Regards cycling , I always go full car driver and say that more people we can get on bikes the shorter MY commute will be. Leave the roads for people like US who need to use cars.
There’s an excellent video on YouTube of a NASA rocket scientist giving a guided tour of a Saturn 5 rocket.
Moreover, you can actually go and see one with your own eyes today. As hoaxes go, they've gone to a lot of trouble to give someone every opportunity to catch them out. There's three left, two are made up from the parts bin but the one at Johnson Space Center is flight-certified. It would have been a lot safer to go "there's nowt left, sorry."
I have no doubts that they landed on the moon but if someone suggested that a few of the pictures were done on the set of 2001 because annoyingly the film that came back wasn’t useable, I wouldn’t be surprised :-).
They spent a ‘lot’ of money and the only thing they would have to show to public would be the pics so they would have to be good.
Why risk a deception if they knew they were going back?
As CT's go "The moon landing was faked" is perhaps the least convincing. I mean, thousands of people still alive worked on it, there must millions of feet of film made about it, most of the men who went there are still alive, the things they traveled in still exist, and you can, with a powerful enough telescope, see the bits that they had to leave up there, and they bought bits of it back with them.
It so demonstrably stupid
Young Earthers.
Not exactly the same as conspiracy theories but the same delusion of access to a secret inside world view.
I know a YECer, any attempt at discussion goes around in circles with increasingly elaborate explanations.
It's depressing that seemingly rational people would go to such lengths to close their eyes to the real wonders of the universe.
But arguing with him is just a total waste of time. Maybe he's better now, I don't know.
Weather conspiracy shit getting out of hand at a very sensitive time in the US. The irony is obvious to anyone with a functioning brain cell, but that’s not a prerequisite for voting.
What i like about conspiracy theorists is that they believe every single conspiracy going. They’re never selective – EVERYTHING is a conspiracy.
Yeah. The problem here is that, occasionally, conspiracy theories do actually turn out to be true. So if you're of a mind predisposed to this stuff, it immediately adds credence to every other threat to swiveleye-sation going.
There was an absolute goldmine of a thread on Mumsnet years ago which went viral from someone claiming that dinosaurs were all a conspiracy. Christians Against Dinosaurs.
They never existed (cos God, creation, the evolution lie...), all the skeletons were put there by bored Victorians who could then go and dig them up to "discover" them and also they were bad role models for children cos ... I dunno, something about big sharp teeth and lack of family values.
It was absolutely insane and the resulting piss-take was both devastatingly sarcastic and hilarious.
Young Earthers.
The best bit about countering young earth conspiracists is that you can counter-claim that it is in fact a conspiracy created to get Christianity manipulated into school curriculum through 'science' classes. It bows their minds
conspiracy theories do actually turn out to be true.
COINTELRO and Project Ultra spring to mind
Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if some of the online activities promoting geoengineering/Chemtrail nonsense ultimately have links to fossil fuel interests or the right wing think tanks and arms length influencers that operate in public realm on behalf of fossil fuels
Err. Yep. That's exactly how it works. The American right has been doing this for decades, read any James' elroy novel. Fill credulous ignorant folks heads full of shite and pump them for money/votes
By concocting a conspiratorial cabal that is behind all the bad things that happen what you're really doing is giving yourself the belief that bad things can be prevented. It's much more comforting to think that disease, weather etc are part of some planned operation becuase you can then believe that they can be prevented. It's far more depressing to accept that bad things happen with no reason, plan or schedule and that we'll alway have terrible things in our life to deal with. Key though is to believe that bad things could stop if the bad actors behind the could be defeated, but also that they are so shadowy and powerful that theres nothing you can actually do. So in combination you have hope that life can be better, you get to flatter yourself by declaring that you can see this and no-one else can, and you also get to be quite lazy becuase the solutions are beyond your control and/or the problems themselves aren't real.
In the states in particular (but increasingly so here) conspiracy theories tend to sit in the right of the political spectrum. On climate in particular acceptance and denial of climate change correlates with party allegiance.
At its heart the Republican Party is the party of small government, minimal regulation and individual freedom. The problem with issues like climate is they can only be addressed by government - both in terms of prevention (legislation and regulation) and through mitigation (infrastructure spending). So if you accept manmade climate change is a problem the reality is conservative governments don't offer the solutions and actions that we need.
So the GOP has the choice to either present itself as a party that acknowledges climate change but out of principle will do nothing about it - cowards basically, and a party who seeks likeminded cowards to elect it. Or they have to take the position that they are the party that proudly points out that the problem isn't real and that therefore and that they are therefore the party that instead treats the solutions to climate change as the thing that they'll battle. Basically a way of dressing up doing nothing as doing something.
y concocting a conspiratorial cabal that is behind all the bad things that happen what you’re really doing is giving yourself the belief that bad things can be prevented. It’s much more comforting to think that disease, weather etc are part of some planned operation becuase you can then believe that they can be prevented. It’s far more depressing to accept that bad things happen with no reason, plan or schedule and that we’ll alway have terrible things in our life to deal with. Key though is to believe that bad things could stop if the bad actors behind the could be defeated, but also that they are so shadowy and powerful that theres nothing you can actually do. So in combination you have hope that life can be better, you get to flatter yourself by declaring that you can see this and no-one else can, and you also get to be quite lazy because the solutions are beyond your control and/or the problems themselves aren’t real.
Organised religion in a nutshell.
There was an absolute goldmine of a thread on Mumsnet years ago which went viral from someone claiming that dinosaurs were all a conspiracy. Christians Against Dinosaurs.
There is a "Christians Against Dinosaurs" Facebook group which is very clearly a pisstake yet reels folk in. I think there's a "Dinosaurs Against Christians Against Dinosaurs" group also.
COINTELRO and Project Ultra spring to mind
MKULTRA is what I was thinking of, yes.
A friend of mine, a well educated university lecturer, otherwise completely normal woman thinks the moon landings were faked
I know someone, also a well-educated, qualified professional who disappeared down the anti-vax conspiracy wormhole during covid and never came out
His social media feeds are now a constant deluge of conspiracy theory nonsense, his favourite being chem-trails. We’re all apparently being pacified by the chemicals constantly being sprayed into the air from planes by the government
Its all completely insane, but he’s absolutely convinced it’s true.
To be fair to organised religion, it was trying to make sense of nature and the world when no-one had any idea how it works.
Very true.
Modern day conspiracists are inventing meanings for stuff we already know.
This would hold more water if religion had subsequently gone "oh yeah" and stopped. Modern-day mainstream religions often either try to retcon their teachings to fit the world as we know it today and claim that's what they meant all along, or vilify anyone who dares challenge their faith.
We’re all apparently being pacified by the chemicals constantly being sprayed into the air from planes by the government
In which case, a) it's demonstrably not working because the populace is the least pacified I've known it in years and b) if that were true than it's both a very visible and a terribly inefficient way of dispersing a pathogen when you could just pollute the water supply.
Getting back to the OP though, the weird things about CT about the storms in Florida is that some folks are having to hold in their head the simultaneous and competing theories that climate change is a hoax and that human activity isn't changing the weather while at the same time, believing that the Democrats can in fact; change the weather over Florida
That's pretty special.
Why risk a deception if they knew they were going back?
Why not, they needed a nice portfolio of pictures to win the space race and keep the money rolling in for further missions 🙂
Its not a cheap thing to do
The United States spent $25.8 billion on Project Apollo between 1960 and 1973, or approximately $257 billion when adjusted for inflation to 2020 dollars. Adding Project Gemini and the robotic lunar program, both of which enabled Apollo, the U.S. spent a total of $28 billion ($280 billion adjusted).
Fair assessment
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/11/hurricane-milton-elon-musk-natural-disasters
“Once upon a time, relatively recently in the scheme of things, a looming natural disaster would have felt like a fairly ineluctable fact. You couldn’t “debate” a natural disaster any more than you could disagree with gravity. There is a point, we used to say, where you really can’t argue with reality. There is a point where shit gets real. But is there, any more?”
Its not a cheap thing to do
The United States spent $25.8 billion on Project Apollo between 1960 and 1973, or approximately $257 billion when adjusted for inflation to 2020 dollars.
That's $15bn/year in a country whose GDP is $25 trillion. So, what, 0.06%? It's pocket change.
I’ve heard that cars cause Chemtrails.
Their fuel is full of stuff that kills us.
Khan is trying to set up freedom zones to stop us getting poisoned but The Man has corrupted the Sheeple so that they want to be diseased and more controllable.
That’s $15bn/year in a country whose GDP is $25 trillion. So, what, 0.06%? It’s pocket change
There was a video of some guy interviewing people in the street around the time of some big space news - final shuttle voyage or something - asking them what % of the USA GDP they thought went to NASA and people were guessing at 20, 30%.
It's about 0.3% most years.
One guy I know bleats on about all government being paedophiles and teachers teaching kids to masturbate in class. He's otherwise a good guy whose hobbies would see him fit in well here.
I agree that some in government could be paedophiles but that doesn't mean all are. As for teaching kids to masturbate in class.... That's bonkers. I'm sure my teenage niece and nephew may have mentioned it, Sex ed for my 6 year old revolves around "pants are private".
Someone I've known for about 25 years just posted this. He's never been 'normal' he's always been into some bizarre stuff but recently he's convinced that the sky is constantly grey and overcast because they're spraying it to make us depressed.
3 likes as well. There's some special folks about fo'shure
Looks like he's on one today! He usually gets loads of comments. Most of them are in agreement, certainly no one criticising him or suggesting that's he's speaking bollocks.
As for teaching kids to masturbate in class…. That’s bonkers.
Different times. Back in my day we got told off for chewing gum.
teaching kids to masturbate in class
Back in my day we got told off for chewing gum.
I thought it was gum stuck to the underneath of the desks. I'm starting to question that idea...
@sharkattack - introduce him to WindsorDebs on Twitter. She is full-on batshit crazy about chemtrails, weather modification, geoengineering, etc. Her posts make great reading.
There's no wind...
Yeah, at ground level maybe, but at the sorts of levels that cirrostratus and cirrus clouds form? Damn, being drawn in, there's no telling these folks
The problem is that you can’t argue with stupid.
They’ll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
Weather conspiracy shit getting out of hand at a very sensitive time in the US. The irony is obvious to anyone with a functioning brain cell, but that’s not a prerequisite for voting.
It’s why the American ‘education’ system is so completely disfunctional, Republikkkans WANT poorly educated cult members who are easily led by the nose into voting for them, which then will give them the power through the House and Senate, and a loaded SCOTUS, to have a Putin in power, someone who basically rules for life. Project 2025, or whatever it’s called, is working on that, Diaper Don has stated that on winning in November, he’ll be a dictator on day one…
As far as a flat earth is concerned, if it was flat why aren’t there cats all along the edge, pushing everything off?
Re: the moon landings, the best live video footage got accidentally wiped, apparently, but the still film photos taken on the surface, which were taken with Hasselblad 6x6 cameras, which were left on the surface, but the rolls of film have fairly recently been taken from storage and new very high resolution scans have been taken of them, and it’s actually possible to see stars in the sky, one of the arguments against them having been taken on the moon’s surface. The fact is they were taken in daylight and you can’t see stars in daylight on earth, because the atmosphere scattering the light prevents it.
Without an atmosphere, away from the direct sunlight, it’s possible to see the very brightest stars.
Same as I can see most of the brightest stars from my garden with all the street lights on, I can even see the Milky Way on a very clear night. You wouldn’t be able to from a fully lit football stadium, though.
This is an interesting read. I would have stuc kit on the riot page if I could find it.
https://news.sky.com/story/riots-and-the-far-right-the-global-network-behind-the-violence-13232023
Just finished reading Clown Land. A book about Andrew Tate. In it a couple of Vice journalists essentially suggest that he became so massive - literally overnight, because of the work that he (creating) and just 2 'media assistants' (spreading) his posts virally. By gaming the outrage/rage post phenomenon, and a small army of followers all re-posting, some of his posts and videos reached billions of re-posts and re-tweets. The authors then go on to say, "imagine this in the hands of political actors with non-benevolent or violent intent"
Chris Wetherell, the Twitter engineer who invented the re-tweet button has said subsequently, that he regrets doing so, and that it was akin to "Handing a 4 year old a loaded gun"
I've heard thst mountain bikers are stealing all the soil in Scotland and using it to full in gaps in their patios and driveways in England. They even promote the activity online on SoilTheftWorld, via coded messages about the different methods and tools.
'Uplift' is most obviously a code for a soil heist.
