Signs of the Times

[TIC]

I searched high and low for a thread like this, thinking surely one existed and I didn't want to incur in needless duplicity. Alas, I found none.

In any case, I thought damn..... some things today are soooooo radically different in their very core from things from just a few decades ago.

Take a for instance.....

When all is said and done, COVID-19 will certainly be nowhere near the worst pandemic in human history. It will probably fall short of the worst of projections.

However, it is sure to go down in history as.... The Most Vehemently Argued and Denied Pandemic in the History of the Universe.

Why's that, I wonder.

My own theory is that people themselves are different.

Conspiracy theories are a dime a dozen. Throw a rock and you're bound to hit a conspiracy theorist.

People by and large are more rebellious and automatically balk at anything the government or any authority has to say...... including health professionals and authorities.

Also, people will always deny that which they DO NOT WANT TO HEAR. Psychology 101.

I get the economic argument and all that...... but some people are downright belligerent when talking about COVID-19. It's like a raw fucking nerve.



But anyway, I see this as a sign of the times.

There's more, hence the new thread.

titofan do you know who created the phrase conspiracy theorist? the internet only came out in 1991, so not even thirty years ago. i think it's safe to say that not everyone has had the access to information available today for twenty years, i think that is being generous. before that unless you really wanted to study something it was at your library. most people received their information from the media. with things like project mockingbird that information was corrupted. in the beginning the internet was slow & expensive & most people were only starting to find its uses, sites like napster & porn probably took most of their attention. anyway today information is much more readily available, even with censorship & mis-information, people are becoming aware of the lies that have been told. i mentioned a few conspiracy theories to you awhile ago that turn out to be true, the governments have lied & lied, over & over, & have been responsible for the deaths of millions of lives, excluding wars. it's not a matter of not wanting to hear, maybe in case of those that don't want the truth, but a matter of truth & what can be proven to be true

All good points, TIC. Information availability to the public is eons greater today than it was some years ago. That is both good and bad. Bad because with it comes the inevitable flood of fake news..... from all sides. Fake news isn't just the realm of the wicked, evil government wanting to horse-collar everyone into submission. There is plenty of fake news from the other side as well. Serious, stable-minded people are caught in the crossfire between government shenanigans and propaganda, and those who are "drug-like" addicted to conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories, as recent or not-recent as the term may be, have existed in one form or another for many years. Nothing is ever just a simple piece of news. No assassination was ever "just" an assassination. There was always some convoluted story involving many parties and interests. Nothing is taken at face value. No sooner did man landed on the moon than the conspiracy theories started pouring out, calling it all an elaborate hoax. It's probably a part of human nature, to want to question everything.

Something I find oddly exaggerated is this mistrust and fear of governments in general. I guess if we all lived in a dictatorship or just a heavily-censored country, it would be natural to harbor this enormous mistrust and fear. But in a society where everyone can pretty much say what they want..... and certainly do? I just don't see it. Not saying governments are trustworthy at all. But the extreme mistrust and fear of the government shown by a small portion of society, especially in the U.S., is weird. It's like being stuck in a time warp from back when governments were still being formed and the nation was still new.

yeh as i said mis-information exists. there are people paid to spread it. have you seen those videos of walls of phones set up to social media accounts used to inflate opinions? we should question everything to find the truth. there is no free speech anymore, everything is highly censored or now considered hate speech. social media controls what is to be heard. the governments have brought it on themselves with lie after lie. continuing to trust an entity that has been proven over & over to have lied is weird. it reminds me of something i heard about stalin, he pulled all the feathers out of a live chicken then put it down, it was in pain & scared, he threw it some feed & even after what had just happened it followed him around. “People are like this chicken. It doesn’t matter how much pain you inflict on them. The moment you offer them what they need, they will still follow you and turn to you for their survival.”

[TitoFan]

I searched high and low for a thread like this, thinking surely one existed and I didn't want to incur in needless duplicity. Alas, I found none.

In any case, I thought damn..... some things today are soooooo radically different in their very core from things from just a few decades ago.

Take a for instance.....

When all is said and done, COVID-19 will certainly be nowhere near the worst pandemic in human history. It will probably fall short of the worst of projections.

However, it is sure to go down in history as.... The Most Vehemently Argued and Denied Pandemic in the History of the Universe.

Why's that, I wonder.

My own theory is that people themselves are different.

Conspiracy theories are a dime a dozen. Throw a rock and you're bound to hit a conspiracy theorist.

People by and large are more rebellious and automatically balk at anything the government or any authority has to say...... including health professionals and authorities.

Also, people will always deny that which they DO NOT WANT TO HEAR. Psychology 101.

I get the economic argument and all that...... but some people are downright belligerent when talking about COVID-19. It's like a raw fucking nerve.



But anyway, I see this as a sign of the times.

There's more, hence the new thread.

titofan do you know who created the phrase conspiracy theorist? the internet only came out in 1991, so not even thirty years ago. i think it's safe to say that not everyone has had the access to information available today for twenty years, i think that is being generous. before that unless you really wanted to study something it was at your library. most people received their information from the media. with things like project mockingbird that information was corrupted. in the beginning the internet was slow & expensive & most people were only starting to find its uses, sites like napster & porn probably took most of their attention. anyway today information is much more readily available, even with censorship & mis-information, people are becoming aware of the lies that have been told. i mentioned a few conspiracy theories to you awhile ago that turn out to be true, the governments have lied & lied, over & over, & have been responsible for the deaths of millions of lives, excluding wars. it's not a matter of not wanting to hear, maybe in case of those that don't want the truth, but a matter of truth & what can be proven to be true

All good points, TIC. Information availability to the public is eons greater today than it was some years ago. That is both good and bad. Bad because with it comes the inevitable flood of fake news..... from all sides. Fake news isn't just the realm of the wicked, evil government wanting to horse-collar everyone into submission. There is plenty of fake news from the other side as well. Serious, stable-minded people are caught in the crossfire between government shenanigans and propaganda, and those who are "drug-like" addicted to conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories, as recent or not-recent as the term may be, have existed in one form or another for many years. Nothing is ever just a simple piece of news. No assassination was ever "just" an assassination. There was always some convoluted story involving many parties and interests. Nothing is taken at face value. No sooner did man landed on the moon than the conspiracy theories started pouring out, calling it all an elaborate hoax. It's probably a part of human nature, to want to question everything.

Something I find oddly exaggerated is this mistrust and fear of governments in general. I guess if we all lived in a dictatorship or just a heavily-censored country, it would be natural to harbor this enormous mistrust and fear. But in a society where everyone can pretty much say what they want..... and certainly do? I just don't see it. Not saying governments are trustworthy at all. But the extreme mistrust and fear of the government shown by a small portion of society, especially in the U.S., is weird. It's like being stuck in a time warp from back when governments were still being formed and the nation was still new.

yeh as i said mis-information exists. there are people paid to spread it. have you seen those videos of walls of phones set up to social media accounts used to inflate opinions? we should question everything to find the truth. there is no free speech anymore, everything is highly censored or now considered hate speech. social media controls what is to be heard. the governments have brought it on themselves with lie after lie. continuing to trust an entity that has been proven over & over to have lied is weird. it reminds me of something i heard about stalin, he pulled all the feathers out of a live chicken then put it down, it was in pain & scared, he threw it some feed & even after what had just happened it followed him around. “People are like this chicken. It doesn’t matter how much pain you inflict on them. The moment you offer them what they need, they will still follow you and turn to you for their survival.”

As long as you use the same misinformation standard to all sides, you can claim to have your feet on the ground. There are sheep on both sides of the fence.

[Spicoli]

Big Government is very bad. I'm not keen on drones reading citizens for any reason at 200 ft. Just wonder who will be the first arrested for shooting 1 out of the sky . Sadly we've become polarized bands who thrive of political divisions and consider all needed answers and solutions to fall therein. We judge, ridicule and close down on nothing more than catch phrases, dumb hats or banners and single policy stances. For many we go no further than the capital letter on a voter registration to disagree. Mass social media literally with every step now sees large swaths not seek out 'truths or facts' and cross reference points we may disagree with..but simply seek out like minds and narratives agreed with and bunker down like immovable objects. I'll never understand it. We're free thinkers in a beautiful land. Politicians are not teen idols or team sports, they all equally have not earned that freely given adoration. It is healthy to be skeptical but don't be sheep.

[walrus]

Big Government is very bad. I'm not keen on drones reading citizens for any reason at 200 ft. Just wonder who will be the first arrested for shooting 1 out of the sky . Sadly we've become polarized bands who thrive of political divisions and consider all needed answers and solutions to fall therein. We judge, ridicule and close down on nothing more than catch phrases, dumb hats or banners and single policy stances. For many we go no further than the capital letter on a voter registration to disagree. Mass social media literally with every step now sees large swaths not seek out 'truths or facts' and cross reference points we may disagree with..but simply seek out like minds and narratives agreed with and bunker down like immovable objects. I'll never understand it. We're free thinkers in a beautiful land. Politicians are not teen idols or team sports, they all equally have not earned that freely given adoration. It is healthy to be skeptical but don't be sheep.

Term limits. We need term limits in Congress. Congress is not a forward looking body. They see only the best way to maintain their power and influence much of what involved creating massive programs and piling on the debt. If these idiots had 2 terms politics could be a lot different. A line item veto would be nice but I understand the Supreme Court saying it gives too much power to the executive. Still, it’s the only way to get rid of some of the pork in these bills

[TIC]

Big Government is very bad. I'm not keen on drones reading citizens for any reason at 200 ft. Just wonder who will be the first arrested for shooting 1 out of the sky . Sadly we've become polarized bands who thrive of political divisions and consider all needed answers and solutions to fall therein. We judge, ridicule and close down on nothing more than catch phrases, dumb hats or banners and single policy stances. For many we go no further than the capital letter on a voter registration to disagree. Mass social media literally with every step now sees large swaths not seek out 'truths or facts' and cross reference points we may disagree with..but simply seek out like minds and narratives agreed with and bunker down like immovable objects. I'll never understand it. We're free thinkers in a beautiful land. Politicians are not teen idols or team sports, they all equally have not earned that freely given adoration. It is healthy to be skeptical but don't be sheep.

Term limits. We need term limits in Congress. Congress is not a forward looking body. They see only the best way to maintain their power and influence much of what involved creating massive programs and piling on the debt. If these idiots had 2 terms politics could be a lot different. A line item veto would be nice but I understand the Supreme Court saying it gives too much power to the executive. Still, it’s the only way to get rid of some of the pork in these bills

if politicians were unpaid or on a type of minimum wage without benefits i think we would have much better people in control

[NoSavingByTheBell]

For signs of the times, signs of the worst president in history of United States, is here today: “Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very tremendous, powerful light. And I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but we’re going to test it,” he said. “And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, either through the skin or some other way.”

He then went on to speculate about the possibility of using disinfectants as a treatment.

“And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and does a tremendous number on the lungs,” he continued.

Asked directly whether Trump’s suggestion that injecting bleach or using light to treat COVID-19 made sense, Dr. Bryan said his laboratory was not pursuing those ideas, and Dr. Birx said it could not possibly be used in any way whatsoever as a treatment.

It's signs of the times, I hope this answers the topic up above "Signs of the times".

[TitoFan]

For signs of the times, signs of the worst president in history of United States, is here today: “Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very tremendous, powerful light. And I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but we’re going to test it,” he said. “And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, either through the skin or some other way.”

He then went on to speculate about the possibility of using disinfectants as a treatment.

“And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and does a tremendous number on the lungs,” he continued.

Asked directly whether Trump’s suggestion that injecting bleach or using light to treat COVID-19 made sense, Dr. Bryan said his laboratory was not pursuing those ideas, and Dr. Birx said it could not possibly be used in any way whatsoever as a treatment.

It's signs of the times, I hope this answers the topic up above "Signs of the times".

First things first.

Welcome to the forum. I hope you find it enjoyable and decide to stick around. It's like any dysfunctional family, with the scattered spats here and there..... but it works.

On the above, ABSOLUTELY.

It's a sign of the times that we have a President that is a SELF-PROCLAIMED expert on everything from wind turbines to viruses.

You'd think fans would eventually turn away saying....... "Yep, he's unhinged alright." But it ain't gonna happen. Another sign of the times is that we defend the indefensible to the bitter end.

[walrus]

Big Government is very bad. I'm not keen on drones reading citizens for any reason at 200 ft. Just wonder who will be the first arrested for shooting 1 out of the sky . Sadly we've become polarized bands who thrive of political divisions and consider all needed answers and solutions to fall therein. We judge, ridicule and close down on nothing more than catch phrases, dumb hats or banners and single policy stances. For many we go no further than the capital letter on a voter registration to disagree. Mass social media literally with every step now sees large swaths not seek out 'truths or facts' and cross reference points we may disagree with..but simply seek out like minds and narratives agreed with and bunker down like immovable objects. I'll never understand it. We're free thinkers in a beautiful land. Politicians are not teen idols or team sports, they all equally have not earned that freely given adoration. It is healthy to be skeptical but don't be sheep.

Term limits. We need term limits in Congress. Congress is not a forward looking body. They see only the best way to maintain their power and influence much of what involved creating massive programs and piling on the debt. If these idiots had 2 terms politics could be a lot different. A line item veto would be nice but I understand the Supreme Court saying it gives too much power to the executive. Still, it’s the only way to get rid of some of the pork in these bills

if politicians were unpaid or on a type of minimum wage without benefits i think we would have much better people in control

The founding fathers just figured as time progressed real people would serve in government for a short period of time and return to regular life. They didn’t figure it would be a lifelong appointment although there were a movement to elevate Washington to a monarch like figure. It was quite a gesture Washington made walking away from power. Now we have senators who won’t even step down when senile or terminally ill. If the people wanted to revolt in this country it would be easy. Vote out every sitting senator and congressmen. Make them know we are fed up instead of automatically pulling the lever for the incumbent. We had some real radicals at the constitutional convention. I don’t think Jefferson was all that but Jeffersonian democracy is a cool structure. When you read the federalist papers or other writings which included Madison’s ideas you get a feel for what they really wanted. John Adams was already pissed when his son was in office and created several “federal bureaus of”. He figured we were losing the plot then.

[ruthless rocco]

The USA is not a democracy. Once you accept that, you can start to have a real discussion of how to go about changing the way it's run.