Absolutely nobody should be surprised that conspiracy theories and bad reporting regarding the Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 tragedy sprang up almost as soon as the plane went down. And with complicated international politics at play, the conspiracies, misinformation and hoaxes came fast and furious. At this point, the most widely accepted theory is that Russian … Continued
It’s quite common to hear people say that they don’t trust vaccines because “Big Pharma only cares about profits” or other appeals to fear of greed. Never mind that vaccines are just about 3% of US pharmaceutical sales — and so are relatively unimportant to drug companies — let’s see where this logic takes us. If making billions … Continued
When “social activists” spread fear-mongering bullshit about some product or technology (e.g., cell phones, artificial sweeteners, corn syrup, GM crops, or whatever), companies in related industries will inevitably defend their products from those attacks. This isn’t sinister or unexpected. You should be equally skeptical of their statements as those of their detractors, but you shouldn’t … Continued
The recent revelation that the IRS targeted conservative political groups is now moving into the second stage of a DC scandal: the first is finding out what happened; the second is finding out how high up it goes. Although it is important to find out many, if any, high-level officials are culpable, high-level participation is … Continued
Defend the Woo 1. Learn a bunch of scientific terms. You don’t have to know what they mean–it kinda helps if you don’t–just know what they are. When engaged in a debate, fling them around without remorse. Hopefully this will confuse or intimidate your opponent into submission. Good examples are “variables,” “controlled environment,” “toxicity,” “quantum,” “double … Continued
The following is a guest post by Steven Horwitz, Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics at St. Lawrence University. Perhaps because money and finance are among the most complex and obscure parts of economics, a variety of cranks and conspiracy theorists have historically aimed their arguments against any number of monetary institutions and practices. In the last hundred … Continued
I believe in a new world order, and so should you.
Sometimes government conspiracies are real. Mental Floss has a list of eight and how they think they could be possible. “WTF, Evolution?” the new tumblr blog that celebrates weird-looking creatures. Obama still doesn’t care about the drug war. Pregnant women’s decisions are definitely the government’s business. It’s even worse if those pregnant women are already in prison. … Continued
