Because everyone thinks they're right and if told otherwise, they take it as a personal insult to their intelligence.

This. I know I am guilty of it, an when I catch myself I try to admit it an apologize. in life our beliefs will be tested an as a society we should have been better prepared in schools to be challenged. I know why it is though..just sucks.

Bots

You do the same thing that has worked for the last century: follow Dale Carnegie's how to win friends and influence people chapter on "How to win people to your way of thinking"

1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it

2. Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say "You're wrong"

3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.

4. Begin in a friendly way.

5. Get the other person saying "yes, yes" immediately.

6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.

7. Let the other person feel the idea is his or hers

8. Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view

9. Be sympathetic with the other person' ideas and desires

10. Appeal to the nobler motives

11. Dramatize your ideas.

12. Throw down a challenge.

With emphasis on #5. If you can get people honestly questioning their preconceived notions on a subject, and get them agreeing that there could be more to a subject, which usually will lead them searching out more information on their own.

These only apply if you're legitimately trying to get them to look into something, and not just trolling them to be a dick though.

I almost want to direct some specific names in this sub to this comment, good post.

That's pretty awesome. I definitely need to read that book. Seems true, too. Basically, cater to the other person's feelings. Don't talk about yourself and just make it about them. Damn, people are so selfish.

People just love being right so when you go against the accepted narrative you become an easy target for people showing off their "rightness"... they wanna correct someone that is wrong... being a conspiracy theorist is like betting on green in roulette... not a very safe bet, but very satisfying when it actually comes up in your favor.

Because the majority of people on the internet are morons.

For the subreddit part, being respectful goes a long way. Going into /r/MSsubreddit and saying MS is false will get you downvotes. Instead saying how does MS with something questionable correlate. Except a few special safe places like The_Donald most subs will be semi receptive to debate with you.

For the last question, you have to start with familiar territory. Just like I mentioned above, don't go stating wild highly disputed claims like Flat Earth and such or you will get laughed at. Remember, they trust their sources and have no reason to trust yours.

I find the best way is to use their source to make them question another source they trust. For instance the Wikipedia link for for MKultra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra or a reputable news source such as WaPo https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/04/18/the-victims-of-mkultra/016c7686-1277-4ac6-aee6-8f1a69c86110/.

A reputable news source such as WaPo? Did you drop your /s?

Do you know of any articles by them that have been dis proven? I don't and I can easily recall inaccurate articles by almost any other newspaper. So yes, they are reputable.

It's a political rag that cites their own opinion pieces as fact on a daily basis.

Exactly my point, no one can ever link to any questionable articles. It's just general statements. This makes me trust them even more. I've even listened to an entire 15 minute video by Alex Jones on WaPo. Besides him stating 50 million times WaPo is bad all he has was one article they didn't mention a guy was a lobbyist. The newspaper has been around over a century and that is all he had.

Okie dokie. Go ahead and trust them. I think they are complete joke.

I'm more an evidence based guy, not so much feels and intuition. So unless the evidence against them turns I'll stick to trusting them.

Alex Jones is a piece of shit too. Just like WaPo.

It's difficult to question assumptions when your identity is tied up in them. Also, corporate shills are paid to fuck up our ability to communicate with each other. It's a class war.

Because if it goes against the grain you will be shouted down and called an idiot for even asking. It's a concerted circle jerk to keep the status quo.

Media brainwashing, people hating being told the truth and corruption on the forums by the mods.

Sheeple mentality.

Cognitive dissonance.

hivemind + PR machines = fuck actual conversation

This specific subject has me feeling so low lately.

I'm the type of person where if something looks fishy and you can show me some evidence, I want to see it. A lot of people don't want to look below the surface.

Just part of the narrative. Reddit is controlled, and honestly there's probably like 80%+ bots on here that are indistinguishable to us from other people.