How to handle a Conspiracy Theorist

How do you handle a conspiracy theorist?

If you know someone (friend, family member) who is a conspiracy theorist, sometimes it's just best to let continue to believe in the conspiracy theories they believe and not argue with them about it, because even reasonable people can become very upset and angry if you tell them that what they believe isn't real.

Most people who believe in conspiracy theories usually only believe in one or two, and in most cases, these beliefs do not affect their lives at all, and usually they won't bring the subject up at all unless someone else brings up the subject first.

Most of the time their most hostile arguments are actually on the internet in some message board forum, or the comments section of a news article or a blog. This is all that this is of course, just talk. Once they have vented, they'll just go back to their normal, everyday lives.

But what if their lives aren't considered normal?

What if they live in isolation due to their paranoia? Or have a total lack of, or even have no respect for the laws or law enforcement what so ever? Or engage in unproven, dis-proven, unhealthy, or even dangerous medical practices?

If this does occur then it might be time to get involved.

Many people might believe that isolating them is the answer, but really this might just led them to becoming more paranoid and more convinced of their beliefs.

The best thing to do is to keep communication with them as much as possible, and to give little hints that what they believe is wrong.

If you believe that they are suffering from mental illness, it's best to, in the kindest and gentlest way possible, suggest to them that they seek mental health treatment.

If they are definitely mentally ill, and they are talking about committing acts of violence, then you need to contact the local authorities and have that person committed, because, as it has been shown in the past, people whom very seriously believe in conspiracy theories, and are seriously mentally ill, can commit huge acts of violence.

Fact is, is that you can not just leave a person who seriously believes in conspiracy theories alone. As tempting as it might to stay away from them, if they truly need help, isolating them won't help them at all.

Jenny McCarthy Posing for Playboy... Not Good

It was recently announced that Jenny McCarthy would be posing for Playboy again, and quite frankly, I don't like it at all.

It's not that I don't think that Jenny isn't a beautiful woman. In fact I think she is one of the most beautiful women in the world.

The reason I don't like it that Jenny is posing for Playboy again is the fact that she is one of spokes people against vaccines.

Jenny's son is autistic, and she firmly believes that he became that way because of vaccines.

Despite the fact that the enormous amount of research shows that genetics, not vaccines, are the most likely cause of autism, there are still millions of people whom still believe otherwise.

These people base their beliefs on numerous fraud research articles that most major medical journals will not publish due to a lack of creditable research. Most famous of these is the article that started it all: The article that was written by Andrew Wakefield and published in the British Medical Journal.

The article was controversial from the start, and in 2010 was removed from the BMJ for fraud.

He is also no longer allowed to practice medicine in the United Kingdom.

Despite this, Wakefield still claims his research is truthful, and that there is a conspiracy by public health officials and pharmaceutical companies to discredit his work, and that they paid bloggers to post rumors about him over the internet and inflate the reports about the death from measles.

Jenny McCarthy is one of Wakefield's biggest supporters, and continues to preach the anti-vaccine cause. A cause that has been linked to the deaths of thousands of people, mostly children.

It angers me that Playboy is giving her another pictorial, despite the fact that her ignorance and irresponsibility has led to so many deaths. I don't suggest that people boycott Playboy, but I do think that people should mail Playboy letters stating how disappointed they are that Jenny is getting another pictorial, and that they should rip out and mail back the pictorial to Playboy in protest as well.

Thanksgiving!

Today is of course Thanksgiving. A day to be thankful for all that you have in your life, a day to spend time with those you are thankful for to have in your life, and a day to eat massive amounts of turkey, watch football, and fall asleep while watching football.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thrive: The Debunking

Last week I saw a trailer for a new documentary called "Thrive: What on Earth will it take" by Foster Gamble .

The trailer starts out fine at first, but within 30 seconds it goes from asking a perfectly legitimate question of whether or not humans can thrive, to pseudo-science, and eventually conspiracy theories.

First, they talk about some secret "code" and "hidden" designs in ancient art work concerning the torus, and how it keeps showing up in so many ancient sites around the world.

This of course means nothing other then different cultures thousands of years ago interacted with each, picking up the pattern from one another, and reproducing it. It has nothing to do with some secret ancient codes (not exactly a secret either since it's right out in public).

While this part raised a red flag to me, I wasn't ready to outright to dismiss it as being nothing more then BS.

Then goes into UFOs, and that the government is covering up the truth about them, and that they have crashed alien space craft.

This raised a few more red flags for me, as that is nothing more then an unproven and probably untrue conspiracy theory, and I felt it was going way off of what I thought this documentary was going to be about.

But again, I was not about to dismiss this documentary as being nothing more then BS.

Then they talked about crop circles being communications from aliens.

This is when I dismissed this documentary as being nothing but BS.

Crop circles, even the very complex ones, are in fact man made. There are multiple websites and videos showing how they can be made in only a few hours, using some rope and a 2x4.

Then they go into where they claim that machines can be built, using the torus design, that can produce unlimited energy.

I won't actually outright say is impossible, but most scientists in the field of physics agree that a machine that could produce unlimited energy (no matter what the design is) is so highly improbable that it is considered to be outright impossible to build.

Then it goes down hill from there.

They then begin making claims that this technology is being suppressed (along with knowledge about UFOs) by large corporations (banks, oil, energy, pharmaceutics) and the government (which is implied is controlled by large corporations) and implies that these corporations are responsible for all the troubles in the world today.

And of course they tell you to "connect the dots", something that many conspiracy theorists do in order to try to prove their conspiracy theories when they have a lack of real evidence (which is almost always).

In my personal opinion, you should not waste your time, or money, on this documentary, but if you do actually wish to see what I am actually talking, here is a link the trailer to the movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OibqdwHyZxk

And if you wish to read a much more in-depth debunking of this documentary, please click on the link below:

http://thrivedebunked.wordpress.com/

When was the last time the LDS was a cult?

Cult.

The ultimate way to insult another person's religion or belief system is by labeling it a cult.

While some religions or belief systems can be labeled a cult because they do in fact abuse and isolate their members, or encourages it's members to engage in dangerous actions and behavior, for other religions and belief systems it's not warranted because it's really not like that at all.

Recently a Dallas, Texas pastor and Rick Perry presidential supporter Robert Jeffess said in an interview on CNN that Christians should not vote for Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Cult.

The mainstream Mormon church has been around for about 180 years are so, and is very well established around the world, so I think we can stop labeling it a cult.

Pastor Jeffess is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, and if anyone knows about the Southern Baptists, then you know that they tend to look down on anyone who do not share their religious or political beliefs (kinda cult like in my opinion).

With the exception of them occasionally coming to my door and trying to get me to convert, I really have no problems with Mormons.

They have never tried to use fear tactics, they've never tried to get any money from me, and the

Mormons that I have worked for were all nice and paid in full.

While I have no desire to convert and become one of them, I'm certainly not going to label them as a cult, and I'm certainly not going to not vote for one of them simply because they don't share my beliefs.

Is There Anything Positive about the Anti-Homosexual Movement?

For the past couple of weeks I've wondering if there is anything positive about the anti-homosexual movement?

This whole wondering began after hearing about the death of Jamey Rodemeyer, a 14-year old boy who committed suicide after being bullied and tormented for years because he was homosexual. What is even worse was that even after this some of the bullies continued their bullying of him even after his death by chanting "you're better off dead" and "we are glad that you're dead" at a recent school dance when a Lady Gaga song was played (Jamey was a big fan of Lady Gaga).

If one person had done this chanting, it could easily have been explained as being the actions of one very disturbed student.

But it was several.

This comes to reason that these kids are being influenced in some way to think that what they have done is perfectly acceptable.

And this gets back to my question: Is there anything positive about the anti-homosexual movement?

The answer to that is: None.

Everything it has done has been pretty much negative from what I've seen.

It's created a situation that has led some kids to believe that it's perfectly okay to harass, torment, and abuse other kids whom either are homosexual, or are suspected of being homosexual, which interns leads to depression and sometimes suicide.

It has created a situation where some people now feel (or made known) that they are not welcome amongst their family, or even their community, because they are homosexual.

It has created a situation where some people believe that violence against homosexuals, and vandalism against churches and other establishments that openly welcome homosexuals, is okay.

It has created a situation where some people believe that homosexuals are either very hostile, and/or are sexual deviants and pedophiles whom actively try to turn children into homosexuals.

It has created a situation where some people believe that homosexuality is a choice, and that a homosexuals can become heterosexual through therapy and prayer.

It has created a situation where some people believe that many of the rights that homosexuals have recently gained should be reversed.

And finally, it has created a situation where people in the anti-homosexual movement are viewed as being a bunch of bigots who are exploiting the Bible to justify their own bigotry, and has also lead to an increased negative view of Christianity.