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)
“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 :-)
Haha thanks. I know I’m being silly, on a certain level, apologizing for my English but as an anxious person I’m being defensive up front. I still feel like I don’t sound like a native, an outsider, and I want people to know I’m not native if they pick up on my English being off.
Thanks for the advice. Though reading all them comments I’m starting to lean towards letting them have their fun. I am not great at debating anyway and maybe questioning without confronting is best.
Yeah I agree. Let them die alone, thinking about Alien abduction and crop circles.
I would just brush it of and increasingly show disinterest in the topic. Show appreciation that they’re into it for their own sake, but don’t participate/get dragged into the conversation any more than that.
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
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If they take a netflicks show as evidence, I seriously doubt you will be able to convince them otherwise.
Are you sure they are taking it seriously? I’ve watched a bunch of Ancient Aliens and it was fun entertainment so long as it is recognized as just entertainment. The main voice in the show makes me fall asleep so I’ve technically had most episodes play across my screen. Me and coworkers make comments regularly that “it’s aliens man” as the reason for things. None of us see it as more than humor and maybe that’s the case with your people.
I’m not sure but they do talk about it a lot and I have been cornered with things like “did you know that all fighter pilots since the 1960s have had to take an oath of silence because they keep seeing aliens up there, anyway this whistleblower…”.
I’m having a hard time navigating these but letting them have their fun while just asking what they believe and why is probably not a bad approach.
Someone mentioned that going through with debunking them is a spoilsport move that’s a lot of work to do right and would probably just sour our relationship at work.
You replied to the wrong comment @SpaceAce is the one with the alien believing workmates.
Yarrr….im going to blame this on Memmy as I really believe I hit the correct button and Memmy moved my comment. It’s easier to blame the app than move the comment.
All good. I linked spaceace so you wouldn’t have to move the comment and they would still be notified.
I genuinely love Ancient Aliens but it’s definitely a comedy for me. I really don’t understand how anyone can take it seriously. My husband had someone in one of his college classes who believed an Animal Planet mockumentary about mermaids was real, though, so I guess people have fallen for dumber things.
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.
You don’t have to convince them but you also don’t have to listen either.
You just have to decide that any issues with cutting them off when they start talking about it is worth the effort or if it may cause problems at work.
I’ll think on this. Thank you :)
I’ve watched some of the shows because they do actually lead to some interesting archeological digs I hadn’t heard of before… However there’s one thing that always nags me when watching this stuff – why do they always think ancient humans were so stupid? It is believed that the human brain has not changed for around 100,000 years, which means that no matter how far back you go in our observable history, those people had the same capacity for rational thought as we do. Sure, we have a huge advantage through the knowledge of written history, but even a cave man had the same ability as we do to accomplish a task with the materials at hand.
You’ll also note they always ask a modern engineer how they would accomplish tasks such as moving large stones, and the answer is always something like “I would use modern machinery” because of course we’ve come to rely on them and nobody today ever tries to think of any other way to perform the same task. How were the great pyramids built? They always claim it can’t be done today, while conveniently ignoring all of the theories of how they did probably move those blocks.
So I guess my skepticism on those types of shows is that they intentionally leave out significant details to make everything sound more woo-woo (every big claim they make probably already has a wikipedia page providing legitimate answers or at least giving factual details). Sure there are some things that still aren’t understood but just because you see some glowing lights doesn’t immediately mean aliens are involved. Even though I do believe there is other life out there, I haven’t seen any evidence yet on these shows that I would consider “proof” of visitations, but rather just a whole lot of “this is how we interpret the data to fit our conspiracy theory.”
why do they always think ancient humans were so stupid?
Because they (and by extension their audience) are not that bright.
If they cannot think of how it was done and they must be smart because they live with all this modern technology (which they didn’t create and don’t really understand) then there is no way for people in the past to have done it.
Therefore…aliens. Well, that is the modern thought. In the past it you just replace aliens with God or Gods or Demons etc.
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
Let people be wrong.
I’m with this. Unless it is about work, let people believe what they want. Or else you end up discussing a lot of stuff like religion and politics in a place it doesn’t need to be.
You should pick your battles. Think pretty carefully about what you actually want to debate/pushback on because it’s exhaustive and requires you to research the topic. It’s probably a waste of your time doing the research to debunk these alien sightings since a new one pops up every few months.
Yeah. Maybe I should ask general questions but not push back on anything. Like “What about this episode convinced you?”. “Do you think that’s enough evidence or would you like to see something more?”. “Wow, so why isn’t this all over the news, do you think?”
Or is this line of questioning too obvious?
To me those shows are fantasy and i let the person enjoy telling me about the episode. I’d ask questions like wow what do you reckon the aliens are doing here or have you had any extra terrestrial experiences. Generic smalltalk stuff that let’s the person feel like they are telling you something cool and interesting because to them it is.
Those questions are just going to open a can of crazy. Some battles aren’t worth fighting and in the workplace you’re going to see a lot of them.
Just ignore and avoid the topic the best you can. Don’t confront. Just go, “ohh ok” and move on. Pretend you need to go to the toilet or that you have something else to do if you can’t break free from the conversation.
It’s about as futile as trying to convince a religious fanatic that their views may not be ideal for everyone; you just don’t. Ignore and avoid.
Ignoring is so hard 😅 I never bring it up.
I don’t think they’re fanatics. I just think their curiousity, with inexperience in healthy skepticism, has found a very easy outlet.
But I guess you’re right. The current state of astrobiology isn’t as exciting and people want to wonder. Maybe hard science is too difficult to sell in this case.
I agree with others that it might not be worth it
If you do want something though, to pass the time or whatever, this is a pretty good video on how to address them
Ultimate Conspiracy Debunker - Kurzgesagt (typing on the bus, sorry for mispelling it)
Thank you. I’ll check it out tomorrow. Currently resisting sleep longer than I ought to.
Cheers, have a good sleep
Have fun man. Start coming up with even crazier theories and one up them to the extreme with ever bolder madness, get creative. “Pfft you think Japan it real? They don’t want you to know that we bombed them out of existence and we gave the country to the Venusians! It was all part of Reagan’s contract in exchange for more nuclear power, but he was a lizard…”
The Italian military has been simulating Japan with AI for centuries now. The Italians took one of their own words, tiramisu, and made up a whole language from that.
It’s no coincidence ちらみす looks like spaghetti. They literally made this alphabet by throwing spaghetti at the wall and then started borrowing evolved bone-script from the Chinese when they got bored with pasta-to-wall terrorism!
I used to get annoyed too but then I started doing this! I NEVER disagree or challenge their opinions I just always agree with everything and answer “wow! really?? I don’t watch much tv, then what ?!!” They LOVE me, and helped me a lot at work being friends with thos guys.
It’s imoortant to focus on the silliness, they are not hurting anyone let them talk nonsense and have fun
If they didn’t use reason and logic to make up their minds, you don’t stand much of a chance using them to change their minds.
Patiently explain that “alien encounters” are just the playful trickery of the Fae, who have been pulling this sort of thing for much longer than anyone was imagining spaceships.
I love you lmfao
Cass, you idjit! You have been on earth from how long and still don’t know how humans work! They are just going to think the OP is delusional!
If you want to win a fist fight, bring a rocket launcher.
Just remember that shit has a blast radius, your reputation may get hit.
Set phasers to full power!
The thing is that other than the odd true believer, most people who watch these things are not interested in engaging in an intellectual debate about them. It’s essentially a diversion and light entertainment.
This might sound like a crazy answer from a crazy person but hear me out. If they are good people and you’re somewhat familiar with them, just call them kooks, say that shit’s all made up and dismiss it. just don’t be aggressive about it, people can still be on good terms without agreeing on everything. Just be like “nah man, no way that happened these shows are just people who want attention, if it was real there’d be better evidence and it’d be all over the news.”
I honestly think this is the best way to go, you’re engaging them honestly, attacking the show, not them. And so long as you don’t get hung up on their response or ‘winning the argument’ I think you can all remain on good terms. How you go about this obviously depends on how friendly you are with them but if they’re good people they’ll still be your friend even if you’re too dumb to see the truth about aliens.
Bingo. People are MUCH more willing to put aside what they’d consider absolute deal breaking things when they’re forced to interact with you anyway. Arguing with someone about this sort of shit wouldn’t change their minds and is a waste of time even if it somehow did. Be who you are and move along in your work relationship and expect them to do the same for you. That’s how you maintain a healthy work environment. It’s a good way to foster mutual respect.
I’m a skeptic at heart, but it’s fun and ultimately harmless to pretend or even vehemently believe that aliens exist and have visited earth. In my opinion there’s no reason to shut them down or try to prove them wrong. Of course unless they’re taking it to a degree in which it’s likely to harm others.
If nobody challenges them on the harmless stupidity it will fester into greater ignorance they feel entitled to perpetuate.
