Troll booth – trending conspiracy theories in 2023 . . .
Some sites (but not this one, for sure) have a “bunch” of posters who ONLY address one topic, and do so obsessively, day in and day out.
I try to be different. To attack as many different politicians, religions, corporations, oligarchs and philosophies as time and space permit.
Sooo . . . when I see the same handful of posters constantly trying to hijack threads to promote their obsessive positions, I naturally become annoyed and suspicious. Here are a few examples which I've encountered over the past few weeks:
1- Biden's visit to Zelenskyy was preapproved by Putin. Don't ask me how ANY of the posters pushing these theories came up with them. In one case, a respondent served up a detailed recitation of where NATO troops were stationed, and their armament/capabilities. IMHO, this is the sort of detail you don't have unless you're a state sponsored troll being fed Russian intelligence.
2 - Taiwan is legitimately part of the People's Republic of China. Uh-huh. But how about this: the Taiwanese used to be a distinct ethnic group, with their own language, etc. Like Japan. The major claim Beijing has on Taiwan appears to be that a bunch of Chinese nationalists, fleeing Mao's takeover after WW2, made it successfully to Taiwan. There's a lot to criticize Richard Nixon for but embracing the “one China” policy tops my list.
3 - Democracy has failed. And we should embrace authoritarian/collective rule. The evidence refuting this is clear: people are fleeing Russia and China, and some of them are massing at the US/Mexico border seeking entry. They don't have queue up at the Canadian border, of course. You can just walk across in most places. Which is why “wealthy undocumented migrants” (this is a mind-blowing concept, eh?) are now flying to Canada to sneak in here. You'd think once they got to Canada, they'd be charmed. Evidently not. It's USA or bust for almost all of them.
4 - The social security trust fund is bankrupt. Ahem . . not yet, but it will be, if social security taxes aren't raised, and retirement ages too. Watch both parties embrace these solutions as 2033 (the date of insolvency) approaches. Wait – is this something that can be hidden by hyperinflation?
5 - The national debt was created by Trump. The argument by trolls here is hilariously bad. In truth, the national debt has been ballooning since World War 2, when it first began to exceed 100% of America's GDP. It reached a century long low of 31% during the Ford Administration and has been rising again ever since. The national debt has been over 100% of GDP continuously since the middle of the Obama administration. For the record – there are countries with MUCH worse debt to GDP, and most of them are complete economic $hitholes – Venezuela, Sudan, Lebanon, Libya, Italy. The outlier is Japan – it's national debt is also astronomical, and I can't explain how they get away with this for so long.
6 - The big one, that never goes away, is of course the “stolen 2020 election” meme. I refuse to cut far right conspiracy theorists a break here, even though Democrats spent 4 years holding fake congressional hearings on “Trump Russian Collusion”, which they knew was false. Just because one side acts in bad faith doesn't mean everyone should copy their behavior.
I am NOT trying to censor the hilarious/obsessive/troll-like responses of my haters. I embrace them in fact. On some days, they're the best replies that I get. But I do find it tiresome to continually cite facts and statistics refuting conspiracies.
Nassim Taleb's “Black Swan” theory (google it) is that history is basically an agreed upon narrative where random causes are linked to random events without too much proof. And that if an assertion can't be validated in a repeatable experiment, we should be suspicious of it.
I try to be different. To attack as many different politicians, religions, corporations, oligarchs and philosophies as time and space permit.
Sooo . . . when I see the same handful of posters constantly trying to hijack threads to promote their obsessive positions, I naturally become annoyed and suspicious. Here are a few examples which I've encountered over the past few weeks:
1- Biden's visit to Zelenskyy was preapproved by Putin. Don't ask me how ANY of the posters pushing these theories came up with them. In one case, a respondent served up a detailed recitation of where NATO troops were stationed, and their armament/capabilities. IMHO, this is the sort of detail you don't have unless you're a state sponsored troll being fed Russian intelligence.
2 - Taiwan is legitimately part of the People's Republic of China. Uh-huh. But how about this: the Taiwanese used to be a distinct ethnic group, with their own language, etc. Like Japan. The major claim Beijing has on Taiwan appears to be that a bunch of Chinese nationalists, fleeing Mao's takeover after WW2, made it successfully to Taiwan. There's a lot to criticize Richard Nixon for but embracing the “one China” policy tops my list.
3 - Democracy has failed. And we should embrace authoritarian/collective rule. The evidence refuting this is clear: people are fleeing Russia and China, and some of them are massing at the US/Mexico border seeking entry. They don't have queue up at the Canadian border, of course. You can just walk across in most places. Which is why “wealthy undocumented migrants” (this is a mind-blowing concept, eh?) are now flying to Canada to sneak in here. You'd think once they got to Canada, they'd be charmed. Evidently not. It's USA or bust for almost all of them.
4 - The social security trust fund is bankrupt. Ahem . . not yet, but it will be, if social security taxes aren't raised, and retirement ages too. Watch both parties embrace these solutions as 2033 (the date of insolvency) approaches. Wait – is this something that can be hidden by hyperinflation?
5 - The national debt was created by Trump. The argument by trolls here is hilariously bad. In truth, the national debt has been ballooning since World War 2, when it first began to exceed 100% of America's GDP. It reached a century long low of 31% during the Ford Administration and has been rising again ever since. The national debt has been over 100% of GDP continuously since the middle of the Obama administration. For the record – there are countries with MUCH worse debt to GDP, and most of them are complete economic $hitholes – Venezuela, Sudan, Lebanon, Libya, Italy. The outlier is Japan – it's national debt is also astronomical, and I can't explain how they get away with this for so long.
6 - The big one, that never goes away, is of course the “stolen 2020 election” meme. I refuse to cut far right conspiracy theorists a break here, even though Democrats spent 4 years holding fake congressional hearings on “Trump Russian Collusion”, which they knew was false. Just because one side acts in bad faith doesn't mean everyone should copy their behavior.
I am NOT trying to censor the hilarious/obsessive/troll-like responses of my haters. I embrace them in fact. On some days, they're the best replies that I get. But I do find it tiresome to continually cite facts and statistics refuting conspiracies.
Nassim Taleb's “Black Swan” theory (google it) is that history is basically an agreed upon narrative where random causes are linked to random events without too much proof. And that if an assertion can't be validated in a repeatable experiment, we should be suspicious of it.
31-35, F
