While it is easy to use phrases like “use critical thinking”, this is not easy for elders or cousins in families to be told, as this is not lucid to understand in a snap. It is essential for criticism to be easily communicable to ordinary people that watch Google Feed or MSN News daily, and I feel that such criticism is not even easy to access or read, considering ordinary people have been cornered from MSM, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and rest of Big Tech and Western media apparatus.
If you love your BBC and CNN feeds, avoid this post, this is not for you.
Take a topic that you know. Something related to your field of work, or your special interest, whatever. Now watch a news video about that topic and notice how laughably wrong they get even basic details. Most people can relate to how wrong the media gets on a topic they’re intimately familiar with but then also think they get topics right when talking about other things like world affairs.
This is an excellent approach. That being said, nearly all the boomers I know who used to rip on me for not having a college degree are now the very same people who say shit like "oh MISTER scientist over here with his fancy education, thinks he knows EVERYTHING about climate change!" when climate change was a major component of my research.
Boomers’ unique problem is that it’s deeply ingrained in their minds that unless the man on the TV talks about a subject, they shouldn’t take said subject seriously. I told boomers about January 6th weeks before it happened and pointed to a number of leaked discussions from the Proud Boys and various far-right groups, but no-- I was dismissed as an alarmist.
Then when January 6th DID happen, the boomers I know who watch CNN did a complete 180 and acted as if "OBVIOUSLY this was going to happen", suddenly parroting word for word what CNN anchors were saying.
The problem as I see it is that boomers and most gullible people put far too much weight into the one way conversation that is TV. There’s no comments section for people to call out mistakes and provided sources and despite how often boomers go on their phone, they conveniently claim they’re too old to use Google and learn how to fact check. Instead, if their friend Bob tells them he heard from a friend that [bullshit] happened, they’re more inclined to just roll with it and believe Bob because Bob is their friend, and their friends are like themselves-- trustworthy and knowledgeable! Because Bob has experience!
Personally, I’ve given up talking to boomers about anything political/scientific. I’d much rather talk to millennials who are at the very least, far less inclined to fall for the "man on TV told me so, and man on TV can’t just lie on TV-- they have high broadcasting standards" trap. Boomers have this bizarre belief that whatever news source they consider reputable, be it CNN or FOX, they simply wouldn’t be allowed to push incorrect or intentionally misleading/sensationalist news because they seriously believe that news corporations hold themselves to standards no different than peer-reviewed academic journals.
I don’t think all boomers are hopelessly ignorant, but I have a finite amount of time and patience. Bearing that in mind, I’d rather spend an hour explaining a topic like climate change to a truly open-minded millennial/Gen X/Gen Z who is genuinely willing to learn, than 3 hours with a boomer who by the end of the discussion just sort of pulls the classic "ehhh you say that but I don’t know…" nonsense.
I’m at a point where I sort of view their level of gullibility at the point of being a mental health issue because of how deeply it impacts various aspects of their lives, and I’m not an expert on mental health issues. I think capitalism has done a number on these peoples’ brains and that’s the elephant in the room.
edit: I should also add that conservatives are also another group I simply don’t have the patience to talk to, for similar reasons. Young conservatives share the same fundamentally flawed approach to how they learn as boomers but their approach is arguably even worse because of how they use the internet as an echo chamber, without ever putting any meaningful effort into challenging their views.
I can understand, it is tough. Even I try to come up with ways, but Daniel Dumbrill for example is insanely good at communicating critical ideas in a civil manner. I am thinking that we as a community could do that too. In fact, I do come up with creative ideas, but breaking the ice with people around you who are so deeply indoctrinated becomes really hard.