I get what you're saying but we were sitting at a breakfast table having a conversation. I wasn't going to whip out my phone and pull out a news source that he would hand-wave away anyway. (I don't think I'm going to find a link on foxnews.com that shows an accurate depiction of murder rates)
So I rolled my eyes and laughed in his face - ahhhhhhh, of course, the statistics are made up!!!!
I think this is as big of a part of it as anything else. My mom got off Facebook (I think when they started taking down obvious Covid disinfo) and is very active (not sitting in front of the TV on Fox all day), but the people she spends time with are absorbing this BS in all their waking hours. So even though my mom isn't getting on FB everyday, she's still inundated with the same horseshit. She gets it at the hair salon, at the Mahjong game, at trivia night at the only good pub in town, etc. It's an echo chamber of bullshit and it's very rare that these people come across someone like me who will push back/call them out/shame them/laugh in their face. They are shocked to encounter someone that completely disagrees with them about most things while still looking and sounding like them.