3
Vent: My old method of debunking moon landing hoaxers versus my new one
I used to jump straight into arguments with people who swore the moon landings were faked. I would pull up NASA transcripts and lighting analysis, spend like 2 hours typing out a huge response. That just made them dig in harder, you know? About 6 months ago at a BBQ in Austin, this guy started in about the flag waving and I just changed tactics. Instead of debating him, I asked him to walk me through his proof step by step and kept asking simple questions like 'how would they fake that part in 1969?' He got frustrated and changed the subject within 10 minutes. Has anyone else found that asking questions works better than throwing facts at these people?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
pat_moore1mo ago
The Sagan effect is real man. Carl Sagan wrote about this back in the 90s in his book "The Demon Haunted World." He said that you can't beat a pseudoscientific belief with more facts because the person's identity is tied up in being the one who "knows the truth." I saw this with a coworker who believed in flat Earth. Every time I showed him a picture of a round shadow on the moon, he said it was CGI from NASA. So instead I just said "okay, show me the exact coordinates where we can see the edge of the ice wall." He got super quiet and started talking about something else. The whole trick is to make them work through their own logic until they hit a dead end. Did you find the flag guy ever brought it up again at later barbecues?
4
karenb971mo ago
That trick works SO well, it's like magic watching them hit that wall. I did something similar with a coworker who swore 5G towers were causing all the birds to disappear. Just asked him real simple "so what frequency do they use that kills birds, and why aren't the pigeons in Times Square dead?" He just blinked at me and changed the subject to the weather. It's all about making them follow their own wild logic until it CRASHES.
5