Illuminati-R-Us

Posted: **Sun Jul 03, 2005 2:32 am**

This is an excellent article I found a reference to on GLP.

Scott Berkun wrote:We all know someone that’s intelligent, but who occasionally defends obviously bad ideas. Why does this happen? How can smart people take up positions that defy any reasonable logic? Having spent many years working with smart people I’ve catalogued many of the ways this happens, and I have advice on what to do about it. I feel qualified to write this essay as I’m a recovering smart person myself and I’ve defended several very bad ideas. So if nothing else this essay serves as a kind of personal therapy session. However, I fully suspect you’ll get more than just entertainment value (“Look, Scott is more stupid than we thought!”) out of what I have to say on this topic.

...

The problem with smart people is that they like to be right and sometimes will defend ideas to the death rather than admit they’re wrong. This is bad. Worse, if they got away with it when they were young (say, because they were smarter than their parents, their friends, and their parent’s friends) they’ve probably built an ego around being right, and will therefore defend their perfect record of invented righteousness to the death. Smart people often fall into the trap of preferring to be right even if it’s based in delusion, or results in them, or their loved ones, becoming miserable. (Somewhere in your town there is a row of graves at the cemetery, called smartypants lane, filled with people who were buried at poorly attended funerals, whose headstones say “Well, at least I was right.”)

More at:
Why smart people defend bad ideas

Posted: **Mon Jul 04, 2005 2:36 am**

Lance (LBM™) wrote:This is an excellent article I found a reference to on GLP.

Interesting. I've always known that not ALL woo woos are idiots, that some are intelligent folk defending to the death completely untenable theories.

In fact, many of them like Grant and IDW, should be smart enough to know better, especially when confronted with solid evidence contrary to their beliefs. Fact is they ARE smart enough, but perhaps it is more of an ego issue than anything else.

Posted: **Mon Jul 04, 2005 2:41 am**

I have to disagree with you there - IDW isn't smart enough to know better. In fact, he is a liar and dense. A really bad combination.

Posted: **Mon Jul 04, 2005 2:59 am**

There are also the possibilities that IDW is either a consortium or has multiple personality disorder. There was at least one version of him that didn't seem too bad. Like that one that actually listened to Jay early on in the Moon Hoax Marathon.

Posted: **Mon Jul 04, 2005 3:43 am**

Lance (LBM™) wrote:There are also the possibilities that IDW is either a consortium or has multiple personality disorder. There was at least one version of him that didn't seem too bad. Like that one that actually listened to Jay early on in the Moon Hoax Marathon.

Something I found interesting about that moon hoax thread was that through the first 25 or 30 pages IDW always posted as either user 94 or 928. However, after those first pages user 94/928 never again posted and instead we started getting multiple personalities posting under all sorts of user IDs. I'm wondering if the original IDW got the hell out of Dodge and was replaced by a bunch of children. You may also recall the original IDW kept talking about his father and flew off the handle when he felt his father was being insulted. The later IDWs never mentioned the father and, at one point, I purposely made a disparaging comment about the father to see what kind of reaction I'd get. I got no reaction at all. I really think we were dealing with different people. The first IDW seemed to be not formally educated but somewhat intelligent. The others weren't smart enough to tie their own shoes.

FYI, the IDW who recently claimed to be an Engineer in the 9/11 thread was user 9147, who was one of the later IDW personalities in the moon thread.

Posted: **Mon Jul 04, 2005 3:50 am**

Bob B. wrote:The others weren't smart enough to tie their own shoes.

Bob B.:
Please post "Before Continuing; Please Swallow and Put Down Your Drink" warnings before making comments like that in the future.

:D

Posted: **Tue Jul 05, 2005 12:01 am**

I knew a woman who was (reasonably!) intelligent. certainly she was smart enough to get a BA, though there are those who would argue it doesn't take a lot of brains to do that at Evergreen. however, she was in some marginally science-related field like fisheries, so maybe it was a BS.

well, anyway, there was some BS involved. she believes in the Moon Hoax, apparently, though I've never talked to her on the subject. (she's a friend of friends, and I thanked the Goddess the day she and her husband moved to Georgia, because it meant I didn't have to deal with her anymore.) she firmly and to the depths of her heart believes that only a few hundred thousand Jews died in the Holocaust, and when I told her in no uncertain terms that she was full of it and needed to multiply that by about 20, she asked for my sources! she believes in Kennedy conspiracy, too, of course.

my daughter's father, now I think about it, fit into the same category. certainly he really did believe in the Illuminati as more than a historical curiousity.

I think a lot of people believe in conspiracies because they want to. I think it's a kind of religion, in fact--it makes them feel better to know something's out there.

Posted: **Tue Jul 05, 2005 3:28 pm**

Lance (LBM™) wrote:There are also the possibilities that IDW is either a consortium or has multiple personality disorder. There was at least one version of him that didn't seem too bad. Like that one that actually listened to Jay early on in the Moon Hoax Marathon.

Bob B. wrote:Something I found interesting about that moon hoax thread was that through the first 25 or 30 pages IDW always posted as either user 94 or 928. However, after those first pages user 94/928 never again posted and instead we started getting multiple personalities posting under all sorts of user IDs. I'm wondering if the original IDW got the hell out of Dodge and was replaced by a bunch of children.

I never got the impression that he was more than one person. Of course, this is just an impression, and there's no really good proof for it. His posts of substance (which weren't very numerous) were nearly the same throughout. They showed a poor understanding of math and science. They basically all were based on his construction of the universe, which he claims is superior to mainstream science.

Bob B. wrote:You may also recall the original IDW kept talking about his father and flew off the handle when he felt his father was being insulted. The later IDWs never mentioned the father and, at one point, I purposely made a disparaging comment about the father to see what kind of reaction I'd get. I got no reaction at all. I really think we were dealing with different people. The first IDW seemed to be not formally educated but somewhat intelligent. The others weren't smart enough to tie their own shoes.

FYI, the IDW who recently claimed to be an Engineer in the 9/11 thread was user 9147, who was one of the later IDW personalities in the moon thread.

The IDW that started the Moon Hoax Thread early and frequently stated that he was an engineer in order to give validity to his LM/CSM claims. The IDW (BOB B/BobB/BOB E) from ChemtrailCentral listed two different occupations: engineer and welder. This guy also referenced his father (but the age of his father at the time of his death changes), native american heritage, NE Texas locale, and an extreme dislike for Duncan Kuntz. Of course, none of that actually means that it's all the same guy.

Probable IDW ChemtrailCentral user profiles:
===============================
INITERDIMENSIONAL WARRIOR: Posts.
Interdimentional Warrior: Posts.
BOB B: Posts.
BOB E: No Posts.
BobB: Posts.

Posted: **Tue Jul 05, 2005 4:06 pm**

MM_Dandy wrote:I never got the impression that he was more than one person.

MM_Dandy believes differently that we believe.

That means he's one of THEM!

MM_Dandy is one of the IDW personalities.

</woo woo>

Posted: **Tue Jul 05, 2005 4:19 pm**

Lance (LBM™) wrote:MM_Dandy is one of the IDW personalities.

Heh, and here's the kicker. Since I cannot conclusively prove that I am not one of the IDW personalities, we must consider that this is possible, however improbable it may seem. 8)

I was just thinking how complex it would be to try to assume IDW's GLP identity. I consider myself a smart guy, but I don't think I could pull it off for very long at all. Hmmmm.....I think I smell a thread topic, here.

Posted: **Tue Jul 05, 2005 4:29 pm**

MM_Dandy wrote:I think I smell a thread topic, here.

Yeah, I smell it too.

Posted: **Sat Jul 09, 2005 3:36 pm**

Just an off-the cuff note: When I first ran into IDW back on chemtrail central, he was posting as "BobB".

Now I KNOW there is no correlation between the two BobBs, but I find it funny nonetheless!

I also find intersting that I have been IDWs personal bête noir for many years now. He used to claim that he was an engineer; and, for a while, hinted darkly of his connections with the Texas Rangers (whom I
referred to as the "Texas Power Rangers") who were going to arrest me for treason because I was constantly hoo-rawing his "chem-trails" and other hoaxes.

And I'd always considered Grant to be just another name of what's her-face; the old niburu-woman.

Posted: **Sat Jul 09, 2005 4:45 pm**

Duncan Kunz wrote:Now I KNOW there is no correlation between the two BobBs, but I find it funny nonetheless!

I find it rather disturbing. :(

Posted: **Tue Aug 02, 2005 11:05 am**

CopycatING is the best weapon the woo woos have.

I hate it to. :evil:

Posted: **Tue Nov 15, 2005 3:34 am**

Someone did a content analysis of a sample of Incredible Dim Wit posts, and concluded that they were the work of various hands. That seemed obvious to me.

As to the attraction of bizarre conspiracy theories for intelligent and educated people: I think some people have a strong desire to "know" things that other people not only don't know, but, if asked, would be sure are false. It isn't enough to know more about General Relativity than the average bear; it's much more satisfying to "know" that, for example, vaccination is a Rockefeller fraud.

Posted: **Tue Nov 15, 2005 4:24 am**

Conley Powell wrote:I think some people have a strong desire to "know" things that other people not only don't know, but, if asked, would be sure are false.

I'm reasonably certain I know a few things (in the realm of mathematics) that no one else in the world knew, until I told them. Some others have indeed told me these things must be false. So I guess I qualify. My problem is, nobody really cares about these things :D

Posted: **Tue Nov 15, 2005 4:31 pm**

Good point. A good conspiracy theory must involve a conspiracy that people will care about.

Posted: **Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:09 pm**

Specious arguments and a slick presentation can fool even intelligent people. That's why I don't hate everyone who believes in some crazy theory, but I do hate the people who create and spread them.

Posted: **Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:41 pm**

Our attitude toward "believers" should depend upon what they do about their beliefs. If they keep it to themselves, no one can have any objection to that. If they do no more than talk, the worst they do is bore innocent bystanders. But if they actually do something about it, that's another matter.

As for people like Richard C. (for "Conspiracy") Hoaxland...they do their best to blight the lives of their disciples, which lives probably leave much to be desired at best. We should take every opportunity to sabotage the likes of Hoaxland.

Posted: **Thu Jan 05, 2006 11:09 pm**

The ones that frustrate me are the ones who seem otherwise intelligent but will listen to nothing you have to say the disagree's with their [insert woo woo idea here] beliefs.

Posted: **Fri Jan 06, 2006 12:20 am**

Lance wrote:The ones that frustrate me are the ones who seem otherwise intelligent but will listen to nothing you have to say the disagree's with their [insert woo woo idea here] beliefs.

same shit in the scientific community. Look at the nuclear energy or global warming debate. You'll find hundreds of scientists you gladly requrgitate the PC point of view even though that view is contradicted by unabigous and verifiable data. Nucelar physists jump up and down about how Man is warming the planet and Atmospheric scientists get their panties in a bunch over how bad nuclear energy is.

Man is a herd animal and is more comfortable in a tribal environment.

Posted: **Fri Jan 06, 2006 2:16 am**

Redneck wrote:Specious arguments and a slick presentation can fool even intelligent people. That's why I don't hate everyone who believes in some crazy theory, but I do hate the people who create and spread them.

I think some people create theories because honestly don't know better; they were raised to believe something absurd, and the theory stems from that. Take it form me, there is hope for these people - some of the more intelligent ones will see the error of their ways eventually.

Illuminati-R-Us

Why smart people defend bad ideas

Why smart people defend bad ideas

Re: Why smart people defend bad ideas