I don’t know about you, but the world seems, to me, to be more out of sorts than ever before. It’s like we have abandoned reasoning and logic in favour of irrationality, fear, and reactionary behaviours.
I could be wrong. After all, I’ve only ever lived now. It could have always been this way. I will say, that my grandfather, who fought in World War II, often said in his 90’s that the world today is more messed up than when Hitler hit the scene.
That’s a huge statement I know, but if you turn on the news and check out what is happening on an international scale things seem quite messed up.
There’s a global refugee crisis, a government is overthrown roughly every couple months, and somehow the smallpox are making a comeback in the developed world.
Is it because we are more interconnected that we are able to know about all the trials and tribulations of the people in far off places? Or are we really on the brink of something huge.
Recently, the clock that estimates the countdown to doomsday ticked closer towards midnight than it had since the height of the Cold War, when nuclear armageddon was a daily fear.
And somehow, this heightened political tension has seemingly given people the license to act a fool.
Inarguably conspiracy theories are getting crazier and more widespread. What was considered once a fringe belief now has mainstream status.
I am flatly astonished that people are generally regressing. Or maybe I was a naive child, and now I just see the light.
But it’s not all bad, the era we are in has birthed some social movements which aim to improve equality for all by targeting the experiences of certain minorities, such as Black Lives Matter and the #MeToo movement.
Are we going backwards? Because what should be the golden era of enlightenment has turned into the age of the selfie.
I feel it is my duty to attack some of the craziest most dangerous belief systems out there, that generally do us no good, and I’m not talking about political ideologies. I’m referring to what has surfaced on the internet and made it’s way into the lives of people all over the globe.
So here we go, my tirade against all that represents anti-good reasoning.
Flat earthers
Okay so wow, I thought this one got settled way back. Not only did astronomers figure out that we are on a GLOBE, but that we orbit the sun, several hundreds of years ago.
I almost believe that flat earthers must have begun as a joke, then as the stupid flocked to their cause it gained some legitimacy, then it was too late for the rest of us. We’ll have to hear from these people for quite some time before it dies down.
To these people it doesn’t matter that there are pictures of the Earth taken by men who landed on the moon, or that many satellites, rockets, and other space craft have all used their sensors to confirm our astrological surroundings. They only care that it is all a giant conspiracy, with NASA at the helm, and they are adamant they won’t be sucked in.
It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. These people will not be sucked into the truth, they refuse!
With every conspiracy you have to ask yourself, cui bono? Who benefits from all this elaborate work to fool us all into believing we don’t live on a disk floating in the cosmos?
I mean, sailors used to believe they could sail off the edge of the world, but that was before the widespread acceptance of the science and mathematics that proves we are on a globe.
I suppose we all failed the flat earthers, because some serious level of scientific literacy has escaped them and it must be the education systems fault. Or maybe they are unstable mentally and readily jump to farfetched conclusions. Either way we collectively have dropped the ball to allow this antiquated idea to resurface in 2019.
The first people who ever said the Earth was round and orbited the Sun were burned at the stake. But eventually, their ideas were accepted and later confirmed with telescopes so I guess in death they won that argument.
The thing about flat earthers is that you could take them up into space and show them the Earth floating there and they still would resist.
This ideology is more indicative of the times we live in than we care to acknowledge. More and more people resists what is true for what is favourable. Truth over everything!
9/11 was an inside job
Now this one really pisses people off. And so it should. It is only the most devastating attack on American soil of all time, and if it was allowed to happen by the US government than we truly are living in the end of times.
But THAT IS NOT THE CASE.
9/11 is directly associated with American interests in the middle East. It is the response of terrorists to their belief that Americans have ruined their homeland.
That is a really simplistic take on the situation but if I went into why and how Osama Bin Laden came to be I would be here all day.
Essentially, people don’t trust their government and this belief kind of just takes that and runs with it. Sure you can point out all the ‘odd’ things that happened when the buildings collapsed but you wouldn’t get very far with a reasonable, rational person.
This belief is really inflammatory and says more about the state of mind of Americans than it does about their government. I’m not saying that most, or even a significant number of people believe in this, just that they are out there and they really fucking believe.
In relation to this, I kind of just believe that people who already hated their government, or authority in general, saw in 9/11 what they already think about. The government trying to get one over on you is a common theme in American politics, so reacting this way, I guess, is to be expected.
Still, many people are suffering from the consequences of 9/11 and so hearing this crazy shit must drive them mad. I know it certainly bothers me. I mean, George Bush wasn’t a saint by any means, but you really think he’d let that happen?
I do not…
Vaccines cause autism
Every mommy blogger or alternative health mag is currently pushing that vaccines are unhealthy and can potentially cause autism.
There is no scientific basis for these claims. I understand that people with an autistic child are looking for answers, but its not like autism showed up at the same time as vaccines coincidentally.
The truth is there has always been people on the autism spectrum. We didn’t used to have a name for it, but now we do. People of all kinds of abilities have always been. We’re not in a new era of autism, it’s just diagnosed more because doctors have accepted the peer reviewed research about it into the scientific community.
Anti-vaxxers will scream and shout about the ingredients in vaccines, but they are not educated enough to make such judgements.
Gee, do I listen to the person who read for 45 minutes on the internet about this issue, or the doctor who has an 8 year degree, literally has spent 100’s of hours diagnosing and prescribing.
I think it’s obvious who people should listen to, and it’s the god damn medical community.
As a final nail in the coffin to this belief, the ‘doctor’ who began the modern anti-vaccination movement is not a practising doctor anymore.
Scientology
I strongly believe that everyone should be able to espouse any religious beliefs that they choose. But I draw the line at Scientology in that it’s more of a business/cult than a religion.
I’m not going to go into exactly what it is Scientologists believe, but it is out there. It is essentially the plot of science fiction book, because low and behold, it was founded by a science fiction writer.
Members are inducted into the religion when they are told about how contaminated they are with thetans (I won’t go into what that is because its fucking stupid). Then they are indoctrinated and begin paying the church for various levels of attainment.
I know they aren’t the only church that takes money from it’s members but they really want your money in the end.
Tom Cruise makes good movies, but he’s unstable and a Scientologist. It is said that he is so revered (paid a certain amount of money) within the church that people believe he has powers.
I don’t care how pure you are of Thetans, you are not going to levitate ever.
The church has gone out of it’s way to induct celebrities so that it draws a larger crowd. I don’t know if all these people have self esteem issues or something, but I think they are looking for a quick fix to ‘better’ themselves.
People throwing their money away for an increased sense of purity, once again, it would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
The world is a sad place
I really have only touched the tip of the iceberg in the discussion of ‘lacks reasoning’ but I must move on or I’ll be here all day. There are many more things that could be on this list. Maybe I’ll address them at a later date.
But for now, I’m just going to resolve not to leave my house and not to make any new friends.