How to deal with Ancient aliens in the workplace?

Two of my coworkers frequently mention shows like “Encounters” or “Ancient apocalypse” or whatever. I’m not the best at debating or forming arguments against these though I do feel strongly that bold claims require better evidence than a blurry photo and an eyewitness account. How do you all go about this?

Today I clumsily stumbled through conversation and said “I’ll need some evidence” and was hit with “there’s plenty of evidence in the episode ‘Lights over Fukushima’”. I didn’t have an answer because I haven’t watched it. I’m 99% sure that if I watch it it’s gonna be dramatized, designed to scare/freak you out a little and consist of eyewitness accounts and blurry photos set to eerie music. But I’m afraid I just sound like a haughty know-it-all if I do assert this before watching.

These are good people and I want to remain on good terms and not come across as a cynical asshole.

(Sorry if language is too formal or stilted. Not my native tongue)

fubo,

Patiently explain that “alien encounters” are just the playful trickery of the Fae, who have been pulling this sort of thing for much longer than anyone was imagining spaceships.

Bizarroland,
Bizarroland avatar

If you want to win a fist fight, bring a rocket launcher.

AFallingAnvil,
@AFallingAnvil@lemmy.ca avatar

Just remember that shit has a blast radius, your reputation may get hit.

theodewere,
theodewere avatar

also, trying to cure crazy with reason is like throwing water on a grease fire

BolexForSoup,
BolexForSoup avatar

I love you lmfao

neanderthal,

Cass, you idjit! You have been on earth from how long and still don’t know how humans work! They are just going to think the OP is delusional!

dustyData,

Have fun man. Start coming up with even crazier theories and one up them to the extreme with ever bolder madness, get creative. “Pfft you think Japan it real? They don’t want you to know that we bombed them out of existence and we gave the country to the Venusians! It was all part of Reagan’s contract in exchange for more nuclear power, but he was a lizard…”

SpaceAce,

The Italian military has been simulating Japan with AI for centuries now. The Italians took one of their own words, tiramisu, and made up a whole language from that.

It’s no coincidence ちらみす looks like spaghetti. They literally made this alphabet by throwing spaghetti at the wall and then started borrowing evolved bone-script from the Chinese when they got bored with pasta-to-wall terrorism!

MissJinx,
@MissJinx@lemmy.world avatar

I used to get annoyed too but then I started doing this! I NEVER disagree or challenge their opinions I just always agree with everything and answer “wow! really?? I don’t watch much tv, then what ?!!” They LOVE me, and helped me a lot at work being friends with thos guys.

It’s imoortant to focus on the silliness, they are not hurting anyone let them talk nonsense and have fun

OceanSoap,

You might be taking some friendly debate as more sinister than it is. It’s okay to tell them you straight up don’t believe and need some better evidence than a show on Netflix. When they tell you to watch it, ask them to sum it up for you, and go from there.

You can laugh at the absurdity without being mean-spirited. Most people who get hooked into that stuff don’t really believe, they like the “but what if?” Aspect of it.

doom_and_gloom, (edited )
@doom_and_gloom@lemmy.ml avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    bitsplease,

    Yeah even showing incredulity will keep the other person engaged, just be as boring a conversation partner as possible during the subject, try at every opportunity to change the subject, and eventually they’ll either get the hint, or just start bugging someone whose more fun to talk about it with

    ianovic69,
    @ianovic69@feddit.uk avatar

    I recommend this comment as the most simple and effective approach -

    sopuli.xyz/comment/4013509

    Quereller,

    “How to deal with Ancient aliens in the workplace?”

    Man, for a second I thought you are talking about older, immigrant co-workers.

    username_unavailable,

    youtu.be/j9w-i5oZqaQ?si=uDet-RnDCFZMuJtl

    SpaceAce,

    Wow. Three hours 😅. Not before bed lmao

    RoquetteQueen,
    @RoquetteQueen@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Woah woah woah. Hold on a second. There are actually people who take Ancient Aliens seriously?! I thought we all watched it because it was hilariously stupid.

    Tamo,

    Highly recommend the podcast ‘It’s probably not aliens’ if you want to find out more about the real history of the claims made in these kind of shows, and how the claims of aliens are often rooted in racism and colonialism

    jlow,

    EO_Wpe4XsAEPxj_ (not OC +__+)

    SpaceAce,

    Thanks. I’ve been needing more podcasts anyway :)

    thebardingreen,
    @thebardingreen@lemmy.starlightkel.xyz avatar

    That being the case, the excellent podcast Our Fake History talks about aliens in Who Built The Pyramids part III (obviously you should listen to part 1 and 2 first). This episode builds on some other episodes (Sebastian debunks all kinds of other garbage historical myths) and some familiar names tend to come up over and over. Who Are The Magicians Of The God and Was There A Real Atlantis are other episodes that might have some relevance to the KIND of arguments your coworkers are likely making.

    livus,
    livus avatar

    @SpaceAce this is firmly in the "I could teach you, but I'd have to charge" category. You're not their mother or their teacher so if they want to believe nonsense then let them.

    There are some documentaries debunking Ancient Aliens though.

    ExLisper,

    You’re approaching it wrong. Don’t fight them. Fake interest and talk with them to investigate their stupid believes. Try to understand why they believe it, how did they get brainwashed, what defence mechanism they have in place to discredit real science. It can be fascinating experience for you and you will learn a lot about people in general.

    neptune,

    Exactly. It’s reality TV you get paid to consume. Win win win. They think they are smart. You get to giggle internally. And your boss thinks you are a great leader.

    Jumi,

    Or just stonewall them if you don’t want to deal with that nonsense.

    ExLisper,

    Yes, you can also do it but I really think it’s good to investigate people like this a bit. Couple years ago I spend some times watching the craziest videos about alternative science from my country and I think I actually learned a lot. My take now is that a lot of people pushing those things are actually smart and have a lot of charisma but without proper education. They don’t understand science because they never learned about so society tells them they are stupid. This creates growing frustration in them and when they stumble on alternative science they suddenly have an explanation: it’s not that I’m stupid, the science is wrong. Alternative science is a lot simpler, more intuitive and they can shine there and become some sort of leader. I notices they all tell the same (obviously made up) story: some guy said my invention is stupid but then I showed him how it works and it blew his mind and he was amazed at how great it is. Showing society they are actually the smart ones and everyone else is wrong is one of their main fantasies.

    snowe,
    @snowe@programming.dev avatar

    They talk about this in the documentary Behind the Curve. Pretty much exactly what you said here

    ExLisper,

    Actually for me Behind the Curve was more about community and fame. For most people it’s about belonging to some group. There’s a documentary about Star Trek that shows the same thing. For the ‘leaders’ it’s definitely about fame and other benefits and Behind the Curve was spot on here.

    EmoDuck,

    One of my coworkers was big into conspiracy and I had one conversation with him trying to understand where he’s coming from with all of this. I quickly realized that changing his mind was impossible because he wasn’t even talking with me, he was talking at me. After that I just smiled and nodded at everything he said. He’s yet to realize this

    Saigonauticon,

    For the sort of thing you describe, unless it affects the operation of the company, I just ignore it. I don’t feel the need to correct other people’s beliefs unless it’s getting in the way of my work. Or socialize at work, beyond a purely practical amount.

    If it’s mandatory that I socialize with them for some reason, and they cannot abide people who don’t believe everything they do, I try to change the subject to something where there’s more common ground. If they force the matter, and leaving is not permitted, I just lie – if they’re being that dense, it’s not like they value my true thoughts much anyway.

    1984,
    @1984@lemmy.today avatar

    Why do you feel the need to “deal with it”?

    You can express your opinion without pushing it on others or trying to convince them. Is this a mystery to the social media generation?

    teawrecks,

    This isn’t the hill you want to die on. If they ask for your input, just say that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and shrug. Most people follow these things because they’re exciting in an otherwise unexciting life, not because they’re dedicating their lives to discovering alien life or invading area 51.

    If they try to debate you, just say ok and smile. You’re not going to logic someone out of a position they didn’t logic themselves into.

    If you’re feeling up to it, you could just tell them about the invisible dragon in your garage, or the teapot that’s currently orbiting the sun.

    ianovic69,
    @ianovic69@feddit.uk avatar

    Perfect. Refuting unfounded beliefs isn’t worthwhile. Being honest, kind and interesting is about as much as we can do.

    You’ve managed to outline how to do that perfectly. I recognise the jist from my time in the atheism areas of Reddit.

    redcalcium,

    You already made up your mind that you won’t believe alien stuff, and you don’t want to offend your coworkers. Then just treat those alien stuff as their hobby. When your coworkers talk about their hobby, what would you usually do? Certainly not trying to shit on their hobby, unless you don’t like those coworkers.

    SpaceAce,

    Fair point, thanks.

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