The old reverse psychology trick. Damn, you lot are predictable.
Why would you even want to go down that route if you know the man is a charlatan? If you have evidence that he has said he is only in the ufo game for the cash, I want to see it, as this would cause me to totally revise my opinion of his book.
Do you think alien men have foreskins, and, if so, should they be circumcised?
Alien Smegma!
Fair enough. I must admit that I am a bit surprised in your statement that you are open to change your mind - that is not the feel I got reading this thread. Happily surprised I must add. I appreciate your lack of swear words in addressing me as well - so thank you for that.
Trust me - he is a charlatan.
Give me some time (and spend some yourself) - I need to spank the kids, rape he dog and break off the chocolate I covered my wife in yesterday (just before I fell asleep - yes she is little irritated about that).
I’ll be back (and seriously - while you wait expand your search options).
Take care!
I dibs Skred!
Wait, I’m confused. Didn’t you say upthread that we should give more credence to military reports of UFO sightings?
It was a joke, actually. And not even an original one; I’m terrible, I know!
The bit about politicians and the military, that is.
… lol.
Failing to answer a simple non-leading question is certainly below your stature.
Do you realize that if your entire world view, what in your mind is concrete proof, is subject complete disproval if your guy admits he’s full of shit, it’s not really proof? I mean - if Einstein had written the theory of relativity and then said “haha guys just fucking with you” it wouldn’t disprove relativity. The evidence and ideas are still there and independently verifiable and stand on their own.
So if your supposed proof is subject to such easy dismissal, it means that there’s no evidence, nothing to let it stand on its own. That the entirety of your belief stems from your desire to let a bullshit artist weave you a story. So you’re asking us to believe in the most world-changing discovery of mankind when you are implictly admitting there’s no evidence that stands on its own to support it, and you’re basically just trusting a crank and asking us to do the same.
I for one am VERY interested to see ivan’s reaction to the material that JimNightshade presents (assuming that it exists and that he presents it).
But since I’m demonstrably psychic, let me make a prediction: No matter what the material is, it won’t change ivan’s mind in the slightest. He will still believe Dolan, and he will still worship the woo.
I’m bookmarking this thread so that I can use ivan astikov as a textbook case of how NOT to (try to) argue.
If you can get your hands on some old Skeptical Inquirer magazines (pre-web), I seem to recall they did an article on Dolan which was rather, um, skeptical.
-XT
I am Oscar the Grouch!
Try me, motherfuckers.
ivan, I’m really fairly impressed at the response you’ve received here. Your history on this board had demonstrated that you had the potential to be a very excellent troll; this thread demonstrates that you have matured into being, perhaps, The Troll.
What evidence do you have that he’s trolling and not just retarded?
The presence of billy goats?
I would refer you to this here peer-reviewed thread.
Because of the way he’s posted in this thread. He’s taunting people, egging them on and basically doing all the classic ‘troll’ moves. No real evidence…it’s more a matter of feel. I agree with Frank…he’s trolling.
This isn’t to say that he’s not retarded as well. Those aren’t mutually exclusive states of being, after all…
-XT
I think I nailed it in post #218 - this thread was started seriously, he was seriously advocating his views, but after universal ridicule he decided to play up the OH LOL I WAS JUST TROLLING angle to try to save a little face. But I don’t doubt the general attitude he’s displayed in this thread is sincere.
You can see from this post made a few hours ago that he thinks he’s fought us all off with his wit and intellect.
You may be right, though as I said earlier, if he REALLY wanted a discussion on this he would have put his thread in GD instead of here. Also, there have been some good faith efforts by posters with more patience than I who have attempted to engage him, and he’s done nothing to actually try and engage. If he REALLY wanted a debate on the subject, he would have made at least a cursory effort to engage them (you are one of those posters btw), but he hasn’t.
At any rate, whether he’s a troll or just slightly above belly lint in intelligence isn’t all that important at this point. I actually feel kind of bad for him, as this thread was a rather spectacular blowout (though if he is indeed a troll he certainly was spectacularly successful in moving the shinny lure about and catching a large load of 'dopers).
-XT
As I once described one of my co-workers, “he acts stupid to cover up the fact that he really is stupid.”
I’m not here to debase Ivan or anyone calling him a ball licker or whatever nonsense happens in these forums…
Can anyone refute the fact that we might have been visited by aliens? I understand this denotes empirical proof, and that’s what this shitstorm was based on.
However, I’ve seen some other threads where this was intelligently debated on where the popular opinion was : well, if they were here they would have such an awesome grasp of technology which would spin or blow up heads. So, based on the arguments of the past, OF COURSE we would not have detected them.
Ivan is going about it the wrong way. Dude, it’s not a religion.