Interesting post Scrabb. I'm aware of the show but never really watched it (saw bits of the one with Shaun Ryder and Bez just because they are always comedy gold) but the underlying point, as you summarise in the last paragraph, is something I have experienced.

When I mention something that I expect people to be completely aware of thinking they they will either agree and we'll exchange information or disagree and we can fight I often just get blank looks and blinking. As soon as you start talking about "doubting the official version" or "alternative media" you can see the "conspiracy theory" lights going on in their heads and the conditioning kicks in.

Sometimes you get someone that is open and says, well I don't know about that, tell me and then you can try and explain but more often they just want to pivot away or laugh it off. I'm talking here of acquaintances that I run into at very rare family/social gatherings rather than close friends.

Most of my close friends have always been to the right of me by a long way and now they seem to be influenced by social media and the more alt-righty side of things so when I mention Hedges or Caitlin, Media Lens or any of the ideas brought up regularly here it's like speaking a foreign language. One example from a while back, the subject of the BBC came up and they were saying how bad it was and various other comments and then one of them said something like, "They have this stupid agenda" and went into the "It's all woke" kind of spiel that you will see on Twitter all the time. When I chimed in with a criticism of it from the left the blank looks and blinking immediately came out.

The sad thing is, the propaganda works and it's hard not to sound like the "Wake up sheeple!" guy when you are talking to people fed only on that.