Topic: It's a conspiraceh

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Right, I’m telling Alan on you.

I did find it interesting and when I argue with conspiracy theorists (me? argue?! Never! ) - it's good to come from a position where I know they are coming from.

A lot of stuff they say could be plausible if it weren't for pesky facts that always seem to crop up and get in the way.

The reason I was interested is that I have a few friends that are mild to less-mild conspiracy believers. Rather than just calling them dickheads, it seemed to me better to be able to discuss and debate.

[Jiminy Cricket]

I did find it interesting and when I argue with conspiracy theorists (me? argue?! Never! ) - it's good to come from a position where I know they are coming from.

A lot of stuff they say could be plausible if it weren't for pesky facts that always seem to crop up and get in the way.

The reason I was interested is that I have a few friends that are mild to less-mild conspiracy believers. Rather than just calling them dickheads, it seemed to me better to be able to discuss and debate.

I can recommend Voodoo Histories by David Aaronovitch to you. It covers JFK, the moon landings, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and much more.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

I can recommend Voodoo Histories by David Aaronovitch to you. It covers JFK, the moon landings, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and much more.

I'll give it a read cheers.

I think the thing to remember is that science is as much a belief system* as religion is. I accept the years of science that have built up a picture of the world, but I can prove very little of it myself.

There are some great scientists online that can provide (for instance) things you can do yourself without much cash to prove stuff yourself, but for the majority of science I (and most people I'd expect) haven't got the scientific background, knowledge or ability to go on anything but trust that scientists are telling the truth and know what they are doing.

I've read enough to have faith in that, but I can see why people might argue against it - not because of the science, but because they don't trust the people or entities explaining the science to them.


*To the lay-person

[has gone odd]

With the absence of a "middle east thread", for reasons I quite understand, I don't know here to throw this.

Anyway, an article which appeared briefly on the beeb news pages yesterday caught my eye, namely the Line project. Never heard it mentioned anywhere ever (though plenty of source online) but there they are again, Saudi Royalty killing people and destroying wildlife in the name of .. whatever the fuck they please.

All very dystopian and weird. When will people actually wake up and start to smell this coffee.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Line,_Saudi_Arabia

[Jiminy Cricket]

With the absence of a "middle east thread", for reasons I quite understand, I don't know here to throw this.

Anyway, an article which appeared briefly on the beeb news pages yesterday caught my eye, namely the Line project. Never heard it mentioned anywhere ever (though plenty of source online) but there they are again, Saudi Royalty killing people and destroying wildlife in the name of .. whatever the fuck they please.

All very dystopian and weird. When will people actually wake up and start to smell this coffee.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Line,_Saudi_Arabia

That project is all but abandoned. You must have missed it, but even the wiki page has a section on the 'scaling back' - a 98.6% reduction to the size of the project.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Line,_Saudi_Arabia#2024_scaling_back

[has gone odd]

Ahh cheers, I did miss that somehow.

Did read that a few British investors had pulled out after losing faith in the project, but hadn't realised that it had permanently reduced to 1.5m. Absolute batshit terrible idea anyways.

[lobsterboy]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/Ak4on5uTaTg&amp;t=202s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/Ak4on5uTaTg&amp;t=202s</a>

[stoa]

The crazy thing is that there were actual people out there who thought the Line would actually be a thing one day and that it made complete sense to do it.

[BarryCrocker]

The crazy thing is that there were actual people out there who FIFA thought the Line would actually be a thing one day and that it made complete sense to do it.

Fixed.

[TepidT2O]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/Ak4on5uTaTg&amp;t=202s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/Ak4on5uTaTg&amp;t=202s</a>

This may be the greatest thing I’ve ever watched

[lobsterboy]

This may be the greatest thing I’ve ever watched

I rather enjoyed it. Very dry.

[thejbs]

Had some first hand experience of how hurtful these conspiracies can be. We lost a close friend really suddenly a fortnight ago. She was young and had an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. She died suddenly in work. An incredible friend since uni, we are all totally heartbroken.

Anti-vax ghouls, no doubt with alerts to sudden death stories, trawled her social media and shared loads of her posts about being vaccinated. Anonymous trolls saying she got what she deserved etc. musk’s Twitter did absolutely nothing to take it down despite all of our reports. Her husband asked a few of them firmly but politely for them to take it down, but was met with abuse.

Believe in this shite all you want, but when a devastated husband asks you to remove pictures you’ve stolen from his dead wife’s Facebook, you’d have to be a total c*nt not to do so.

[Crosby Nick]

Had some first hand experience of how hurtful these conspiracies can be. We lost a close friend really suddenly a fortnight ago. She was young and had an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. She died suddenly in work. An incredible friend since uni, we are all totally heartbroken.

Anti-vax ghouls, no doubt with alerts to sudden death stories, trawled her social media and shared loads of her posts about being vaccinated. Anonymous trolls saying she got what she deserved etc. musk’s Twitter did absolutely nothing to take it down despite all of our reports. Her husband asked a few of them firmly but politely for them to take it down, but was met with abuse.

Believe in this shite all you want, but when a devastated husband asks you to remove pictures you’ve stolen from his dead wife’s Facebook, you’d have to be a total c*nt not to do so.

Ghouls as you say. You see it anytime someone dies suddenly, or at a young-ish age. All the “I’m just asking questions” brigade.