I used to argue more with conspiracy theorists because one was family—now deceased—-and a few were friends.
There are articles and rhetoric urging us to reach across the aisle, meaning reasonable people have to increasingly accept mean-spirited insanity, and I’m done. It’s been tried, and the deranged just keep on getting more deranged.
Appeals to emotion work best, but not well, and anyone who’s argued with a conspiracy theorist knows they keep going off on tangents whenever cornered, and while some say it’s best to try to force them to stay on topic and address each idiotic point one by one—which is close to impossible—I say let them drag more and more people into the conspiracy with their deflections and projections, because while this is frustrating, it goes both ways.
The last argument I had about 9/11, eventually everyone was included. It was a massive government and globalist conspiracy from bankers to politicians just to make money.
At this point, I pointed out that the behavior of insurance companies did not indicate this and actually showed the opposite.
Insuring real-estate in NYC was at that time a deadlock, especially when it came to massive office buildings that had become iconic landmarks, like the Twin Towers. I worked for a construction company at that time, and the Twin Towers were constantly being renovated and maintained.
At the time, we had an FBI director and CIA director who hated each other, and the agencies have different agendas. The FBI are basically cops, and the CIA are spies. 9/11 was a case where the CIA was more focused on moving further up the ladder and turning more people into spies than they were in preventing a disaster. They found a credible threat and did not inform the FBI.
This has since been remedied to a degree, but the mainstream media is partially to blame, as are our leaders.
We’re being told the market is recovering, but how many Americans actually have investments?
The market does not equal the economy, and low unemployment rates don’t indicate the number of those who are underemployed and underpaid.
Worst, our government has learned the wrong lessons. If you live in a place that needs insurance, you can either no longer get it or have to pay through the nose.
When the pandemic started, politicians on both sides had insider information and invested accordingly.
The few remaining newspapers of standing have had to resort to clickbait to compete.
Instead of restoring the public trust, they’ve collectively corroded it even more.
The only empathy I have is for journalists, or papers like the NY Times. It’s either join everyone else in the pigpen or go out of business, and once you step in, the rest of you inevitably gets dirty.
This is a consequence of unfettered capitalism, and one of the reasons for Boeing’s recent spate of problems.
As early as the 1990s, when I was still in high school and wanted to be an aeronautical engineer, I read as much about them as I could find, and they were fed up with their companies increasingly being run by bankers instead of ex-pilots and engineers. They predicated stagnating wages and that the quality of aircraft would diminish, and they were correct because bankers don’t care if an airplane actually works, they only care about earning money for their shareholders.
The melting ice caps and glaciers are slowing the rotation of the earth and causing harsher weather events more frequently, such as strong winds that got a few passenger planes close to 900 mph, as well as disrupting at least one Delta aircraft to the point passengers were hospitalized for injuries sustained during violent turbulence.
The standards for COVID have been changed to the point the statistics alone are meaningless, hospitals are no longer required to report cases, and we’re now encouraged to accept whatever we believe.
We haven’t ended COVID. We collectively decided it’s over.
At least in NYC, if everything is going “back to normal,” why do restaurants and shops in my neighborhood keep going out of business?
Inflation has slowed, but it’s still inflation. Every week, groceries are more expensive, and while I got a decent raise and a bonus, I would be screwed if I hadn’t paid off my mortgage, and you shouldn’t have to work 80 to 90 hours a week for two years for a semblance of financially security.
And why, if I work at what’s considered to be a decent job, does my insurance cost more and cover less every year?
Reality is mired in data people actively don’t want to accept or can’t understand, but the one undeniable and seemingly eternal truth is that unless you’re wealthy, you’re getting fucked.
There have been exceptions, primarily out of fear. Once the USSR put Sputnik up, investment in public schools and colleges, especially for STEM degrees, increased dramatically.
There are still some news organizations and journalists I generally trust, but to get a picture of what’s actually happening, you increasingly have to turn to scientific journals and data, and that’s beyond the scope of most our time and education.
Knowing everything is impossible, and even if you did and could put into straightforward terms, I doubt it would help.
Still, it’s better to try in whatever way that you can than it is to cling to irrational beliefs and swallow whatever news suits you.
Yes, reality sucks, but if you want to fix it, you have to be willing to put your beliefs aside and really look at it first.
Being a know-it-all is still better than being virtually uninformed. There used to be a ton more people in the latter category and we suffered from that as much, if not more, than we did through COVID.
Boeing dude In Charleston. Suicide or . . .
Do you think Covid is over?
Any concerns with cows and H1N1?
Inquiring minds want to know.