Appreciation post: A talk with a guy at a diner in Flagstaff that made me rethink how I talk about conspiracies

About a year ago, I was having coffee at a diner in Flagstaff and got into a chat with a trucker at the counter. He was deep into the whole 'flat earth' thing and started laying out his points. Instead of my usual move of listing counter facts, I just asked him, 'What first made you doubt the globe model?' He paused for a good ten seconds and said, 'A video my kid showed me about boats going over the horizon.' We ended up having a real talk about trust in media, not just a fight. It taught me to ask about the 'why' first, not just shoot down the 'what'. Anyone else find that asking a simple question like that can change the whole tone of a debate?