So, I can't believe, that here, in the 21st Century, people actually believe this garbage. This isn't even a concept that would've occurred to me, except that some close friends brought it to my attention. By this, I mean, we were hanging out and they decided to bombard me with all of this conspiratorial rhetoric about how if I grew up being told the moon was made of cheese, I would believe it and other such nonsense. I think their pov on reality is downright fucking retarded. I usually lose in arguments with them, such as every shooting being a false flag and don't even get me started on 9/11. In one conversation one of these friends says "Oh, I know about physics therefore this about the WTC etc." BUT THEN when I bring up physics with regard to science and the Earth and Space, he throws that all out as lies created by "The System." I wouldn't care if these were people off the streets, but they're some of my very best friends that I've known for a long time, and I know they didn't always think this way. What the fuck am I supposed to do?

This is the most ludicrous theory ever. If the earth was flat, where would the subterranean shape-shifting lizard people be emerging from if not from the hollow earth?

Flat Earthers should find the edge of the world and throw themselves off it.

As far as real advice goes, I don't really have any. One of my basic requirements for willingly dealing with other people is that they inhabit roughly the same mental space as myself. This doesn't mean sharing the same opinions on everything, just agreeing on the really basic stuff like "Earth is approximately spherical" and "epidermal pigmentation is not a useful judge of character". Life's too short to waste precious brain cycles on those who abjectly refuse to court reason.

I don't know what's going with your friends. If you're genuinely worried about them but none of them will take your concerns seriously, I guess you have to consider whether their company is still something you want, or if they're too far gone and you should, at least for now, move on.

This might not be sound advice at all, but perhaps try finding out the exact extent of the crazy shit they believe, and then challenge them with even crazier stuff. If they're standard 9/11 truthers, give them some high level no-planer/space laser stuff to chew on. Ancient aliens? Bring reptilians to the mix. Flat earth? See if they're into space denial as well. Perhaps, just perhaps, this might prompt some synapses to start firing.

Here's another youtube video on the matter that I think is interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNqNnUJVcVs

Thank you for everyone's point of view on this ridiculous matter. My friends don't think that gravity is a thing other than "things weighing more than other things" that the earth is possibly a globe, that space may or may not be real, they scoff at the concept of education as waste of time (I'm a master's student and they barely passed high school).

According to them, Jewish people must've behind 9/11 or it was the gov. setting up explosives inside (no consistency there). OH and I had a heated debate about the word NAZI and SUPPOSEDLY, the "ZI" part stands for Zion or Zionist, thus "proving" that Jews were killing themselves and exaggerating the numbers in the Holocaust. I was pretty disgusted during the actual conversation, but I didn't look up the facts till later. The fact is, Ashkenazi (ah-shh-in-k-ahn-zee) is a lineage distinction that has nothing to do with the National Socialist party that the word Nazi is German shorthand for. OF COURSE, the source I cited MUST be another creation of deception or so they said.

I eventually got fed up and said if the leader of this supposed NWO is anything less than the devil himself, I'm going to very fucking disappointed. To this, my friend said I'm going to hell (jokingly, we were actually laughing and kinda drunk during this conversation, but I was still pissed nevertheless by all of this, which probably says more about me than it does them, but whatever. It just really fucking pisses me off that they could buy into all this garbage). To his words, I said "Well, pull back the curtain already, I want to meet the Wizard."

On top of this, they don't believe satellites exist, because, SUPPOSEDLY every image of one is a fake simulation AND we never went to the moon.

And of course, their guns are being threatened and whole lot of other malarkey. I think the best we could come to (much to my dissatisfaction) was a stalemate wherein they conceded they couldn't really trust their sources as credible because anyone could make up anything, BUT only at the cost of suggesting that academia and all textbooks and science books and all information was just "taking someone else's word for it." (This is where the anti-higher education and petulant anti-intellectualism came into play, at the end of the night as they were leaving.)

One last point, all of this started around election time 4 years ago when I texted one of them, in non-aggressive manner (just making conversation) telling them I was excited that there was a place to go vote within walking distance from where I lived at the time and I was going to re-elect Obama. A few minutes later, Text after text came sweeping in about how it's waste of time and how the government is a two party dictatorship and all this other garbage. There was also the dropping of this name, some douche named Alex Jones that I'd never heard of up to that point. Just a bunch of silly gobledy gook, plus FEMA coffins, GMOs, Jesse Ventura, yadda yadda yadda.

My knee jerk reaction tends to be a feeling that my head is about to explode, especially since one of my friends flat out said they don't really listen to Alex Jones anymore because he lies sometimes (but they still cling to their conspiracy religion, of course). My initial thought was "NO FUCKING SHIT DUMB ASS!!!"

This has effected me in a deeply negative way. Not only because of how disturbing it is to see my friends live up to the stereotype of hicks who live out in a corn field (they're dad's house, where they stay, really is surrounded by corn), but also because I look at events happening and think "how would THEY (the conspiracy theorists) twist this, and low and behold it ALWAYS matches the formula of "false flags." This has in turn resulted in double think, fortunately not to the level of actual cognitive dissonance, but enough to bother me since I know I shouldn't even be entertaining such notions.

When you can, move...

Apart from being wrong, they sound like obnoxious and negative people too eager to share their "informed" opinions. Seems like you can use some new friends.

So, it doesn't fix anything, but I just had a rather emotional conversation with one of them. Apparently, this is not even something they're sure they believe (I should've said earlier that the people in question are twin brothers and I've been friends with them since the 9th grade.) One of them, didn't even realize I was actually mad, and thought that this was all really funny. I think they must be doing this to be subversive, like some sort of gag, just to grind people's gears. It makes my blood boil, but they get a laugh out of it. That sounds sick, but they seem to like trying to be controversial, and then chalk it up to "friends just disagreeing sometimes." This doesn't absolve them, but at least now I have a better understanding of what I'm dealing with now (it's about goddamn time).

I should also make a note that the only real conflict I ever had with either of them (at least that sticks out in my mind) was this one time in art class when I threw paint on one of them in front of the whole class. We we working on a project and one of them got upset, slashed my arm with paint and I slashed back (and missed). So, I took the next logical step of throwing the tray of paint on them. I immediately felt bad for embarrassing them like that. So, the best we could come with was for the guy to punch me in the face at their house during the lunch hour where no one else would see (basically a way of handling the whole matter privately). So, that happened, and we were supposed to shake on it, but my friend decided to get another lick in at the last second.

Now, I understand, at this point, all of you must think I am totally and completely insane. Like why would I put up with this and everything else. Well, to clarify, the above example was from over ten years ago and I only brought it up here to give some insight into the nature of our relationship. My head is still spinning from the whole matter, but all I can say is I have been friends with them for a long time, we've been throughout a lot together (Both before and after their apparent "conversion"), we know a great deal about each other's lives/pasts etc., and I love them (this is the most irrational component to all of this).

All I can say, is that I'll simply keep waiting for the possibility of them snapping out of it one day. They will never be able to "convert" me and I will never be able to convince them of reality (assuming that they're being sincere in rejecting in the first place, although get mad enough to stab them sometimes, kidding of course...)

Lots of deep breaths and elevated heart beats here, not sure what else I can add other than they just might be the death of me one day. Beyond that, thank you all for allowing me this space to vent my frustrations about these outrageous matters, it really has taken on a kind of therapeutic effect for me.

Thank you.

Crank magnetism at its finest. But let me guess, Saw: your friends don't have any conspiratorial beliefs that would actually inconvenience them in their everyday lives. For example, they're not into any health woo that would require them to alter their food or drink intake, buy expensive crank remedies or panaceas like colloidal silver, or avoid cell phone radiation or electricity in general. They probably don't even avoid processed foods despite them probably containing libido-killing Jewish microchips (seriously, just go through their pantry and see what items are labeled kosher in small print). So in theory, if you want to have a nasty fight with your friends, you could argue that they're gutless conspiracy hobbyists that don't actually hold any convictions.

Dr. Nick wrote:So in theory, if you want to have a nasty fight with your friends, you could argue that they're gutless conspiracy hobbyists that don't actually hold any convictions.

Precisely, and all they while they'll claim "open-mindedness" (as if this term even has the slightest meaning or merit in this day and age) to boot. Plus, they constantly have their phones in their face, as if the things were grafted on their hands. I believe constant internet and no books (they don't do substantial reading) causes shallow thinking (at least according to what I read by guy named Nicholas Carr, in fact, I wrote a paper for a technology class based on his ideas about neural plasticity and the relationship between our tools (and technologies) and cognitive development/evolution, see how this is JUST ONE shinning example of how much smarter I am than both of them combined).

SawItAtAge10 wrote:Thank you for everyone's point of view on this ridiculous matter. My friends don't think that gravity is a thing other than "things weighing more than other things" that the earth is possibly a globe, that space may or may not be real, they scoff at the concept of education as waste of time (I'm a master's student and they barely passed high school).

According to them, Jewish people must've behind 9/11 or it was the gov. setting up explosives inside (no consistency there). OH and I had a heated debate about the word NAZI and SUPPOSEDLY, the "ZI" part stands for Zion or Zionist, thus "proving" that Jews were killing themselves and exaggerating the numbers in the Holocaust. I was pretty disgusted during the actual conversation, but I didn't look up the facts till later. The fact is, Ashkenazi (ah-shh-in-k-ahn-zee) is a lineage distinction that has nothing to do with the National Socialist party that the word Nazi is German shorthand for. OF COURSE, the source I cited MUST be another creation of deception or so they said.

...Just to ask, you're certain that they aren't just trolling you?

They kind of sound like the type.

Alaska Slim wrote:...Just to ask, you're certain that they aren't just trolling you?

They kind of sound like the type.

This was my first thought. In high school, my friends and I would troll one of our more easily troll-able friends with bad logic, such as plugging an extention chord into itself. It was awesome because he wasn't as equipped to rebut our rhetoric and he'd get frustrated easily.

However, some of the stuff described in this thread seems a little extreme, and I would not be at all surprised to learn that people that ignorant truly do exist in the world.

HEY! If a outdated rapper who only contributed two hits says the Earth is flat, you've gotta listen! He can't be wrong since he's a celebrity! When has listening to people like him ever caused society harm?!

So, I've decided the best thing I can do the next time I'm hanging out with my friends is to not "entertain" theses conspiracy shenanigans by allowing them to be entertaining. In other words, I'll simply have my approach become so boring that they'll never want to bring up such ideas ever again. The most they'll get from me when discussing the Illuminati-Nazi-Zionist-9/11-NWO-Flat Earth-Dome theories will be a simple, dry, non-sarcastic "Uh huh" or "That's interesting, do you prefer Pepsi or Coke?" Instead of seething or demanding proof (they have absolutely no grasp of what documentation/citation means). No, keeping my emotions in check will kill this faster than a logically cohesive refutation. Then we'll see how sound their convictions really are when they don't have the drama of resistance to feed upon.

That being said, I seriously need to work on my stoicism...