TIL I passed 1,000 hours of listening to conspiracy podcasts last month and it changed how I see debates

I hit 1,000 hours of listening to conspiracy theory podcasts last month, mostly while driving for work. The really surprising thing was noticing how often both sides of a debate use the same kind of evidence. Like, a flat earther and a globe earther both cherry-pick data and ignore stuff that doesn't fit. Has anyone else tracked their listening time and noticed patterns in how people argue their points?

2 comments

2 Comments

danielb4325d ago

Noticed the same thing after about 500 hours myself. Both sides will pick one study that backs them up and ignore the rest. It really opened my eyes to how all arguments are just stories we tell ourselves.

margaret_jackson7324d ago

Gotta agree with you there, it's like people just pick whatever fits their preexisting biases and call it proof... I've spent maybe 300 hours in these debates now and it's the same pattern every time, both sides digging in deeper instead of actually listening. The scary part is when you realize we're all doing it without even noticing, just building these little stories in our heads that make us feel right. Makes you wonder how many of those arguments we'd still believe if we dropped all the confirmation bias...