Conspiracies and rumors are always powerful tools used by people for various self focused agendas. This will never change.
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Or to assuage insecurities, I imagine.
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There is no good way to tell someone you love anything that implies you think they are gullible or dumb, which is how most attempts to argue people out of conspiracy theories come across. I don’t think there is any good way to keep the conversation impersonal and just about facts and ideas.
But maybe the least damaging way to handle it if you really need to talk about it is to stay focused on what you think and what is not compelling to you about the arguments. Like, take a “convince me” approach instead of a “let me convince you otherwise” approach. Then it doesn’t seem as much like you are trying to get someone else to change, or are unaccepting and judgmental of them, or are lumping them in with people you don’t respect, none of which works out so well with people you are within six feet of on a regular basis, and is especially bad if perhaps you hope to be even closer than that on a regular basis too.
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Should you respond with tact when the end result of the false prophet’s fake dream is death threats to Dr. Fauci?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/anthony-faucis-security-is-stepped-up-as-doctor-and-face-of-us-coronavirus-response-receives-threats/2020/04/01/ff861a16-744d-11ea-85cb-8670579b863d_story.html
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We must protect Dr. Fauci at all costs. He is the glue holding the nation and my sanity together.
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FWIW, this is the same approach I take with members of Christian sects which have conspiracy theories within their teachings. Ie. The Jehovah’s Witnesses. JWs among other things believe that Mainstream English bible translations contain intention mistranslations used to justify ‘pagan’ doctrines like the trinity and the incarnation. If you try to argue with them you either get a memorised chunk of ‘Reasoning from the Scriptures’ quoted back at you or you get taken on a wild Goose chase through Daniel, Revelation and Ezekiel, etc.
In recent years I’ve started asking them question after question in more Socratic way. That is ask a question and then ask questions about their answer; trying to think of questions that draw out the conclusions I’d like them to come to. When asked in a gentle, genuine, and friendly manner, a questioning is a powerful, but indirect way to challenge to a person’s thinking. I’ve found that a good question can haunt a persons thinking much longer than a direct rebuttal.
You’re essentially teaching them to fish (arrive at the truth for themselves) rather than giving them a fish which they might assume is actually poisoned (a direct response).
Another benefit is that by asking questions you begin to understand the ideas as they understand it. This not only gives you a better insight into the topic but also them as a person (eg. Why the find it convincing, compelling, etc.). In turn this helps you craft better questions.
I would say that it does take huge amounts of self control to respond with a question and not a direct reply. It also takes a llllooooonnnnngggg time to see progress, but then I sometimes think more direct discussions only give the illusion of progres. Eg. moving through several topics whilst neither party move very far from their starting positions. However, if one love the person one invests the time gladly.
I hope that helps some. For anyone wanting some further reading, I’ve found the first half of Gregg Koukl’s book Tactics very helpful - the second half less so. I’m sure many of the principles of part 1 could be transferred to a ‘conspiracy theory’ context.
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Good metaphor. For those who have memorized “gotcha” phrases, this can be very disarming. For some (myself included) the relational aspect can be a real surprise when you’ve been taught to see it all as an enormous, abstract spiritual war.
Yes… I’m still working on this. It’s easy to take a pragmatic view and think that if you see no change, nothing happened. I’m grateful for the patience others have exhibited toward me in my meanderings through difficult topics.
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Hmm the anti-Fauci parade now includes most (?) or large portions of mainstream thought:
https://dailycaller.com/2020/04/03/tucker-carlson-anthony-fauci-coronavirus-shutdown-economy/
Perhaps they should let him move his broadcast to reporting from a major NYC hospital.
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“What if we’d adopted a more conventional response?” Tucker, do you even know what the word “conventional” means? How in the world do you adopt a “conventional” response to a novel pandemic affecting the world in an unprecedented way. Any response, by definition, has to be totally unconventional. I just can’t respect someone who can’t use words correctly.
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Large portions of the mainstream are delusional. Everything else that comes to mind wanders into the banned subject of politics.
Nevertheless, the worst conspiracy of all is the conspiracy that there are no conspiracies 
I had a particularly rough day on Facebook today. It started with having to block a dear old friend because he has no interest in anything except arguing, even if that means arguing on the side of the COVID conspirators. I did a little better on Kent Hovind’s group, where I was about to report for conspiracy crap and get it removed.
It would be great if we could reach out and talk to these people, but this is a crisis, and we need to triage those we can help and those we cannot.
Sorry I can’t offer a more optimistic message - like I said, it’s been a rough day.
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That’s what the Illuminati want you to think! 
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Hey, Dan. Sorry about your day. Oh, you office in a hospital, don’t you. Can you work from home?
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Yes, I’m working from home - and spending too much time trying to be reasonable with unreasonable people. 
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Unreasonable people? Where do you find those? 
I bet the coronavirus has kept you busy! And people want answers from you that you can’t give them, or can’t give them fast enough?
The Dunning-Krueger Effect strikes hard. Experts understand all the ways they could be wrong and are less certain. Those with dangerously little knowledge don’t know better. The worst of the anti-experts immunize themselves from knowledge.
This isn’t just a Christian thing, or even a religious thing. The friend I blocked never expressed a religious thought in all the years I’ve known him. You can’t appeal to knowledge in someone who does not respect knowledge. You can’t gain trust of people who only withdraw when you reach out to them.
Love, respect, gaining trust, those might work. But triage your time, you can’t help everyone. Try to slow down those doing active harm.
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Those research questions haven’t gotten to the clinical research stage yet, at least not here. I helped some family members with questions about diet supplements - things that are a really good idea for the malnourished, but not very helpful to those already on a helpful diet.
Unfortunately, it looks like the opportunities for coronavirus research are going to be with us for years. 
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