Why? Are they insufferable otherwise? Or is it more that you find it unbearable to tolerate a different opinion? I'm so curious, about both of you. What part does he think was a hoax?
In my experience that's usually just the tip of the iceberg. You've heard the expression "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way"? It's like a link broke in a chain, and usually it's many links correlated. Maybe they just distrust expertise, well I have a phd and I assure you it'll come up later. Maybe he's an immigrant from Russia and he just distrusts everything to do with the news, well that's not really fixable except maybe with many years of therapy. And yes it will come up later too. I'm not a professional, I didn't want to ask the specifics or get into the weeds, I just have a developed nose for these things. My brother is into conspiracy theories.
> I have a phd and I assure you it'll come up later.
Will it? One would have to dig pretty deep into one's personal life to learn about that. Someone who thinks COVID was a hoax isn't going to be one to dig deep. And, well, if he really did somehow dig deep enough to find that information, you can just laugh it off as a hoax.
> Someone who thinks COVID was a hoax isn't going to be one to dig deep.
This is kind of a side point, but people with fringe beliefs tend to dig a lot deeper to validate those opinions than those with a mainstream view.
You can bet that someone who thinks that the moon landing was a hoax to the point that they would tell someone about it will know more about the moon landing than a random person who believes it was real.
It often takes an expert in something to shoot down the arguments.
> but people with fringe beliefs tend to dig a lot deeper
Do they actually, though? Or do they just look for endless superficial surface claims?
I mean, if they actually dug deep they're going to encounter all kinds of information that would indicate that the moon landing was real. Which, then, if they still maintain that it was a hoax in light of that then they have to believe that the deep information is also a hoax. So if someone really was digging deep into personal details of your life, then what they read about you must also be a hoax, naturally.
Which, given the concern, one may as well solidify by putting fake information out there about themself. No sane person is going to be searching high and low for details about your personal life anyway. A moon landing hoax believer isn't going to buy into a published academic paper or whatever breadcrumb you accidentally left as a source of truth to prove that you have a PhD when a random website with a Geocities-style design says that you never went to college!
There is an infinite supply of people spouting bullshit and validation of that bullshit on the internet. You can spend a lifetime reading through that bullshit, and certainly feel like you're "doing research".
I am utterly fascinated by the flat earth movement, not because I believe in a flat earth, but because it's so plainly idiotic and yet people will claim they've done experiments and research and dug deep, primarily because they either don't know how to read a paper or how to interpret an experiment or simply don't know how lenses work. It's incredible.
> You can spend a lifetime reading through that bullshit, and certainly feel like you're "doing research".
I'm not sure broad and deep are the same thing, but maybe we're just getting caught up in semantics?
> It's incredible.
Does anyone truly believe in a flat earth, though, or is it just an entertaining ruse? I hate to say it, but it can actually be pretty funny watching people nonsensically fall over themselves to try and prove you wrong. I get why someone would pretend.
Linkedin is editable, no? Maybe he could still find it in a cache if he digs deep enough, but I mean, really, it is highly unlikely that anyone is going to put in that much effort unless they are on a mission. Nobody casually cares.