell them you straight up don’t believe and need some better evidence than a show on Netflix. When they tell you to watch it, ask them to sum it up for you, and go from there.
You can laugh at the absurdity without being mean-spirited. Most people who get hooked into that stuff don’t really believe, they like the “but what if?” Aspect of it.
Highly recommend the podcast ‘It’s probably not aliens’ if you want to find out more about the real history of the claims made in these kind of shows, and how the claims of aliens are often rooted in racism and colonialism
Thanks. I’ve been needing more podcasts anyway :)
Woah woah woah. Hold on a second. There are actually people who take Ancient Aliens seriously?! I thought we all watched it because it was hilariously stupid.
Ignore it or mock it. I start preaching about Great Cthulhu at people who have loonie beliefs, and let them try to debunk me.
I’ve got good at reciting “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!” in a high-pitched preacher voice.
“Stilted”?
You sir, are one of those fucking amazing people who profusely apologize for not being a native English speaker and then blurt out 37 paragraphs of perfect English.
You have nothing to be ashamed of - your English is better than a lot of them native speakers ! And always remember this :
“You are speaking English because that is the only language you know; I am speaking English because that is the only language you know. We are not the same.”
And as to your original question - if I ever ask them “what evidence did you see which proves X happens?”, I have almost always been hit with the reply, “Oh yeah? What proof do you have that says X does not happen???”. And then I tell them the anecdote of the Invisible Dragon by Carl Sagan. Look it up if this is new to you, and for a more formal treatment, check out Karl Popper’s theory of Falsifiability.
I have personally converted at least one conspiracy theorist to being an Agnostic. So I know it works. Try them out, it’s fun.
And I also am not a native English speaker to be honest :-)
You’re approaching it wrong. Don’t fight them. Fake interest and talk with them to investigate their stupid believes. Try to understand why they believe it, how did they get brainwashed, what defence mechanism they have in place to discredit real science. It can be fascinating experience for you and you will learn a lot about people in general.
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your written English is great
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conversation does not need to be debate. What these people really want is to talk. Ask questions, like “what evidence did you find most convincing?” Odds are they won’t even notice you didn’t agree with them, they just want to be heard.
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there doesn’t need to be a conversation at all. Drift out of these sorts of conversations or change the topic. I can’t imagine a scenario in which debating the existence of aliens with a coworker would be worth my energy.
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