A friend for 40+ years posted this on Facebook "I have always thought I was the beneficiary of an excellent education because my parents sent me to private Catholic schools. I thought we were taught well in the areas of research, critical thinking and logic. I am disheartened by the sheer number of people who shared my educational background who boarded and rode the Trump train, who bought into the lies around the election, who hold Rush Limbaugh up as a role model, who attempt to justify the insurrection and who spread conspiracy theories such as those espoused by QAnon. I now wonder if the schools that I’ve always considered to be of a higher standard were either just average or just elitist?" I want to respond, not to start a fight or WW3 but everything that I start to writer gets my blood boiling. Yes, I know I could ignore it, delete her or snooze her BUT Q tells us we need to help educate and I am at a loss. So, I thought I would reach out to my fellow frens and get some help and ideas. Anyone?
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I agree with the comment saying that you really can’t do anything about this. But anyway, there’s a French author who’s really good at debates and always ends up showing what fools the journalists who invite hmm are. The way he does it is he asks questions. Always.
So, for example, to “ bought into the lies around the election”, you can ask: « What election lies? If you mean that there’s been fraud, what exactly is false? Can you please give me a factual proof that it’s false from each of the contested state? Please don’t send an article, I’ve read them all. »
To this: « who attempt to justify the insurrection and who spread conspiracy theories such as those espoused by QAnon. » - I would ask to explain what he means by « justify the insurrection? Is he referring to the fact that Democrats have been arrested / questioned by the FBI for their role in this? Or is he referring to the journalist from CNN who was inside filming it? Is he saying « justify » because Conservatives are accusing the other party of having been inside? »
Regarding QAnon, I would reply: « what do you mean by espoused by QAnon? What kind of conspiracy theory? Can you explain cos I’ve heard many things. Certainly, it’s important to think in specific terms when addressing such grave concerns as you have. »
I would of course not provide ANY factual information on Q at this point. You’d lose all credibility.
Before you start though, because he’s a friend, I would start by addressing this: « I am disheartened by the sheer number of people » and say that you’re saddened too that people judge but never interact (or something like that, just to remind him that you’re friends).
Not sure if I’m right but this is how I discuss with people. I refuse to talk to people who have not done their research and who spew out NYT and CNN.
Who is the French author?
A guy called François Bégaudeau, who’s too much to the Left for you to enjoy probably, but he did an excellent pamphlet or book on what we call the Bobos here (what you could also call hipster, that is rich people pretending to be cool by discarding all traditions etc - a mix of woke too but not exactly). Anyway, the book is called Histoire de ta Bêtise (History of your Idiocy), and when he did interviews for this, he was excellent, because he was being invited on all sorts of media and then telling the journalists to their face (but very insidiously) that the book was about them.