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Principles of Applied Epistemology (APPLIED EPISTEMOLOGY)
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Mick Harper
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We are always going on about 'academese' because it is the chief way universities obscure, from themselves as much as others, how absolutely worthless most of their output is. Here is a wondrous account by someone who went the whole ten years, came out the other side, learned her lesson and still has no idea what she has actually witnessed at first hand. https://medium.com/melissa-miles-mccarter/what-i-didnt-learn-about-writing-from-grad-school-4dd1c645c06b

Doubtless she is, even now, scrimping to the bone to make sure her own children do likewise.
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Mick Harper
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We once ran a competition that offered a prize to anyone who could name a conspiracy theory that turned out to be true. We got a few offers from conspiracy nuts who pointed out that the conspiracy theory they believed in was true, but otherwise no takers. This is important in a hundred-white-sheep kind of way. So I was taken by this headline

Eight Crazy Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out To Be True

Needless to say they weren't but they're worth itemising for cladistical reasons

The existence of the Mafia
CIA using truth serum experiments on unknowing US citizens
Big building firms using asbestos
FBI using dirty tricks on lawful protest groups
The Bohemian Grove Society
CIA flooding Los Angeles with crack cocaine
Fake eye witness accounts of Iraq atrocities to justify the Gulf War
Hiring Nazi war criminals for the US space program

All bog standard normal conspiracies but in interestingly different ways. See here for the details https://historyofyesterday.com/8-crazy-conspiracy-theories-that-turned-out-to-be-true-13f6a4be23f3
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Grant



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It’s not a conspiracy theory because it’s already an indisputable fact that both political parties in the US cheat during elections. The Republicans withdraw the vote from people with even minor criminal records (ie 50% of black people) and the Democrats get out their vote by using “community leaders” to hoover up minority voters. This has gone on for decades and the only question is did the Democrats push it this year way beyond the usual and accepted cheating?

My answer to that is why wouldn’t they? They had convinced themselves that Trump was the anti-Christ. Anything was acceptable, and the introduction of mass mail voting made it easy. They would have been betraying their ideals if they hadn’t cheated.
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Mick Harper
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As you say, this is just politics. Your conspiracy theorist roots are only betrayed in your second paragraph when you start talking about 'they' who have the power to signal to one another that this time it's different, it's D (for Donald) Day, and we'll have to arrange for a global pandemic so we can introduce mass mail voting and then ... well, that bit really is secret but since I'm not a Trump supporter but a dispassionate observer of events you can take my word for it.

I'll tell you about how they arranged for hundreds of opinion polls to be consistent with a Biden win and not a Trump win later. If they let me live that long.
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Wile E. Coyote


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I do like Sydney Powell's defence to the defamation law suit by Dominion Voting Systems, and Smartmatic, that they were part of a conspiracy to defraud Trump of the election. Sydney's novel defence is that “no reasonable person would” believe that her comments “were truly statements of fact.”......
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Ishmael


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Grant wrote:
The Republicans withdraw the vote from people with even minor criminal records (ie 50% of black people)


Like they would vote anyway.

Democrats want to give the vote to prisoners so they can farm them for votes in precisely the way they currently farm nursing homes.
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Ishmael


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Mick Harper wrote:
I'll tell you about how they arranged for hundreds of opinion polls to be consistent with a Biden win and not a Trump win later. If they let me live that long.


The opinion polls were not consistent.

You know absolutely nothing about the matter. Yet you pontificate expecting correction for the pleasure of taking a few swipes at those who do understand these matters. I'm agog at your willful ignorance.
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Mick Harper
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So you are inclining to 'it's just politics' rather than 'it must be a giant conspiracy'. As it says in the Good Book "A late repenter is a great repenter".
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Ishmael


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Peter Navarro released a report on precisely how the election was stolen and that report doesn't even mention voting machines.

Was there malfeasance with the voting machines? Almost certainly. But that isn't necessary to account for what happened.

As for Powell, she is making the case that assertions before a court of law are akin to hypotheses that are meant to be tested within the courtroom. She argues, as a legal matter, that lawyers must have the right to advance such theories in defence of their clients in pursuit of the finding of fact.

Does she believe her hypothesis? Yes. Is it nevertheless a hypothesis. Yes.

Really. It's not hard. But when you enjoy sopping up propaganda from Anderson Cooper, what can be done? In the end, you are an elite. You will always prefer the opinions and judgments of the elite. Who am I to correct you? I'm a nobody. A nothing. What I have to say is----as you write---of no value at all.
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Mick Harper
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You know absolutely nothing about the matter.

Surely not 'absolutely nothing'. This is what we get from academics urging us to 'consult the literature' despite us having beavered away in the vineyard for so many years.

I'm agog at your wilful ignorance
Surely it is not 'wilful'? Did you mean 'woeful'?

Yet you pontificate
I do rather. Being the Pope.

expecting correction for the pleasure of taking a few swipes at those who do understand these matters.

I cannot entirely follow your meaning here but I think you are summing up the essence of Applied Epistemology.

The opinion polls were not consistent

Well, we did if you remember have a long discussion about this. If memory serves, 7,943 opinion polls consistently showed either a close-ish race or a clear Biden victory and one (which you instanced and was from an obscure college) pointed to a clear Trump win. Perhaps you meant 'unanimous'.
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Ishmael


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Since this thread is ostensibly about Applied Epistemology (though it has most certainly been hijacked) allow me to address this matter in those terms.

There are many principles I might invoke to nudge skeptics toward my position. Invocation of most of these principles, however, would require at least some knowledge of the opposing case, which it is evident you lack on the whole. But there is one point I can make that might reach you as it requires only knowledge of the material daily fed to you by the likes of Anderson Cooper.

The case made by CNN is this belief that the election was stolen is not merely incorrect. The case they make is that this belief is prima face ridiculous; a belief with less credibility (pace the US Navy) than belief in alien spaceships visiting planet Earth.

In every media outlet of any significance, all persons claiming the election to have been rigged are made objects of unending ridicule. None are permitted to present their case directly to viewers. The excuse given is that the network cannot, in good concience, allow itself to be a platform for assertions so nonsensical. There is more than a twinge of moralizing in this. The signal to viewers being that consideration of such perspectives is both crazy and immoral.

But ask yourself this question.

Is it really likely that 90% of Republican voters and 20% of Democrat voters would subscribe to an idea that is so contemptuous?

Of course not.

Now this does not mean that those who believe the election to have been stolen are correct. But it does mean that the media is painting something as incredible that must, indeed, have some measure of merit. It must be a case worth hearing and debating.

And yet that debate never happens.

Shouldn't that also tell you something?
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Mick Harper
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Does she believe her hypothesis? Yes. Is it nevertheless a hypothesis. Yes.

I see now the source of your confusion. On the campaign trail she did not mention that it was a hypothesis -- she couldn't have been sued for defamation if she had. Nor did she claim to be speaking in a privileged position as Trump's lawyer, she couldn't be sued for defamation if she had (though she should explain to her client that, if so, he can).

Really. It's not hard. But when you enjoy sopping up propaganda from Anderson Cooper, what can be done?

Listen to it? That was what Wiley heard as well and we can't both have been suffering from auditory hallucinations. Unless Mr Cooper prepares a British version of his program beforehand and puts it out simultaneously. Yes, you may wish to look into that. There could be a Canadian edition as well.

I'm a nobody. A nothing. What I have to say is----as you write---of no value at all.

Honestly, Ishmael, you mustn't get so depressed. We all started from that position once. You must buckle down and resolve one day to be a 'somebody', a 'something', a person I will be proud to write of as having some value, however small. As the Good Book says, "Every worm has a noble place in aerating the soil that the beasts of the field may have their daily sustenance."
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Mick Harper
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The case made by CNN is this belief that the election was stolen is not merely incorrect. The case they make is that this belief is prima face ridiculous

Do you honestly believe I don't know this? They're fookin' liberals for Chrissake.

In every media outlet of any significance, all persons claiming the election to have been rigged are made objects of unending ridicule.

They're fookin' liberals, Ishmael

None are permitted to present their case directly to viewers. The excuse given is that the network cannot, in good concience, allow itself to be a platform for assertions so nonsensical. There is more than a twinge of moralizing in this. The signal to viewers being that consideration of such perspectives is both crazy and immoral.

Did I mention, they're fookin' liberals?

But ask yourself this question. Is it really likely that 90% of Republican voters and 20% of Democrat voters would subscribe to an idea that is so contemptuous?

Are you serious? Fifty-seven per cent of Americans believe in alien abductions. Eight-three per cent believe in mildly surprised Jewish women being impregnated by creators of universes. A hundred and eighteen per cent believe America is a force for good in the world.

And yet that debate never happens. Shouldn't that also tell you something?

It tells me it'll never happen while fookin' liberals are in charge. But Gawd help us if you and your tribe are ever in charge. Not because you are any worse than they are but because the transition from one to another usually involves force and every one of your lot (apart from you, I accept that) is a gun-toting maniac. Why you would want to hang out with them is something I will never understand.

PS Before you sound off, I have no objection to the right to bear arms. I pefer to live in a country where people don't but that's a matter of individual choice, not an AE principle.
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Grant



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Ishmael is right that the election fraud case has never been entertained by the media . As soon as Trump alleged fraud we were told that this was an allegation for which there is no evidence - before they had carried out any investigation whatsoever.

And you still haven’t answered my question. What did you think when Florida fell to Trump with an increased majority?
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Ishmael


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Nearly half of Americans believe in aliens, and almost as many believe aliens are visiting earth, according to a new survey. However, less than 20% believe in alien abduction, and a bit less than that claim to have seen a UFO.
-- Huffpost


Doing my part to fight illiteracy.
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