Asklemmy

If they take a netflick show as evidence, I seriously doubt you will be able to convince them otherwise.

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

Ignore it or mock it. I start preaching about Great Cthulhu at people who have loonie beliefs, and let them try to debunk me.

I've got good at reciting "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!" in a high-pitched preacher voice.

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.

"How to deal with Ancient aliens in the workplace?"

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

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.

Let people be wrong.

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.

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.

This is not worth challenging, especially if you are outnumbered. You are not likely to change their beliefs with evidence. The beliefs are flexible and can be endlessly swapped out with new beliefs that demand new evidence. I don't know what you should do but you definitely shouldn't attempt to change their minds like that.

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.

You should pick your battles. Think pretty carefully about what you actually want to debate/pushback on because it's exhaustive and requires you to research the topic. It's probably a waste of your time doing the research to debunk these alien sightings since a new one pops up every few months.

"Stilted"?

You sir, are one of those fucking amazing people who profusely apologize for not being a native English speaker and then blurt out 37 paragraphs of perfect English.

You have nothing to be ashamed of - your English is better than a lot of them native speakers ! And always remember this :

"You are speaking English because that is the only language you know; I am speaking English because that is the only language you know. We are not the same."

And as to your original question - if I ever ask them "what evidence did you see which proves X happens?", I have almost always been hit with the reply, "Oh yeah? What proof do you have that says X does not happen???". And then I tell them the anecdote of the Invisible Dragon by Carl Sagan. Look it up if this is new to you, and for a more formal treatment, check out Karl Popper's theory of Falsifiability.

I have personally converted at least one conspiracy theorist to being an Agnostic. So I know it works. Try them out, it's fun.

And I also am not a native English speaker to be honest :-)

I mean, if you are so disinterested in the conversation that you would ask the internet how to have your side of it rather than check out the show, maybe you just shouldn’t have that conversation. Change the subject or tell them you’re not into it. Who cares if they believe there are aliens?

Personally, I find it impossible to believe there isn’t other intelligent life out there. It’s not because of blurry photos or spooky stories. It’s that the universe is just so vast and there’s so much we will never understand about this place we are in. How can it not be out there? Frankly, it takes more faith to believe there isn’t something.

With that perspective, I do occasionally find those shows interesting. Not because it’s proof of anything but because it’s fun to watch and wonder what it is. It doesn’t have to make you a believer or a non-believer. There’s obviously something in the videos. What it is and where it comes from is entirely different. It’s just entertainment for people who like to indulge in a little speculation.

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.

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…"

This might sound like a crazy answer from a crazy person but hear me out. If they are good people and you're somewhat familiar with them, just call them kooks, say that shit's all made up and dismiss it. just don't be aggressive about it, people can still be on good terms without agreeing on everything. Just be like "nah man, no way that happened these shows are just people who want attention, if it was real there'd be better evidence and it'd be all over the news."

I honestly think this is the best way to go, you're engaging them honestly, attacking the show, not them. And so long as you don't get hung up on their response or 'winning the argument' I think you can all remain on good terms. How you go about this obviously depends on how friendly you are with them but if they're good people they'll still be your friend even if you're too dumb to see the truth about aliens.

I used to watch this YouTube channel ~5 years ago, called Lets Chat, where a guy would go to different places and have conversations with people about their beliefs.

Digging through my history, it looks like the technique is called Street Epistemology. It's basically a way to understand deeply held beliefs without coming across rudely. Here's a site I found that explains the process well

Carl Sagan wrote a book, The Demon Haunted World, which is all about why people get sucked into nonsense like ancient aliens, and how to deal with it.

You can't reason people out of a belief they didn't reason themselves into.

Just say you're not interested in their weird hobby.

If they didn’t use reason and logic to make up their minds, you don’t stand much of a chance using them to change their minds.

I went to training with coworkers from another site. They were raving about some "documentary" that said the government had alien technology. They kept trying to get me to watch it all week but I just kept saying I forgot.

In reality I watched about 10 minutes and it just set up these alternative history hypothese then reenacted them. It was moronic so I just steered the convo to football or whatever to get them to shutup.

Just ignore and avoid the topic the best you can. Don't confront. Just go, "ohh ok" and move on. Pretend you need to go to the toilet or that you have something else to do if you can't break free from the conversation.

It's about as futile as trying to convince a religious fanatic that their views may not be ideal for everyone; you just don't. Ignore and avoid.

Start attributing your local cultural heritage to aliens. That fancy building? Aliens.

It may force your coworkers to clarify their statements to racism, but then you can hide behind the "but how do they steel beam?" logic.

https://youtube.com/@miniminuteman773?si=AKDf4v0VQ4xR9KrQ

Dude is legit entertaining while debunking this nonsense. You’ll learn a lot not just about the science, but about how they constructed their faulty arguments and where to push to make them fall apart like playdoh.

Enjoy the shows as fiction and have conversations with the mindset of "but wouldn't it be cool if that was real?". Sometimes it's good to escape reality and pretend for a while. And it sounds like this would help you build a good rapport with your colleagues.

"I was unsure of whether I could trust y'all with this info, but after talking with you a bit I think it's time to come clean." And then start talking about Second Impact as if it happened IRL and not in a famous anime. (Spoilers for Evangelion in the link.) There's already in-lore conspiracies and coverups to use as talking points.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjhctHjnIbUgvin0ZlrsHg87l_k1RrKdf This playlist is very long, but this is a historian dunking on any sort of ancient alien or lost ancient technology theories.

I agree with others that it might not be worth it

If you do want something though, to pass the time or whatever, this is a pretty good video on how to address them

Ultimate Conspiracy Debunker - Kurzgesagt (typing on the bus, sorry for mispelling it)

1. your written English is great

2. conversation does not need to be debate. What these people really want is to talk. Ask questions, like "what evidence did you find most convincing?" Odds are they won't even notice you didn't agree with them, they just want to be heard.

3. there doesn't need to be a conversation at all. Drift out of these sorts of conversations or change the topic. I can't imagine a scenario in which debating the existence of aliens with a coworker would be worth my energy.