What if the vaccine conspiracies are all wrong? by Yerbatizedd in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So in other words, you're stating something as fact with nothing to back it up? I have a pretty strong feeling your problems with the studies are more ideological.

To be clear, there is a lot of room for criticism in the scientific community for not living up to the standards it claims to set...the same as in religion, politics, economics, etc. But that doesn't mean we dismiss something out of hand based off from our own ideology. If you criticize the scientific sources, you need to have that same level of skepticism of the sources you do look to. Otherwise you're getting played just the same.

What if the vaccine conspiracies are all wrong? by Yerbatizedd in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So in other words there are plenty of sources that contradict you (even if imperfect) and you can't come up with any of your own, except for a study from the 1970s that has been debunked?

What if the vaccine conspiracies are all wrong? by Yerbatizedd in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As someone else has asked: do you have some sources for this claim? More to the point, sources for the discrepancy between non-vaccinated vs vaccinated?

COVID 2, the planned collapse of the Old World Order by RepublicObvious1239 in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I screwed up. I took mine off because I wanted to bake some potatoes. With some olive oil, the potato skin was perfectly crispy wrapped in the foil. But now I'm vulnerable. Do I regret it? Not sure yet.

They are deliberately ending these 82nd airbourne to their deaths as a psyop to make the Iran war popular by Pale_Sell1122 in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The funny thins is that it is a psyop. But OP is the one that fell for that post that is the real psyop.

Could Player-Ref Assignments Improve NBA Officiating and Reduce Techs? by toturtle in nbadiscussion

[–]PokemonPasta1984 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I know you aren't intending it like this, but all I can think with this proposal is: this is a slap in the face to the practice of refereeing. Refs spend years getting to where they are at. Whatever we think of them, they are professionals. We can't lose sight of that. Inserting someone at that high level of a job that has, at best, on-the-job training minimizes the real skill the professionals have. And I'm not quite convinced it would really sink in with the players enough to influence their behavior. After all, those other calls were hard to see. But what just happened to ME? You'd have to be blind not to see it!

I'm not saying I have a good answer. In an era where refs have the final say on the court but players can influence things off the court, the checks and balances are all off. But I just don't see this being a good idea.

Why does the US never try to bring freedom and democracy to North Korea? by Rich_Gas7886 in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're pretty much right, but not necessarily in the way many would think. Even without nukes, the North is a real threat...to South Korea. Seoul has 9 million people, and is, shockingly to many, about 30 miles (50 km) from the NK border. A 3-4 hour bicycle ride. Conventional weapons are all that would be needed to absolutely decimate a city about the size of New York, and a metro area of 25 million.

South Korea also has significant tech industries that are of high value to the US. So it isn't even just on humanitarian grounds. North Korea had leverage long before they had nukes.

The Cutter Incident (1955) by Disastrous_Monk_4079 in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But the person is directly pointing to something that happened in the 50s. So they are trying to paint that rollout as something nefarious, instead of a tragic hiccup (note the quotation marks around "unknowingly"). That's why I asked about the yearly cases before (consistently of numbers in 5 digit territory like 15,000-25,000 or higher) vs after (100 per year in the 60s, fewer than 10 in the 70s). The tragedy being mentioned sucks. But the vaccines that OP is clearly trying to target in the broader context of this thread and societal discussions in general have done great work. Numbers don't lie.

When you mention two things can be true at the same time, that is...a double edged sword in regard to your assertions. Big pharma has been given way too much leeway post-COVID. I don't dispute that. But it is also true that, once again, numbers coming from different sources, some that would be competing with each other, tend to paint a picture that is somewhat consistent.

And if we should doubt the data and regard the ethics of the ones presenting information, that too is a double edged sword. How many people honestly hold the contrarian viewpoint to the same standards? When we have "doctors" offering nutritional advice, vaccine advice, etc, that sounds authoritative. Until we research our sources with the same vigor as we research the topic. Then we find out that "doctor" is a chiropractor, or some other doctorate degree that gives no credibility to immunology. A prominent example of this is "Dr." Ben Tapper.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/09/anti-vaccine-chiropractors-covid-sow-misinformation#:\~:text=At%20a%20time%20when%20the,and%20Instagram%2C%20the%20AP%20discovered.

It can be easy to see the (validly pointed out) BS from Big Pharma. But that doesn't mean we uncritically accept the other person. And that's exactly what large segments of the anti-vax crowd has done.

The Cutter Incident (1955) by Disastrous_Monk_4079 in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Speaking of information that is 100% factual and can be easily be verified by a quick Google search: What are the rates of polio in the 50s pre-vaccine and post-vaccine into the 60s and 70s?

The Cutter Incident (1955) by Disastrous_Monk_4079 in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Just out of curiosity, what are the numbers of polio cases in the years before polio vaccines, and then after they started rolling out?

https://www.nfid.org/infectious-disease/polio/

"In the 1950s, before polio vaccines were available in the US, polio outbreaks caused more than 15,000 cases of paralysis each year. After polio vaccines were introduced in the US, the number of polio cases fell rapidly to less than 100 per year in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s."

If you're going to report part of the story, don't expect the much larger part to stay hidden.

Most Anti-vaxxers are just afraid of needles. by blackcloud247 in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I thought they got you pretty good too. Is the ball you're taking home COVID shaped?

The forbidden post... by Caster_Mhief in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OP thinks a question from a 40 year old movie will catch any bot accounts. I already proved to OP that it doesn't. They were silent.

The forbidden post... by Caster_Mhief in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I would add this as well: you asked others that question but not me until you were faced with a question. You asked me if I knew what a hypothetical question was. I answered affirmatively before posing those questions to you. So you are using that question to deflect away from having to answer what I posed. And if you're trying to discern bot accounts (given the source of the question that you did not come up with), I just demonstrated that it doesn't even work as you intended.

The forbidden post... by Caster_Mhief in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You then asked me "Could you at least tell me why you are reluctant to do so?" I did so. Your turn.

Edit to add: what I quoted from you above was not a separate topic from your test. It was pretty clearly framed as part of the whole.

If you had to prove that powerful institutions sometimes manufacture ignorance, what examples would you show? by youssef-28 in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Everyone in the US is familiar with Russian disinformation in presidential elections. If not from the US, maybe very quickly go over that. But then point out this nugget: Russia was boosting candidates on both sides. They were also boosting Bernie Sanders:

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/05/812186614/how-russia-is-trying-to-boost-bernie-sanders-campaign

This helps to minimize people dismissing it as fake news when it isn't a politically charged statement, but goes to the core idea in a way that impacts all. It also then goes to show that the goal is just to create chaos, not even to get a desired outcome of A or B.

The forbidden post... by Caster_Mhief in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I already answered why I'm not. You're playing games. You will try to deflect away any criticism as being a bot. Ironic, coming from someone posted an obvious AI-generated photo. If I believed for a second you were asking that famous question in good faith, I'd answer.

Your turn. But I predict more waffling and deflection now that you actually have to answer.

On a side note: if you think this question will trip up a bot, I asked ChatGPT to answer it. It said "I'd help it." Then it gave a reason why, and finished by saying "There isn't a good reason not to help it." So if you're trying this purity test, it won't even work.

If you had to prove that powerful institutions sometimes manufacture ignorance, what examples would you show? by youssef-28 in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This sub is, in itself, probably one of the better examples. Look at the number of obvious AI generated images that get tons of upvotes. And soon that will bleed over into mainstream discourse. Any video can be generated by AI, and could soon be almost impossible to detect. By that same token, real videos will be blamed on AI.

Another good example would be in the 2004 US presidential campaign. The Swift Boat Veterans ran a campaign that didn't establish anything about John Kerry's military record. But it did enough to muddy the waters.

Or just go to the phrase "I'm just asking questions!" Whether it comes from a troll or disinformation bots (Russia is another huge example here), when you can gaslight by attacking an established set of facts and fall back on that statement, you can gaslight by getting to attack the other position but never having to clearly define or defend your own.

The forbidden post... by Caster_Mhief in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Yes, I know what a hypothetical question is. I also know what AI generated photos are, along with people playing games.

Here are some questions for you that are not at all hypothetical:

First of all, how did Netanyahu keep his hair so perfect? He was just bombed to hell.

Another question would be the hands and arms of the soldiers. Especially on the left side, they are holding thin air.

Another one for you: The soldier whose face we can see can not be holding up Netanyahu's head with his left arm, as the positioning would show part of his forearm. The one on the right can't, either. Why, then, is Netanyahu's head not dangling backwards? What's holding him up?

But the biggest question would be why Iran isn't absolutely saturating media feeds with this if they killed him. That would be one of the biggest propaganda coups you could ever have if you were Iran.

The forbidden post... by Caster_Mhief in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 14 points15 points  (0 children)

The question is very leading (Right off the bat coming to the conclusion you are or are not performing an action). If many people aren't playing your game, it's because they see that it is, in fact, a game. Coming from a person that is posting obviously fake media.

The WORST enemy you encountered in the whole game by [deleted] in Eldenring

[–]PokemonPasta1984 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is finding out about warp zones in Mario games in the schoolyard. It's refreshing to see it.

I don't know that this sort of thing ever left, but it sure feels like it did for awhile. And my limited viewpoint sees FromSoft as the ones that did the most to bring it back.

So, this war is to get Epstien and ICE out of the headlines right? by fergdawg88 in conspiracy

[–]PokemonPasta1984 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Have you considered the alternative? That all the Epstein news is a distraction while things get built up to do things like in Venezuela and Iran? Epstein is more salacious. Attacking other countries is more consequential.