No, the real way to kill them is circum…no, won’t go there…
Dammit Guin…
Well, pldennison, if it’s any consolation I like reading those threads for two reasons. One 'cause I seem to learn something new every time & two because I hold out hope that some day we’ll actually get through to someone.
PLD (which is, of course, a Person, Lettuce, and Dynamite sandwich), you have forgotten, as Waverly pointed out, Mr. Seethruart. His works are my current source of balding…
Yeesh, I would start having multiples if this guy would provide a specific answer to just ONE of my questions. Just ONE!
I kinda like the idea of “just ignore them”… but if we do that, what happens? We have a load of crap circulating around our message boards. What if some impressionable young kid comes across that load of crap, sees no debunking to it, and decides to accept it as truth? Then we have another Phaedra to deal with at some point in the future.
I’m almost done with Mr. Art. I’ve managed to catch him at cross-purposes and self-contradictions so far… I just want to push it a little further and see if he’ll actually RESPOND to the queries of the people around him.
This is encouraging.
I’ll just reiterate my comment that, IMHO, crackpot theories should always be debunked. Some small good may come of it, and FWIW, we haven’t really tried the ‘ignore them’ path, but I’d worry that it would encourage even more topics of this nature to be posted.
You forgot we are Not supposed to water them after midnight…
Actually, Phaedy is working in Kalamazoo as a grocery bagger.
He’s underqualified.
Is it just me hallucinating, or is Sea Sorbust rapidly becoming the Best-Rehabilitated Nucking-Futs Newbie on the SDMB? I swear I have seen like three posts from him since the disastrous “Ban the Big Bang” thread that had rational comments and/or courteous responses. Tell me it’s not all just a fleeting illusion, I need hope to carry on!..[cue orchestra] “To dream, the impossible dream…”
God damn it, Spoofe. Now I’m never going to be able to look at pldennison’s tag again without thinking “sandwich full of dynamite”.
Not that it’s a bad metaphor- compact, yet powerful, filled with substance and pepper; when you’re done reading his posts, you’ve had yourself a meal of substance filled with fire and brimstone.
Ahem. Anyways.
We’re all dooooooomed. For every Cecil Adams, there’s six Pat Falwells. For every James Randi, there’s ten John Edwards. For every Joel Achenbach, there’s ten Rush Limbaughs and ten Garry Trudeaus. Hell, even Marilyn Vos Savant tries, but we’ve got three Jack Chicks, five Fred Phelps, and one hundred Fox programming executives moving to overwhelm her.
It’s almost a bottomless void. The realm of information keeps expanding at such a prodigious rate, and our interconnection increases exponentially, which means our rate of ignorance grows in leaps and bounds. Of the five major news reports I heard this morning on the radio, there are at least two I don’t really understand (stem cell unavailability, the new jumps in cloning technology), one I don’t think anyone understands (the violence in Northern Ireland), and maybe one I could probably explain to someone else (Capital Gains tax cut). And one that simply skipped over me because I was too busy trying to understand the others.
And so as we press the boundaries of knowledge, paradoxically our ignorance increases, for there comes to us a wealth of information with no extra time to process it; therefore, our actual comprehension of the information out there decreases as a percentage. Thus, to compensate, people grab on to bizzarre “truths” that they cannot have dispelled- creationism, the supernatural, circumcision, etc.
Why? It’s a safety net and an excuse. “I don’t have to know all that stuff about science and technology- I know it is wrong. Why? Because my minister/ psychic friend/ fellow conspirator tells me so.” Thus, an excuse for their ‘ignorance’- what they don’t know is unimportant, because the scientists all have it wrong. Even better, though, is that they now know something the scientists don’t- how God/the Spirit World/the Vast Conspiracy works.
Our job is a thankless, and in many ways painful, one. We exist to prod them out of their shells, to force them to confront fact, to force them to think for themselves. We know that truth is not pretty, in many cases it is downright ugly, and most people don’t want their world to be ugly. But truth does set you free.
Will we ever win? No. Not a chance. The bounds of science will fall faster and faster, and therefore the growth of ignorance and fear with continue. I would not be surprised to see a backlash in the next few decades; as science pushes to the point where the average citizen cannot even understand the discussion, let alone the technological and moral implications, demagougery and quick-fixes will become the mainstay of solutions. We’re already seeing that with the discussion of stem cell research and cloning; the average politician understands the issue, but understands better that their constituents don’t understand the issue, and won’t understand the issue no matter what.
But does that mean I must go gentle into that black night? No, I shall rage against the dying of the light; I shall don my armor and fight against ignorance for as long as I can. Even if my ways are small, even if my topics seem trivial, I shall try to be Wordsworth’s Happy Warrior in the never-ending War Upon Ignorance. For while the war will be lost, there will be battles that are won, and even in defeat, I shall know that I did what I could, and I did my best. Some will listen, some will learn. Even I may find things that enlighten me.
And I will debate Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima and Vietnam over and over and over. And I will make the same points again and again. And I will have the same rebuttals made time after time. But I know that not only the debater is making the argument, and not only the questioner is thinking the question. And for every five minds that seem unable to move, there will be one- perhaps one who never says a word, never asks a question, only reads and lurks- whom I reach. And that shall be all I need.
And, folks, that’s what John Corrado’d do!
(Yeah, I know, I shoulda provided a link. I’m lazy. Sue me. :))
As far as the Phaedra are concerned, I’d reconsider my position on gun control if the people on the other side of the debate would do something useful with their armaments…
John Corrado: :applause:
As I read that near-rant, I suddenly began to envision it in the mouth of Howard Beale, the newsman played by Peter Finch in Network who said he was mad as hell and wasn’t going to take it any more.
And believe me, that’s a compliment.
Jesus, God, John. Pretty stiring stuff from a guy who once had a sig about goat felching! 
Put it to music and we’ve got our very own “Battle Hymn of the Republic”.
Battle Hymn of the SDMB
*Mine eyes have seen the glory of debunking of ULs,
you can take your fearful ignorance and send it straight to hell,
we will take your superstitions and bury them in facts,
The truth comes marching out!
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!
We won’t let the masses fool ya!
Ask your stupid question, Cecil tells it like it is,
The truth comes marching out!*
Holy shit, John, I’m all tingly.
C’mere, baby. I’ll give you a nice backrub with some of this “relaxing massage oil.” It’s all full of spearmint and eucalyptis oil… oh, wait. That aromatherapy stuff is just altmed snake oil, isn’t it? Damn. Never mind.
::extends hand for friendly and skeptical handshake instead:: Amen, brother. Great rant.
Jess
Actually, application of massage oil by a sufficiently skillful practitioner is scientifically proven to increase bloodflow to, uh, well, I think you and Corrado ought to carry out some independent research on that and inform us of the results.
It made me think of Eddie Albert in Green Acres telling how proud he was to be a farmer while fife-and-drum music played on the soundtrack…
Myself, of course.
Freedom
Joe_Cool
SPOOFE
Wierd-Al-Einstien
UncleBeer
And when we want to really get nasty:
Anthracite
Fighting ignorance, one bullet at a time. BYOG.
Accepting applications.
[sub]Gratuities are appreciated.[/sub]
Good thinking, ExTank…
“Guns don’t kill Phaedra… I do!”
::wipes tear from eye::
ExTank - what can I say? I love ya, guy…
Cool - I want one of those for my pickup truck!
<music swells>
This is my queeeeest, to follow that staaaar…
Great rant, John. Makes me want to go kick Larry King’s teeth in, for starters.
My God. What a beautiful thread. We should add John Corrado’s post to the FAQ or something.