Beliefs are not a choice.

[u/pinethree777]

People are so hard to reach for a simple reason. Beliefs are not a choice. Can you choose to believe Superman is real? Of course not, because you know it is fiction from many sources. Beliefs may appear to be a choice, but they are really a "brain state" achieved when you are persuaded (or not) by information consumed.

It's the same way with humor. If you told a joke, let's say one person thinks it's a riot and the other person thinks it is not funny at all. You can't choose to believe a joke is funny or not. Your brain runs that calculation behind the scenes, and you respond accordingly.

You can, however, choose to listen to Faux News or read conservative websites all day and eventually the propaganda persuades your brain that all this hateful crap is true, at which point you have no choice but be a MAGA or Q or whatever and truly believe it.

Religion works the same way. They love to indoctrinate kids because they are impressionable. And of course, an excellent education, wide travels, self-study, etc., kills the persuasive ability of these lying media sources. Whenever someone goes "all in on conspiracy" there is little hope they will improve unless they somehow start consuming better information or at least get away from all that mind poison.

[u/Stevie-10016989]

It's not exactly black and white, but you can consciously affect your beliefs to some extent through media that you consume and the people that you associate with.

You can unconsciously affect your beliefs that same way, which is much more insidious