First of all, you don't have to believe everyone's opinions, but at least entertain the idea with an open mind.
I'll start with mine. I've been following conspiracies somewhat since the loose change movie about 911 when I was a kid but I was generally asleep to most other things. Mine happened last summer when I'd open Facebook or Instagram and everywhere I looked I'd be bombarded with some girl named Greta Thunberg, everyone praising her like some prophet of God or something. It got so bad that I finally asked myself why is every media station cramming this down my throat? Why do they want me swallow this up so bad? So that's where I started researching, I found a website called realclimatescience and started reading his research and articles. It was actually real scientific research and mentions facts that no other media has told me. I won't get too specific on all this but after a lot of research I came to the conclusion that I've been lied to about the climate crisis. Massively. By so many different institutions and media companies, it's mind boggling to comprehend that so many people are either in on the lie, or have also been duped by it. This started another awakening. From then on, I learned that when the mainstream media are all forcing the same narrative all over, you should always question it, and basically, lean in the opposite direction. Next thing I know, covid happens, then George Floyd, then the election. Once you catch on and wake up to the lies, they're easy to spot.
For whoever read the whole thing, I'd be happy to go deeper into anything I mentioned that you disagree with. Otherwise, what's the story of you waking up to the lies?
It's many things over a long period of time until that wall finally breaks. Things that definitely contributed to it:
Game theory (as in pickup) completely changed what I thought I knew about women.
9/11 and the things that didn't match up.
Obama and how nobody questioned him.
Snowden and all those conspiracy theories coming true.
GamerGate.
Feminists and everything they're about.
The news, I think it's called the Gell Mann effect, where you read about stuff you know and see how wrong the media gets it. I saw this with many events I was directly involved in or knew much about.
One of the biggest "awakenings" I had was listening to Jordan B Peterson and his biblical lectures. I actually got into reading the bible and realized everything I learned from TV/Hollywood and the "atheist" community was virtually wrong or true enough to really get away with the lies.
As I got older I also realize most adults are retarded and stopped learning new things once they stopped going to school.
In the same vein, "leaedrs" who can't even have a remotely intelligent conversation about technology or guns, for instance, are also highly qualified to impose covid, et al, restrictions ("make public health decisions")