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This is sheer beauty. Once upon a time I would experience anxiety when I ran into this kooky stuff. Now I find it delightful because I have come to realize that

by teilo 10y ago

This is sheer beauty. Once upon a time I would experience anxiety when I ran into this kooky stuff. Now I find it delightful because I have come to realize that is it impossible to have a rational discussion with irrational people, and in any society there will always be a significant population that does not yield to rational thought. While one might argue that such people are detrimental to the mental and intellectual health of a society, I find those claims to be mostly posturing. With some exceptions, these people are mostly harmless. So what to do? Why fret about it? Study the phenomenon and enjoy it.

crispyambulance 10y ago
> ... it impossible to have a rational discussion with irrational people ... Not necessarily. Many are able to compartmentalize irrational beliefs into their everyday lives. You can have folks that appear perfectly rational in almost all things and live full professional lives. Yet when they discuss their tar-baby, "the crazy" comes out. I would lump fundamentalist religious people into this category. I think if one is able to introspect hard enough, it is possible for _everyone_ to realize that they're holding irrational beliefs at some level. Whether or not this is harmful depends on the norms of the culture, and to what extent one is willing to act on their beliefs or impose them on others.
- logfromblammo 10y ago
  I believe in crazy stuff--like batshit crazy stuff. I can still have a rational discussion, because I severed that part of my personality and crammed it into a tiny, fortified metal box inside my brain. I have found that it is still useful for writing fiction. That is, for writing things that the remainder of myself, and everyone else in the real world around me, can recognize and know to be untrue. Because there is no way that raving lunatic in there could possibly know whether any of the things it shouts out could be true. Could it? It shouldn't really matter that it has such an eye for detail and a knack for explaining things that seem otherwise unexplainable in a rational world. I heartily encourage you to not make any attempt to pry that box open. Don't touch the lock. Mind the warning signs. The crazy is inside the box. The rational is outside it. I should probably stop talking to my crazy so much, but it's so much more entertaining than television. It really is an infinite source of amusement. I mean, the story about Devil's Tower being a fossilized tree stump left over from a previous epoch is just amateur stuff in comparison.
mbrumlow 10y ago
I feel you have not fully analyzed how far reaching silly ideas have affected your life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law
macintux 10y ago
I think if you broaden your view a bit, you'll see why it's not harmless: climate change deniers fall into the same basic group, as do anti-vaxxers. Both dangerous for different reasons.
- DanielBMarkham 10y ago
  I think if you broaden your view a bit more, you'll realize that humans are at heart irrational animals. Understanding, appreciating, and respecting the flat-earthers is a way of understanding and appreciating yourself, because you never truly see the many ways you are broken. It's the ones that don't understand this who are truly dangerous, not folks who believe weird stuff. You can believe anything you want with a spirit of humility and openness.
  - Nursie 10y ago
    Erm, no, people that believe things like vaccines or climate change are conspiracies do actual, measurable harm. Humans are irrational, indeed. That doesn't mean that some of the far-out crazy isn't directly or indirectly harmful.
jshevek 10y ago
While there is something to be said for seeing things in a positive light, and accepting that which you cannot change -- the fact remains: these people vote! They are a clear threat to rational policy making. Also, their children are often victims of their irrationality, sometimes dying horrible and needless deaths for the sake of their parent's beliefs.

by teilo 10y ago

crispyambulance 10y ago

> ... it impossible to have a rational discussion with irrational people ... Not necessarily. Many are able to compartmentalize irrational beliefs into their everyday lives. You can have folks that appear perfectly rational in almost all things and live full professional lives. Yet when they discuss their tar-baby, "the crazy" comes out. I would lump fundamentalist religious people into this category. I think if one is able to introspect hard enough, it is possible for _everyone_ to realize that they're holding irrational beliefs at some level. Whether or not this is harmful depends on the norms of the culture, and to what extent one is willing to act on their beliefs or impose them on others.

logfromblammo 10y ago
I believe in crazy stuff--like batshit crazy stuff. I can still have a rational discussion, because I severed that part of my personality and crammed it into a tiny, fortified metal box inside my brain. I have found that it is still useful for writing fiction. That is, for writing things that the remainder of myself, and everyone else in the real world around me, can recognize and know to be untrue. Because there is no way that raving lunatic in there could possibly know whether any of the things it shouts out could be true. Could it? It shouldn't really matter that it has such an eye for detail and a knack for explaining things that seem otherwise unexplainable in a rational world. I heartily encourage you to not make any attempt to pry that box open. Don't touch the lock. Mind the warning signs. The crazy is inside the box. The rational is outside it. I should probably stop talking to my crazy so much, but it's so much more entertaining than television. It really is an infinite source of amusement. I mean, the story about Devil's Tower being a fossilized tree stump left over from a previous epoch is just amateur stuff in comparison.

mbrumlow 10y ago

I feel you have not fully analyzed how far reaching silly ideas have affected your life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law

macintux 10y ago

I think if you broaden your view a bit, you'll see why it's not harmless: climate change deniers fall into the same basic group, as do anti-vaxxers. Both dangerous for different reasons.

DanielBMarkham 10y ago
I think if you broaden your view a bit more, you'll realize that humans are at heart irrational animals. Understanding, appreciating, and respecting the flat-earthers is a way of understanding and appreciating yourself, because you never truly see the many ways you are broken. It's the ones that don't understand this who are truly dangerous, not folks who believe weird stuff. You can believe anything you want with a spirit of humility and openness.
- Nursie 10y ago
  Erm, no, people that believe things like vaccines or climate change are conspiracies do actual, measurable harm. Humans are irrational, indeed. That doesn't mean that some of the far-out crazy isn't directly or indirectly harmful.

jshevek 10y ago

While there is something to be said for seeing things in a positive light, and accepting that which you cannot change -- the fact remains: these people vote! They are a clear threat to rational policy making. Also, their children are often victims of their irrationality, sometimes dying horrible and needless deaths for the sake of their parent's beliefs.