# I pit the derisive, condenscending, anti-conspiriacy ... \[merged threads\] **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 29, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653 "2012-06-29T02:19:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/161 "2012-07-04T03:17:49Z")
When I was a little boy of about four, my parents had some work done in the house. The contractors happened to be German. I was fascinated by their work, but I couldn’t understand a word out of their mouths. Looking up at my parents, I said, “I can \*hear \*them. I can see them talking… but what are they _saying_?” ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/162 "2012-07-04T03:38:32Z")
> [@Kozmik](#): > > September 11, 2001 cannot be explained by reference to [any country](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population) (Al Qaeda); however, December 7, 1941 can be explained by reference to a country, Japan. > > Possible candidates for persons being more powerful than Barack Obama are Mario Draghi and Anders Rasmussen. (See what Professor Franklin Allen said about Mario Draghi in _The New York Times_.) > > See also: September 11, 2001. > > The future is the stuff of paranoid fantasy. So demonstrate that 1) “the Illuminati is necessary to explain world affairs” as it applies to 9/11/01, and 2) demonstrate that your “Illuminati theory” _actually_ explains 9/11/01. Oh, yeah. Now, since you brought it up, you also have to explain how your theory makes sense of 12/07/41, too. You’re digging yourself deeper and deeper. We won’t require you to explain the people you bring up in the last paragraph. Just explain how your theory does a better job of explaining the events of the first two sentences. We can take up your list of people, once you’ve done that. Have fun, moron. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/163 "2012-07-04T05:03:14Z")
> [@Kozmik](#): > > George W. Bush was certaintly acting nutty. Third rule of politics: Always be nice to the editor. What the fuck is this supposed to even mean, you nutjob? And how in the name of Og is this remotely related to your (claimed) letter submission, how it relates to your sanity, conspiracies, or any other inane ideas. Your posts read like bad William Faulkner fan-fiction. Stream of consciousness on the bullet train to cuckoo-land. Get some help and take your damned meds next time. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/164 "2012-07-04T05:07:08Z")
Applesauce. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/165 "2012-07-04T05:09:09Z")
Note: I meant to put that in the Free Association thread, but it works just as well here. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/166 "2012-07-04T08:44:29Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Jimmy Carter is the head of the Illuminati. No, he’s head of the Illuminuti. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/167 "2012-07-04T09:31:46Z")
The problem with the anti-conspiracy brigade is that it has long since been the default position. The people making up the dependable Internet lemming anti-conspiracy copy-cats are for the most merely repeating ready made opinions they’ve found somewhere on the Internet, prepared and pre-chewed. There’s very little independent thought process going on. It’s the conformist position. At least some of the conspiracy loons appear to think for themselves. Incidentally it is much the same process that is going on with the Internet Atheist. In the past atheism was a rebellious act that required the mind of an independent thinker and strong - even flamboyant - personality. Usually they were very interesting and worthwhile persons. Nowadays it’s the default position, and the people regurgitating one-liners about flying spaghetti monsters usually a lot less interesting and more conformists than they like to think they are. > [@pikey\_pete](#): > > a few comments: > > No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the American people. > > The cynics are right nine times out of ten. > > The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. > > These were all true when written by H.L. Mencken in the early 20th century, and they remain true today. Conspiracy theories are just a practical tool in aiding the government with it’s control of the people, and the sad thing is, so many people buy into them. It has become absolutely insufferable fashionable to be the cynic. It’s the new ironic. A position completely void of any insight or personal investment, or indeed drive to make changes. I’ll take the idealist and dreamer any day of the week. Also the conspiracy nut. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/168 "2012-07-04T10:12:16Z")
[I like this little anecdote](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-t-takeLxY). Maybe it’s from the illuminati. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/169 "2012-07-04T12:28:00Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > The problem with the anti-conspiracy brigade is that it has long since been the default position. The people making up the dependable Internet lemming anti-conspiracy copy-cats are for the most merely repeating ready made opinions they’ve found somewhere on the Internet, prepared and pre-chewed. There’s very little independent thought process going on. It’s the conformist position. Yes, it’s a shame that the default position of these stuffed shirts is to be highly skeptical of laughable horseshit, and to rely on the debunking efforts of others rather than embarking on a personal investigation of every lunatic claim. If anything, we need _more_ visionaries like **Kozmik** to help “teach the controversy.” You’re essentially mocking the lemmings with the good sense _not_ to stampede off the cliff, simply because they’re also a group. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/170 "2012-07-04T12:29:46Z")
Bullshit spoken by iconoclasts is still bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/171 "2012-07-04T12:34:27Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > When I was a little boy of about four, my parents had some work done in the house. The contractors happened to be German. I was fascinated by their work, but I couldn’t understand a word out of their mouths. Looking up at my parents, I said, “I can \*hear \*them. I can see them talking… but what are they _saying_?” Umlaut. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/172 "2012-07-04T12:54:53Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Yes, it’s a shame that the default position of these stuffed shirts is to be highly skeptical of laughable horseshit, and to rely on the debunking efforts of others rather than embarking on a personal investigation of every lunatic claim. If anything, we need _more_ visionaries like **Kozmik** to help “teach the controversy.” To be sceptical requires that you have given the issue serious thought. They have not. They’re just going with the crowd, repeating the popular sentiments. They are not the intellectual inheritors of the rebellious atheist of previous periods. Quite opposite in fact. > [@VinylTurnip](#): > > You’re essentially mocking the lemmings with the good sense _not_ to stampede off the cliff, simply because they’re also a group. No, I’m mocking them for having an overblown sense of their own progressiveness, when in fact they’re for the most unreflective dull conformists adding nothing of value to anything. > [@Alessan](#): > > Bullshit spoken by iconoclasts is still bullshit. At least it has a certain of entertainment value, sometimes the original or interesting insight. And if nothing else, a refreshing zeal and zest. Whereas their opponents playing for the home-crowd and regurgitating pre-fabricated arguments are mainly just smug and dreadfully dull. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/173 "2012-07-04T13:16:01Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > At least it has a certain of entertainment value, sometimes the original or interesting insight. And if nothing else, a refreshing zeal and zest. Whereas their opponents playing for the home-crowd and regurgitating pre-fabricated arguments are mainly just smug and dreadfully dull. Maybe, but remember - we’re here to fight ignorance, not to be entertained by it. (Although it is a nice perk). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/174 "2012-07-04T13:21:32Z")
And you know what? In my twelve years on this board, I like to think I’ve added a thing or two of value, despite the fact that on this specific subject, I’m one of your “conformists”. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/175 "2012-07-04T13:29:55Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > To be sceptical requires that you have given the issue serious thought. They have not. They’re just going with the crowd, repeating the popular sentiments. They are not the intellectual inheritors of the rebellious atheist of previous periods. Quite opposite in fact. > > No, I’m mocking them for having an overblown sense of their own progressiveness, when in fact they’re for the most unreflective dull conformists adding nothing of value to anything. If you say so. Personally I became an atheist because I failed to feel any spiritual stirrings in myself despite trying really hard to make it happen, and because I found theological explanations to many unexplained questions and contradictions to be unconvincing, and not because I saw atheism trending on Twitter one day and decided I wanted to be part of the cool club of the day. I’m frankly skeptical that such people as you describe them actually exist in great numbers, and suspect you’re just projecting your own derision onto a strawman group for personal reasons. And even if they do, I fail to see how someone who gives “serious thought” to an issue and comes up with ridiculous and spectacularly incorrect conclusions is superior (on a personal level, or as an asset to society) to one who, with a relatively shallow understanding of a subject, manages to get it right. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/176 "2012-07-04T14:04:19Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Maybe, but remember - we’re here to fight ignorance, not to be entertained by it. The truth is overrated, and I’m afraid I’m here to hear the view of the loony liberal wing. In any case, the number of people on the SDMB who subscribes to conspiracy theories are between non-existing and those outsiders who are not going to be convinced. > [@VinylTurnip](#): > > If you say so. Personally I became an atheist So you are an atheist and not into loony conspiracy theories. Can we agree that on the SDMB you are overwhelmingly in the safe zone, in agreement with the majority, on those points? That you are not likely to stir up a shitstorm and that it does not take an overwhelmingly amount of courage to preach those view here? Which always makes me wonder why you people do that. What’s the point of posting to a discussion board where almost everybody agrees with you? Other that to be backed up in the views you already hold. But anyway, in general I consider that the person that risks nothing merely reveals his own inadequacy when he ridiculous or bullies the person who defends the marginal position. Especially when it is so overwhelmingly obvious that he merely does it to score a few brownies from the home crowd. > [@VinylTurnip](#): > > And even if they do, I fail to see how someone who gives “serious thought” to an issue and comes up with ridiculous and spectacularly incorrect conclusions is superior (on a personal level, or as an asset to society) to one who, with a relatively shallow understanding of a subject, manages to get it right. A person giving serious though to an issue and coming up with a ridiculous and spectacularly incorrect conclusions is superior to one who has given no thought to the issue and yet proceeds to preach smugly on the subject. Going with the crowd is always wrong, even when the crowd goes the right direction. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/177 "2012-07-04T14:20:10Z")
Ah, so, when the goal is to fight ignorance, what’s important is having the courage to take a marginal position and tilt against the windmills of conformity, regardless of the underlying soundness of that position. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/178 "2012-07-04T14:26:36Z")
I must be an intellectual coward for my unreasoned belief that if I jump off the roof, I will fall to my death. I mean, it’s what everyone around me believes, and I haven’t actually tested it myself. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/179 "2012-07-04T14:30:48Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Ah, so, when the goal is to fight ignorance, what’s important is having the courage to take a marginal position and tilt against the windmills of conformity, regardless of the underlying soundness of that position. Firstly, I do not think ignorance is well fought if people are merely repeating the popular view. When the majority view changes such people will merely follow in lockstep. Secondly, ignorance is badly fought with facts. To fight ignorance people should be taught to think for themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653/180 "2012-07-04T14:31:49Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > I must be an intellectual coward I’ll take you word for it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-derisive-condenscending-anti-conspiriacy-merged-threads/626653.md?page=10)