Make compromises. Stay balanced. This is how you wake people up.

[TheHouseMan]

People, we need to stop being so assertive and over-the-top. Naturally, when you're having a conversation with someone, or a group of people, the very dynamics of conversation lead to a lot of emotions being splurged and quick-fire responses being made. I think we need to psychologically think through why people have their doubts about "conspiracy theories" and properly answer their questions. I'm talking about your average person, not someone within the movement who is being divisive.

Case #1. People often point out that conspiracy theorists like making stuff up to sell books, make money, exert arrogance, become a mini-celebrity, get on the talk show circuit etc. And they DO! Not Alex Jones and other real researchers, but there is clearly a group that do this. They are the UFO-type people, and we must calmly agree with people who point this out. These people are shills and we must compromise with doubters by agreeing with them on this. This isn't a hobby, this isn't some commercial enterprise.. We are in this for the information. I guess we should then always provide links to free information, instead of books and DVDs that cost money. People are always quick to say, "Oh, and you can find all this amazing info for the low price of $19.95, huh?"

Case #2. People will psychologically-analyse the typical "kooky conspiracy theorist", who is out-of-touch with society, reclusive, unstable, often angry and hostile. There are indeed many people like this, who will move to conspiracy theories in order to make up for a lack of something else in their lives. We must explain that we are not these people. We just look at the decades-long trend towards unaccountable global government, and point out the quotes about using the right major crisis to bring in the New World Order etc. Just bring the facts to people, but not in a biased way. We have to have open discussions with people. You can't expect people to be won over to such a drastic change in the way they think so easily... This stuff isn't a walk in the park.

Case #3. Someone will show a conspiracy theorist a basic logical flaw in what they're saying, and instead of debating them, they'll say, "oh, but did you know X, did you know Y?" and they will proceed to give hundreds of different pieces of unorganised, irrelevant (seemingly) information. Maybe they'll say, "watch these 10 documentaries" and it's like, "erm... no... I'd rather you just answer my question in a few quick sentences". Solution? Stick to the point. Keep your points narrow. Don't say something unless you are absolutely 100% sure that it is true. I know it's tempting to go beyond to make something more special and magical than it is. We must resist the temptation.

Case #4. Many conspiracy theorists will be over-the-top with their religious beliefs of Armageddon, Mark of the Beast, Lucifer, Satanism etc. No one likes a preacher... This movement is not about changing your entire culture. It's about living the way you always did, enjoying stuff like you did. You don't have to give up TV to be a truther. We don't want to make people think they are part of some cult.... a cult that talks the same, dresses the same, believes the same things. This is a major turn-off for people, because we want something to live for as humans. It's all well and good stopping the tyranny, but if you have nothing to enjoy after that, what's the point?

Case #5. When conspiracy theorists try to wake other people up, they will show them information from the same 1 or 2 researchers, e.g. Alex Jones. The natural reaction is, "why aren't other people talking about this? How come it's this fat, angry redneck from Texas?". People, there are plenty of other researchers out there. By all means show people Alex's stuff, but other people too. I would recommend also some less hardcore stuff, more mainstream anti-globalist stuff. I also hate to say it, but Alex Jones makes a bunch of predictions that don't come true and he will often exaggerate things ("society was almost shut down completely because of swine flu", "wherever you go in England, they stop you to see if you're a paedophile", "this is 100x worse than Nazi Germany" etc)... I did not write this thread to bash Alex Jones, either. PLEASE don't make your replies about this. Consider my case studies.

I hope this has been useful. Always remember: the general public is not stupid. They're just inclined to come to quick typecast conclusions about conspiracy theorists, and I think they have a legitimate reason to. Up until a few years ago, it was mostly kooks. By acknowledging this, we can paradigm shift the consensus and awaken humanity.

[Outer Haven]

Very useful.

[Mber]

Great Advice House.

I would also add to your Case number 5...

Do your OWN research. All the old books you need to dig through can be found on Amazon.com usually for cheap. Show them the ORIGINAL documents, which is all anyone needs. If they still do not wake up, move on, they're dead.

[jofortruth]

Great tips, TheHouseMan! Thx

[Rini]

Thank you!!! Very useful tips!!!!

[Loungeagainstthemachine]

Great post, I do the very same thing with friends, or at least I try to. It's really important to come across calmly. A lot of people are actually surprised I think this way, and don't believe I could be a conspiracy theorist nut. Well, I'm not, the man just want you to believe any of us who question things are crazy.
 
A big thing is having different researchers to back up claims. One person as a resource doesn't mean crap. Just today, I said something about how hand sanitizer (Purell, to be exact) is linked to cancer and infertility. My boyfriend kind of gave me the eye and asked for proof. I quickly googled it, and after going through the bullshit links google brings up, found three different people/groups stating that certain types (Purell) of hand sanitizer are carcinogenic and can cause inferility and many other bad things.

People can easily disbelieve one source. It's harder to disbelieve many, although sometimes they still manage to.

[PepsiCan]

 Great post!

 I've been thinking about trying to write something along those lines for quite a while but I'm not a great writer and not as informed as many here. I will try to add a few things that I think are important for gently waking up people who can be -

1. It's sad but it has to be considered that along with good people who just need to wake up, you will also encounter a lot of people who know (deep down) something's not right but they either don't want to wake up or they already have and have chosen to play it safe. Meaning, they know something's going on but they're afraid to speak out and they will say anything to discredit you or make you look like a fool. Continuously arguing with such people is useless. I've never seen it work once. You'll never get anywhere and likely, a bunch of them will gang up on you and your reputation at that site will be forever tarnished (as long as anyone knows who you are).

2. The easiest thing in the world is to make a conspiracy theorist look crazy. Because most of the world already believes we are, it will sometimes take little more than someone mentioning tin foil hats and you're finished. Since we rarely have any real hard evidence to prove anything, you have to rely on the people you're speaking to using common sense and extrapolation.

3. Being subtle about it may often be better than hitting your audience full force with an attempt to get them to "wake up" or ask questions. In my experience, they will always resist and will usually resort to some variation on the theme that you're crazy. Sometimes if you just make very subtle suggestions and let them think for a while, you might have a better chance of them gradually realizing you just may have been right. Most people have massive walls built up along the usual roads to their centers of objective thought and rationality and they're meant to keep you (specifically) out. If you never get past those walls, you will never get them to actually think about (Much less talk about) anything rationally. You have to be able to get past the robot at the gate that doesn't know anything but how to keep "nutjobs" out. This is where knowing a little psychology will go a long way. But remember. You will still encounter some people who are playing for a different team and are just as clever.       

4. You might be better off talking to people who know you and at least have some level of respect for you. Strangers will almost always reject anything you say if it differs significantly with what they believe. 

5. As the OP said, it's best not to pretend you have all the absolute answers or that you know exactly how something (like 9/11) was done. You will lose any debate if someone proves that you're wrong about something and you refuse to admit it or they make a good counterpoint and you refuse to acknowledge it. You have to be willing to admit you're wrong about something. But it's best not to be wrong in the first place. Which means not making statements you can't back up with anything substantial. In any debate, the person who is completely inflexible usually loses. If you can't prove it, either don't say it or make it clear that it's only your opinion and that you're open to hearing what other people have to say about it. Starting the process of waking someone up is more important than trying to prove your pet conspiracy theory.

6. The deck will always be stacked against you almost everywhere you go. Do not expect people to be fair about it. Most people will not even want to discuss it. Remember. Most adults learned to stop asking questions when they moved into the workforce where questions would just get you fired or make your job unnecessarily unpleasant. If you're talking to a guy who's 50 years old and you're trying to get him to question what he's been told and what he's basically believed all his life, you've got at least 30 years of mindless living to contend with. All he knows is that he's always kept his mouth shut and did what he was told and he was fine. Going along with the crowd and not asking questions has served most people well in their personal and professional lives. It's critical to understand this. Most people just have no real idea how much greater the stakes are when it comes to matters involving government. They just have no frame of reference. Nothing they've ever personally done (or not done) has had earth shattering consequences.   

7. When you bring something up, be ready for "So what?". Often, people are aware of things like lies and distortions in the media, censorship, government spying and so forth. Often when you bring something like this up, you're thinking your biggest problem is going to be just getting anyone to believe it's actually happening. What will usually happen (as you might know) is some fool will come out of the woodwork and blurt out "So what?". The government spying, for instance. They will say something like "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about". These arguments are significantly harder to debate (If for no other reason than you may not have expected people to just not care). There are good counterpoints to all of them but you'd better have them ready to post at a moment's notice. If they say "So what?" and you don't have a good response, they just got a big point. That pretty much goes for anything. If they can make you look foolish (no matter how they do it), they will be seen as having won the debate. Even if everything they said was wrong, if you can't prove it and the average reader doesn't know (or care enough to look up the facts).

 There are a lot of people on the internet who are masters at making other people look like idiots. If you can't debate these people and respond quickly, accurately and (preferably) dispassionately to everything they're likely to say, you will do more damage to the truth movement than you will good. Once they draw you into a discussion, you have to be prepared for anything. There are some people who would be perfectly comfortable in a harsh police state, for example. It's difficult to argue with these people without bringing up the example of the Nazis and get godwinned. You must resist bringing up Nazis at all costs. There's no reason why it shouldn't be a valid point except for the fact that people have used Nazis in every argument on the web and it's just not effective anymore. People have been very cleverly conditioned to ignore the Nazi argument.   

8. Wherever you go, you will probably encounter people who will try to make it personal. If they succeed, the debate is effectively over. Some of them are easy to ignore and some of them will probably get under your skin. You mustn't let them provoke you, however, as this is the quickest and easiest way to discredit someone. Remember that the truth is more important than your ego. Remember that when they start attacking you instead of your argument, it's a pretty good sign that they can't debate or dispute you in any intelligent way. A person who makes personal attacks usually has nothing intelligent left to say and has to resort to personal attacks in order to stay in the debate. This is not a person you have to debate or argue with. Anyone with a brain will see them for what they are. It helps your position when someone can be seen to be so desperate to shut you up they'll resort to lowbrow personal attacks. You must never stoop to this person's level! This is very important. It's very possible that you could further expose that person's real agenda but your main goal is just to make people see that you don't have to be crazy to believe in conspiracies.

9. It is very likely if you get into a lot of these debates that you will run into people who are smarter or more knowledgeable (In some way or another) than you are. Often, they will apparently be dedicated to proving all conspiracy theories to be wrong and crazy and they are very good at it. It's important to spot these people early and evaluate whether or not you can hope to stand toe to toe with them on an intellectual level. If you know you can't, it's probably better that you don't try. You'll do more damage to your argument if you can't debate it effectively than if you don't say anything. This is especially important if you have observed these individuals being very aggressive with other people who disagreed with them about something. You can bet they won't change their policy for you. Some of them see it as a game and all they care about is humiliating their opposition and exalting themselves. Some of them see themselves as part of one political party or another and will oppose anyone who doesn't toe the line. Others, I have concluded may very well be part of some sort of internet brigades. Leave the highly intellectual debate for those who are capable of it. If you are, great. Most people aren't. It doesn't take any special talent or intellect to be awake and sometimes, very bright people can be asleep.