There's a whole lot of stupid out there in the internet...

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p51
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There's a whole lot of stupid out there in the internet...

Post by p51 »

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.
-Frank Zappa
Last week, a co-worker told me that the flat earth theory is seriously gaining traction.
Frankly, I didn't believe him because how could be people be that stupid? 8O
Then, I remembered how the internet works. :cry:
I won't share links because you can find them on your own. But there are a lot of people posting youtube videos stating that:

-Nobody ever went to space (because it's impossible)
-The ISS doesn't exist, and the shuttle program was just special effects (let's ignore that massive thing lifting off from KSC 135 times, I guess?)
-There actually is no 'space' as such
-The earth is actually flat, I guess like a manhole cover (where the edges are, nobody seems to say)
-Many there go so far as to contend that gravity doesn't exist at all!
-Some even state that NASA doesn't actually do anything
-The most objectionable to me is the contention that the crew of the Challenger disaster weren't in the shuttle at all and changed names and are working high-profile (of course) jobs in industry and the government.

Seriously, how can you even try to argue with a mind like that? Step off a building if you think gravity doesn't exist!
My brain hurts at the concept that people like this even exist. These people vote, for crying out loud!
Okay, I sort of get the people who think the Moon landing was a hoax, 9/11 was an inside job, JFK was killed by the CIA and the Roswell balloon crash was a UFO. I think those are silly ideas (and very easily proven against in the case of the Moon hoax and 9/11 theories) but at least those nuts aren't rejecting the very existence of scientific reality.
These jokers upload videos to youboob, declare their lunacy as 'proven' and then shoot down anyone arguing to the contrary (because it's the internet, so you can be as rude as you want because you'll never run into these people in person, right?).
Yeah, I know, "Welcome to the internet"... Time was, people like this were limited to what was going on inside their tinfoil hats and the poor souls who encountered them directly.
Now, with the internet, anyone can post this stuff. And it's gaining traction!
I'd like to think that these videos have to be folks simply messing with the rest of us and having a good laugh at the expense of those who respond (and don't know it's a joke). I'd so badly hope it was as simple as that.
But I doubt it.
How people can simply declare that up is down, left is right, and the earth doesn't exist at all (it's actually a large Oreo cookie, haven't you heard?) is beyond me, but that anyone would buy into that? Well, now we know how Jim Jones got people to drink the KoolAid and Jonestown in 1978...
But watch this stuff at your own risk. After you look at this brand name of insanity, I assume anyone here will want to jump into the computer with a Louisville Slugger, just like I did.

I propose this; why can't I declare that all this is a known (and of course, unarguable) intentional conspiracy to deflect confidence in scientific fact to somehow subvert the government? Hey, if they can declare insane stuff, why can't I?
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Re: There's a whole lot of stupid out there in the internet...

Post by Phoenix PK »

Someone I work with actually wears a baseball cap made with a metallic lining to keep out EM tramsmissions. She also believes in every out-there conspiracy theory (chem trails, vaccine poisoning, CIA drugging mass murderers, you name it). She can't be reasoned with. None of them can be reasoned with, so I don't bother. Thank goodness for places and events like Space Camp, where real science can be taught and explained. Teaching and understanding science is hard. Learning critical thinking is hard. It always has been and always will be. Space Camp is great at teaching critical thinking. It has taught me a lot.
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p51
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Re: There's a whole lot of stupid out there in the internet...

Post by p51 »

Phoenix PK wrote:None of them can be reasoned with, so I don't bother.
Fair enough.
You can't fix crazy most of the time, but the thing that really annoys me is that enough of these people are putting these downright insane theories out there and people who otherwise wouldn't, are now buying into it.
That's the part that fries my brain.
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