The thing with saying you don't believe in conspiracies is that what you're really saying is that "I trust that my government would never lie to me about anything".
I think you're oversimplifying this into an either/or situation. Either I give credit to conspiracy theorists, or I trust my government implicitly? Hardly. There are plenty of things I can be mistrustful of without giving credence to the idea that great events in history, like the moon landing, are elaborate farces that have been kept secret for decades.
It's about trust. If you don't trust someone, you won't trust them no matter what they say. The american government being exhibit A.
The statement here is shaky because you're speaking first about individual trust. The American government isn't an individual entity. Its comprised of hundreds of people at its core: the President, Vice President, 535 members of Congress, and nine Supreme Court Justices. Add in the Presidential Cabinet, staffers, and organizations (Homeland Security, FEMA, the IRS, etc.) and you're speaking of a multitude of people in various roles, some having no direct contact with one another. Making a blanket statement that you trust them or don't is ridiculous.
Fostering open and "transparent" government is all well and good, but there is always going to be some information that isn't revealed to the general public, for a variety of reasons. If one wants to live in a country where everything is public knowledge, all I can say is: Good luck.
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Unfortunately the above theory is not a new one. Conspiracy theorists have tried to peg the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as a government designed population control for years, some even dared to say it was a government run way to dispose of undesirable populations. The point is it's not a new viewpoint.
The thing with saying you don't believe in conspiracies is that what you're really saying is that "I trust that my government would never lie to me about anything".I think you're oversimplifying this into an either/or situation. Either I give credit to conspiracy theorists, or I trust my government implicitly? Hardly. There are plenty of things I can be mistrustful of without giving credence to the idea that great events in history, like the moon landing, are elaborate farces that have been kept secret for decades.
No. Lots of people say they "don't believe in conspiracies". If they make that kind of blanket statement, I am entirely correct in saying it's the same as saying "I trust the government never to lie to me no matter the circumstances". Again, the aliens. I am not talking about aliens, end yet it always ends up in space, doesn't it?
It's about trust. If you don't trust someone, you won't trust them no matter what they say. The american government being exhibit A.The statement here is shaky because you're speaking first about individual trust. The American government isn't an individual entity. Its comprised of hundreds of people at its core: the President, Vice President, 535 members of Congress, and nine Supreme Court Justices. Add in the Presidential Cabinet, staffers, and organizations (Homeland Security, FEMA, the IRS, etc.) and you're speaking of a multitude of people in various roles, some having no direct contact with one another. Making a blanket statement that you trust them or don't is ridiculous.
Fostering open and "transparent" government is all well and good, but there is always going to be some information that isn't revealed to the general public, for a variety of reasons. If one wants to live in a country where everything is public knowledge, all I can say is: Good luck.
If you can talk about having an executive branch in any way, shape or form, it will in some ways behave as a unit. This unit will have certain principles guiding them to their goals, whatever those principles or goals may be. This will lead to decisions taken, because that's what an executive branch does. And then those decisions will affect the lives of the population. As I said, it's about trust. The conspiracy theories are a symtom that clearly shows that a lot of people have a hard time trusting the government. Worry about that instead of ridiculing people. Certainly, there are many less than vocally skilled people, and quite a number of less than sane people, who scream about conspiracies. There have always been "the end is nigh"-nuts. This does not mean that the government doesn't lie to you.
Making the opposite claim, that because there are nutjobs screaming about conspiracies, conspiracies are impossible... well, that logic sort of hurts, doesn't it?
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Sissyl, I think you are reading a little too much into some people's hyperbole, as well as their basic assumptions.
"I don't believe in conspiracies", taken literally, is demonstrably false. It's understood that by "conspiracies" they mean "outlandish nutjob conspiracies." Within a certain cultural framework, that is what is being referred to.
When the military tests a new weapon, and decides not to go public with it, that is technically a conspiracy.
That's not the kind that we're talking about, and the basic assumption that people were working under were the crazy ones you seem to want to exclude from the conversation.
Let's get back to some alien autopsies here.
If the military tests a new weapon and doesn't tell anyone about it, that's by no means a conspiracy. It's something called a secret. When asked about a secret, people who know are supposed to say "no comments".
A conspiracy is when the state does or doesn't do something for a different goal than they state publicly. A conspiracy is when information that shows illegal actions taken by the state is suppressed. A conspiracy is when the government does things it is obligated not to do or has promised not to do in, say, an election campaign, and make it impossible to find information about it. The keyword is "lies".
If we can't even get that right, I am not surprised people have a fun time ridiculing the very idea of conspiracies.
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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If the military tests a new weapon and doesn't tell anyone about it, that's by no means a conspiracy. It's something called a secret. When asked about a secret, people who know are supposed to say "no comments".
A conspiracy is when the state does or doesn't do something for a different goal than they state publicly. A conspiracy is when information that shows illegal actions taken by the state is suppressed. A conspiracy is when the government does things it is obligated not to do or has promised not to do in, say, an election campaign, and make it impossible to find information about it. The keyword is "lies".
If we can't even get that right, I am not surprised people have a fun time ridiculing the very idea of conspiracies.
Got it. You've got a private definition of conspiracy that doesn't line up with the common usage of that term, much less the specific usage of that term used in this thread, and are objecting. Why not save us all the trouble and just pretend that when we say conspiracy, we mean "nutball conspiracy" or whatever other term it is you personally use to differentiate your above definition of conspiracy from the one the rest of the world uses.
Also, everyone who laughs about truthers needs to stop, right now. I was one of the persons involved in the conspiracy, and even though I will likely be assassinated for typing this (as will you for reading it) and the Paizo servers will be bathed in acid to destroy all evidence of this confession, I can no longer bear to keep secret my involvement. You see, I was a government lawyer back in 2001, and I, personally, prepared the independent contractor agreement pursuant to which the demolitions team was hired to take down the WTC.
The silence is broken! The truth is out!!!
My grandfather used to enter a liar's contest every year when he was younger, the idea was to tell the most outragous lie. Because of his last name, he always was the last to go. He would win every year by standing up and saying "I believe everything that has been said here tonight."Is there a contest to make the most outlandish claims and have people believe in them?
That story's not true.
There are actually people that espouse the belief that there were no planes on 9/11, that the damage to the towers and the Pentagon were due to missile strikes (again, shot by our own gov't). Not only does this fly in the face of video and eye-witness evidence, but strikes me as insulting to those that were on those planes and their families.
Stealth missiles. Shaped like non-missile objects.
A wave-shaped aqua missile recently killed thousands. You recognise them by the complete lack of anything that could be traced at them being a missile. Look at all the evidence all around you!
Climate scientists are engaged in a worldwide conspiracy to fabricate evidence for global warming so they can get more grant money. (But scientists employed by petroleum companies are physically incapable of being influenced by offers of money.)
Aliens have abducted thousands of people, performed painful and sexual experiments on them, and then dropped them back at home with a pat on the head. The government knows but helps them keep it quiet because ???
Alien rape snuff movies are the number one source of politician income worldwide.
There are many countries where a sizable portion of the population don't assume that the government is trying to screw them over with every new decision made.
But that's what governments are for!
If it been planned, it would have been better planned. They would have gotten all of the gold out of the storage vaults below the building first.
And that wouldn't be inconspicuous at all.
No, it was left in. With all the heat, it would melt and run between the cracks, right into the mole-people's collection vessels, their payment for their duplicity.
Or it was a conspiracy write-off.
Now, I'm not saying that the whole thing was a government stunt to justify a war, and I'm not saying that it wasn't, but if someone professional was planning a conspiracy, they'd probably take care to make the thing airtight against not only your run-of-the-mill conspiracy theorist, but against those in the pro league, too.
If there is a conspiracy here, it's not done by a five-year-old who is in cahoots with his four-year-old sister to make you believe that it wasn't them eating all the whipped cream, it was the neighbour's dog, who opened the locked door of the house, the fridge, too.
Aliens today, yesterday it was succubi/incubi having sex with sleeping people
Can I go on the record for saying that I prefer those succubi?
Call me old-fashioned, but if you offer me a creature that is lust incarnate, in a shape that was created for the sole purpose of looking as good as possible.... on one hand, and a small green thing with scary-looking probes on the other, I'll have that demoness, please.
I saw a documentary on this about a year ago I think it was discovery channel, anyway the documentary was trying to find some logical explanation to alien abduction.
One possible explanation I read was as follows:
The book in question talked about how someone made a survey and then came out with the "result", saying that a large percentage of people were abducted by aliens.
Turned out he got the right results, but made a great job of interpreting them exactly the wrong way.
The question(s) he pinned his alien story down with was "have you aver lain in bed, unable to move, and felt that someone else was in the room with you (someone who didn't belong there)."
A lot of people truthfully stated that they had that.
But it's not alien abduction. It's a glitch in your sleep paralysis. When you're asleep, you enter a state of paralysis so you lie still in the real world when you move in your dreams. Sometimes, when you wake, there is a short period where you're not quite awake and/or the sleep paralysis is still on, so you cannot move. It only lasts a couple of seconds before the system gets back on track, but in that time, you cannot move. And a natural reaction to that is a feeling that you're not alone.
So interpretation is everything.
And everyone who ever had that can tell you a about how scary as hell that experience is. Things like that can send your thoughts racing about what just happened to you.
Aliens today, yesterday it was succubi/incubi having sex with sleeping peopleCan I go on the record for saying that I prefer those succubi?
Call me old-fashioned, but if you offer me a creature that is lust incarnate, in a shape that was created for the sole purpose of looking as good as possible.... on one hand, and a small green thing with scary-looking probes on the other, I'll have that demoness, please.
Sure, but most people have never heard of a succubus or incubus. They have heard of little gray men who do the same stuff. One of the more prolific contributors to the original OED believed that Irishmen, who have a step up on aliens and demons in that they appear to exist, did the same sorts of things to him. They even flew him to Constantinople to do 'em. Towards the end of his life he cut off his own penis.
The question(s) he pinned his alien story down with was "have you aver lain in bed, unable to move, and felt that someone else was in the room with you (someone who didn't belong there)."A lot of people truthfully stated that they had that.
But it's not alien abduction. It's a glitch in your sleep paralysis. When you're asleep, you enter a state of paralysis so you lie still in the real world when you move in your dreams. Sometimes, when you wake, there is a short period where you're not quite awake and/or the sleep paralysis is still on, so you cannot move. It only lasts a couple of seconds before the system gets back on track, but in that time, you cannot move. And a natural reaction to that is a feeling that you're not alone.
I was lucky and it only happened to me once, complete with the sense of motion and a shadowy figure in the room. I felt like my entire bed were floating and thrashing back and forth while a man-shaped shadow full of pure, concentrated evil was peering and pressing down on me. I was twelve.
If one were prone to that kind of thing happening regularly, it could really screw a person up.
Ex Crystal Palace goalkeeper turned Son of God.
You forgot the Reptoids? How could you forget the Reptoids!
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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But it's not alien abduction. It's a glitch in your sleep paralysis. When you're asleep, you enter a state of paralysis so you lie still in the real world when you move in your dreams. Sometimes, when you wake, there is a short period where you're not quite awake and/or the sleep paralysis is still on, so you cannot move. It only lasts a couple of seconds before the system gets back on track, but in that time, you cannot move. And a natural reaction to that is a feeling that you're not alone.
That happens to me probably about once a month. It seriously sucks. Though I've never felt like someone else was there, just that I couldn't breath or move.
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But it's not alien abduction. It's a glitch in your sleep paralysis. When you're asleep, you enter a state of paralysis so you lie still in the real world when you move in your dreams. Sometimes, when you wake, there is a short period where you're not quite awake and/or the sleep paralysis is still on, so you cannot move. It only lasts a couple of seconds before the system gets back on track, but in that time, you cannot move. And a natural reaction to that is a feeling that you're not alone.
That happens to me probably about once a month. It seriously sucks. Though I've never felt like someone else was there, just that I couldn't breath or move.
Hey, didn't the government assas...um...cleaners get to you yet?
<places a phone call to his handlers>
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Actually, Area 51 is real. They have a satellite image of it, google earth mapped it, but it was pulled from the site due to national security issues. Area 51 isn't the real name, it's just a nickname for the airforce base that is on top of it.Area 51 isn't famous for being a secret military base where prototypes are tested and the like. That's been public knowledge, if not officially acknowledged, for decades.
Area 51 is famous for being the place where Bob Lazar claimed he was employed in reverse-engineering alien technology from Zeta Reticuli. (Lazar actually claimed to work at an adjacent facility, not that it makes much difference.) From Lazar it got its role in UFO lore, right next to Roswell, the MJ-12 document, and the rest.
Area 51 exists soley to draw your attention away from from the things that the government really doesn't want you to know about. Or so someone told me, it's not like have any first hand knowledge or anything.
Morag visited you in your bedroom. There was a talkshow on television several months on this mysterious phenomenon. Well a bunch of scientists came out giving the usual mundane scientific explanation that it was a neuro glitch in the brain which induces the paralysis and feeling of another prescence. However, what the scientists could not explain or even support accurately is why people around the globe and throughout history ever since Ancient times have experienced and described the same entity. Go figure on that one
Once you take away all the shadows, is Morag cute? Because if he is, he can come back!
...It's a glitch in your sleep paralysis...
That happens to me probably about once a month. It seriously sucks. Though I've never felt like someone else was there, just that I couldn't breath or move.
Damn it, now I have something in common with Sebastian! Do you know how much more therapy I'm gonna need?!
Somehow, this is Sharoth's fault.
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Can I go on the record for saying that I prefer those succubi?
Call me old-fashioned, but if you offer me a creature that is lust incarnate, in a shape that was created for the sole purpose of looking as good as possible.... on one hand, and a small green thing with scary-looking probes on the other, I'll have that demoness, please.
Ah, but the scary part is that succubi are the same critters as incubi.
Once they get done giving you a happy, they'll go off to impregnate some woman with your generous donation. It may look like a girl, but it isn't, and you've got a potential paternity suit / date-rape case just waiting to happen.
In the old, old days, this made for a really, really convenient excuse for how a priest could get a nun pregnant, and why it's necessary to get rid of the 'hellspawned' baby.
These days, people in areas that discourage abortion just point to the nearest random black dude and say, 'he raped me,' getting a free state-sponsored abortion at the low, low cost of ruining the life of some guy who will get released 30 years later when DNA evidence investigated by The Innocence Project finds that the DNA contributor was white.
Let's get back to some alien autopsies here.
My probe would like to have a word with you.
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Aliens have abducted thousands of people, performed painful and sexual experiments on them, and then dropped them back at home with a pat on the head. ...You told me you were from Michigan!
That's what we call 'pillow-talk', baby.
I guess at this point I should just be honest...
I don't actually love you. I was just using you to win a bet on how easy earth people are and how freaky you'll get in the sack.
We had didn't know you'd mate with our toaster...
I have no idea how the video ended up on your global communications network.
SM
Irishmen, who have a step up on aliens and demons in that they appear to exist!
Yeah we do!
\m/
[Well, close enough...]
Can I go on the record for saying that I prefer those succubi?
Call me old-fashioned, but if you offer me a creature that is lust incarnate, in a shape that was created for the sole purpose of looking as good as possible.... on one hand, and a small green thing with scary-looking probes on the other, I'll have that demoness, please.
Ah, but the scary part is that succubi are the same critters as incubi.
Once they get done giving you a happy, they'll go off to impregnate some woman with your generous donation. It may look like a girl, but it isn't, and you've got a potential paternity suit / date-rape case just waiting to happen.
In the old, old days, this made for a really, really convenient excuse for how a priest could get a nun pregnant, and why it's necessary to get rid of the 'hellspawned' baby.
I have used this idea in an adventure with the PC "donating" and the incubi impregnating a Hag to produce Larvae. Paladins make the best larvae, they taste sweeter.
Morag or Mora as called in Anient Greece is a She. Not really sure if she was one of the daughters of Night.
Then she can jolly well keep her lady bits clear of my bed. Nothing personal against her, but I don't swing that way. :)
Anyway the scientists can not explain is why every culture that has reported this phenomenon even cultures unrelated to each other see a this female figure cloaked in shadows with burning red eyes. It could be the source of inspiration for the Night Hag
You're serious? I thought you were joking. Suffice it to say that sleep paralysis doesn't check one's brain for cultural baggage. People from differing cultures all have more or less the same architecture inside their skulls, barring injuries, psychoactives, and congenital oddities.
True we all have pretty much the same brain in our head but the question here is why would this sort of figure appear to an aboriginess in Australia and A Scandanavian two wholly unrelated backgrounds with little or no contact with each other. I mean each culture has its own symbols and myths and an experience of that sort would take the shape of something familiar to that culture. Scientists claim it has to do with the brain but they cant find enough evidence to support, and so downplay it as much as possible. While more vocal opposition claim it is some sort of entity.
Well Samnell considering I have no partcular use for her either I would invite her for tea hehe
It's the same reason everybody sees a dark tunnel with light at the end. We all have the same visual equipment and its prone to similar malfunctions. There's no mystery here, only pure mundanity. Certainly some people don't like that and want to play the spooky music, but their obstinacy doesn't make them right.
The book in question talked about how someone made a survey and then came out with the "result", saying that a large percentage of people were abducted by aliens.
Turned out he got the right results, but made a great job of interpreting them exactly the wrong way.
Surveys can be manipulated to say whatever you want, it's like that episode of What the Bleep You Know where they did one to gather data on the perfect pet... and the irrefutable result was that America's perfect pet would be...
A giant, robotic praying mantis! =D
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Area 51 exists soley to draw your attention away from from the things that the government really doesn't want you to know about. Or so someone told me, it's not like have any first hand knowledge or anything.All things considered that would be a very good plan.
Why yes, yes it is; I mean would be. If you believe in such things, which I don't. :)
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On the record, WMDs were found in Iraq. They were found on multiple occassions, and by multiple nations.
Edit: This is just a brief sample of the 10,300 results returned when I searched for the news reports on this.
On the record, WMDs were found in Iraq. They were found on multiple occassions, and by multiple nations.
Edit: This is just a brief sample of the 10,300 results returned when I searched for the news reports on this.
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