You cannot defeat this defense.
It's not a guarantee, but the best way to approach people like this is to only ask them questions. Let them do the talking. Frame the questions in such a way that it backs them into a corner, and makes them think.
There's a few people on Youtube I watch who do "Street Epistemology" (check out Anthony Magnabosco and Cordial Curiosity), where they stop strangers on the street and probe them about something they believe in. It could be aliens, ghosts, religious beliefs, political beliefs, anything.
All they do is ask questions, and let the interviewee do all the talking. There's no debates, no disagreements, only questions. I've seen people walk away from these conversations completely enlightened. If you ask the right questions, it makes people think for themselves.
Arguing and debating Does. Not. Work.
Cordial Curiosity always starts his conversations off with "one a scale from 1 to 10, what is your confidence level that <topic of discussion> is true?" .. and at the end of the conversation, he ends it with "where would you say your confidence level is now?" More often than not, the confidence level is far lower after the person was asked tough questions.
I could see this translated into something like "on a scale of 1 to 10, how strongly do you believe what what the public is being told about this virus is accurate and true?" .. followed by some tough questions about some of the big inconsistencies in the reporting and guidance.
You cannot defeat this defense.
It's not a guarantee, but the best way to approach people like this is to only ask them questions. Let them do the talking. Frame the questions in such a way that it backs them into a corner, and makes them think.
There's a few people on Youtube I watch who do "Street Epistemology" (check out Anthony Magnabosco and Cordial Curiosity), where they stop strangers on the street and probe them about something they believe in. It could be aliens, ghosts, religious beliefs, political beliefs, anything.
All they do is ask questions, and let the interviewee do all the talking. There's no debates, no disagreements, only questions. I've seen people walk away from these conversations completely enlightened. If you ask the right questions, it makes people think for themselves.
Arguing and debating Does. Not. Work.