My 11 year old spends 50% of his time with an anti-science and anti-vaccine family. Single parent me (in Ohio) doesn't have a lot of support when I've tried to help fight some of those thoughts he's been brainwashed with in the name of religion. I'm christian, but his other household is extremists. "You believe in science too much" and "cavemen never existed" are things he's said in the last year. He's a straight A very smart child, he's just been brainwashed and I want to try to help him before it gets worse.
What kinds of shows, books, documentaries can I expose him too to make him think more critically about some of these things so he understands science is real and vaccines work?
He does get into Veritasium on YouTube, so I feel like that's a step in the right direction for science and critical thinking.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Cheers
You can’t fight brainwashing by providing more facts. It doesn’t work. Brainwashing gives the victim mechanisms to reject new facts that contradict the false beliefs. The false beliefs become a part of a person’s identity, so it’s tied into self esteem and confidence. So that’s how you have to approach it: find ways to challenge the false beliefs that don’t also challenge their sense of self. For adults this is very difficult.
But for children, it’s easier. During the teen years children are trying on identities like they’re trying on clothes. Give you child a look at a good, comfortable identity. It should make them confident, give them a community they feel comfortable in, and not make enemies of the ones they love.
I find that scientific skepticism does this by giving people the tools to think rationally about the world, spot ways that the world tries to deceive them, and giving an understanding of why those deceptions are effective.
Agreed. Story from my own experience... my dad once sent me to a religious retreat and I was totally eating it up. In hind sight I think it was just a convenient break for him. I approached him afterwards and told him how much I was feeling it. It had reinforced my beliefs strongly at the time. He then looked at me and said, "yeah, it's all brain washing". The whole weekend shattered then and there as I realized he was right. It wasn't critical thinking that made me realize it was all shit, but by taking apart what they were doing to me and how it was distorting my perspective.
You combat this type delusion not with facts but in snapping a person to their senses as to how nonsensical their position is. Make them realize it themselves by pointing out small flaws in the method, not the message, and let the victim put it back together. There are kernels of truth in religious doctrine, but it's usually covered in shit for some assholes agenda so it can be hard to just let go.