Please help me clear up this argument from work

[DirkGently]

30. Many people are comfortable "knowing" things their friends tell them.

If we could do anything to improve the state of our democracy, convincing people to think critically and make qualitative distinctions about things would be the place to start.

I have heard the following insane suggestions from people I know "in real life," whom I do not otherwise consider to be "crazy" or even rightwing recently:

- Obama has been "crafty" about his birth certificate.

Nice conflation of anti-Semitic code and racially tinged anti-Obama rhetoric, from someone who would swear to have no racist or anti-Semitic, or even rightwing leanings. And even after the endless debunkings and re-debunkings. "Ehh, I just think maybe ..."

- Global warming / climate change is nonsense, because scientists lack objectivity, because something about peer pressure.

Again, from a person not otherwise known to be irrational. A professional I have worked with. Impervious to suggestions the pushback emanates from sources who might stand to lose money if emissions are further regulated.

- Trayvon Martin was carrying Skittles and Tea because there is some way to make some kind of drug out of those ingredients.

Again, a person who would strenuously object to any suggestion of racism on their part. I did get them to give up and move on by just calling "internet bullshit," but ... wow?


My point is that while we dismiss all the "crazy talk on the Internets," and dismiss those saying ridiculous things as idiots or "knuckle-draggers" or rightwingers, many people who are not all out nutjobs or paid trolls simply do not distinguish between rational thought and things their friends have said to them, or that they have read randomly somewhere.

Several of the people above were older folks. Maybe that's part of it. They somehow don't expect motivated LYING and distortion to be presented to them by people they know, or from sources that look like "news" on the Internet or television.

Ask them where they got this thinking, and they sort of shake their heads, as if you asked them where the sky came from. "I heard it, so it could be true."

You can argue, and I do, sometimes, even with "real" people I actually know. But it's a dicey proposition. It's very insulting to suggest to someone you know they have been influenced by racist tripe or paid propaganda. They'd rather be angry with you than face that possibility. It is shocking to someone who is coming from a circle of friends who pass certain "items of information" around to be told they are trading in absolute falsehoods.

If you know the person, and still want to try to straighten them out a bit, there's always polite incredulity.

"Really, that sounds almost too strange to be true. What is the source of that? You know, people make up a lot of crazy things these days."

Good luck.