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RE: Can we stop rewarding people for half truths and whole lies?
So...He talked about a technology that might be used to do something positive and that somehow means they ARE using to do something malevolent?
I think you may have made a few leaps in logic.
I see no leap in logic; you flat-out denied the existence of any chemtrails:
@apocaloptimisto and @transcendfinance showed that chemtrails, or, to be more accurate, "geoengineering" is totally a thing. This does not prove the particular "conspiracy theory" about mind andor population control. It doesn't prove that every contrail is an illuminati plot. But it does disprove your claims that chemtrails don't exist, and that these theories are "debunked". The opposite is true. The dispersal of chemical agents into the atmosphere is common practice for various applications and widely known.
I sincerely hope that Steemit will be the internet place where truth can be spoken to power; where honest, rational and intelligent debate and cold, hard facts are given greater value than the opinion of a thousand authorities.
The Steem whitepaper clearly says:
That explicitly includes facts we would prefer not to be true and opinions we disagree with, and I, for my part, welcome that :)
I denied the existence of chemtrails in terms of the common parlance of what chemtrails mean. I didn't say geoengineering. When I say chemtrails I mean the idea that the government is dumping hazardous chemicals on the populace to poison them, not that they're seeding clouds. Chemtrails as they are often defined by conspiracy theorists go far beyond the idea of planes releasing chemicals. Its the idea of this cospiracy to dump mind controlling or otherwise hazardous chemicals on the populace that has been refuted. Though I will also point out that the fact that geoengineering exists does not in any way prove that the government is using it for evil purposes, as people also like to claim.
"I sincerely hope that Steemit will be the internet place where truth can be spoken to power"
Ok. But neither of those are truth and that's the problem.
"cold, hard facts are given greater value than the opinion of a thousand authorities."
Do you hear yourself? We should ignore the literal facts that are attested to by thousands of well trained and knowledgeable experts on a subject and instead indulge in fringe thinking because some guy's blog has a story about how he met someone that said something one time?
Literally nothing these guys have said has given any proof to any of the wild claims they like to make.
"That explicitly includes facts we would prefer not to be true and opinions we disagree with, and I, for my part, welcome that :)"
Allow me to give you a counter point. You are a pedophile. You molest children. No, I do not have any proof of this beyond anecdotal evidence. Yes, this claim is potentially damaging to you. But its just one of those facts we'd prefer not to be true. And I'm sure its an opinion you'd disagree with. In fact, the authorities might say there's no evidence for it either. BUT if I can get enough people to believe it by aggressively spreading the idea, clearly that group belief is just as good as the word of the authorities right? It's all free speech right? Please, smile and welcome the angry mob.
This is the problem. There are children literally dying because their parents believed some stupid celebrity over doctors. Steve Jobs died of easily treatable cancer because he believed that eating a better diet would cure him rather than getting actual medical attention. These blatant falsehoods perpetuated by highly opinionated people with no real knowledge of the subject have consequences. Sometimes fatal ones. And I don't want steemit to become a den of such things.
Because once you start getting into that "everything the government says is a lie" mindset, it spirals. How long until our first 5k holocaust denial post?
The very first thing I would like to assure you of is that I am not your enemy, and do not view you as such. I will, however, now write some things that hopefully make you really, really angry.
Your argument is broken in several pieces, your whole approach is useless.
One huge problem is that you take the most fringe claim, pretend that is what all, even the expert, activists state and then continue to destruct it for its obvious nonsense. It is formally called the "strawman fallacy". You set up a strawman and then knock it down to declare yourself the winner, but that is not how it works, you must pass the Ideological Turing Test and attack the strongest possible interpretation of the argument of those who you disagree with.
The other is you shifted the goalposts. First you flat-out state chemtrails don't exist, then you must backpedal and admit that it is true that chemicals are being dispersed into the atmosphere quite regularly, but counter with the unbacked a priori assumption that these must be completely benevolent and harmless. That is intellectually dishonest.
You are leading the whole debate ad absurdum by twisting the words of your opponent. I clearly said "cold hard facts", not "some guy's blog has a story about how he met someone that said something one time". That's really, really poor style, ecto.
And yes, I proof-read myself and I stand by it: what the facts are, what the truth is, cannot and will not be overturned by the consensus opinion of a million experts. And I sincerely hope that Steemit will be a place to bring some of these truths and facts to light.
And finally, your insults and abuse are not fit to convince anyone of your cause. I understand you want to save lives, because conspiracy theories are potentially dangerous. If you would take the issue seriously though, you would actually shut your mouth and listen when a learned, rational, intelligent, patient and friendly "conspiracy theorist" offers to spend his free time to clear up some misunderstandings and misconceptions you are having. Instead of trying to save my life, you are insulting me, driving me away, and reinforce my belief set. You are hurting your cause. STOP IT. NOW. Unless you are a cynical asshole that gets off on making people kill their children by not giving them all those healthy vaccinations -- then absolutely continue what you are doing. applause.gif
Yeah, we don't call it the "rabbit hole" for nothing, you know ;)
What are you going to do about it? Write an angry post to complain about it? ò,Ó
Or educate people with cold, hard facts, thorough research, and reasonable arguments and eventually beat it with a 6M post?