# Worldviews that are hard to fathom **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 28, 2013, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375 "2013-08-28T05:24:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/21 "2013-08-29T15:25:07Z")
I know a dude who expects total anarchy to come within 5 years. He stocks up on all types of food. He doesn’t tell anyone where he lives. He regularly fasts for up to 3 weeks at a time to prepare for the impending “famine.” Really, quite bizarre. I tried telling him that’s probably not good for his health but he didn’t listen. ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/22 "2013-08-29T15:26:40Z")
I know a bright young woman who took the next logical step after “banks are keeping us down” to be “we must have 100% direct democracy”. I couldn’t really get either concept, and her combining them just weirded me out. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/23 "2013-08-29T15:31:50Z")
My grade 10 teacher in sociology told us that fighter jets were dumping barium on our houses to block off Russian satellite signals, and the proof was in funny shaped clouds that weren’t moving the same direction as the wind. Is that the same as “chemtrails,” or is something way stupider? ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/24 "2013-08-29T15:43:14Z")
A friend of mine believes the world is run by interdimensional lizard people. Yup. It’s sad though. He’s such a nice guy, but he’s bi-polar and it’s clear he’s gone off his meds. He used to be slightly odd, but nothing major, and now he’s just a complete whackjob who believes in “false flag” operations, the Boston Marathon bombing was set up by the government and all the injured people were actors, Miley Cyrus is a victim of mind control, etc. The only reason I haven’t completely cut all ties and still correspond via Facebook is that his postings are so bizarre as to be humorous. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/25 "2013-08-29T15:45:03Z")
“lizard people” is a hateful slur the proper term is reptilians ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/26 "2013-08-29T15:51:57Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > I know a bright young woman who took the next logical step after “banks are keeping us down” to be “we must have 100% direct democracy”. > I couldn’t really get either concept, and her combining them just weirded me out. That reminds me of another one, I had heard of the ‘Freeman on the land’ movement but that it was just an American thing. However last year I was at a wedding when I met a friend who I haven’t seen in years, turns out he now subscribes to that movement and as I work for The Man he kept trying to get my opinion on it. I found it kind of interesting actually but with no basis in reality, as with other lost causes I just nodded and agreed with everything he said… > [@panaccione](#): > > I know a dude who expects total anarchy to come within 5 years. He stocks up on all types of food. He doesn’t tell anyone where he lives. He regularly fasts for up to 3 weeks at a time to prepare for the impending “famine.” Really, quite bizarre. I tried telling him that’s probably not good for his health but he didn’t listen. Well when the inevitable societal breakdown comes won’t _you_ look silly? I’d bring up this thread to remind you but at that point we’ll be eating stray dogs and driving around in heavily modified gas-guzzling auzzie cars led by individuals with such names as Humongous…sounds like fun actually…and the internet will be a distant memory told around campfires as the long slow decline of nuclear winter sets in… > [@Mangetout](#): > > He was my boss, and kept bringing the topic up (he had worked on automated and robotic stock picking machines in the 70s/80s, and considered that the state of the art) Ohhhhh…you have my commiserations. > [@armedmonkey](#): > > It’s interesting you should say that because there was something else about the chemtrail guy - he really, _really_, knew meteorology. He wasn’t trained in it, but but he was so well self taught that he could identify all sorts of clouds, tell you how they formed, and it was all science based. I suspect his desire to learn all that was based in his desire to identify chemtrails, but he really did know far more than the average bear. ‘There’s nobody as easy to fool as an expert’ :\ ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/27 "2013-08-29T16:01:49Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > “lizard people” is a hateful slur > > the proper term is reptilians Reptilian _Americans_. ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/28 "2013-08-29T16:06:43Z")
My boss (who is crazy in a myriad of ways but I don’t have to mention it; see every previous post in this thread aside from the temperature one) brought out this gem. Somehow the topic of gay people came up, and my boss decided to mention that he thought gay people chose to be gay, that they did it for attention or they’re just perverted. Once I mentioned that it’s pretty much accepted that they’re born that way and cannot do anything to change it and it’s a normal variation on being human, he said “Well maybe I was just born lazy and can’t help being lazy. Maybe I was just born wired to hate gays, and can’t help hating gays! If they can say that then I can too!” I was dumbfounded at that point. There’s pretty much nothing you can talk to him about without him directing it towards some half-assed idea that ultimately boils down to everyone/everything is out to get him, including nature. His life exists only in extremes and nothing is ever his fault and he can’t do anything about it. That mindset alone is a worldview I can’t fathom. Then again, all signs point to him requiring medication that he refuses to take so naturally, it’d be pretty hard for me to fathom the views of a mentally unbalanced person. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/29 "2013-08-29T16:10:43Z")
I had a kind-hearted friend (who has passed away) who was fine until she was in a crippling auto accident. After that she put crystals in a circle around her house so she could talk to the king of the fairies. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/30 "2013-08-29T16:15:53Z")
> [@armedmonkey](#): > > That’s an interesting take. You don’t buy it though, do you? I don’t believe it or disbelieve it. It’s not ludicrous. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/31 "2013-08-29T16:24:10Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Reptilian _Americans_. Puh-lease. This is a **Global** Conspiracy. Try not to be so…I don’t know what. I’d say chauvinistic, but you ain’t Merkin. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/32 "2013-08-29T16:32:26Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I recently had an experience with someone who was, very briefly, a coworker. He was _absolutely_ convinced that all women wanted babies and no woman could possibly be happy unless she gave birth to babies. Upon finding out I didn’t have kids he immediately started in with “it’s not too late” and all the different medical things that could be done for infertility and simply could not accept that I was OK with no having kids. I must be in some terrible denial, you know? It got to the point where it was interfering with getting work done. It was inconceivable to him that a woman could have any other goals or desires than motherhood. > > I wasn’t at all unhappy when he got himself fired for stealing a couple days later. We had someone on this board that insisted repeatedly that anyone without kids automatically had a life that was empty and meaningless. That was a crazy thread. ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/33 "2013-08-29T16:33:25Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Reptilian _Americans_. In Britain, they call the reptilians “Your Majesty”. Blue blood is green blood, so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/34 "2013-08-29T16:33:58Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > I don’t believe it or disbelieve it. It’s not ludicrous. Now wait a second, you don’t believe a secret government program to spray chemicals in the atmosphere to control the climate isn’t ludicrous? I’ll throw you a bone here, though. There is one conspiracy theory that even I don’t think is ludicrous. The Aurora Project. It’s the theory that the U.S. Air Force made a successor to the SR71 that made the blackbird look like the U-2. I don’t believe it, but it has enough plausibility to say it’s not ludicrous. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/35 "2013-08-29T16:34:30Z")
A couple. My father in law is a huge Randite, and believes that volunteer work is inherently selfish and that it actually harms the organizations that you volunteer for. He also believes just about every right wing canard up to and including Birtherism. The amazing thing is that he is otherwise a brilliant guy. On the other side my wife’s therapist who is a great therapist and has a PhD in agronomy. But buys into all sorts of woo including that of Louise Hay who says you choose your parents before birth and that all physical ailments have psychological causes, so for example, my Baldness is caused by “fear, tension, trying to control everything and not trusting the process of life” ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/36 "2013-08-29T16:36:00Z")
> [@armedmonkey](#): > > Now wait a second, you don’t believe a secret government program to spray chemicals in the atmosphere to control the climate isn’t ludicrous? Unlikely. Not as ludicrous as I once believed. It is in fact possible to have a giant secret, as the NSA revelations have shown. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/37 "2013-08-29T16:39:25Z")
This will probably be a hot button one because there are some examples among the regulars of this board. But I can’t fathom the people who have an overwhelming hate for America - especially when it appears most of them are American. I’d be the first person to agree that America is far from perfect. We’ve done a lot of bad things and are still doing some of them. But there are some people who apparently feel that every bad thing that’s ever been done in human history originated here in America. Slavery? Not only did we practice it, we invented it. Killing the Indians? We’re the only country in history that ever killed an enemy and took their land. Nisei internment? The worst atrocity of World War II. The Holocaust? Germans killing people but we were to blame. Saddam Hussein? Our fault somehow. George Bush? Worse than Hitler or Stalin. Seriously, people, learn some history and get a sense of perspective. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/38 "2013-08-29T16:42:29Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > Unlikely. Not as ludicrous as I once believed. > It is in fact possible to have a giant secret, as the NSA revelations have shown. ☹ The NSA has showed that even the people in charge of secrets can’t keep secrets. Why do you think they’re so pissed about the leaks? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/39 "2013-08-29T16:42:56Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > On the other side my wife’s therapist who is a great therapist and has a PhD in agronomy. I had to look it up just to make sure I hadn’t remembered the wrong word. How does a PhD in agronomy make somebody a therapist? ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/40 "2013-08-29T16:44:21Z")
> [@armedmonkey](#): > > The NSA has showed that even _they_ can’t keep secrets. Why do you think they’re so pissed about the leaks? They’ve shown that even they couldn’t keep that particular secret (which is why they are pissed, agreed). Are there more secrets? Bigger secrets? Chemtrail secrets? I still don’t think so, but is seems more possible today than some months ago. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375.md?page=3)