Interesting article, Betsy. If only, though, if only, we only needed to understand logical fallacies. You show images from two sites on logical fallacies, www.logicallyfallacious.com and www.yourlogicalfallacyis.com. The owners of both these sites, Dr Bo Bennett and Jesse Richardson, respectively, expert as they may be on logical fallacies and cognitive biases, still manage to be totally mainstream thinkers - Bo banned me from his site although I am always perfectly civil and reasonable and when he argued with me he shamelessly and seemingly with no recognition lapsed into typical fallacies such as ad hominem and appeal to authority. I wrote to Jesse ... and, of course, no response. I just came across a link to this article on Jesse's LinkedIn.
It starts with: "Whether you know it or not, you have a scale of believability for conspiracy theories in your mind," and there's a Conspiracy Test you can do. I started to do it but it was so infantile and sillily presented I just abandoned it. You might have more grit in pursuing it if you are so inclined.
I invite you to sign up to logicallyfallacious and go a few rounds with Bo. Would love to see that! Let me know if you do.
I think this quote from social psychologist, Carole Wade, really applies: “People can be extremely intelligent, have taken a critical thinking course, and know logic inside and out. Yet they may just become clever debaters, not critical thinkers, because they are unwilling to look at their own biases.”
To my mind you don't have to understand logical fallacies at all if you're essentially an intellectually honest thinker because when you're intellectually honest you naturally don't fall into logical fallacy ... but, unfortunately, most people aren't. However, it's still good to know both logical fallacies and cognitive biases.
1. The authorities decide which events are conspiracies - the Appeal to Authority fallacy
2. Only the majority expert voice counts, the minority expert voice is to be derided and ignored - the Appeal to Common Belief fallacy
3. Professionals do not make claims of conspiracy nor do they theorise - the Strawman fallacy
4. Refuters use the more specific and appropriate term, “psychological operation” or psyop - the Definist fallacy
5. Selecting the obviously invalid argument - the Cherry-picking fallacy
6. OMG! You’re one of those tinfoil-hatted people! - Argument from Intimidation fallacy
7. Your reasoning is based on bias, mine is rational - The Bias Blind Spot
8. Is the fact of conspiracy the main concern? - no, it’s the Big Lie fallacy technique used for millennia to control our minds
9. The sophisticated Big Lie - the addition of the False Dilemma fallacy
10. If those in power had done it they would have … - Hypothesis contrary to fact
11. That’s insane, that cannot be true - Argument from incredulity
12. When the rule is that they must “tell” us the truth underneath the propaganda how is the rejection of the narrative in the realm of “theory”? - The Loaded Question fallacy
Thanks, Petra! Of course there's more to waking up than knowing logical fallacies! But it's so fascinating and right in front of our faces.
I did not look at the sites those graphics came from. I just searched for images and chose the ones I liked best. One one level, not using those because of what the owners of those sites also said or did would be the Genetic fallacy--because someone says some things I don't like, I can't like anything they said even if it's wise or useful. I tend to agree, though, that once I know more of someone's ideas and I find them unpalatable, I tend not to like to quote them for anything. Bertrand Russell is one example for me. Nietzsche is another.
I think I have seen that conspiracy theory quiz, and I had the same reaction you did--got a little way into it and it was so ridiculous I stopped without finishing. Maybe I'll check it out again.
And it's also true about our own biases. That's a whole topic in itself! I tried to put a little of that into my article, encouraging people to look at how we all use these logical fallacies in our own unexamined thinking. I also hoped to point out how logical fallacies are used by the "smartest people in the room" so we can see both the manipulation they are doing and their own lack of clear thinking. They aren't smarter than us. They just want us to think so.
And not only are they not smarter than us--we ourselves are smarter than we think! I know one article in a corner of Substack is not going to have a big impact on how people understand themselves, but even if only one or two stop and say, "Hmmm.....I don't have to be a victim of these self-styled geniuses--I can see through their ruses and outthink them!" I will feel I've made a difference.
Betsy, I didn't mean to suggest that your use of those images means anything just sayin' those two guys are unbelievably mainstream and they really think they need to teach US how to think rather than the other way around. It's incredible!
They think "conspiracy theory" is a legitimate term when it's such a propaganda weapon.
And I know you're not say LFs are the be-all and end-all but these two guys know all the LFs and biases but still do not get it one little bit. That is definitely something to ponder.
I also didn't mean to suggest that you were saying I was saying those things! (infinite regress!) Responding to comments always helps me expand on and clarify my thoughts, and it does sometimes sound like they are meant as a direct response to what the other person wrote. It is hard to believe that anyone still thinks "conspiracy theory" is anything but propaganda--but that just reflects the folks I hang out with, I suppose! Maybe they are examples of the not-fully-human among us who actually lack self-reflective capacity. Glad you are on top of it--reading comments is also educational for all involved.
I have witnessed this so many times online. I'll tune into what I think will be an interesting debate on any given topic and the result is usually quite disappointing. Debates appear to be set up for the spectacle of conflict rather than achieving some new level of understanding. The debaters are well versed in debating "techniques" and "tactics" and believe that winning the debate using the tools available including logical fallacies is all that matters.
When these things are framed as an ongoing respectful conversation they tend to be far more productive without the need for moderators etc.
My local pharmacist was wearing a mask yesterday. She gave her usual jolly greeting through the face nappy as if everything was perfectly normal. I immediately responded with why are you wearing a mask. You know there's absolutely no reason for wearing one. Her tone and demeanor immediately shifted to embarrassment and shame. Her coworker (maskless) popped his head around the corner with a look on his face. Yes, that look. I continued business as usual with the coworker. The masked crusader stood around with mask now around her chin but still sidelined. I resisted the urge to unload information this time (as I have done on other occasions). It always comes across as an unsolicited lecture and I tend to go way too far down that path, all in one go, for the normie mindset. These occurrences usually end with an abrupt change of subject or a decidedly rapid exit by the normie if an escape route is available. Anyway, thought I'd share for comment. This is still the situation in all medical environments here in Spain, but I wonder if the tide is shifting on the mask issue even in these bastions of illogical protocols, these pockets of self harm, these islands of incredulity. Maybe that's all it takes to break the spell. Immediately ask the mask wearer why they are still following along. They are in a tiny minority now even though they cluster together in their places of work. If enough people simply walk in and ask them why they are still playing dress up we could break the final cult members before the next plandemic kicks off. And then all people have to do is refuse to be tested in any way.
I still see the odd person wearing a mask in my city, too. My main reaction is to feel sorry for them because it seems clear at this point that they do so because they are afraid--not of a "virus," but just afraid, on an existential level. And willing to let the world see it! I can't even imagine being that fearful and in need of a soothing symbol that I would carry a blankie around with me all day. I've heard some people say that those still masking find it a way to hide in public, and that, too, is sad and a reflection of how the lat four years, and indeed the way things have been going for decades, is eroding people's self-confidence and joy at being alive. I want to be part of shifting this!
One thing that amazed me in 2020 was how quickly masks became a fashion accessory. Stores were selling all kinds of fancy designs and slogans as were many alt media pundits. My aunt still has a cupboard full of unused flowery masks. and other relatives still keep a pack of fresh face nappies handy just in case!
Many people I have spoken to have not understood why we should question the authority and results of science at all. You can't constantly question the results of entire disciplines, they said. Not even if they lead to the house arrest of entire populations. Something that the so-called fact-checkers have chosen as their business model. So again, deference to authority, because if individuals question sources, they are tin foil hatters. Only the agency with the letter and seal of the state is allowed to scrutinise. A classic relationship of abuse with the authorities.
We as a society have evolved intellectually from the Middle Ages by only about a decade.
This is abundantly clear in all areas of life. In pop culture, in so-called science, in the culture of debate, in reason, in the decline of morals, in the infantilisation of adults, in bellicism.
Unlike in the Middle Ages, we have no plausible excuses that could absolve us from our condition.
I think its more likely humans have devolved--considering the huge number of ruins of ancient megalithic stone structures we could not duplicate today, with all of our modern technology.
Whatever we are doing with or through the mind, it is and always will be distorted.
The reason is that the mind starts interpreting even before being applied to the observable object. The “angle” on everything is being created in the mind BEFORE the observation.
Test it yourself. Ask a friend to speak out his/her first impressions when you show him/her an image. Choose a really abstract image of which you may be sure that it is not commonly known, something really surprising to your friend.
You may expect three basic reactions. 1) “Oh, my, where have you found it? What is it?” - which proves that the mind is unable to match the observation with prior knowledge and refuses to interpret. 2) “I have no idea” - same explanation. 3) Your friend will make up something “similar” to the image shown - which invariably comes from prior knowledge (= programming).
Rorschach’s blobs are another proof that the mind distorts everything the moment it sees it. The only reasonable interpretation of these images is “something which I have never seen before”. Any other answer proves that the mind has been activated in order to provide “logical” explanation. Well, even the former statement is a pre-defined mind response because it comes from the comparison of the object with the contents of the mind.
But isn't the problem not the initial distortion but the unwillingness to respond to correction. Like many, pre-covid I believed in viruses and vaccines, etc but when that belief was challenged some of us responded to that challenge ... while many didn't.
That’s a different story. Most of us are not medically minded, with no training or knowledge. None of us “believed” in viruses or vaccines, we simply accepted the ready-made explanations and solutions without even thinking about them. Just like we do with everything else in our life.
For some reason, the rulers of the world decided to open up medical secrets to the public, some time before the 2019 covid. It started with “open access” publications in medical journals, sacred resources which had been accessible a few days earlier only after huge $$$ payments. Which makes this meta-manipulation even more interesting…
The change in the popular awareness of health, medicine, impact of drugs, etc. 2019 to 2020 was a huge quantum leap. Nothing like that has ever happened before.
Co as long as people are ready and willing to give control of everything in their lives over to someone or something rather than take personal control and responsibility these will forever hold society down
Too few take the time to study the basics, our children are raised to have disdain for learning and doing well in school
It is syntax in tandem with basic science and mathematics that ends this narrative we are facing
Knowledge is power of self autonomy and personal freedom which is the entire reason our society is indoctrinated to be uneducated
I like the way you're framing this. I agree that at some level and on a much longer time scale certain aspects of germ theory and allopathic medicine have already been ditched and the replacement theories lined up to fill the void. Much as cathode ray tubes were universally replaced by led flat screens there comes a point where the technology moves on and a new paradigm takes over. With medicine, a natural peak had been reached (as predicted) where even antibiotics and other worn out treatments were being heavily questioned and alternatives sought. As with other 'conspiracies' the information was out there and spreading rapidly among those willing to absorb it. Keeping an eye on this spread, the manipulators were faced with two options - open it all up and allow the industry to implode or run the plandemic protocol and keep the industry ticking a while longer. Ironically, the second option pushed more people into the revelation/awakened camp which should lead to less compliance when they try this again with bird flu. Either way, whether it is all orchestrated or simply the end of a marketing cycle, I think we end up at the same place - a new paradigm in health care that also tips over into other topics and industries.
To me, this whole thing is a distraction. Nobody really cares about paradigms, germs or viruses. They (= the medical community) simply try to repackage the old merchandise. Old stories have worn out, common knowledge terminology has advanced way beyond the 1960s medical dictionary. Business needs new catchphrases. Plus, the younger generations of medical professionals got badly greedy and want to displace the current “experts”, who are somewhere between 60 and 80 years of age.
So they make every effort to design new packaging for old knowledge, the first sign of which was “evidence-based”. Really? What was before it? Fantasy-based medicine? By adding one determinant, the younger generations of the med cult have erased the credibility of “old” doctors.
Renaming things, changing definitions, redesigning “best” practices, all this is geared to phase out old-timers who - naturally - won’t be able to catch up. Most of them will give up and retire (as they should have 20 years ago). Some give up practicing and turn to podcasting, a relatively safe income stream.
It’s not about knowledge. Nobody will have enough courage to amend the knowledge. It’s about replacement of all medical millionaires with new candidates.
There is certainly truth in what you say. For me, there is a movement of energy that is growing on the planet, that is bringing freshness into how people think about themselves and about everything. There are many, and sadly I see a lot of them are in the younger generation, who are too programmed and traumatized to be affected by the way reality is opening up around us, and will choose to follow the victim path and continue deferring to the current crop of medical authorities, whoever they are. But many, many are waking up to how severely our awareness of ourselves and the world has been restricted, and want to break the chains.
What I deeply hope is that this contingent of humanity responding to the supportive and powerful energy that is swirling around us as the planet goes through the photon belt and the age of oppression comes to an end, will succeed in breaking the chains for everyone. I see it happening. And for me, whether that's delusional or not, I'm sticking with it because there's zero percentage in taking a pessimistic view. If it's all going down, I'm going down having spent all my energy on believing in and working for the positive future.
I too was shocked by how many younger people went along with the charade without question. Upon further inspection I think a large portion wanted to question the narrative but were swept up by group pressure and coercive measures. I wonder how I would have reacted had I been in my twenties and still at college. I wasn't a "conspiracy researcher" back then. I was a curious normie. It's amazing what a decade or two of life experience can do to your brain and the potential pathways that open up. I could see that even in younger minds the voice of authority was what mattered. They still hadn't reached a point in life where they begin to really question things, to think for themselves. Previously, that required a trigger or some kind or stumbling upon the relevant information. Today, with alternative media, I assumed that most younger people would be more savvy and resistant to propaganda, but I was wrong. Some are showing signs of improvement though so for now I'm hopeful that things will turn around.
I like the old saying: “Wisdom is when you change what you can change, don’t bother with what you cannot change, and know how to tell one from the other.”
I have survived the hippies, second comings, kali yugas, all sorts of “new” consciousness, the Berlin wall (supposedly ending a war which had never been there), and so on. It’s all either self-delusion or manipulation of others, or both. Having seen these things for over 50 years, and seeing that they have resulted in zero change, I don’t bother about the big picture. Whether you watch tv or not, whether you use dumbphones or not, whether you will crave for cricket meat or not, nothing will change.
The human mass will remain as easily controllable as it is, and as dumb as it is. Not because people are inherently the former or the latter. Because the mass always has inertia - you cannot move a 5-ton rock, whether by yourself or with the help of others. But you can, very easily, sweep your pavement clean, all alone, with no effort.
Rulers of all sorts know it. They organize themselves into big rocks. We, the people, are unable to do this. It will always be a lost fight because we don’t have this kind of energy and - more importantly - the people, the mass, cannot look ahead 20 years into the future. Or even 5 years. Or 1 year. The people mass is impotent in planning and weighing the importance of slow, steady efforts. Even families are unable to do this. And it will not change. There is no focus, no dedication, no commitment.
The people mass can become single-pointed in extremely rare emergencies, like natural disasters, but the wind of change dissipates quickly once the danger is gone. So, in my understanding, the only change possible is the inner change in the individual. When it happens, it cannot unhappen. This is the only hope for the future - but it will never happen in any social mass. Actually, the social mass always does everything in its power to destroy the individual change, from parents harnessing the teenage revolt to bosses canceling initiative, to the law which will destroy anything out of the ordinary.
While I agree with your general pessimism as applied to the medical industry, I will say that I began to see a shift away from allopathic treatments more than twenty years ago within the mainstream medical specializations. Young doctors were opting for and specializing in Ayurveda, acupuncture, homeopathy, massage therapy and meditation as the studies began to show that stress reduction had enormous beneficial impact on general health. So while the majority still plod along to their general practitioners and allopathic specialists for now, I do see that the tide is turning and the sands are shifting.
Wherever possible, people will begin to choose prevention over surgery and toxic treatments. Daily TV shows and health magazines were already teaching people this twenty years ago. That will only continue and grow.
The problem with plandemic terrorism is that people were led to believe that a simple jab or two fell under the definition of preventative treatment as does the entire vaccine schedule for children. Hopefully, this will be completely eradicated in the years to come, but it has to be recognized that all major big tech companies said they would be healthcare companies at some point with huge investment pouring into gene therapy treatments and medical data collection and monitoring.
Funnily enough, I started using the term "evidence-based" thinking I was getting somewhere until I realized it was already being used by the new medical establishment in a way that didn't quite reflect the same values!
And ironically this is what the no-virus camp is relying on entirely for their efforts in debunking virology as a whole. We want "evidence." And the virologists say "inference" is good enough.
I'm with you on basing everything on scientific evidence. I kinda like inference! Engages the human capacity for curiosity and imagination. But when everyone is supposed to agree to harmful protocols, inference is definitely not good enough! For cosmology, sure--not for lockdowns etc.
I read and watched a lot of the “no-virus camp”. It was interestingly intelligent and fresh, so why not explore it. My take on them is different.
First, there is no any “camp”. They appear to be a group of unorganized folks who share similar approaches to the medical science in general, and “mainstream” (whatever it means) in particular. I bet some organizations will come up, because the money bait is everywhere. Not now, though. (It’s their weakness, by the way.)
Second, they are not trying to debunk anything. 100% of their effort is to check mainstream “approved” sources within their own context. Absolutely genius. You don’t need to debunk anything. The gaps in published “peer-reviewed” papers are beyond human understanding.
Third, they are not trying to create anything “against”. They have their views, theories, analyses and concepts, but all this is not “against”. This is the best form of education you can find, the end in itself.
My own personal conclusion is that the orthodox medicine does not understand the human being and life processes - at all. Zero. We literally do not know what we are doing. The proof is in that emergency (trauma, life-saving) medicine is the only area which is absolutely successful and absolutely legitimate. Everything else is fantasy.
In my view, this is as it should be. We are not ready to interfere with life. We have never been responsible enough. We cannot comprehend these processes. We only can damage and destroy, cut, split, severe, cause injuries. We cannot create even a tiny part of life. We are way less intelligent than the technologies we are inventing. After over 100 years of using automobiles, we still are unable to learn how to drive them, despite road signs, traffic lights, white lines, roundabouts, and what not - what to say about the complexity of the human body…
We don’t need this medicine. It hasn’t done any good. Clean water and efficient sewerage lines are more beneficial than all medical research all over the world combined. Until this understanding penetrates into the “researcher”…
Also known as the mistake of the intellect. Preconceived notions about everything that we come into contact with. Safe, not safe. Fight or flight. That's why it was so easy to control the behavior of entire populations worldwide. A scary puppet show. PCR props. Fragile preprogrammed minds interpreting fictional claims as 100% real. And it's off to the races. Will they fall for it again though?
And after it all, 99% of people remain totally unaware that, at least in the US, there was a democide by some means unknown that killed more than a half-million extra people in 2020 alone, according to the official US data. Weird how often I tell that to people, and their eyes either get very big with surprise, or they smirk at the ludicrous conspiracy claim, but in either case, it is rare they bother to look into it. Heck, it's only mass-murder, and none of the media is talking about it, so it must not be important.
I'd hesitate with such conclusions. It’s so easy to categorize things now, in retrospect. Just a few days ago, it was impossible - we (the general public) simply didn’t know anything about the human body and a few random things about the human psyche and mind.
We are now in the stage of transitory knowledge. We self-believe ourselves that we have “all this” under control - while, in fact, we are still scratching the surface. In science and technology, it’s always the rule that a “new” invention launched commercially has already been in common (although restricted) use for years, if not dozens of years. The inventors are always 20 years ahead of the public (“mainstream”). What are we not aware of at this time?
Well... had they not run the positive pcr spectacle on tv 24/7 for an entire year I doubt many would have gone along with the rest of it. At the beginning (early 2020) I had zero concern about viruses and contagion and was actively telling people not to panic. I was reassuring people that sunshine is your best ally and these things don't spread easily in outdoor settings, we have natural remedies etc etc. But when the mandates came in June and stores were refusing entry without a face nappy, it was obvious this wasn't about health, but about shutting down and curbing normal economic activity at the local level and changing human behavior. At that point I did my best to educate people about the mrna jabs hoping that they wouldn't take them but they did anyway... en masse. And now that I know a lot more about this topic, I hesitate to bring it up in general conversation because we've moved on... for now. We do talk about the other things that are always twenty years away but are actually already here - the way humans are being chipped and connected to the grid, the rapid progress in software and the investment going towards AI centers and the energy required to power them, it appears that the manipulators have already moved on and are prepared to leave the rest of the world behind. Whether the rest of the world accepts this move is another matter entirely. What no one ever talks about is the energy / banking / materials cost equation which has reached limits and is about ready to pop. That would be my main concern now and I'm not sure there's a fix unless that has also been plotted out behind the scenes following what I now call the Savior Protocol.
Here's a fallacious argument I've heard a lot in the last few years:: There was no pandemic (because the virus either didn't exist, or wasn't dangerous); therefore, there were no excess deaths. The missing step here, of course, is the possibility that something besides a virus caused excess deaths--which was in fact the case in the US, where there was an incredible increase in deaths of 529k or 18.5% in 2020.
We as humans, waste an enormous amount of time worrying about our demise. This is especially true as we age and the end of life becomes a gigantic boulder plummeting down a mountain aiming right for us. We become extremely afraid of things we can't see, like viruses and other pathogens. But are they real? If you have been paying attention and are not yet blinded by lies and indoctrination, you will have discovered that over the last 5 years no one in power or authority has been telling the truth. Therein lies your freedom.
The covid debacle was a great wakeup call for many. I like Jordan Grant's style of presenting this info, either in his interviews, e.g., with Sol Luckman, or this presentation: https://youtu.be/BNh6sZBuVz4?si=rNQXNK_1171mm8cW . I also like the parable of the blind men and the elephant, where each man has his own interpretation of what he is touching: https://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/blind-men-and-the-elephant.htm . We can extrapolate this when we see ants going around and around in a circle, unable to see what's going on like humans can. Humans are ants compared to spirits in higher planes from this middle Earth plane (I believe, at least). This is one reason why the human mind cannot interpret paradoxes or that every issue seems to have valid points from both camps, such as flat earth/geocentric vs. globe earth /heliocentric models. We tend to categorize things into this or that, without realizing there could be other ways of interpreting reality.
I also recommend understanding LEJ Brouwer's intuitionism and Godel's incompleteness theorems. But again, these are interpretations of reality, and paradoxical: "I'm certain that there is doubt," or "definitely maybe", or "change is the only constant."
Finally got a chance to read this Betsy and I love it so much. My recent article was surprising similar! Obviously we are on the same wavelength. I've been fascinated by logical fallacies in the last couple of years. I find it amazingly hard to think clearly and logically and learning about the fallacies helps.
Great explanations. Stanley Milgram wrote-'Obedience to Authority' an excellent study of how propaganda works to promote and protect the illusion of power and authority.
Interesting article, Betsy. If only, though, if only, we only needed to understand logical fallacies. You show images from two sites on logical fallacies, www.logicallyfallacious.com and www.yourlogicalfallacyis.com. The owners of both these sites, Dr Bo Bennett and Jesse Richardson, respectively, expert as they may be on logical fallacies and cognitive biases, still manage to be totally mainstream thinkers - Bo banned me from his site although I am always perfectly civil and reasonable and when he argued with me he shamelessly and seemingly with no recognition lapsed into typical fallacies such as ad hominem and appeal to authority. I wrote to Jesse ... and, of course, no response. I just came across a link to this article on Jesse's LinkedIn.
https://www.clearerthinking.org/post/can-this-article-change-your-mind-about-how-minds-change
It starts with: "Whether you know it or not, you have a scale of believability for conspiracy theories in your mind," and there's a Conspiracy Test you can do. I started to do it but it was so infantile and sillily presented I just abandoned it. You might have more grit in pursuing it if you are so inclined.
I invite you to sign up to logicallyfallacious and go a few rounds with Bo. Would love to see that! Let me know if you do.
I think this quote from social psychologist, Carole Wade, really applies: “People can be extremely intelligent, have taken a critical thinking course, and know logic inside and out. Yet they may just become clever debaters, not critical thinkers, because they are unwilling to look at their own biases.”
To my mind you don't have to understand logical fallacies at all if you're essentially an intellectually honest thinker because when you're intellectually honest you naturally don't fall into logical fallacy ... but, unfortunately, most people aren't. However, it's still good to know both logical fallacies and cognitive biases.
I wrote a post, 12 logical fallacies unmasked in the use of the terms "conspiracy theory" and "conspiracy theorist" (https://petraliverani.substack.com/p/11-logical-fallacies-unmasked-in) and these are the 12 logical fallacies covered.
1. The authorities decide which events are conspiracies - the Appeal to Authority fallacy
2. Only the majority expert voice counts, the minority expert voice is to be derided and ignored - the Appeal to Common Belief fallacy
3. Professionals do not make claims of conspiracy nor do they theorise - the Strawman fallacy
4. Refuters use the more specific and appropriate term, “psychological operation” or psyop - the Definist fallacy
5. Selecting the obviously invalid argument - the Cherry-picking fallacy
6. OMG! You’re one of those tinfoil-hatted people! - Argument from Intimidation fallacy
7. Your reasoning is based on bias, mine is rational - The Bias Blind Spot
8. Is the fact of conspiracy the main concern? - no, it’s the Big Lie fallacy technique used for millennia to control our minds
9. The sophisticated Big Lie - the addition of the False Dilemma fallacy
10. If those in power had done it they would have … - Hypothesis contrary to fact
11. That’s insane, that cannot be true - Argument from incredulity
12. When the rule is that they must “tell” us the truth underneath the propaganda how is the rejection of the narrative in the realm of “theory”? - The Loaded Question fallacy
Thanks, Petra! Of course there's more to waking up than knowing logical fallacies! But it's so fascinating and right in front of our faces.
I did not look at the sites those graphics came from. I just searched for images and chose the ones I liked best. One one level, not using those because of what the owners of those sites also said or did would be the Genetic fallacy--because someone says some things I don't like, I can't like anything they said even if it's wise or useful. I tend to agree, though, that once I know more of someone's ideas and I find them unpalatable, I tend not to like to quote them for anything. Bertrand Russell is one example for me. Nietzsche is another.
I think I have seen that conspiracy theory quiz, and I had the same reaction you did--got a little way into it and it was so ridiculous I stopped without finishing. Maybe I'll check it out again.
And it's also true about our own biases. That's a whole topic in itself! I tried to put a little of that into my article, encouraging people to look at how we all use these logical fallacies in our own unexamined thinking. I also hoped to point out how logical fallacies are used by the "smartest people in the room" so we can see both the manipulation they are doing and their own lack of clear thinking. They aren't smarter than us. They just want us to think so.
And not only are they not smarter than us--we ourselves are smarter than we think! I know one article in a corner of Substack is not going to have a big impact on how people understand themselves, but even if only one or two stop and say, "Hmmm.....I don't have to be a victim of these self-styled geniuses--I can see through their ruses and outthink them!" I will feel I've made a difference.
Betsy, I didn't mean to suggest that your use of those images means anything just sayin' those two guys are unbelievably mainstream and they really think they need to teach US how to think rather than the other way around. It's incredible!
They think "conspiracy theory" is a legitimate term when it's such a propaganda weapon.
And I know you're not say LFs are the be-all and end-all but these two guys know all the LFs and biases but still do not get it one little bit. That is definitely something to ponder.
I also didn't mean to suggest that you were saying I was saying those things! (infinite regress!) Responding to comments always helps me expand on and clarify my thoughts, and it does sometimes sound like they are meant as a direct response to what the other person wrote. It is hard to believe that anyone still thinks "conspiracy theory" is anything but propaganda--but that just reflects the folks I hang out with, I suppose! Maybe they are examples of the not-fully-human among us who actually lack self-reflective capacity. Glad you are on top of it--reading comments is also educational for all involved.
I have witnessed this so many times online. I'll tune into what I think will be an interesting debate on any given topic and the result is usually quite disappointing. Debates appear to be set up for the spectacle of conflict rather than achieving some new level of understanding. The debaters are well versed in debating "techniques" and "tactics" and believe that winning the debate using the tools available including logical fallacies is all that matters.
When these things are framed as an ongoing respectful conversation they tend to be far more productive without the need for moderators etc.
My local pharmacist was wearing a mask yesterday. She gave her usual jolly greeting through the face nappy as if everything was perfectly normal. I immediately responded with why are you wearing a mask. You know there's absolutely no reason for wearing one. Her tone and demeanor immediately shifted to embarrassment and shame. Her coworker (maskless) popped his head around the corner with a look on his face. Yes, that look. I continued business as usual with the coworker. The masked crusader stood around with mask now around her chin but still sidelined. I resisted the urge to unload information this time (as I have done on other occasions). It always comes across as an unsolicited lecture and I tend to go way too far down that path, all in one go, for the normie mindset. These occurrences usually end with an abrupt change of subject or a decidedly rapid exit by the normie if an escape route is available. Anyway, thought I'd share for comment. This is still the situation in all medical environments here in Spain, but I wonder if the tide is shifting on the mask issue even in these bastions of illogical protocols, these pockets of self harm, these islands of incredulity. Maybe that's all it takes to break the spell. Immediately ask the mask wearer why they are still following along. They are in a tiny minority now even though they cluster together in their places of work. If enough people simply walk in and ask them why they are still playing dress up we could break the final cult members before the next plandemic kicks off. And then all people have to do is refuse to be tested in any way.
I still see the odd person wearing a mask in my city, too. My main reaction is to feel sorry for them because it seems clear at this point that they do so because they are afraid--not of a "virus," but just afraid, on an existential level. And willing to let the world see it! I can't even imagine being that fearful and in need of a soothing symbol that I would carry a blankie around with me all day. I've heard some people say that those still masking find it a way to hide in public, and that, too, is sad and a reflection of how the lat four years, and indeed the way things have been going for decades, is eroding people's self-confidence and joy at being alive. I want to be part of shifting this!
And you are!
One thing that amazed me in 2020 was how quickly masks became a fashion accessory. Stores were selling all kinds of fancy designs and slogans as were many alt media pundits. My aunt still has a cupboard full of unused flowery masks. and other relatives still keep a pack of fresh face nappies handy just in case!
Many people I have spoken to have not understood why we should question the authority and results of science at all. You can't constantly question the results of entire disciplines, they said. Not even if they lead to the house arrest of entire populations. Something that the so-called fact-checkers have chosen as their business model. So again, deference to authority, because if individuals question sources, they are tin foil hatters. Only the agency with the letter and seal of the state is allowed to scrutinise. A classic relationship of abuse with the authorities.
We as a society have evolved intellectually from the Middle Ages by only about a decade.
This is abundantly clear in all areas of life. In pop culture, in so-called science, in the culture of debate, in reason, in the decline of morals, in the infantilisation of adults, in bellicism.
Unlike in the Middle Ages, we have no plausible excuses that could absolve us from our condition.
"We as a society have evolved intellectually from the Middle Ages by only about a decade."
Yep.
I think its more likely humans have devolved--considering the huge number of ruins of ancient megalithic stone structures we could not duplicate today, with all of our modern technology.
The key fallacy is missing: the mind.
Whatever we are doing with or through the mind, it is and always will be distorted.
The reason is that the mind starts interpreting even before being applied to the observable object. The “angle” on everything is being created in the mind BEFORE the observation.
Test it yourself. Ask a friend to speak out his/her first impressions when you show him/her an image. Choose a really abstract image of which you may be sure that it is not commonly known, something really surprising to your friend.
You may expect three basic reactions. 1) “Oh, my, where have you found it? What is it?” - which proves that the mind is unable to match the observation with prior knowledge and refuses to interpret. 2) “I have no idea” - same explanation. 3) Your friend will make up something “similar” to the image shown - which invariably comes from prior knowledge (= programming).
Rorschach’s blobs are another proof that the mind distorts everything the moment it sees it. The only reasonable interpretation of these images is “something which I have never seen before”. Any other answer proves that the mind has been activated in order to provide “logical” explanation. Well, even the former statement is a pre-defined mind response because it comes from the comparison of the object with the contents of the mind.
But isn't the problem not the initial distortion but the unwillingness to respond to correction. Like many, pre-covid I believed in viruses and vaccines, etc but when that belief was challenged some of us responded to that challenge ... while many didn't.
That’s a different story. Most of us are not medically minded, with no training or knowledge. None of us “believed” in viruses or vaccines, we simply accepted the ready-made explanations and solutions without even thinking about them. Just like we do with everything else in our life.
For some reason, the rulers of the world decided to open up medical secrets to the public, some time before the 2019 covid. It started with “open access” publications in medical journals, sacred resources which had been accessible a few days earlier only after huge $$$ payments. Which makes this meta-manipulation even more interesting…
The change in the popular awareness of health, medicine, impact of drugs, etc. 2019 to 2020 was a huge quantum leap. Nothing like that has ever happened before.
Co as long as people are ready and willing to give control of everything in their lives over to someone or something rather than take personal control and responsibility these will forever hold society down
Too few take the time to study the basics, our children are raised to have disdain for learning and doing well in school
It is syntax in tandem with basic science and mathematics that ends this narrative we are facing
Knowledge is power of self autonomy and personal freedom which is the entire reason our society is indoctrinated to be uneducated
"Which makes this meta-manipulation even more interesting… "
It most certainly does.
I like the way you're framing this. I agree that at some level and on a much longer time scale certain aspects of germ theory and allopathic medicine have already been ditched and the replacement theories lined up to fill the void. Much as cathode ray tubes were universally replaced by led flat screens there comes a point where the technology moves on and a new paradigm takes over. With medicine, a natural peak had been reached (as predicted) where even antibiotics and other worn out treatments were being heavily questioned and alternatives sought. As with other 'conspiracies' the information was out there and spreading rapidly among those willing to absorb it. Keeping an eye on this spread, the manipulators were faced with two options - open it all up and allow the industry to implode or run the plandemic protocol and keep the industry ticking a while longer. Ironically, the second option pushed more people into the revelation/awakened camp which should lead to less compliance when they try this again with bird flu. Either way, whether it is all orchestrated or simply the end of a marketing cycle, I think we end up at the same place - a new paradigm in health care that also tips over into other topics and industries.
To me, this whole thing is a distraction. Nobody really cares about paradigms, germs or viruses. They (= the medical community) simply try to repackage the old merchandise. Old stories have worn out, common knowledge terminology has advanced way beyond the 1960s medical dictionary. Business needs new catchphrases. Plus, the younger generations of medical professionals got badly greedy and want to displace the current “experts”, who are somewhere between 60 and 80 years of age.
So they make every effort to design new packaging for old knowledge, the first sign of which was “evidence-based”. Really? What was before it? Fantasy-based medicine? By adding one determinant, the younger generations of the med cult have erased the credibility of “old” doctors.
Renaming things, changing definitions, redesigning “best” practices, all this is geared to phase out old-timers who - naturally - won’t be able to catch up. Most of them will give up and retire (as they should have 20 years ago). Some give up practicing and turn to podcasting, a relatively safe income stream.
It’s not about knowledge. Nobody will have enough courage to amend the knowledge. It’s about replacement of all medical millionaires with new candidates.
There is certainly truth in what you say. For me, there is a movement of energy that is growing on the planet, that is bringing freshness into how people think about themselves and about everything. There are many, and sadly I see a lot of them are in the younger generation, who are too programmed and traumatized to be affected by the way reality is opening up around us, and will choose to follow the victim path and continue deferring to the current crop of medical authorities, whoever they are. But many, many are waking up to how severely our awareness of ourselves and the world has been restricted, and want to break the chains.
What I deeply hope is that this contingent of humanity responding to the supportive and powerful energy that is swirling around us as the planet goes through the photon belt and the age of oppression comes to an end, will succeed in breaking the chains for everyone. I see it happening. And for me, whether that's delusional or not, I'm sticking with it because there's zero percentage in taking a pessimistic view. If it's all going down, I'm going down having spent all my energy on believing in and working for the positive future.
Well said Betsy!
I too was shocked by how many younger people went along with the charade without question. Upon further inspection I think a large portion wanted to question the narrative but were swept up by group pressure and coercive measures. I wonder how I would have reacted had I been in my twenties and still at college. I wasn't a "conspiracy researcher" back then. I was a curious normie. It's amazing what a decade or two of life experience can do to your brain and the potential pathways that open up. I could see that even in younger minds the voice of authority was what mattered. They still hadn't reached a point in life where they begin to really question things, to think for themselves. Previously, that required a trigger or some kind or stumbling upon the relevant information. Today, with alternative media, I assumed that most younger people would be more savvy and resistant to propaganda, but I was wrong. Some are showing signs of improvement though so for now I'm hopeful that things will turn around.
I like the old saying: “Wisdom is when you change what you can change, don’t bother with what you cannot change, and know how to tell one from the other.”
I have survived the hippies, second comings, kali yugas, all sorts of “new” consciousness, the Berlin wall (supposedly ending a war which had never been there), and so on. It’s all either self-delusion or manipulation of others, or both. Having seen these things for over 50 years, and seeing that they have resulted in zero change, I don’t bother about the big picture. Whether you watch tv or not, whether you use dumbphones or not, whether you will crave for cricket meat or not, nothing will change.
The human mass will remain as easily controllable as it is, and as dumb as it is. Not because people are inherently the former or the latter. Because the mass always has inertia - you cannot move a 5-ton rock, whether by yourself or with the help of others. But you can, very easily, sweep your pavement clean, all alone, with no effort.
Rulers of all sorts know it. They organize themselves into big rocks. We, the people, are unable to do this. It will always be a lost fight because we don’t have this kind of energy and - more importantly - the people, the mass, cannot look ahead 20 years into the future. Or even 5 years. Or 1 year. The people mass is impotent in planning and weighing the importance of slow, steady efforts. Even families are unable to do this. And it will not change. There is no focus, no dedication, no commitment.
The people mass can become single-pointed in extremely rare emergencies, like natural disasters, but the wind of change dissipates quickly once the danger is gone. So, in my understanding, the only change possible is the inner change in the individual. When it happens, it cannot unhappen. This is the only hope for the future - but it will never happen in any social mass. Actually, the social mass always does everything in its power to destroy the individual change, from parents harnessing the teenage revolt to bosses canceling initiative, to the law which will destroy anything out of the ordinary.
Things are as they are.
While I agree with your general pessimism as applied to the medical industry, I will say that I began to see a shift away from allopathic treatments more than twenty years ago within the mainstream medical specializations. Young doctors were opting for and specializing in Ayurveda, acupuncture, homeopathy, massage therapy and meditation as the studies began to show that stress reduction had enormous beneficial impact on general health. So while the majority still plod along to their general practitioners and allopathic specialists for now, I do see that the tide is turning and the sands are shifting.
Wherever possible, people will begin to choose prevention over surgery and toxic treatments. Daily TV shows and health magazines were already teaching people this twenty years ago. That will only continue and grow.
The problem with plandemic terrorism is that people were led to believe that a simple jab or two fell under the definition of preventative treatment as does the entire vaccine schedule for children. Hopefully, this will be completely eradicated in the years to come, but it has to be recognized that all major big tech companies said they would be healthcare companies at some point with huge investment pouring into gene therapy treatments and medical data collection and monitoring.
Funnily enough, I started using the term "evidence-based" thinking I was getting somewhere until I realized it was already being used by the new medical establishment in a way that didn't quite reflect the same values!
And ironically this is what the no-virus camp is relying on entirely for their efforts in debunking virology as a whole. We want "evidence." And the virologists say "inference" is good enough.
I'm with you on basing everything on scientific evidence. I kinda like inference! Engages the human capacity for curiosity and imagination. But when everyone is supposed to agree to harmful protocols, inference is definitely not good enough! For cosmology, sure--not for lockdowns etc.
I read and watched a lot of the “no-virus camp”. It was interestingly intelligent and fresh, so why not explore it. My take on them is different.
First, there is no any “camp”. They appear to be a group of unorganized folks who share similar approaches to the medical science in general, and “mainstream” (whatever it means) in particular. I bet some organizations will come up, because the money bait is everywhere. Not now, though. (It’s their weakness, by the way.)
Second, they are not trying to debunk anything. 100% of their effort is to check mainstream “approved” sources within their own context. Absolutely genius. You don’t need to debunk anything. The gaps in published “peer-reviewed” papers are beyond human understanding.
Third, they are not trying to create anything “against”. They have their views, theories, analyses and concepts, but all this is not “against”. This is the best form of education you can find, the end in itself.
My own personal conclusion is that the orthodox medicine does not understand the human being and life processes - at all. Zero. We literally do not know what we are doing. The proof is in that emergency (trauma, life-saving) medicine is the only area which is absolutely successful and absolutely legitimate. Everything else is fantasy.
In my view, this is as it should be. We are not ready to interfere with life. We have never been responsible enough. We cannot comprehend these processes. We only can damage and destroy, cut, split, severe, cause injuries. We cannot create even a tiny part of life. We are way less intelligent than the technologies we are inventing. After over 100 years of using automobiles, we still are unable to learn how to drive them, despite road signs, traffic lights, white lines, roundabouts, and what not - what to say about the complexity of the human body…
We don’t need this medicine. It hasn’t done any good. Clean water and efficient sewerage lines are more beneficial than all medical research all over the world combined. Until this understanding penetrates into the “researcher”…
Also known as the mistake of the intellect. Preconceived notions about everything that we come into contact with. Safe, not safe. Fight or flight. That's why it was so easy to control the behavior of entire populations worldwide. A scary puppet show. PCR props. Fragile preprogrammed minds interpreting fictional claims as 100% real. And it's off to the races. Will they fall for it again though?
And after it all, 99% of people remain totally unaware that, at least in the US, there was a democide by some means unknown that killed more than a half-million extra people in 2020 alone, according to the official US data. Weird how often I tell that to people, and their eyes either get very big with surprise, or they smirk at the ludicrous conspiracy claim, but in either case, it is rare they bother to look into it. Heck, it's only mass-murder, and none of the media is talking about it, so it must not be important.
That's exactly my experience too. Some give me the silence of acknowledgement which is progress I suppose.
I'd hesitate with such conclusions. It’s so easy to categorize things now, in retrospect. Just a few days ago, it was impossible - we (the general public) simply didn’t know anything about the human body and a few random things about the human psyche and mind.
We are now in the stage of transitory knowledge. We self-believe ourselves that we have “all this” under control - while, in fact, we are still scratching the surface. In science and technology, it’s always the rule that a “new” invention launched commercially has already been in common (although restricted) use for years, if not dozens of years. The inventors are always 20 years ahead of the public (“mainstream”). What are we not aware of at this time?
Well... had they not run the positive pcr spectacle on tv 24/7 for an entire year I doubt many would have gone along with the rest of it. At the beginning (early 2020) I had zero concern about viruses and contagion and was actively telling people not to panic. I was reassuring people that sunshine is your best ally and these things don't spread easily in outdoor settings, we have natural remedies etc etc. But when the mandates came in June and stores were refusing entry without a face nappy, it was obvious this wasn't about health, but about shutting down and curbing normal economic activity at the local level and changing human behavior. At that point I did my best to educate people about the mrna jabs hoping that they wouldn't take them but they did anyway... en masse. And now that I know a lot more about this topic, I hesitate to bring it up in general conversation because we've moved on... for now. We do talk about the other things that are always twenty years away but are actually already here - the way humans are being chipped and connected to the grid, the rapid progress in software and the investment going towards AI centers and the energy required to power them, it appears that the manipulators have already moved on and are prepared to leave the rest of the world behind. Whether the rest of the world accepts this move is another matter entirely. What no one ever talks about is the energy / banking / materials cost equation which has reached limits and is about ready to pop. That would be my main concern now and I'm not sure there's a fix unless that has also been plotted out behind the scenes following what I now call the Savior Protocol.
Here's a fallacious argument I've heard a lot in the last few years:: There was no pandemic (because the virus either didn't exist, or wasn't dangerous); therefore, there were no excess deaths. The missing step here, of course, is the possibility that something besides a virus caused excess deaths--which was in fact the case in the US, where there was an incredible increase in deaths of 529k or 18.5% in 2020.
We as humans, waste an enormous amount of time worrying about our demise. This is especially true as we age and the end of life becomes a gigantic boulder plummeting down a mountain aiming right for us. We become extremely afraid of things we can't see, like viruses and other pathogens. But are they real? If you have been paying attention and are not yet blinded by lies and indoctrination, you will have discovered that over the last 5 years no one in power or authority has been telling the truth. Therein lies your freedom.
The covid debacle was a great wakeup call for many. I like Jordan Grant's style of presenting this info, either in his interviews, e.g., with Sol Luckman, or this presentation: https://youtu.be/BNh6sZBuVz4?si=rNQXNK_1171mm8cW . I also like the parable of the blind men and the elephant, where each man has his own interpretation of what he is touching: https://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/blind-men-and-the-elephant.htm . We can extrapolate this when we see ants going around and around in a circle, unable to see what's going on like humans can. Humans are ants compared to spirits in higher planes from this middle Earth plane (I believe, at least). This is one reason why the human mind cannot interpret paradoxes or that every issue seems to have valid points from both camps, such as flat earth/geocentric vs. globe earth /heliocentric models. We tend to categorize things into this or that, without realizing there could be other ways of interpreting reality.
I also recommend understanding LEJ Brouwer's intuitionism and Godel's incompleteness theorems. But again, these are interpretations of reality, and paradoxical: "I'm certain that there is doubt," or "definitely maybe", or "change is the only constant."
Finally got a chance to read this Betsy and I love it so much. My recent article was surprising similar! Obviously we are on the same wavelength. I've been fascinated by logical fallacies in the last couple of years. I find it amazingly hard to think clearly and logically and learning about the fallacies helps.
Great explanations. Stanley Milgram wrote-'Obedience to Authority' an excellent study of how propaganda works to promote and protect the illusion of power and authority.
Great stuff.
This is my contribution to making pseudoscience impossible
https://open.substack.com/pub/beyondcertainty/p/science-the-avoidance-of-delusion