Truth is dead: Long live RF!

[Laika]

Have you had the experience of telling the truth on RF and finding that people don't believe you or that they will not accept evidence as valid even when it is presented to them?

We all deal with people we "disagree" with from time to time but sometimes you come across a "truth" that you just don't want to compromise or want to see be taken seriously. Or its something so obvious that you're outraged someone can even contemplate it not being true. I tend to get a bit angry when this happens, but its not as if it helps or changes anything. There is no obligation on anyone else to believe something or to say something just because you think it's true. Evidence has become largely irrelevant and for display purposes only. Nonsense generally wins when people believe it in large numbers. God help us: the internet will destroy us all.

I'm probably not alone in finding this frustrating from time to time but just wondering if anyone has some good advice for dealing with it and keeping it in perspective. Whats the best way to become more tolerant and accepting without wanting to scream or hurt people and small animals? Any suggestions?

As for the poll, I voted that 2+2 equals a "Pink elephant in a tutu". Its completely logical and maths teachers are all in a conspiracy to say otherwise.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Have you had the experience of telling the truth on RF and finding that people don't believe you or that they will not accept evidence as valid even when it is presented to them?

We all deal with people we "disagree" with from time to time but sometimes you come across a "truth" that you just don't want to compromise or want to see be taken seriously. Or its something so obvious that you're outraged someone can even contemplate it not being true. I tend to get a bit angry when this happens, but its not as if it helps or changes anything. There is no obligation on anyone else to believe something or to say something just because you think it's true. Evidence has become largely irrelevant and for display purposes only. Nonsense generally wins when people believe it in large numbers. God help us: the internet will destroy us all.

I'm probably not alone in finding this frustrating from time to time but just wondering if anyone has some good advice for dealing with it and keeping it in perspective. Whats the best way to become more tolerant and accepting without wanting to scream or hurt people and small animals? Any suggestions?

As for the poll, I voted that 2+2 equals a "Pink elephant in a tutu". Its completely logical and maths teachers are all in a conspiracy to say otherwise.

Where is the "All of the above" choice?

 

[Revoltingest]

2+2=3.99 is close enuf in most things.

 

[Mister Silver]

Nonsense generally wins when people believe it in large numbers.

I thought I would focus on this comment, because the premise behind it is very scary.

I was just watching the latest episode of "The Orville", which was titled "Majority Rule".

The gist of the show:
The basic premise is "government by American Idol" where there is no democracy or structure of formal law; rather, people dish out justice through a voting point system where the majority decides what happens. If the person gets more than ten million down votes, by having done anything the majority personally finds offensive, the person becomes "corrected" (lobotomized).

Maybe the American government is not perfect, but at least it has rules in place to prevent such a thing as the "Majority Rule".

 

[oldbadger]

2+2=3.99 is close enuf in most things.

Huh! That's why your home-made motors keep seizing up!

 

[Revoltingest]

Huh! That's why your home-made motors keep seizing up!

You give me too much credit.
I don't make anything....except mischief.

 

[oldbadger]

Have you had the experience of telling the truth on RF and finding that people don't believe you or that they will not accept evidence as valid even when it is presented to them?

Yep!
For yonks now I've been dropping hints about the joyful meets of the 'Studd Hill Full Moon Frolickers' and how Mrs Wenlock looks so gorgeous skipping about in the moonglow on summer nights. Obviously not so startling on winter nights because she needs to wear that tatty faux-fur she's got.

Anyway. ...............
Not one bite.
Not even a chew.
What with some of the right old pervs on here, such as that Revolu... Revulsi... anyway you'd have thought that I might have received at least some interest.
The Frolickers hasn't expanded by even one RF member, although it has expanded. Mrs Maynard-Wells must have been back on the chocs.........

But at least the bosses haven't nailed me for prosletysing yet!

 

[Willamena]

@Laika , I deal with it in the realization that truth is not captured in any of the words that our myriad languages produce. We speak truth only to the meager extent of what we mean to say.

 

[Laika]

@Laika , I deal with it in the realization that truth is not captured in any of the words that our myriad languages produce. We speak truth only to the meager extent of what we mean to say.

Thanks. I think that will be useful. I will have to think on that one.

 

[SabahTheLoner]

All of these answers are false as they originate in conspiracy however I have chosen the most correct lie based on my scientific knowledge of the observable universe, my visual understanding of the maths and a clear bias of things being as they seem in the material plane of existence.

 

[leibowde84]

Have you had the experience of telling the truth on RF and finding that people don't believe you or that they will not accept evidence as valid even when it is presented to them?

We all deal with people we "disagree" with from time to time but sometimes you come across a "truth" that you just don't want to compromise or want to see be taken seriously. Or its something so obvious that you're outraged someone can even contemplate it not being true. I tend to get a bit angry when this happens, but its not as if it helps or changes anything. There is no obligation on anyone else to believe something or to say something just because you think it's true. Evidence has become largely irrelevant and for display purposes only. Nonsense generally wins when people believe it in large numbers. God help us: the internet will destroy us all.

I'm probably not alone in finding this frustrating from time to time but just wondering if anyone has some good advice for dealing with it and keeping it in perspective. Whats the best way to become more tolerant and accepting without wanting to scream or hurt people and small animals? Any suggestions?

As for the poll, I voted that 2+2 equals a "Pink elephant in a tutu". Its completely logical and maths teachers are all in a conspiracy to say otherwise.

I've seen a lot of this. My favorite is this ludicrous notion that the laws of nature were not the same 7,000 years ago, so all evidence against a young earth is thrown out the window.

 

[Polymath257]

2+2=6915425168.000003

for sufficiently large values of 2.

 

[Laika]

I've seen a lot of this. My favorite is this ludicrous notion that the laws of nature were not the same 7,000 years ago, so all evidence against a young earth is thrown out the window.

Have you found a way to deal with it?

I tend to stay away from Evolution vs. Creation debates as I don't know how to really change people's mind. It would seem in most debates people have one view and that it doesn't change in the course of a debate. It is true that people's views do change with time if they are on here, but its hard to not feel debating can be pretty futile sometimes. I know that believing in some kind of cosmic justice that the "truth" will win eventually/most of the time may be a bit of an illusion, but its a hard one to give up.

 

[Revoltingest]

Have you found a way to deal with it?

I tend to stay away from Evolution vs. Creation debates as I don't know how to really change people's mind. It would seem in most debates people have one view and that it doesn't change in the course of a debate. It is true that people's views do change with time if they are on here, but its hard to not feel debating can be pretty futile sometimes. I know that believing in some kind of cosmic justice that the "truth" will win eventually/most of the time may be a bit of an illusion, but its a hard one to give up.

A sneaky way to deal with IDers is to seek common ground, eg, supposing God created physical
laws to make evolution achieved by natural selection. The "intelligence" would bke not in
micro-management of speciation, but in creating the environment which results in speciation.
Some will accept this as plausible.

 

[leibowde84]

Have you found a way to deal with it?

I tend to stay away from Evolution vs. Creation debates as I don't know how to really change people's mind. It would seem in most debates people have one view and that it doesn't change in the course of a debate. It is true that people's views do change with time if they are on here, but its hard to not feel debating can be pretty futile sometimes. I know that believing in some kind of cosmic justice that the "truth" will win eventually/most of the time may be a bit of an illusion, but its a hard one to give up.

When they bring up changes in natural laws without providing any evidence whatsoever to support it, I see them as being a lost cause. It is truly sad, imho.

 

[Sunstone]

For the deterioration in standards of truth, I blame religious fundamentalism and post-modernism.

 

[columbus]

For the deterioration in standards of truth, I blame religious fundamentalism and post-modernism.

I don't think that the standards of truth have deteriorated. What's changed is the amount of information available, now that we are in the Information Age.

It's now quite obvious how wrong people tend to be. But this is not because it's new. We just know more about it than we used to.
Tom

 

[Sunstone]

I don't think that the standards of truth have deteriorated. What's changed is the amount of information available, now that we are in the Information Age.

It's now quite obvious how wrong people tend to be. But this is not because it's new. We just know more about it than we used to.
Tom

I think you're right to some significant extent, although I don't think that's the whole picture. The incorporation of religious fundamentalism into politics with the rise of the Religious Right over the past forty years, and the rise of post-modernism over nearly the same time frame appear to me new developments that have exacerbated the situation.

 

[BSM1]

Have you had the experience of telling the truth on RF and finding that people don't believe you or that they will not accept evidence as valid even when it is presented to them?

We all deal with people we "disagree" with from time to time but sometimes you come across a "truth" that you just don't want to compromise or want to see be taken seriously. Or its something so obvious that you're outraged someone can even contemplate it not being true. I tend to get a bit angry when this happens, but its not as if it helps or changes anything. There is no obligation on anyone else to believe something or to say something just because you think it's true. Evidence has become largely irrelevant and for display purposes only. Nonsense generally wins when people believe it in large numbers. God help us: the internet will destroy us all.

I'm probably not alone in finding this frustrating from time to time but just wondering if anyone has some good advice for dealing with it and keeping it in perspective. Whats the best way to become more tolerant and accepting without wanting to scream or hurt people and small animals? Any suggestions?

As for the poll, I voted that 2+2 equals a "Pink elephant in a tutu". Its completely logical and maths teachers are all in a conspiracy to say otherwise.

This just reinforces may claim that everyone has to find their own truth.

 

[Sunstone]

This just reinforces may claim that everyone has to find their own truth.

How exactly does that work? If I claim to see a dog, and you -- looking in the same direction at the same time -- claim not to see a dog, are we both telling the truth? If I accept evolution and you do not, are we both right? If you think things fall towards the center of the earth because of gravity and I think it's because of invisible gremlins pulling them there, do we both have the truth?