Skepticism, Science & Pseudoscience

I think there are actually three groups. I spent about six months as a member of a conservative forum starting last year and learned quite a lot.

Group 1) The Masterminds. These are the conspiracists themselves that fully understand the fallacy of these positions but manufacture and weaponize them to control Groups 2 and 3 and gain political power.
Group 2) The Tagalongs. These people are smart enough to know they are being played, but have a Machiavellian political mindset. They see the other side as being so despicable as to make any means justified to defeat them. They help circle the wagons around their alternative news sites and puff air under the sails of the conspiracy theories.
Group 3) The Kool-Aid Drinkers. These are the truly gullible or otherwise flawed people who are played like pawns by Groups 1 and 2.

Groups 1 and 3 cannot be reasoned with. I have on rare occasion gotten a Group 2 member to concede what Group 1 was up to. Group 2 can potentially be convinced or shamed into abandoning their position, but with great difficulty. They have an entrenched disdain for the other side. This group may be the key to peeling the onion, but are camoflaged in with Group 1. Group 3 are easily identified. Avoid.