Please Help -Need Articles Etc From Reputable Sources That Refute Various Conspircey Theories In Detail?

[WhichFindaGenral]

Various articles that refute various conspircey theories?

PLEASE NOTE - I only need links to articles etc, i'm not interested in discussing any subjects or reading anything supporting CTs, so please dont clog up the thread - THANKS!

i need to gather sites, articles, or scientific journals etc that genuinely tackle the CT claims & refute them seriously, & explain the flaws in their arguments.

I dont want sources that ridicule etc, just explanations.

In particular -

Evolution/creation,

Flat earth,

moon landings,

covid,

religions,

A good friend of mine has, in the last few years gone down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories in a huge way.

He's starting to seem brainwashed & obsessive about trying to convince other people.
He is convinced hes done all the research because the people hes been watching videos of have shown him stuff they've created & claimed is full research.

Theyre charismatic & make it seem like its true & hes clearly just taking their word for it because it sounds feasible in the way they present it.

I tried to explain that many of these people deluded & gullible at best & at worst theyre confidence tricksters & expert salespeople - they know exactly what to say & do to reel people in.

I told him he needed to research it all for himself, using reputable sources etc, but he doesnt seem to be doing that because some of the things i said hed never heard before, & he definitely would have if he'd been neutrally researching things.

I want articles etc that explain the facts & information that refutes each claim with sources etc.

A lot of the phrases he uses are the classic ones & he now thinks all science is rubbish & that theres no such thing as facts in science!
He think professionals & scientists arent knowledgable & scientific machinery & tests cant be relied upon for accuracy.

I cant & wont discuss it with him because he takes offence or acts like im a moron for believing the worlds top scientists & institutions etc rather than a charismatic man on youtube.

I wouldnt bother but he seems determined to talk to me about it all, even though ive told him i dont want to, many times.

So can anyone help me with some thorough articles or proper sources PLEASE?

Thanks

[Peter Pedant]

are you serious? refute the theory of Flat Earth? google Eratosthenes. You see the sails of a ship first ( if it has sails that is!). He then went onto to measure the curvature of the Earth.

If it is curved it aint flat ( God I cant believe I am writing this)

Evolution - google Dawkins Evolution

The others are so stupid I say " believe them if you want"

Anyway it is the other way round - you should NOT  be saying this crazy counter theory is untrue because....

but instead "the orthodox view on ( Covid Darwin) is true because....."

as for think about the moon landings as fake - I wd rather shoot myself

 

[Peter Pedant]

covid conspiracy theories are untrue because  you look at the genome. If it takes three years at uni to understand the genome so you can look at it, then start in Oct: plenty of places of going.

[Peter Pedant]

BANG!

[THECORBYLOON]

"I told him he needed to research it all for himself, using reputable sources etc, but he doesnt seem to be doing that"

You should follow your own advice, practise what you preach and do your own research.

[Old_Geezer]

Any websearch should help.

YouTube tends to have channels, both pro & anti ones, for any conspiracy you desire.

 

Flat Earth is clearly in error from the airline routes not being straight lines on a map, or checking the photographs of Earth from the space station or the moon.

 

In fact most of these thing tend to be common sense if thought about.

[Buenchico]

Snopes.com is dedicated entirely to the sort of fact-checking that you refer to in your post:
https://www.snopes.com/

BBC Verify checks out the claims of politicians, et al, to see if they're actually based upon facts:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/reality_check

[Buenchico]

A widely quoted research article on the efficacy of attempts to debunk conspiracy theories:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0280902

A brief summary of the key points from that document:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2367358-we-dont-have-any-viable-way-of-countering-conspiracy-theories/

[WhichFindaGenral]

Thanks Buenchico! I didnt think of snopes!

Corbyloon - i did it years ago & im not going to spend hours wading through more, to find good ones.
I am aware i can google - obviously - but i would still have to wade through god knows how many pages to find ones that he'll accept, ones he cant just act like im nuts for believing.
"practice what i preach"?
Get a grip.

peter - i need links to actual articles that people have read & think they explain it all well, or at least a link to a site that can be trusted to do that.
Saying google Darwin isnt not helpful, at all.
Im dealing with someone who is basically brainwashed & acting kind of manic & obsessive, so i need stuff thats really undeniable & convincing.

 

[rowanwitch]

You could try searching on Google scholar,  when you find something that seems to fit  look at the references at the end.  Should all be members of recognised academic institutions,  if you have a friend in uni ask them to search using Athena,  you should get some good stuff from there too.  Especially on brainwashing, and population manipulation.   

[newmodarmy]

It's worth a try but I think it's highly unlikely he'd be persuaded that these are conspiracies. He's more likely to say that these sites are all lying on a massive in a desperate attempt to hide the truth to protect the elite and will make him believe even more strongly in the CTs 

[WhichFindaGenral]

Thanks Rowan witch, i'll have a look, but i dont really want to wade through it all so im hoping some people already know of the best ones.

Newmodarmy - I know, thats why i dont want to do loads of research for him - his answer to how machines can detect brainwaves etc was "they may not be accurate."
& "Who's he to say that?!" about top professionals & learned people, then "he could be lying/nuts/being paid/etc"
in response to sleep paralysis being demons.

But with his sources "why would they lie?" & "theyve done all the research."

he was brought up jehoves withness & got out, calls it a terrible cult, but last few years hes got back into religion & believes everyone should live by 'scripture' because "so why not live like that?"
Calls himself a truther.
he pushes for 'debate' with wide-eyed, smug mania.

he thought i knew nothing, but got a shock when i said id been reading about it all for a long time - so called me a liar

His style of debate is incredulity - eye rolls, smug exasperated expressions & saying "come off it!" & "you believe that?!" - so im not discussing it, just sending stuff & hope he considers it.

I wouldnt bother, but im a bit worried something else is wrong, hes struggled with mental health over the years.

[Peter Pedant]

Saying google Darwin isnt not helpful, at all. wh f gen 

oops I meant "Dawkins evolution" - I did a control-H to see what I HAD googled and found I HAD written Dawkins evolution !

so try it! - - see the first answer. 

not reading PP's post and then saying "PP has written some dumb cluck stuff" when he er hasnt, - - - - is a very common AB past time. 

 

[Peter Pedant]

Should all be members of recognised academic institutions,  if you have a friend in uni ask them to search using Athena,

you dont need a  fren at uni - - try:

https://www.jstor.org/

there is a personal login - thro 'login' or 'register' and you get 100 papers to  download free. ( a carry over from Covid - thank you JSTOR)

BUT academics DON'T sit around and think " now what can I do this  week ? I know, refute  those  silly flat  earthers with an annotation on Eratosthenes!" - they usually ( after one or  two goes) refuse to engage. I know: I have met a few