[Serious] How to explain social media pursuasion to my parents?

Serious question, as this is causing me much pain in my life. For background, I've been in IT Security since the 90s. Yeah, I'm old.

How do you explain social engineering tools and info-weapons like TikTok, or Facebook targeting ads/feeds, and all the fun social media tools that channel people into silos and echo chambers, and then weaponise them?

NOTE: I do not want to start a flame war about politics - all sides of politics use similar tools in similar ways. It's about the tools used in direct social manipulation and how to discuss them, raise awareness, and ways to instruct people on how to be aware of, and defend against them that I want to talk about.

My parents are in their 70s and are an ex-scientist, and an ex-engineer - so in theory they still have a brain, however since they retired they've fallen into the hole many old people seem to be pulled into. This includes the "climate change is a lie because you can't trust climate scientists because they're paid to study climate science" fallacy, and the like. They then show as "proof" of their argument, images, sites, and social media posts that are clearly designed to manipulate and distort.

This includes the full range of the usual source hacking, data manipulation, deceptive imagary pursuasion, cheap fakes, and the full range of the usual social argument manipulation.

I'm certain you've all seen similar stuff - and maybe, like me, have used something similar in your Red Team attacks for your clients.

I've tried logic, emotion, and the 'follow the money' tactic - but it just causes them to dig their heels in more. I fear my parents are now lost, but I can see my younger sister and her husband falling into the same tricks.

Any and all suggestions would help. submitted by /u/Suede_fitz
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