Show HN: a conspiracy theory generator
verifiedfacts.org
verifiedfacts.org
http://www.verifiedfacts.org/search
and generated this new conspiracy theory,
"During the Bush wars, Hacker News began plotting their eventual rise to power.
"Local historians living near Area 51 have noticed strange connections between it and the Feds, stretching back to the Bush wars.
"Mentalists and psychics report that strange aura disturbances can be seen wherever fluorine is found in Area 51.
"Outspoken academics who research this topic have had their research silenced by those in power.
"The increased militarization of US police forces can only mean one thing-- when the government's failure to properly address fluorine sparks a rebellion, the Feds will be leading death squads across the nation.
. . . . "
Several parts of that read very much like Hacker News comments I have seen recently under various threads.
About Paul Graham, identified as a person, I get
"Paul Graham isn't just an individual-- they're an organization, and they have doubles everywhere.
"Do you know that if you post a tweet about #mercury and Paul Graham, it will 'mysteriously' disappear from your page within minutes?
"You may think free speech ensures your right to talk openly about Paul Graham's negative influence on our society, but their powerful friends in Libertarians have, in the past, used crippling libel lawsuits to silence brave citizens who did exactly that.
. . . . "
The Truth About The NSA and Hacker News
http://www.verifiedfacts.org/i/the-nsa-and-hacker-news/NjA5M...
The NSA is trying to control the minds of the American people-- probably with Hacker News, which they invented and created.
I would love to see some of the emails you get from http://www.verifiedfacts.org/report
pg org, we demand answers! ;)
Apparently, "All persons claiming to suffer from hacker news are in fact shape-changing aliens."
You're about 15 iterations away from making a billion dollar service that creates and sells movies to hollywood and television stations.
On a serious note: I've lived with a conspiracy theorist and the pattern I've noticed is this. Theorists take things that were mistakes or unintended and say that they were done on purpose to benefit someone. 9/11, Iraq, etc.. So you're actually really close.
I love this. Someone should get a really serious looking gentleman and make videos of his reading this as if it were real conspiracy news.
I have two friends who will believe pretty much anything that involves the government/corporations and nefarious activities. Evidence is strictly optional. Indeed, evidence to the contrary is not sufficient to disprove these theories. Or its just part of the conspiracy.
The funny thing is these people are otherwise quite intelligent and capable of rational thought. They have decent careers and neither are social outcasts.
If they had failed careers/relationships etc I might understand it as a coping mechanism to internally justify failure. But that is not the case here.
I dont understand why they believe these things. But then I dont understand how faith works for religious people either.
Anyone have any insight to this?
I'm sure we could collect as many theories about conspiracy freaks as there are conspiracy freaks, on the ground that most of psychology is speculation.
> Indeed, evidence to the contrary is not sufficient to disprove these theories.
That's one of the attractions of conspiracy theories -- most of them can't be conclusively disproven, because most require proof of a negative, which is an impossible evidentiary burden, for reasons given here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russells_teapot
Conspiracy theorists and crackpots have a lot in common. One thing they share is the idea that, unless their critics can disprove their beliefs, the beliefs must have merit. In other words, they hold the opposite of the null hypothesis (the idea that an idea with no evidence is probably false) -- they also unfairly shift onto others their own burden of evidence.
> The funny thing is these people are otherwise quite intelligent and capable of rational thought.
Intelligence is no assurance of reasonable thought processes. For that, one must understand logic and certain scientific principles, like accepting the burden of evidence for one's own ideas, and being willing to sincerely doubt one's own conclusions. I have always suspected that conspiracy theorists (and crackpots) never learned the basics of evidence and research.
And if you actively work on "uncovering" the conspiracy, why, that makes you a hero, bravely thwarting evil powers!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004FEF6II/?tag=dedasys-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004GHN26W/?tag=dedasys-20
Although neither one is perfect. The latter doesn't miss the opportunity to promote the author's own libertarian point of view. Which is fine, but it distracts from the point of the book. The former also takes a few shots at things that are not conspiracy theories, but pet dislikes of the author. Neither are nearly so bad as the one-star reviews though - clearly both touched some nerves.
Central to both is the idea that people feel a need to think that things happen for a reason, and aren't just strictly random. And a bad reason is better than no reason at all.
My grandfather was into a lot of that stuff, and your description is quite apt: he was a really smart engineer, and a good guy, in general. But he loved all kinds of these theories.
> More ominously, the guy who signs Kay's National Post paycheck is Conrad Black, a 20-year vet of Bilderberg.
If that's not irrefutable proof, I don't know what it.
The collective mind of society doesn't always get it right. Being "Cassandra" would be a miserable existence.
Intelligence and rational thought are orthogonal. I would say that cats are generally more rational than most humans I have met.
Intelligence is not a prerequisite for having a decent career or not being a social outcast. Society prefers people with high IQ's, as opposed to true geniuses, who are more likely to struggle to fit into society.
Being crazy means that you are completely different from the rest of society. It doesn't mean that you are wrong.
All of recorded history is pretty much a "conspiracy theory". Who really knows if it is true or not? But the majority of society simply accept it as fact, so it's no longer a conspiracy theory as defined by society.
That experience left quite a mark on me - I still have a tiny bit of guilt at believing that stuff for a short while, even though I suspect it probably made me much more level headed and skeptical when I got older.
The fact that someone believes something which you do not believe does not mean that they have a mental health problem. If that were the case, we (atheists) could say that there were a billion or more insane Christians out there. But everyone knows someone who has religious beliefs.
Everyone, no matter how mainstream their opinions, has a worldview which is comprised of a set of beliefs. Everyone. Now, it is just the nature of beliefs that rational arguments and evidence do not readily alter them. No matter how widespread, or how fringe the belief is, or whether you judge it to be 'crazy', or whether the belief has a scientific basis. Those are the default nodes in your cognitive framework. You just don't change them very easily. Any more easily than I change my beliefs.
One thing that you may not realize, or perhaps may not accept as fact due to your own worldview, is that the 'conpiracy theorist' label has been historically, and still is, a tool used to suppress dissent by ridiculing opponents who accuse an establishment of wrongdoing. Here is a Wikipedia article about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_abuse_of_psychiatry
> As scholars have long argued, governmental and medical institutions code menaces to authority as mental diseases during political disturbances.
>...In the 1970s, Martha Beall Mitchell, wife of U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell, was diagnosed with a paranoid mental disorder for claiming that the administration of President Richard M. Nixon was engaged in illegal activities. Many of her claims were later proved correct, and the term "Martha Mitchell effect" was coined to describe mental health misdiagnoses when accurate claims are dismissed as delusional.
I anticipate that most people with mainstream beliefs in the US would assume, based on their worldview, that political abuse of psychiatry only applies to other countries, or to other times. I think this is wrong, and part of the general myth perpetuated by the establishment that it rarely (or at least, not in contemporary times) does anything that can't be morally justified.
http://conspiraciesthatweretrue.blogspot.com/2007/01/list-of...
I mean, to me its pretty obvious that the US has a long term campaign going on. Just look at a map. We invade and occupy a country on one side of Iran, then the other. Then the Egyptian president, who just happens to have been blocking US plans to invade Libya (one of the strongest remaining Iranian allies in the area) since the 80s, is removed by way of an amazing 'spontaneous' democratic online uprising (which to me looks like propaganda, information/cyberwarfare). Then Libya is taken over by US-backed 'rebels'. And now Syria, the other Iranian ally, is being taken apart from within by more 'rebels'. All countries in the same geographic area, with the same types of prized resources, one after another, all opponents of the US.
The problem is that the mainstream media lies about the motivations for military action are always accepted by the majority. In the context of the previous lies getting us into war, they are obvious deceptions. Yet they blast the propaganda from all angles with the same bullshit over and over and it becomes the closest thing to reality that many people have.
Lost direction in your life? Try the startling clarity of paranoid delusions. Soon you’ll be saying “It all makes sense!”
Gee - they'd never do that would they?
The Truth About Microsoft and Fox News
Many astute citizens have already noticed the recent censorship of media pieces critical toward Microsoft. Don't fool yourself: this is definitely part of a master plan, and Fox News are probably the ones behind it.
The value of Fox News's hedge fund investments have doubled over the past 70 years-- while ordinary Americans have seen their investments vanish in waves of depression and recession. Coincidence? Definitely not!
Many members of the Federal Reserve are secretly working for Fox News on the side. Their air travel habits are proof enough for this, but there's a wealth of additional evidence that the Federal Reserve doesn't want you to see.
Employees of Microsoft were seen at both the US Election of 2000 and WW1-- despite the fact that they had no good reason to be there.
We've taken a big risk to post this information on the internet-- many others have seen their careers destroyed for doing much less.
The only way for upstanding citizens to protect themselves from this madness is to retreat from modern society entirely.
How are they generated?
I managed to get some gems like this:
> The earliest Nordic settlers in the Old Northwest were shocked when they discovered their lands had been inhabited by a sentient race, which has been confirmed by scientists to have used Google products over 300 years before today.
In all seriousness, I'd love to see the source code.
And they have a simple grammar that allows them to pull famous names, places and drop them into predefined slots. Someone else already pointed out, it's basically Mad Libs.
All products made by Monsanto are produced using Dead Parrot and its derivatives. It's intentional: they want that stuff in your bloodstream.
In 1851, Civil War general Robert E. Lee reported a strange disturbance in the sky over the Potomac. A squadron of six men who had been sent to investigate disappeared for 12 days, and when they came back they had no memory events that had transpired. Lee wrote in his diary, “Our inspection of the men turned up nothing, but their forearms were branded with a curious unknown symbol: 'Monsanto'.”
Talking about this kind of thing openly is likely to get you put on a no-fly list.
Did you know that toxins created during the Dead Parrot manufacturing process also turn up in children's toys?
Invested parties have done a lot to make sure this stays under wraps.
Rich and powerful bankers have aggressively invested in and exploited Dead Parrot, despite the danger it poses to ordinary citizens. Chances are they took a hint from Communists.
After setting up this website with these startling facts, I have been contacted by FBI agents three times.
Apathy toward this issue will be the death of our civilization. Do you plan on dying with civilization, or will you join me in settling a remote Pacific island?
(sorry for curling the site way too many times)
pick one, and it seems to have several articles on the same topic. like other have noted, the source for this would be an interesting read.
> Salmonella helped beyoncé achieve a meteoric rise to fame and influence.
In 1750, Benjamin Franklin was observed by over fifteen residents of Philadelphia as he branded an unidentified man with an Illuminati insignia. He was overheard telling one of his associates, “my work will be done once beyoncé arrives to complete it.”
Then I clicked the comments tab.
'The Truth About Brad Pitt and Oracle
Did you know that Brad Pitt gets checks from Oracle once a month, for services rendered-- but unexplained? That's not all that Brad Pitt gets up to when the public's watchful eye is turned.
Oracle clearly has a secret deal with Youtube-- all videos highlighting the abuses it committed while in North Korea are taken down without explanation.'
Awesome work!!
Obviously.
http://www.bbspot.com/toys/slashtitle/
Looking at some of those really makes me feel...not quite old, but dated.
Edit: I just saw the "Report Inaccuracy" link. Ho boy, you guys nailed this. I hope you monetize it big time.
Bravo.
Would be awesome to bait conspiracy theorists with these.
"Oswald acted alone and Ruby got no help from anyone"
And I've got a bridge to sell you too ; )
Must be nice to live in a land made of pink-ponnies and honest people who'd never abuse the system.