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The message of the article seems to be that everyone should just chill out about whether Geller is really performing magical feats or not — he himself persists
by superposeur 3y ago
The message of the article seems to be that everyone should just chill out about whether Geller is really performing magical feats or not — he himself persists in saying that he is and lots of people persist in believing him.
I strenuously disagree with this attitude and agree with James Randi that chilling out about what is actually, literally true is a dangerous step. When this mushy mentality sets in, bad people will find a way to use this to their advantage.
This is especially true in our era of competing narratives, misinformation, and deepfakes.
- unsupp0rted 3y agoAgreed. > If Mr. Geller can’t actually bend metal with his brain — and civility and fairness demands this “if” — he is the author of a benign charade This isn’t a benign charade.
- arp242 3y ago> This is especially true in our era of competing narratives, misinformation, and deepfakes. That's especially why Gellar doesn't really seem all that important. All he really does is claim some magic tricks are "real", and on the harmful-bullshit-scale it probably rates pretty low.
- NikkiA 3y agoISTR Copperfield does the same with most of his tricks, although everyone is aware he didn't actually make the statue of liberty disappear, or step through a wall. I think it's because Geller's claims are small enough to not be obvious BS to everyone, yet they are obvious BS to most people.
- cubefox 3y agoAs far as I'm aware Copperfield never claimed to have psychic powers.
- stuart78 3y agoThis article was so bad. The comparisons to AI were forced, and the idea that tricking mining companies out of millions is somehow morally superior to tricking individuals is ridiculous. Both involve the exact same deceit and poor character.
- jacquesm 3y agoWith half the planet on Reiki, healing crystals and essential oils I don't think Geller needs to worry about his income and while Randi is very much right plenty of people will chose to believe rather than to use their brains.
- globular-toast 3y agoFunny that you mention those things but not that Catholics (1.4 billion people) supposedly believe that transubstantiation literally turns bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. Do we just accept that they don't really believe what they say they believe? Do the Reiki people really believe it? My heuristics for telling what people really believe are observing what they laugh at and observing what they get offended by. Nobody laugh or get offended by something they consider to be nonsense. Nobody would get offended if you disputed their belief in gravity. Nobody would laugh if you joked about something imaginary with no basis in reality. But I do believe if you made the right joke about transubstantiation then people would laugh, because they don't really believe it. Same for spoon bending or crystals etc.
- jacquesm 3y ago> Funny that you mention those things but not that Catholics (1.4 billion people) supposedly believe that transubstantiation literally turns bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. Does it need mentioning? Were you not aware of this? Or do you think that maybe I left it out because offending people because of their religion is counterproductive in discussions like these?