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We have at least two new Republican members of the House of Representatives who belong to a cult which believes that every Democrat is involved in a human traff

by evan_ 6y ago

We have at least two new Republican members of the House of Representatives who belong to a cult which believes that every Democrat is involved in a human trafficking operation that kidnaps nearly a million children a year, tortures them to death, and uses their bodies to generate a secret drug that they're all addicted to. The "leader" of this cult, who our new House members have pledged loyalty to, is a pseudonymous poster on a message board that's otherwise used mainly for child pornography, who they believe is sent from a secret arm of the government and is also a time traveller and possibly an angel of God. What common ground do you expect the Dems should find with them?

discreteevent 6y ago
I think the parent is trying to say that you don't get very far if you always focus on the point of conflict? So in this case, out of all the Republicans, you wouldn't start with these two.
mistermann 6y ago
It's a fairly common occurrence to read like this here on HN. What's much less common is curiosity about whether the claims are actually/precisely true. You have made several extraordinary claims about the state of reality in your comment - do you happen to have extraordinary evidence to accompany these claims? Another way of putting it might be: what is the source of your knowledge on these specific matters?
- evan_ 6y ago
  The rep-elects are Marjorie Taylor Greene[0] and Lauren Boebert[1]. The conspiracy theory cult I'm talking about is qanon[2]. If you're asking me to prove that Democrats are not kidnapping children by the hundreds of thousands through a nationwide network of caves and tunnels, I don't really think I'm the person you need to talk to. edit: yeah checked the post history and you're a qanon apologist. Find something better to do with your life. [0]: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/03/qanon-marjorie-taylor-greene-wins-congress https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/03/qanon-marjor... [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/01/who-is-lauren-boebert-republican-primary-qanon-trump https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/01/who-is-laure... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon
  - mistermann 6y ago
    From your original comment.... > We have at least two new Republican members of the House of Representatives who belong to a cult which believes that every Democrat is involved in a human trafficking operation that kidnaps nearly a million children a year, tortures them to death, and uses their bodies to generate a secret drug that they're all addicted to. A cult is a collection of people, each of whom possesses their own brain. Can you explain how you seem to think you have insight into the contents of all of these brains? It is perhaps worth noting that racists also make claims similar to yours. > The "leader" of this cult...is a pseudonymous poster on a message board... This is a rumour. A conspiracy theory. Who the "leader" of QAnon is, is unknown to anyone except the individual or organization who started it. > ...who our new House members have pledged loyalty to... Do you have a citation for this, or is this more mind reading? > ...on a message board that's otherwise used mainly for child pornography Do you have a citation for this claim? > ...who they believe is sent from a secret arm of the government and is also a time traveller and possibly an angel of God. Again, how is it that you know the beliefs of other people? > What common ground do you expect the Dems should find with them? I'm quite a fan of the anti-war and anti-child-trafficking parts. There are likely others, I'm not overly familiar with the movement. The conspiracy communities I frequent tend to think QAnon is a joke, if not a psy op. From your last comment... > If you're asking me to prove that Democrats are not kidnapping children by the hundreds of thousands through a nationwide network of caves and tunnels, I don't really think I'm the person you need to talk to. No, I am not asking you that. What I am asking you is contained within the text I wrote. What's interesting about conversations such as these is the irony - here you are mocking a group of people, basically on an epistemic basis. And yet, observe the quality of your epistemology...observe how easily you've fallen for the clever tricks that media persuasion + human consciousness plays on you: - perceptions of ability to read minds (of people you've never met, or observed) - general omniscience (knowing what something "is", without sufficient evidence, and being completely oblivious to it) - an inability to skilfully distinguish between people's actual beliefs (contained within the text I wrote), and your imagination about their beliefs - etc The ironic part is that these are some of the very same shortcomings shared by the most gullible people in conspiracy communities, and yet you mock them. > yeah checked the post history and you're a qanon apologist. Again, there is a difference between perception of reality, and reality itself. On one hand this may seem like a trite observation, but I believe it plays a much bigger role in society than people perceive (in no small part because hardly anyone has ever really put any effort into understanding it in depth). At the very least, I think it's something that each person should have at least a basic understanding of, due to benefits like reduction of delusional thinking. > Find something better to do with your life. You have no way of knowing what I do with my life, or the relative or absolute value of it to myself or others. But let me take a wild guess: your perception of the situation is veeeeeery different, is it not? Do you not have a fairly high resolution perception of who I am, what I do, the impact of that on the world, etc? As a thought experiment, I encourage you to ponder how all of this knowledge (specific knowledge about me, but also of others) got into your mind. What is the lineage [1] of this information? I believe that if you are able to exert enough control over your mind to do perform this experiment with some decent skill, you may discover some interesting new ideas. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_lineage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_lineage EDIT: Also, I would appreciate it if you do not tell me or others what to do. Authoritarianism doesn't have a great track record, and it's also rather rude.

by evan_ 6y ago

discreteevent 6y ago

I think the parent is trying to say that you don't get very far if you always focus on the point of conflict? So in this case, out of all the Republicans, you wouldn't start with these two.

mistermann 6y ago

It's a fairly common occurrence to read like this here on HN. What's much less common is curiosity about whether the claims are actually/precisely true. You have made several extraordinary claims about the state of reality in your comment - do you happen to have extraordinary evidence to accompany these claims? Another way of putting it might be: what is the source of your knowledge on these specific matters?

evan_ 6y ago
The rep-elects are Marjorie Taylor Greene[0] and Lauren Boebert[1]. The conspiracy theory cult I'm talking about is qanon[2]. If you're asking me to prove that Democrats are not kidnapping children by the hundreds of thousands through a nationwide network of caves and tunnels, I don't really think I'm the person you need to talk to. edit: yeah checked the post history and you're a qanon apologist. Find something better to do with your life. [0]: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/03/qanon-marjorie-taylor-greene-wins-congress https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/03/qanon-marjor... [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/01/who-is-lauren-boebert-republican-primary-qanon-trump https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/01/who-is-laure... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon
- mistermann 6y ago
  From your original comment.... > We have at least two new Republican members of the House of Representatives who belong to a cult which believes that every Democrat is involved in a human trafficking operation that kidnaps nearly a million children a year, tortures them to death, and uses their bodies to generate a secret drug that they're all addicted to. A cult is a collection of people, each of whom possesses their own brain. Can you explain how you seem to think you have insight into the contents of all of these brains? It is perhaps worth noting that racists also make claims similar to yours. > The "leader" of this cult...is a pseudonymous poster on a message board... This is a rumour. A conspiracy theory. Who the "leader" of QAnon is, is unknown to anyone except the individual or organization who started it. > ...who our new House members have pledged loyalty to... Do you have a citation for this, or is this more mind reading? > ...on a message board that's otherwise used mainly for child pornography Do you have a citation for this claim? > ...who they believe is sent from a secret arm of the government and is also a time traveller and possibly an angel of God. Again, how is it that you know the beliefs of other people? > What common ground do you expect the Dems should find with them? I'm quite a fan of the anti-war and anti-child-trafficking parts. There are likely others, I'm not overly familiar with the movement. The conspiracy communities I frequent tend to think QAnon is a joke, if not a psy op. From your last comment... > If you're asking me to prove that Democrats are not kidnapping children by the hundreds of thousands through a nationwide network of caves and tunnels, I don't really think I'm the person you need to talk to. No, I am not asking you that. What I am asking you is contained within the text I wrote. What's interesting about conversations such as these is the irony - here you are mocking a group of people, basically on an epistemic basis. And yet, observe the quality of your epistemology...observe how easily you've fallen for the clever tricks that media persuasion + human consciousness plays on you: - perceptions of ability to read minds (of people you've never met, or observed) - general omniscience (knowing what something "is", without sufficient evidence, and being completely oblivious to it) - an inability to skilfully distinguish between people's actual beliefs (contained within the text I wrote), and your imagination about their beliefs - etc The ironic part is that these are some of the very same shortcomings shared by the most gullible people in conspiracy communities, and yet you mock them. > yeah checked the post history and you're a qanon apologist. Again, there is a difference between perception of reality, and reality itself. On one hand this may seem like a trite observation, but I believe it plays a much bigger role in society than people perceive (in no small part because hardly anyone has ever really put any effort into understanding it in depth). At the very least, I think it's something that each person should have at least a basic understanding of, due to benefits like reduction of delusional thinking. > Find something better to do with your life. You have no way of knowing what I do with my life, or the relative or absolute value of it to myself or others. But let me take a wild guess: your perception of the situation is veeeeeery different, is it not? Do you not have a fairly high resolution perception of who I am, what I do, the impact of that on the world, etc? As a thought experiment, I encourage you to ponder how all of this knowledge (specific knowledge about me, but also of others) got into your mind. What is the lineage [1] of this information? I believe that if you are able to exert enough control over your mind to do perform this experiment with some decent skill, you may discover some interesting new ideas. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_lineage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_lineage EDIT: Also, I would appreciate it if you do not tell me or others what to do. Authoritarianism doesn't have a great track record, and it's also rather rude.