Happier Abroad Forum Community

WorldTraveler wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 6:10 pm

Contrarian Expatriate wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 3:50 am

This video breaks down why conspiracy theorists are never worth debating. They don't care about facts, they only care about trying to get you to buy into their coping strategy in an effort to validate it.

This a good video. Conspiracy Theories are based on Confirmation Bias and ignoring any information that doesn't prove the Theory. They are only theories and not science. Science sets up a hypothesis and tries to disapprove it. I spent my whole career in the STEM fields. Trying to disapprove any scientific theory/invention is an important as proving something works. Without testing the alternates, nothing would work. Planes would crash, the phone wouldn't work, the internet would work, medicine would work, nothing. Conspiracy theories never try to disapprove their theories, and test alternate theories.

So true....

What’s worse, the kind of people who obsess about them are the type who seek to sit at home and justify their stagnation. After all, why try to better oneself if the Jews, and the international cabal of reptilians control everything.

There are about 3 or 4 guys on this forum like that who just mope around the house and brood about how The Grand Plan excludes them from partaking in the success that is there for the taking.

Virtually none of them have the will to fix themselves with therapy or introspection.

I'm not sure how people can continue to deny conspiracy theories when the most audacious and damaging conspiracy in human history is being played out before our eyes. If anyone had predicted the corona hoax a year ago almost everyone would have dismissed them as a raving whackjob conspiracy nut.

I think there are different classes of conspiracy theories. Those implying that a (100%) human power elite is running the show quietly and behind the scenes are probably partly or completely true. Then you have the wackier ones about aliens and demons, subterranean bases and a hollow planet hosting ancient civilisations.

I personally am not such an expert about them and I have perhaps read 1/100th of what @Winston and some of you guys have. One thing I can imagine, though: believing in conspiracy theories can feed our sense of criticism and mistrust towards our rulers and rules, our authorities, and the standard narrative that those rulers and authorities rain on us on a daily basis. That can only be a good thing.

The problem I think most eager believers in conspiracy theories have is, though, what to do with them? Once we get convinced that the "reality" or the "truth" is all about us being constantly force-fed propaganda, manipulated, controlled, enslaved...what can we do about it?

Do we have the power to get our guns and march against the centres of power, if that even made sense in a world of "invisible" powers? Do we barricade in our farms, with cattle and rifles, and stack our shelves waiting for the police or the army to knock on our doors? Do we pretend none of this ever exists and continue a normal life of mortgages, family cars and dogs? Do we ignore them and just focus on the small world that matters to us: our family, our close friends, our community? Do we choose to live dangerously and just for ourselves, as if the world were to end tomorrow and nobody and nothing else mattered?

Whatever the elites are up to, their strategies will be infinitely more successful if we live fragmented, disenfranchised from the community or communities we belong to. This is what interaction only via social media, artificial rifts created over religion, race, politics, ideology, is doing to us.

Remember than the English world "devil", "diavolo" in Italian, comes from the Greek diabolous, which means, literally, "the divider". Evil has always existed but it can more easily prevailed in a divided society.

Cornfed wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 7:11 pm

I'm not sure how people can continue to deny conspiracy theories when the most audacious and damaging conspiracy in human history is being played out before our eyes. If anyone had predicted the corona hoax a year ago almost everyone would have dismissed them as a raving whackjob conspiracy nut.

Well why don't you enlighten us and describe in detail:

- Specifically WHO is behind the coronavirus conspiracy? And when I say specific, that does not mean naming some diffuse groups like bankers, Jews, or elites. It means naming names and citing evidence of culpability, not just your spewing your opinion.

- What exactly is the goal of the conspiracy and where is your evidence for citing that as a goal? Again, your opinion is irrelevant here. Cite EVIDENCE.

- What is your evidentiary proof that the Corona hysteria was a conspiracy instead of chance opportunism to blame and embarrass Trump and affect the election?

- What is your proof that a conspiracy was internationally coordinated so that most countries around the world worked in concert to establish precautionary quarantine and lockdown policies instead of configuring them on their own based on lack of scientific knowledge at the time?

If you don't have intelligent answers to these basic questions, just shut up and quit blaming everyone and everything for why you mope about the house and can barely function as a responsible adult while dreaming about starting some wacky "business" pipe dream.

If there is any evidence about a Coronavirus conspiracy, it was the Chinese who knew about the virus' release and their intentional spreading of information so that the had a chance to obtain and hoard medications, personal protection equipment, and medical equipment. That is credible because several Chinese medical officials disclosed this and this was corroborated by timelines and verified international purchases of this equipment.

Contrarian Expatriate wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 8:32 pm

-What is your evidentiary proof that the Corona hysteria was a conspiracy instead of chance opportunism to blame and embarrass Trump and affect the election?

I'd disagree with this interpretation, but if true that would be a conspiracy.

Cornfed wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 8:44 pm

Contrarian Expatriate wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 8:32 pm

-What is your evidentiary proof that the Corona hysteria was a conspiracy instead of chance opportunism to blame and embarrass Trump and affect the election?

I'd disagree with this interpretation, but if true that would be a conspiracy.

And who would be the participants who planned it? Or do conspiracies not need actual, active planners and participants if they can be used to justify your continued failure at life?

There is a reason your life is nothing more than moping and brooding. Childish thinking like this is near the top of the list!

Contrarian Expatriate wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 9:09 pm

Cornfed wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 8:44 pm

Contrarian Expatriate wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 8:32 pm

-What is your evidentiary proof that the Corona hysteria was a conspiracy instead of chance opportunism to blame and embarrass Trump and affect the election?

I'd disagree with this interpretation, but if true that would be a conspiracy.

And who would be the participants who planned it? Or do conspiracies not need actual, active planners and participants if they can be used to justify your continued failure at life?

You are saying that the Democrat party establishment got together behind the scenes to organise lockdowns in order to get rid of Trump while pretending to the world they were doing it for public health reasons. This is obviously a conspiracy theory that you are proposing. Not a very plausible one, but a conspiracy theory nonetheless. The only non-conspiracy theory of the situation is that thousands of people with institutional power all around the world simultaneously went insane in the same way and thought that the same insane policies made sense from their stated public health perspective.

Cornfed wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 9:20 pm

Contrarian Expatriate wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 9:09 pm

Cornfed wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 8:44 pm

Contrarian Expatriate wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 8:32 pm

-What is your evidentiary proof that the Corona hysteria was a conspiracy instead of chance opportunism to blame and embarrass Trump and affect the election?

I'd disagree with this interpretation, but if true that would be a conspiracy.

And who would be the participants who planned it? Or do conspiracies not need actual, active planners and participants if they can be used to justify your continued failure at life?

You are saying that the Democrat party establishment got together behind the scenes to organise lockdowns in order to get rid of Trump while pretending to the world they were doing it for public health reasons. This is obviously a conspiracy theory that you are proposing. Not a very plausible one, but a conspiracy theory nonetheless. The only non-conspiracy theory of the situation is that thousands of people with institutional power all around the world simultaneously went insane in the same way and thought that the same insane policies made sense from their stated public health perspective.

No. First of all, political opportunism does not a conspiracy theory make. Just as the left (not just the Democrats) exploits police shootings of blacks for political advantage, so do they politicize all crises to paint them as Trump’s fault. That is called political theater and opportunism, not a conspiracy you worthless moron.

Second, not everything bad in the world is a conspiracy as you think. This stupid paranoia is precisely why you never could amount to anything. You’re nuts!

Contrarian Expatriate wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 9:34 pm

No. First of all, political opportunism does not a conspiracy theory make.

I suggest you look up the word "conspiracy" in a dictionary.

Cornfed wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 9:43 pm

Contrarian Expatriate wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 9:34 pm

No. First of all, political opportunism does not a conspiracy theory make.

I suggest you look up the word "conspiracy" in a dictionary.

I suggest you look up the word “theory” in a dictionary.

And be sure to look up the term “loser” while you’re at it.

Contrarian Expatriate wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 9:47 pm

I suggest you look up the word “theory” in a dictionary.

Explain.

Contrarian Expatriate wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 8:32 pm

Cornfed wrote: ↑

September 9th, 2020, 7:11 pm

I'm not sure how people can continue to deny conspiracy theories when the most audacious and damaging conspiracy in human history is being played out before our eyes. If anyone had predicted the corona hoax a year ago almost everyone would have dismissed them as a raving whackjob conspiracy nut.

Well why don't you enlighten us and describe in detail:

- Specifically WHO is behind the coronavirus conspiracy? And when I say specific, that does not mean naming some diffuse groups like bankers, Jews, or elites. It means naming names and citing evidence of culpability, not just your spewing your opinion.

- What exactly is the goal of the conspiracy and where is your evidence for citing that as a goal? Again, your opinion is irrelevant here. Cite EVIDENCE.

- What is your evidentiary proof that the Corona hysteria was a conspiracy instead of chance opportunism to blame and embarrass Trump and affect the election?

- What is your proof that a conspiracy was internationally coordinated so that most countries around the world worked in concert to establish precautionary quarantine and lockdown policies instead of configuring them on their own based on lack of scientific knowledge at the time?

If you don't have intelligent answers to these basic questions, just shut up and quit blaming everyone and everything for why you mope about the house and can barely function as a responsible adult while dreaming about starting some wacky "business" pipe dream.

If there is any evidence about a Coronavirus conspiracy, it was the Chinese who knew about the virus' release and their intentional spreading of information so that the had a chance to obtain and hoard medications, personal protection equipment, and medical equipment. That is credible because several Chinese medical officials disclosed this and this was corroborated by timelines and verified international purchases of this equipment.

@Contrarian Expatriate , thanks for taking this one on. It makes no sense that the Coronavirus is a conspiracy. QAnon is the stupid's thing I've ever heard. I know people that believe this garbage. Believing in conspiracy theories is no diffent than believing in a fundamentalist religion or some cult. It make the believer think he important when he is nothing.

@Winston I have given you the names of books about Conspiracies in history and they are not theories, but they are not bizarre enough for you. Lincoln was killed by a conspiracy and this is accepted.

(43%)
Around four-in-ten U.S. adults (43%) get news from Facebook, according to a survey conducted in July and August 2018. The share of U.S. adults who get news through Facebook is much higher than the shares who get news through YouTube (21%), Twitter (12%), Instagram (8%), LinkedIn (6%) and other platforms.May 16, 2019

How can people be so DUMB. I get NONE of my news on Facebook. I don't even see click throughs on Facebook that interest me.

Great article about who is started QAnon. More shocking is that it was started in the Philippines.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/men-qan ... d=73046374

To Conspiracy Deniers:

Simple question for you. If conspiracies don't exist, then why is the world so messed up? Would you claim that everyone in power and politics is clean and honest? Of course not. You will say something like "the world is messed up because of corporate greed and corrupt politicians". Ok well no one denies that. But here's the dilemma for you. If you admit that rampant corruption exists to cause all the world's problems, then you are in an inescapable position, because corruption naturally LEADS to conspiracy, collusion and wrongdoing of course. Corruption is BREEDING ground for conspiracies, like fertilizers are breeding ground for plants. And of course, conspiracies, crimes and wrongdoing have to be kept secret and confidential. If you were doing something wrong or dirty, you'd keep is confidential and private too right? Of course you would. And a secret by definition means you wouldn't know about it right? So where do you get off pretending to be God and claiming that no secrets exist or else you'd know about them, as if you knew all secrets of all people? Lol. Isn't that totally pompous, presumptuous and arrogant?

Do you see what I'm getting at? This is a big conundrum, logical contradiction and dilemma that you CANNOT escape from or reconcile, because if corruption exists as you admit, then conspiracy by definition logically follows and becomes VERY plausible and highly probable. On the other hand, if corruption doesn't exist, and neither do conspiracies, then this world is a paradise free of suffering, where everyone is clean and honest without secrets, especially those in power, including the deep state and shadow government, right? But we all know that's not true, including you. So which is it? You can't have it both ways. Either this world is clean and honest without evil, injustice or corruption, or both conspiracies and corruption exist, since they go hand in hand.

You deniers can't get out of this and you know it. Checkmate. You LOSE! So stop lying to yourself and to everyone else. Don't you folks have shame or guilt or conscience? Geez. It's obvious that conspiracies exist, because corruption naturally leads to conspiracies. It's inescapable and inseparable. One follows the other. Simple logic and common sense.

Furthermore, look at your inconsistency here. You will gladly admit that conspiracies existed in ancient Rome for example, because it's not taboo to admit that. But when it comes to modern America, you are conditioned to laugh and ridicule at the notion of conspiracy, as if it MUST be ridiculed and cannot exist in modern America. See how programmed and brainwashed you are? But of course by definition, those who are brainwashed don't know that they are, including you.

Anyhow, if you think about it, this is inconsistent and doesn't make sense. Ask yourself this: Why can't conspiracies exist in modern America? Why are you conditioned to laugh and ridicule the notion? Why? Because of any logical rational reason? NOPE! So why then? Because you are brainwashed? NOOO!!! You are super smart and you know it all - since most western men like to think they know everything and are arrogant - so no way can you be brainwashed right? LOL (sarcastic chuckle) Impossible right? LOL. So why then is it impossible for conspiracies to exist in modern America? Because everything in America is transparent and there are no secrets? Because if Bill Clinton couldn't keep Monica Lewisky a secret, then no secrets exist? Lol. Are you that dense? Is your arrogance and know-it-all attitude founded? Think about it. Think man! Learn to question YOUR own beliefs, not just the beliefs of others. That's what a TRUE skeptic and critical thinker does.

If you still can't see the folly in your reasoning, then you're lost and hopeless and I'm done here. Those who cannot think or reason with basic logic or common sense are deluded and a lost cause. If a man is willingly blind, then you can't help him or wake him up, no matter how much evidence you have. As Mark Twain said: "It's far easier to fool people than to convince them that they've been fooled."

Conclusion and Bottom Line:

Look, all I'm asking is that you deniers be HONEST and REASONABLE here. If you can't acknowledge that conspiracies partially exist, then at least admit that you simply DON'T KNOW. You should be honest and agnostic and admit that you just don't know, plain and simple, rather than pretending to be omniscent and knowing for sure that all conspiracies are rubbish and don't exist. Now if you wanna say that "Some conspiracies have been proven, others are pure bollocks" ok then let me ask you this then: How do you know which conspiracies are true and which are bollocks? Who is the ultimate arbitrater of truth? By what standard do you determine which is which? What is the infallible source of truth that determines which conspiracies are real and which aren't? Seriously. Pray tell. Is it the government? Mainstream media? Wikipedia? Academia? YOU? Who? This is a serious key question you deniers keep dodging.

FYI, I've known people who told me that their Wikipedia page was full of lies and errors. So no, Wikipedia is not infallible. No one is. So who do you look up to tell you which conspiracies are true? The news? lol. According to Wikipedia's page on conspiracies, the only conspiracies that are considered "proven" are those which the government confesses to, such as Watergate and Iran Contra. Is that your standard? That unless government confesses then it's just a "theory" and unproven? So no thief is a thief unless they confess, and no liar is a liar unless they confess? lol. You see how shaky your position is? If you look at it closely, your position is nothing but a house of cards, based on pure prejudice and narrow minded dismissal. Conspiracies are only true if YOU want them to be true, and false if YOU want them to be false. That's it isn't it? I'm just exposing you for what you are and telling it like it is. A spade is a spade. At least be honest about it.

Frankly, I know you deniers are nothing but a house of cards, because when analyzed logically like I'm doing here, your position falls apart easily cause you have no basis to deny all conspiracies or some conspiracies, other than simply that you WANT to, and that's that. It's purely subjective, nothing to do with logic, truth or realilty. What if different people tell you different things? Who you gonna believe? Whichever one is higher in authority? So authority=truth? lol. What if the evidence is concealed or destroyed? Does that mean it never existed, because YOU never saw it? Since you know everything? LOL

Let me leave you with a hypothetical situation to think about which if you meditate on, will reveal the folly and fallacy of your reasoning and programming:

Suppose I had you killed and put an open bottle of drugs next to your body, like in the opening scene of the movie "Enemy of the State" starring Will Smith. Then the police find your body and label you a suicide or drug overdose, just as I made it look like. Then one of your friends asks me if I killed you and I say "Of course not! How dare you accuse me!" But your friend doesn't believe me, so he/she goes to the public and spreads claims that I killed you and covered it up by making it look like a drug overdoes. In response I ridicule your friend and say that he or she is "spreading crazy conspiracy theories" about me, using the dreaded term "conspiracy theory" to marginalize his claims.

Ok so at what point is my murder of you become a fact or a theory? Which is it in this case? What if I destroy all the evidence that I murder you so that no one can find it, thus committing the perfect crime? Does that mean you really did die of suicide even though in reality I killed you? Simply because the evidence was cleverly dispensed of by me, and the authorities did not charge me? In this case, is my murdering of you a "conspiracy theory" or a "conspiracy fact"?

Or suppose I do leave some evidence behind that I murdered you, and some of your friends find it and expose it, but the authorities deny it and say you are wrong. And fact checker says you're wrong because in their view, official sources are always right and never lie <snicker> so anyone who says otherwise is wrong by default, because authority = truth. In other words, your friends have evidence that I killed you, but authorities deny it and so does fact checker, blah blah. In this case, is the claim that I killed you just a "conspiracy theory" simply because authority denies the evidence, even if the evidence is incriminating and valid? Or could it be true even if authority or law enforcement denies it?

Do you see my point? Just because it's denied, doesn't mean it's not true or "just a conspiracy theory" especially if there's valid or persuasive evidence. But that's the barometer you go by. So that's your core fallacy and mistake which blinds you. Anyone can deny. I can deny now that 2+2=4, but that doesn't change the fact of it. You deniers seem to want some authoritative institutions to tell you what's true and what's not, or what is a theory and what is a confirmed fact, as if authority determines truth, and you cannot think for yourself, all you can do is follow what authority says. In a sense, that makes you an authoritarian, whether you realize it or not. Not a freethinker, truth seeker or impartial investigator. Thus you are highly programmed for sure.

Think about this and you will see how fallacious you have been. Hope that helps open your eyes and make you think. But as we know, people only change their minds if they are open and willing to, but not if they don't. For those who want to believe something, any evidence will do. For those who refuse to believe, no amount of evidence will convince them. Both are extremes. Take the middle ground if you want to be balanced and real. Think about it.