Weird getting weirder anti-social media

[Stagefright]

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro"

Hunter S. Thompson

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

To be clear, this is not meant to be a discussion about Covid, or the causes of it, or anything political at all.

Just pointing out the insanity that seems to be trying to pass for normal in these crazy times.

Have a laugh ;]

It's like they say in the song:

Put it on the ground,
spread it all around,
dig it with a hoe,
it will make your flowers grow.

 

[Midnight Toker]

When someone says the science is settled, they aren't scientists.

Not sure how you made the jump from my post to thinking I think science is "settled"?? I even cited my friend's father continuing his experiments and studies 10-15 long years after retirement...on his own dime. I merely suggested that one should go directly to the most reputable accredited institutions for the most accurate info. They ARE to be trusted. For example, one should never simply type testicular cancer in a search engine. You'd be better off first typing "world's top ten cancer research institutes", then go to their sites And continue your search. 1/2 the info on the net seems to be reverse engineered "science" that started w/ the finding's preferred outcome. That's not reputable info, much less science! It once used to mean something to be...published. Today, it seems anyone w/ a tinfoil hat sitting in their mom's basement typing up the latest entry in their blog has equal say to the leading researchers at Hopkins, Sloan Kettering, Stanford, Oxford, Yale, MIT, etc. Science is indeed a never ending quest, but one, in the very least, should always start w/ a world renown reputable source. If my mother needed brain surgery and during the consultation, I saw a framed diploma from DeVry University on the wall, I'm grabbing her arm and getting the hell out of there, as would anyone here!

 

[dreadnut]

In God We Trust. All others must bring data.

 

[KeithKeb]

Were this thread on TGP, it would quickly veer off the road, with interjections from conspiracy conspiracists, and then get deleted. Glad to again see the refreshing difference between LTG and TGP.

 

[JohnW63]

What I have learned is you can't debate someone with logic and critical thinking if they didn't use at least some of those two to come up with their idea.

Matsickma mentioned.. "we believe because as humans we have to believe we can make sense of it ...correctly or incorrectly." I think that is very true. The down side is that if a given person can't make sense of it they gravitate toward some very odd ideas that make it make sense to them, even the very odd idea shouldn't make sense at all! If the idea is a crackpot idea, how can you then trust it to make something understandable?

It's the folks that are harboring the idea that some shady group of people are hiding the truth from them, that make the quick jumps to believe the outlandish as long as it feeds their fear of some " they " that are behind it all.

( Note: I'm having a hard enough time putting those convoluted ideas into a well crafted few sentences. As I re-read the above. )

And I thought we had to just worry about snake oil salesmen, not snake venom conspiracies.

 

[davismanLV]

In God We Trust. All others must bring data.

No cuz that religious talk dread..... ALL must bring data. Okay?? I'm an equal opprotunity discriminator my friend.

 

[GAD]

It's the folks that are harboring the idea that some shady group of people are hiding the truth from them, that make the quick jumps to believe the outlandish as long as it feeds their fear of some " they " that are behind it all.

The problem is that there have been times where shady groups HAVE hidden the truth from us. Sometimes the groups aren't so shady, either.

The fact that big conspiracies continued successfully until being uncovered makes it easy for people to believe that other conspiracies exist.

Want a good read? Google "Birds aren't real"

 

[JohnW63]

I heard a bit about that. More of an experiment by the guy to see what would happen.

"The problem is that there have been times where shady groups HAVE hidden the truth from us."

Very true, but can they hide the shape of the earth or sneak snake venom into the entire worlds water supply at nearly the same time with no one knowing it? I guess what I am pointing at the the global scale stuff that people believe with all their heart but no way to prove.

 

[Neal]

Social media is a cancer that divides people into “us and them”. From there, people get their ”news” from the sources that match their version of “the truth”.

it is a breeding ground for crazy talk at both end of the political spectrum.

 

[KeithKeb]

Occams Razor. Also called the Law of Parsimony.

 

[LeFinPepere]

Occams Razor. Also called the Law of Parsimony.

It says the simpler theory-with the lesser quantity of "if..."in it- is the most likely to be close to the truth, does'nt it?
It's a good tool to separate the wheat from the chaff, imho.
Plus it's a pretty good example of FZ's gnarly soloing,which makes me dream of "constrained freedom" and "ugly beauty", but there I'm off my trolley again....Some find it boring.....Trouble with social media (and LTG is a mild and benevolent one,imo) is it feeds you with whatever you've had before until you get sick...It's the recipe for Foie Gras applied to the human brain
(Alien Duck Breeders in the South of France,David Vincent saw them! It began with the landing of a terrine from outer space!Stiff little fingers and all.....)

 

[LeFinPepere]

 

[Nuuska]

Fundamentalism and fanaticism are not only restricted to religion and politics.

Right - among my 10 Guilds there is one DeArmond, one Gibson, one Carmelo Gonzales and hopefull that one green Nevalainen

 

[mad dog]

I ran into a fair number of cult crazies when I was younger. As a taxi driver in NYC especially, I got to interact with great numbers of far out there folks. Which gave me an enduring appreciation for the varieties of mass populist delusions.

It occurs to me that:

• People with emotional deficits, poor self image for example, often with little confidence in their own intellect, or judgement, look for easy, faux certainties, reassuring beliefs that can fill up the empty spaces. They become the believers.
• Given the demand for easy, faux certainties, there is no lack of providers who cater to such needs for profit and/or power.
• In this populist belief dynamic, actual self awareness, inner searching, is rarely on the table. It's a process more akin to addiction. Which seems to be about pleasure, but is actually about self-control and fear.
• Cult, Q level conspiracy theory certainties are addictive. Believers invest in them to the exclusion of outside influences, and there is great power in this self delusion. It takes a lot of lies, a lot of propaganda to sustain the delusions.
• Cult believers become their own self-supporting community, an automatic social reward of acceptance and self-identification.

You can't "reason" with people in this trap, because their belief has nothing to do with reason, with logic or any type of common sense. Just as with other addictive processes, intervention only works when things get bad enough, when the person wants to change.

I have a close relative destroying her own family with a couple of the au currant mass delusions. She's two people at once, a loving mother and a smart person ... plus this "Do your research" maniac diving deeper into crazy every day. I understand how she got there, but feel powerless to help in any way.

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

Want a good read? Google "Birds aren't real"

Birds aren't real Well that is a little tongue in cheek.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Birds aren't real Well that is a little tongue in cheek.

The guy that started that was interviewed on Howard Stern a few months ago. I laughed my ass off. A brilliant idea....tackling ridiculousness w/ over the top outlandishness! Kudos to these fine kids who have infiltrated stupidity and held a magnified mirror to it's face!

 

[Opsimath]

Sooo, do these robot birds run on solar or are there little robot bird filling stations in secret strategic locations all over the country?

 

[walrus]

You guys are overthinking this. It's simple. You can't fix stupid.



walrus

 

[matsickma]

Pundits and Talking Heads use the classic tactic ... Generate / makeup an opnion/story then use a boat load of deductive reasoning to explain /rationalize it. Those who are swayed get convinced by the follow up logical arguments. Anything can be rationalize. However if the fundamental premise is wrong all the deductive reasoning leads to an incorrect conclusion. In modern day lingo "garbage-in leads to garbage-out"!

Was reading the other day that some astronomers in the 1920 thought their were "tiny" galaxies surrounding the Milkey Way and were devising all ways of explaining their formation and existance.

That concept ended upon the formation of "Hubbles Law" and subsequent ability to measure "red shift" doppler effects that showed the universe expanding and the more red shift the faster and farther away the galaxies are moving and located.

M