On the one hand, yeah. Worrying about stuff that you have barely any control over won’t get you far. But on the other hand, that guy’s vote counts as much as yours. And if he already believes such silly conspiracy theories as the flat earth theory, he will be easily swayed by whoever is the loudest contrarian.
Yah, it’s not so much what he believes, but that he displays a lack of critical thinking skills or even common sense. That’s just how it came to the surface.
Right and that should be the target of our efforts. Not fighting over scientific research they’ve already decided to reject. Encourage them to think more critically. You can only encourage someone when you have their ear. You only have someone’s ear when they’re comfortable around you. Demeaning someone’s intelligence and telling them their world view is a toxic lie, is a quick way to convince them they’ll only ever be at odds with you.
The problem is that flat-earthers aren’t just that. They usually believe in all kinds of other kooky stuff as well, and some of those beliefs pose an active danger to society.
Exactly, the same mindset that takes you to “The entire geophysical establishment is wrong/lying about the shape of the Earth, so I’ll listen to this Youtube crank who says it’s a disc instead” will also lead you to things like “The entire medical establishment is wrong/lying about the effectiveness of masks & vaccines, so I’ll listen to this podcast crank hawking horse dewormer instead.”
To be fair, the medical establishment did lie about it, but not because of some weird “big mask” or “big pharma” conspiracy, but because they have a tangible impact when used by large groups and overselling them would have better outcomes than underselling them.
It’s a classic problem those in power have to deal with: tell the truth and get an underwhelming response, or oversell and get a better response.
Don’t take horse dewormers though, that’s just dumb.
Overselling something that is true is not the same as flat out lying about the efficacy of a random pharmaceutical. Not even in the same neighbourhood.
Weird that the OOP thinks it’s “intellectual superiority” to simply have your facts straight.
Like saying hygienic superiority is not being covered in feces. It is, but that shouldn’t be the contest.
1: Why do you always have to be right?
2: You were literally bitching about getting a raise and losing money. That’s not how that works!
1: Anecdote lawyer politicians taxes useless idiot not even a Republican talking point drivel.
2: Stare and say nothing.
1: Implodes a month later by sending out emails to everyone across the company about work being work and gets fired.
2: Goes back to work short staffed.
I miss when people were ashamed of being stupid, now they feel proud about it.
Pointing out stupidity online is a crazy experience. Most of the time you get answers like “who cares?”, " you must be fun at parties.", “this isn’t a (relevant topic) test, I’ll make all the errors I want” etc. Not once in my life have I felt or thought like that, and I just can’t imagine how those proples minds work.
The thing is, in their eyes they aren’t stupid.
They think they have this secret piece of information, and everyone else is stupid for not knowing or understanding it.
But it is kind of narcissistic to think you found this extra information, which the people who have spend their entire lives researching the topic somehow have missed.
Like, I know people who claim the sea levels aren’t going to rise because ice melting doesn’t increase the water level. And claim all the scientists are wrong about climate change. When in reality the sea levels will rise because warm water expands.
When in reality the sea levels will rise because warm water expands.
Just FYI, sea levels are going to rise primarily because much of the melting ice is not floating in the water, but land based. Thermal expansion is definitely part of it, but secondary.
Nah, the amount of snow and ice on land like in Antarctica is extremely small to the amount of water in the sea, especially since it needs to expand outward and cover even more land.
With thermal expansion even only being a clouple of % is enough to rise everywhere multiple meters. Which is nothing compared to the +10km of dept at the Mariana Trench.
Of course, all of it adds together in the end. It will be bad for everyone no matter where it comes from.
See here’s the thing, if you believe silly stuff and keep it to yourself, that’s fine. People who believe in silly stuff never keep it to themselves though.
If you put information out there, don’t be mad when people put counter information back at you. I know far too many people who believe in alt medicine and talk freely about it, that it’s getting harder and harder to bite my tongue. I don’t care if you think Acupuncture works for you. The fruit diet worked for Steve Jobs until it didn’t.
Acupuncture is a bit of a different animal though, there’s been some research coming out that it triggers a different layer (connective tissue iirc) in ways that we don’t really understand but seem to promote beneficial responses through triggering various receptors and nerve responses. I would still group it closer to alt med but it’s one of the ones I think might have a grain of usefulness underlying a bunch of less helpful ritualism.
One of the claims with acupuncture is that everyone has Meridian Lines and master practitioners find and put needles in them to manipulate the body or something. Those lines are suppose to be constant for the same person. It’s been years, but someone decided to schedule several acupuncture appointments with several different masters and each master put needles in different points.
If any part of acupuncture turns out to have some real deep tissue therapy application, how it’s practiced would end up changing so much, it wouldn’t even be called acupuncture anymore. Shit like reusing needles or Punctured Lungs are not something that has any excuses to happen in real medicine.
Anyway, this group also likes to claim that cupping, reflexology, chiropractic, or any other “eastern medicine” is being kept down by racists in the American Medical Association.