As a teenager I straight up called my dad a fucking idiot to his face for saying "Some scientists somewhere are getting rich off global warming hoaxes" and was rather unprepared to explain his (lack of) thought process when I asked "how?"
To paraphrase, "Someone somewhere is making money off of it or the news wouldn't be talking about it", the news being Fox and all they were doing is saying how fake it is, not that it's real.
"If you really believe that, then you're a fucking idiot."
Surprisingly, my mother never heard of this conversation and he never brought it up after that.
And around 2010 I stopped hearing him say anything negative about climate change.
Now he's starting to realize how little snow his childhood town gets compared to back when him and his brothers could go driving onto a lake in the 70s. Idk if he actually believes it's real yet, but he hasn't denied it when others talk about it in many years.
Anecdote time, feel free to SKIP
My buddy's humvee got tagged by an rpg during desert storm, everyone inside lived but most were injured. He got away with shrapnel embedded in his arm for most of the next two or three days until it all got removed. Apparently his elbow got it pretty bad.
Fast forward to 98, he's basically lost feeling in two of his fingers except hot/cold and pressure. "it's not service related"
2005, most of his hand is partially numb. "it's not service related"
2013, he has no feeling below the elbow, except sharp pain and extreme hot/cold. "it's not service related"
2015, he has deadeend feeling from his shoulder to his elbow. "it's not service related."
2017, he has difficulty moving his hand now unless he's looking at it. Spatial awareness is gone. Elbow down completely numb. Shoulder down almost completely numb.
2017, two months later, for seemingly no reason. "It's service related. You're on 100% disability. You have 24 hours to quit your job."