how do you deal with people who believe in batshit insane conspiracy theories?

again, as a historian in training, i can't offer solutions or improvements, only point out inherent flaws.

so im not saying burn all governments, i think its a little strange to believe in the good of government when there is such an overwhelming amount of evidence refuting that theory.

  On 12/6/2009 at 3:59 AM, inteeliguntdesign said:

  On 12/6/2009 at 1:44 AM, Awepittance said:

i find it strangely divisive to throw around the term 'conspiracy theorist' as a disparaging remark. It's become almost a new way to refer to someone as crazy.

if you want to debate someone based on facts do it, but stop using the blanket ad hominem of 'you're just a conspiracy theorist' at least have a genuine debate about whatever subject is at hand.

 

agree. when friends say they don't believe in conspiracy theories, in a way that makes me think they're just trying to tell me they aren't crazy but other people are, i ask them if they think think some companies agree not to lower prices amongst themselves, ergo not creating a price war, in other to sustain their own profits at the expense of the consumer? when they answer yes i then congratulate them on believing in a conspiracy theory. if i feel like pushing it a little more i remind them that enron executives agreed with their accountant to hide enron's actual dealings in order to increase share prices at the expense of the suckers buying the shares as the executives were offloading them--the executives, accountants and a number of others conspiring against the average share holder to make profit. i suspect the people who say they don't belive in conspiracy theories really mean they don't believe the world leaders are lizard and other strange stories, but the utterance "i don't believe in conspiracy theories" annoys me still.

great post! the term is misused by a great deal of people, especially those who 'don't subscribe to them' as a badge of honor

This girl I've been hanging with, who's a bit batshit, introduced me to her sister. She prefaced all this by telling that sis was a batshit conspiracy theorist. Dubai is some sort of fraud. I don't know. I dealt with this meeting by throwing back a few Hendrick's and tonic. Sis was hot too.

i dated this armenian girl once when i was in the navy... we were in her car in traffic. then she drove on the shoulder to the next exit then she said "I'M BIGGA AND BADDA AND RUFFA AND TUFFA IN OTHA WORDS SUCKA THERE IS NO OTHA... I'M THE ONE AND ONLY DOMINATA!* i then said "hey... i know that song!" she then said "what are you talking about? i just made it up!" i was like "no you didn't... i have it on a mix tape!" she called me a liar and i continued to stand my ground on calling her out... i won the battle... but walked home!

best post in thread

Was that the last date?

  On 12/6/2009 at 7:33 AM, Velazquez said:

Was that the last date?

we've had a few romps after that... she is what they would call "bat shit crazy"! we've had threesomes and shit, then she wanted nothing to do with me after i told her i had a daughter with a black girl. she hated black people and that was the only way i was able to get her off my bozak!

i obviously lied about having a half black daughter, but i was dating a black girl at the time also and she had a daughter given to her by a cuban dude... so the little girl looked half!

Coming in late on this thread, but some comments for you:

If you think that the news is a credible source of information then you need to understand how the system works, I highly recommend you read this book, you may not see the news again the same:

Small post by me on it here: http://forum.watmm.com/topic/46807-flat-earth-news/page__p__1072802entry1072802

If you believe the Moon Landings were a hoax, then you should take a look at this site, which basically breaks down the majority of the conspiricist arguments simply here ( I find it hard to refute science). In short I think there's too much evideance pointing towards a landing than otherwise:

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html

As for JFK conspiricay theories, well, you better thank Oliver Stone for his bullshit film "JFK", which uncovered old wounds surrouding that. I always felt this was quite a good piece on the shooting, and lays a fairly simple, logical case for it being Harvey Oswald alone:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-7184933155238761777&ei=S48bS7yCHJCW2wKSq4XUCA&q=The# (Sorry for lack of embed, but it wouldn't do it, so I'm guessing that has been disabled for this video).

For the above, you're still within your rights not to believe it, but I'd rather go with something more analytical and logical than a hollywood film.

As for 9/11 then I think there are a lot of unanswered questions for a decision to be made, and for it to be as clear cut as fanatical muslims. The "truth" of this particular incident may be not be revealed in my lifetime.

Overall, I can't tell you what to believe, but I think healthy sceptism should be encouraged in people generally.

For me, reaching a decision should be based on logic, science, and fact. I generally believe that the rule of "Occam's razor" should be applied in most cases, why make things more complicated than necessary?

As for dealing with people like this than I suppose the source fo the confusion has to be understood before just calling them a "whacky conspiracy theorist".

Feel free to cut me down everyone!

  On 12/6/2009 at 12:21 PM, chaproy said:

If you believe the Moon Landings were a hoax, then you should take a look at this site, which basically breaks down the majority of the conspiricist arguments simply here ( I find it hard to refute science). In short I think there's too much evideance pointing towards a landing than otherwise:

 

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html

 

or this. how did we get hold of all these goddamn moon rocks, often with funky elemental compositions seen nowhere on earth?

  On 12/6/2009 at 7:07 AM, Awepittance said:

 

 

the term is misused by a great deal of people, especially those who 'don't subscribe to them' as a badge of honor

Yeah it's like, in lieu of actually having to be sceptical of anything at all in their whole lives. They hang on to this one line. Massive classic.

  On 12/6/2009 at 12:32 PM, ezkerraldean said:

or this. how did we get hold of all these goddamn moon rocks, often with funky elemental compositions seen nowhere on earth?

brookstone sells shit like that

  On 12/5/2009 at 11:38 PM, chax said:

it seems like everyone new i meet, or friends of friends, people i meet at parties, clubs, bands, whatever, they seem to ALL believe in some kind of conspiracy theory. things like the new world order, 9/11 truthers, swine flu mind control, fake moon landing, irrational hatred of the government, climate change garbage etc.

  On 12/6/2009 at 7:11 AM, Velazquez said:

This girl I've been hanging with, who's a bit batshit, introduced me to her sister. She prefaced all this by telling that sis was a batshit conspiracy theorist. Dubai is some sort of fraud. I don't know. I dealt with this meeting by throwing back a few Hendrick's and tonic. Sis was hot too.

WELL, when you consider Dubai's money has basically all been funneled through Saudi Arabia, which is getting billions due to the war itself, you have to kind of wonder.

"Mommy, should I trust the government?"

"Oh, certainly. All the time. It's only those 'wacko conspiracy theorists' who would ever think they would lie to us."

right?

So, they never unwittingly tested people with LSD in the 60s, they never conducted Syphilis experiments on an entire town of people, they never lied to the entire country about a war in order to spur the economy or settle personal debts. Got it.

  On 12/6/2009 at 2:18 PM, Exodus said:

  On 12/5/2009 at 11:38 PM, chax said:

it seems like everyone new i meet, or friends of friends, people i meet at parties, clubs, bands, whatever, they seem to ALL believe in some kind of conspiracy theory. things like the new world order, 9/11 truthers, swine flu mind control, fake moon landing, irrational hatred of the government, climate change garbage etc.

 

that's the greatest one! They accuse climate people of a conspiracy, so what do they do? create their own climate conspiracy... but out of the fraud point of view. the email debacle has proven to be sensationalism by one of these hacks.. they're part of a corporation or something that is hindered by credits and C02 output so they have to bash it.

the right does not care about Earth, it is obvious. since Jesus hasn't come down to personally notify them of our negligence, they figure it's just not happening. i wonder if they felt the same way with the economy?

this thread seems to piss off the nutty batshit insane paranoid pubescent anti-government conspiracy theorists wacko's for some reason

jews

mossad

just ridicule them

  On 12/6/2009 at 3:09 PM, triachus said:

this thread seems to piss off the nutty batshit insane paranoid pubescent anti-government conspiracy theorists wacko's for some reason

I realize that a lot of stuff is ridiculous.. like AIDS being a product of the CIA and the latest vaccine being mind control (a la flouride in the 60's), but to say that government has never lied or purported/distorted the truth for whatever reason is being a bit ignorant, imo.

  On 12/6/2009 at 7:04 PM, mafted said:

  On 12/6/2009 at 3:09 PM, triachus said:

this thread seems to piss off the nutty batshit insane paranoid pubescent anti-government conspiracy theorists wacko's for some reason

 

 

 

I realize that a lot of stuff is ridiculous.. like AIDS being a product of the CIA and the latest vaccine being mind control (a la flouride in the 60's), but to say that government has never lied or purported/distorted the truth for whatever reason is being a bit ignorant, imo.

ffs did he say that?

anti-government peeps are really pretty clueless aren't they? Do they really honestly believe everyone would be better off without a government? Or do they believe they will be better off without a government that lies and distorts the truth? Well they're about the same thing so get over it.

this is retarded

people who have any reason to complain about the US or UK government are fucking bat-shit insane

  On 12/6/2009 at 6:48 AM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

again, as a historian in training, i can't offer solutions or improvements, only point out inherent flaws.

 

so im not saying burn all governments, i think its a little strange to believe in the good of government when there is such an overwhelming amount of evidence refuting that theory.

it's pretty astounding how someone in america for the last 8 years can think the US government is trying to serve their better interest. but people will still think that even non republican people who are not political.

Imagine someone being born in 2000, or even like 1994. for their entire adult or young life the country they live in is in a state of perpetual war, brown people can be arrested without charges and tortured in foreign lands, we give up our rights to help fight fight an imaginary league of evil terrorists plotting against us. This is the only way i think that age comes into play here but i think for a lot of younger people it's almost like a defense mechanism to say 'conspiracies are insane' because all the stuff i just said above is not an unproven conspiracy theory its factual. Accepting and understand all of the actions our government took for the last 8 years would upset any person with normal sensibilities. The way people choose to cope with this is different for everyone.

i believe computer games such as "call of duty" are training tools.

designed to prepare western teenagers for future military activity.

Good point Awepittance...

In an age where 95% of the world knows/thinks a man is listening to their thoughts and prayers, I can fucking speculate about UFO's and 9/11 cover ups. Call me crazy, but accepting the information from the source which would be directly most negatively affected by such evidence, is like playing a game of golf with a cheater and letting them keep track of both his and your own score.