Heroes of the CT wars?

[Elizabeth I]

How do y'all do it? Just reading CT sites makes me kick and scream and fall down foaming at the mouth (a la John Belushi's editorials on classic SNL newscasts.) Forget logical refutation.

For all that, I'm FASCINATED by conspiracy theorists - the illogicality, the muddled thinking, the refusal to inspect evidence, the circular reasoning. Any theories (conspiratorial or otherwise) about where conspiracy theorists come from?

[Regnad Kcin]

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=61078

Welcome to the forum, Liz.

[Beady]

How do y'all do it? Just reading CT sites makes me kick and scream and fall down foaming at the mouth (a la John Belushi's editorials on classic SNL newscasts.) Forget logical refutation.

You think you've got it bad? The cow-orker (yes, that's spelled correctly) on the other side of my cube partition is into remote viewing and 9/11 conspiracies. And he and I have government jobs where we evaluate evidence!

[c0rbin]

You think you've got it bad? The cow-orker (yes, that's spelled correctly) on the other side of my cube partition is into remote viewing and 9/11 conspiracies. And he and I have government jobs where we evaluate evidence!

Beady, you illustrate a great point about apealling to authority. I encounter posts from people who claim that because they or the source of their insipid information is a government employee the anecdote must be true.

As you demonstrate, just because someone is a government employee does not mean they are not a total f*cking nutjob. Everytime I hear "weel, my source, who works for the government says..." I think of the last time I was at the DMV being served by a government employee. Hard to take that source seriously.

And of course, the flip side is true. You claim to work for the gov and I am sure you are rational, intelligent and well informed. :)

[JollyRoger]

You think you've got it bad? The cow-orker (yes, that's spelled correctly) on the other side of my cube partition is into remote viewing and 9/11 conspiracies. And he and I have government jobs where we evaluate evidence!


did you suggest wearing a foil hat, remember shiny side out to reflect ....

[Beady]

As you demonstrate, just because someone is a government employee does not mean they are not a total f*cking nutjob.

Are you talking about him or me? And is there a compliment in there, somewhere?

:D

[Hellbound]

Are you talking about him or me? And is there a compliment in there, somewhere?

:D

Now now, don't commit an Either-Or fallacy ;)

[c0rbin]

Are you talking about him or me? And is there a compliment in there, somewhere?

:D

You're the one who works in the Psy-Ops Dept analysing data. You should already know the answer to that.

[Azure]

How do y'all do it? Just reading CT sites makes me kick and scream and fall down foaming at the mouth (a la John Belushi's editorials on classic SNL newscasts.) Forget logical refutation.

For all that, I'm FASCINATED by conspiracy theorists - the illogicality, the muddled thinking, the refusal to inspect evidence, the circular reasoning. Any theories (conspiratorial or otherwise) about where conspiracy theorists come from?

Just read through the numerous threads about Conspiracy Theories here on this forum, and you'll be amazed at the stupidity that some people can show.

You are correct when you refer to "circular reasoning" as that is all I have seen from the CT'ers in every single thread in this section.

[Beady]

I just posted this in another thread. It's a sort of follow-up to an earlier post I made here, so thought it would bear repeating:

I just had a bit of fun. Was finishing up a bit of overtime when two cow-orkers came in to begin their OT. One sits on the other side of my cube partition and believes in remote viewing, 9/11 conspiracies, acupuncture, homeopathy, etc, and has generally been driving me out of my tree (I can't kill him, 'cause I'd probably get fired). The other cow-orker is an ultra-conservative, former cop, and sits a few cubes away. We were the only three in that part of the building.

Long story short, I mentioned to the cop that the woo believes 9/11 was a government plot. I participated in the ensuing discussion for all of 30 seconds, then tiptoed out and went home. Blood was on the floor as I left. :biggrin:

[Brainster]

How do y'all do it? Just reading CT sites makes me kick and scream and fall down foaming at the mouth (a la John Belushi's editorials on classic SNL newscasts.) Forget logical refutation.

For all that, I'm FASCINATED by conspiracy theorists - the illogicality, the muddled thinking, the refusal to inspect evidence, the circular reasoning. Any theories (conspiratorial or otherwise) about where conspiracy theorists come from?

You ever see the bell curve demonstrated with marbles and nails? There are always going to be a few marbles that fall on either end. Loose marbles, we might call them.

CTs start with the conclusion and work backwards through the evidence to find what supports that conclusion, then desperately try to discount the rest as either misdirection or coverup.

The key to dealing with them without losing it is to remember this is an intellectual exercise. If you cannot leave the emotions behind, you are not ready to deal with them unless you get lucky and the opponents leave themselves wide open for an emotional response that wins.

Second, know where the opposition is weak and hammer at it. Every 9-11 nut knows that the passengers on the planes is the one thing they do not want to discuss. Alan Colmes asked Jim Fetzer about the passengers something like eight times, and each time Fetzer managed to steer the conversation away from the passengers and onto a CT point within two sentences, and yet when Colmes finally nailed him down he rattled off some nutbar stuff about he didn't know how many of them were paid. And the next time Colmes got him off into the Barbara Olson running Italian Lira along the Polish-Austria story.