# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/41 "2013-08-29T16:50:57Z")
A couple weeks ago I realized you actually can’t speak to some people. There is a guy who is older but cool. His wife has always been a serious queen bitch. Lately she has fallen into such a conspiracy nut I can’t but wonder if she is somewhere in the neighborhood of schizophrenia. She believes every single popular threory and has some that I have only heard from her. Ie “Obama changed laundry detergent so it will turn fish gay” I considered trying to sort out the mess of logic than I assume came from reading a report of various runoff chemicals messing with the gender of some waterlife. However I didn’t want to get into something and ever so bluntly went with the most innocuous, pointless statement humanity has constructed. “Sure is nice weather we’re having lately” which prompted the response “Enjoy it for now, the Chinese soon will be able to override Obama’s weather control and make it bad weather forever” ---
**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, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/42 "2013-08-29T17:16:55Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > 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? It doesn’t. She made a sharp career change part way through life. Presumably she found counseling battered women more rewarding than soil science. I was using this factoid to point out that she was trained in rational thought and the scientific method yet still believes the woo. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/43 "2013-08-29T17:30:38Z")
A family member used to be in the (Canadian) military. He claims the September 11th attacks had to be staged because the USAF (or the National Guard) could easily have intercepted the airliners in time to prevent the collisions. My mother-in-law believes that there’s no link between cigarettes and cancer. Or between viruses and flu. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/44 "2013-08-29T17:36:06Z")
I legitimately cannot fathom that there are people walking around today in the 21st Century who can claim with a straight face to take every word of the bible as literal truth. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/45 "2013-08-29T17:50:24Z")
I am amazed that some 21st century parents still think that their kids could not have done… ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/46 "2013-08-29T17:52:58Z")
> [@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. ☹ What does one have to do with the other? The fact that a government agency whose main function is collecting information secretly was doing just that is in no way proof that another agency has the ability to control climate. Revelation of one secret does not increase the plausibility of all other secrets. ---
**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, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/47 "2013-08-29T18:12:08Z")
I find your worldview hard to fathom. :dubious: But it’s all good. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/48 "2013-08-29T18:17:02Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I legitimately cannot fathom that there are people walking around today in the 21st Century who can claim with a straight face to take every word of the bible as literal truth. Any holy book! I picked up my copy of the Mahabharata the other day. It is an amazing book, full of political intrigue, espionage, betrayal, cheating, lies, kings and queens and princes and princesses, beauty beyond the times, cross-dressing, love, death, loss of love…it is one of the greatest books ever written! Also it has the equivalant of nuclear fucking weapons being used in a battle more than four thousand years ago. YAH INDIA! ---
**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, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/49 "2013-08-29T18:27:52Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Also it has the equivalant of nuclear fucking weapons being used in a battle more than four thousand years ago. YAH INDIA! Of course there are plenty of people out there who use the Mahabharata and other ancient Indian texts as proof of their theory that (a) humanity was once much more advanced than it was now and destroyed itself back to stone-age levels or (b) that Earth was visited by aliens who set themselves up as gods, or a combination of the above. Personally I find those theories extremely unlikely but not as completely way out there on the lunatic fringe as some others. They’re kind of romantic if nothing else, and the depiction of the weapons you mentioned really do read eerily like a nuclear attack even to the extent of the victims washing their clothes and other items in rivers to get rid of the fallout _(if you read it like that!)_. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/50 "2013-08-29T18:29:59Z")
I’ve known several people who believed the moon landings were a hoax. :dubious: I also know a woman who totally believes everything she reads on right-wing websites. Example: She posted on Facebook that public school nurses and teachers can take girls from school to have abortions without their parents’ knowledge or consent. :smack: I asked her where that’s happened, and she didn’t reply. She’s also one of those people who believes that Newtown was part of a conspiracy to get guns banned, and that any day, people will be going door-to-door and breaking down doors to search everyone’s houses for guns. :rolleyes: ETA: This woman is studying to be a nurse practitioner. If the subject ever comes up when we’re together, I’m going to tell her that she needs to be careful what she posts on Facebook, because it could cause problems when she goes into private practice. There are people who believe that Obama has had numerous gay lovers murdered to keep them quiet. 😕 That these men were murdered is easy to verify; whether they were gay or not is something only they, and the people who knew them, can know for sure. But I don’t believe any of that, for a multitude of reasons. First of all, there’s NO evidence that Obama has ever had any homosexual experiences or inclinations (and if he has, that’s an issue he and Michelle have to deal with), and it would be awfully hard for him to pull off something like that and get away with it. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/51 "2013-08-29T18:48:50Z")
I’ve got a co-worker who’s world view consists of every single current affair being in !!!CRISIS!!! mode. It’s the worst it’s ever been, it’s only getting worse, it can’t go on like this, it’s all coming to a head any day now and will result in an implosion of the country and/or revolt-rebellion of the people. Immigration, national debt, gun control, obama’s socialism, Muslims, the stock market, crime, taxes, health care, gas prices, you name it. If you tell him that 5…10…15 years from now that while there may be changes in the country you’ll still have your guns and your house, you’ll still drive to work, your kids will still go to school, the next president will be a moderate also, and we haven’t become a socialist/communist country, and there was no rebellion/revolt he wouldn’t believe you. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/52 "2013-08-29T18:51:15Z")
> [@panaccione](#): > > I know a dude who expects total anarchy to come within 5 years. . . He regularly fasts for up to 3 weeks at a time to prepare for the impending “famine.” . . . Over the course of my life, my dad went from ‘within ten years’ to ‘within two years’. Then someone wrote something for one of his newsletters about personal computers mucking up the centralized plan, which made him happy because it explained the date slippage, which made me happy because I had suspected that he hadn’t noticed it. And OMG, 3 weeks? I hope those aren’t complete water only fasts. Some people don’t think any liquids count, so they buy a juicer and eat all their fruits and vegetables that way. > [@Macca26](#): > > My boss . . . His life exists only in extremes and nothing is ever his fault and he can’t do anything about it. . . . . Does he ever sigh grievedly and say “Some people just get all the breaks” or “Some people get everything handed to them”? Because he might be channeling my dead aunt. > [@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? . . . . The guys spreading iron compounds in the ocean to fertilize algae and help them pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere got caught. I’m trying to think how that compares to spraying from jets. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/53 "2013-08-29T19:08:48Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > The guys spreading iron compounds in the ocean to fertilize algae and help them pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere got caught. Huh? Those were funded university experiments as far as I’m aware. ---
**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, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/54 "2013-08-29T19:31:31Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > The guys spreading iron compounds in the ocean to fertilize algae and help them pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere got caught. I’m trying to think how that compares to spraying from jets. Umm… what? Caught doing what? Peer reviewed research? ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/55 "2013-08-29T19:34:52Z")
My brother believes the Newtown shooting was set up by the government to make guns so abhorrent that we would finally be okay with having them taken away so we can’t defend ourselves against them. It hurts me to be related to him sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/56 "2013-08-29T19:45:14Z")
I have an ex-boyfriend who insisted that any possibility was equally likely- saying that something was theoretically possible elevated it up to the same level as the most likely explanation, and meant it must be taken just as seriously. I did ask why he ever left the house without wearing a helmet, just in case a freak tornado had scooped up an aardvark from London zoo, then dropped it right overhead, but he just changed the subject. He took the lizard people seriously too. We split up not long after I wouldn’t let him go see a talk by David Icke, because we were extremely poor, and it would have cost a week’s grocery money. Nice enough guy, so long as he didn’t get on to certain topics… ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/57 "2013-08-29T19:49:00Z")
Beyond the PCT talk here, some people’s mentality on taxes just floors me. For example: where I work, we typically get percentage raises at our annual reviews. If your manager does not have your review finished by your anniversary date, your raise is backdated to that date and you receive a chunk of back pay. If you get a good raise and your manager is tardy, this can come to a good amount of money. One day, a very conservative coworker of mine mentioned that she’d just gotten her review four months late. I said something about how nice it would be to get that good chunk of money all at once. “Nah, it gets taxed,” she responded–as though taking out some tax from any amount of pay rendered the rest unclean in some way! (FTR, I did comfirm that she did not, in fact, lose her entire back pay to taxes.) ---
**Author:** ![Orr\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ee59a6/32.png) [@Orr\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orr_G)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/58 "2013-08-29T20:00:28Z")
I sometimes suspect that my worldview is odder than that of any of the people mentioned in this thread. I have two advantages, however. One is that I don’t fool myself into thinking that my worldview makes any sense or answers any questions. The other is that I don’t believe in my own theories over the evidence that I can verify for myself. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/59 "2013-08-29T20:32:02Z")
Ya’ll realize the worldviews began increasing about the time sugar was replaced by HFCS in our food and drinks, and coincides with the expansion of Starbucks, don’t you?? Just sayin’ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![EverwonderWhy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EverwonderWhy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EverwonderWhy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375/60 "2013-08-29T20:38:05Z")
UGH, my best friend I grew up with came for a visit and forced me to watch some documentary on chemtrails. IIRC (I tried to block it out), it also included additional nonsense about ocean algae blooms and how all this was a Monsanto conspiracy in collusion with the government. If it was anyone else I wouldn’t have been able to keep my mouth shut, instead I pretended to fall asleep so I didn’t have to provide any response. Here we go: [What in the World are They Spraying?](http://www.whatintheworldaretheyspraying.info/) ETA: > [@pbbth](#): > > My brother believes the Newtown shooting was set up by the government to make guns so abhorrent that we would finally be okay with having them taken away so we can’t defend ourselves against them. It hurts me to be related to him sometimes. Same best friend believes this too! And that the Boston Marathon bombing was a government hoax. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worldviews-that-are-hard-to-fathom/667375.md?page=4)