Skepticism

How Many Conspiracy Theories About COVID-19 Are There? Here’s Two.

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The longer the quarantine goes on, the more, of what I call conspiracy theories abound. Just today, my sister sent what I consider teo: on a “video interview” with someone that is supposedly a Biomedical Engineer, supposedly “well known”, although I had never heard of him. The other, was an article from The Nation, highlighting well known anti-vaxxer, Robert F Kennedy Jr. in an attempt to expose a deep state conspiracy on vaccinations, more to the development of one for the current COVID-19 virus.

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The Purpose of Body Camera Video

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Why have police, everywhere in the past few years, adopted the use of body cameras for interactions with the public? It’s simple: if there is a dispute concerning any contact with a member of the public, that there is a video record of the exchange. It’s meant to protect the officer(s) from fraudulent  charges of policy brutality, etc. When a charge is made by the public, the record will prove one way or another what the truth of any charges are. It does happen that some officers are in the wrong, and appropriately disciplined (suspension, firing, or other charges as appropriate), and supposedly gives the general public. more confidence in their law enforcement officers.

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Waking Up From Being ‘Woke’

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I don’t know how many have been paying attention, but david Silverman is trying to make a comeback of sorts – attempting to resuscitate his career in atheism, I guess. I don’;t know exactly why, because during the worst times of the schism, he was relatively silent. In fact, if anything he supported the tactics of what is now referred to those considered woke. I first noticed when he did this long, extremely cringeworthy interview recently with Atheist Republic. I could only get to the one-hour point, although I did go back and attempt to watch more. I believe everyone should have a chance, a voice, especially when they’re trying to resore a reputation that may have been damaged by false accusations.

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Belief Does Not Equate to Truth

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One thing I try to keep in mind when I’m on social media, are the numbers of people that will switch on their outrage engine at the slightest provocation. I usually try not to cause any controversy but sometimes, that is impossible to accomplish based on the content of my timeline on Twitter sometimes. I am often astonished at the numbers of people that are willing to believe absolutely anything, as long as it sits neatly within their political or social justice basket. Some will make the most outrageous statements, that appear to be fact based, but never offer anything that comes close to proving their statement. I see these tweets retweeted sometimes in the thousands.

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Having a Conversation With Your Opponents

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We’ve lost the ability to have a meaningful dialogue amongst ourselves, notably those of us that have different views politically as well as socially. We are so divided that we refuse to entertain any idea that might fall outside our belief system. It hasn’t always been that way. There was actually a time, not that distant, where well intentioned people could have a conversation on any topic, even when they disagreed and that discussion wouldn’t devolve into name calling and screaming at one another. Just because someone disagrees doesn’t necessarily mean they’re wrong. Different people can look at the same information and come to different conclusions about that information. We’ve become tribal, and those that are not in our tribe are our enemies.

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