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"Of course juju works, he doesn't know what he is saying," said one trader who lingered with a scowl on his face. In his pocket was a black amulet, a small lea
by daemoens 5y ago
"Of course juju works, he doesn't know what he is saying," said one trader who lingered with a scowl on his face.
In his pocket was a black amulet, a small leather pouch containing supposedly magic charms, that he said was for protection. However, he was not interested in publicly demonstrating its powers, not even for $6,000.
This man wouldn't prove his powers, even when he could only stand to gain from it. People act the exact same way everywhere when it comes to this type of belief.
- circlefavshape 5y agoHe'd stand to gain money, but from the sound of the article he'd lose social standing, and it takes a lot of money to offset something like that
- kazinator 5y agoThere is no "would" here; he couldn't prove anything and the money is safe. But let's say we live in a magical universe in which juju is real and yet someone is foolish enough to offer a lot of money for a proof. How would the prover lose social standing? He proved wrong that obnoxious nay-sayer. He'd be a juju hero, with stars in his eyes. Or maybe not. If juju were real, he would also have been trampled by a throng of others trying similarly to get the easy money. What I suspect is that there might be an element in the juju mythology which stipulates that any wielder of juju power who tries to prove juju to nonbelievers will die.
- circlefavshape 5y agoWhat I meant was he'd lose social standing by failing to prove something everyone in his social milieu thinks is obviously true. Big risk to take if you have any doubts at all, unless the potential payoff is v large Saw a documentary back in the 90s about similar stuff in India - a group of young "rationalists" going around debunking stuff. I wonder has it made any material difference in the last 30 years
- wincy 5y agoOh yeah there’s a video where an Indian doctor is standing there being “cursed” by a man who claimed to be able to kill people with a look (evil eye?) Nothing happened to the doctor. I just tried to find it on YouTube but like most primary sources its been buried by SEO and cute thumbnails.
- ranger_danger 5y agoHe could have offered any amount of money in the world, they still would not have done it.
- nkrisc 5y agoHe'd lose social standing because he knew it would never work. Grifters know they're grifters, even if they deny it to their dying breath.
- dfxm12 5y agoThis man wouldn't prove his powers, even when he could only stand to gain from it. I disagree that one can only stand to gain from "proving" the supernatural. The value is in that it is not provable; thus it is also not debunkable or replicable.
- fsckboy 5y ago>The value is in that it is not provable do you have proof that it's not provable?