love this: "The truth becomes as ultimately unknowable as the location of an electron. If you even believe in electrons. Personally, I think they’re a hoax. But I would encourage everybody to do their own research."
Ok, wait a damn minute…WTH is consensus reality?? I eagerly admit, I did not read any further other than to know that the right wing nuts were going to be mentioned!
I thought this term was more mainstream than, apparently, it is. Consensus reality is the world in which most of us live, the world in which we agree on a set of facts and live our live according to those facts. Another way of saying it would be "objective reality." As those facts change, our reality changes. So, in the Middle Ages, consensus reality was that the sun revolved around the earth. Now, consensus reality is the opposite. Consensus reality isn't Truth, in the sense that it allows for science and philosophy to expand/change our ideas of Truth.
A guy I ran across has a great term for it, "Epistemic Capture." To wit,
"Epistemic capture is what happens when a social system persistently cultivates less true or less warranted beliefs and prevents the cultivation of more true or more warranted beliefs. (Warranted beliefs are just beliefs based on good reasons.)"
So this is the part of the story when Godzilla starts his rampage and honorable populace meet fire with…Pee Wee Herman? No slur on Paul Reubens why by all accounts my was a generous and well liked man.
We are always led to believe that the President, surrounded by The Best and the Brightest-thank you David Halberstan but clearly our President only has the band width to process one voice at a time.
As a Californian, the idea of bringing back the California Republic is sounding attractive. Let Alabama and West Virginia do whatever they want. Reconsider Savannah
Out of the 8 reference links in that article, 2 link to Wikipedia pages, 4 lead to nothing, 1 leads to another article on the same site, and one leads to a completely unrelated website. Even the "Read More" link at the end is dead. This article is intentionally misleading, and presents zero backup. You need to do better than this.
Ima take a comment break for awhile, but thought I’d weigh in on this one. Doing your own research is preferable, and indeed, laudable, if you can find valid data to base your research on. That’s always the hickey. Finding valid data. I remember the words of my 1970s high school “computer science” teacher, back when data was loaded via punchcards. Garbage in = garbage out.
I feel like you've accurately described the woes of living in a post truth world.
It sucks and there's not a lot we can do about it.
That said, I do think it's worth addressing your unnamed quote, mostly because I can understand some of where that person is coming from - minus the hyperbole.
Saying our local reality is not real - and referring to it as behaving like a simulation - is actually accurate. Similarly, there is a strong possibility that we will create simulation realities for ourselves, and those will eventually be difficult for us to detect as real or not real. Could we be there already? Yes. Weird but true.
------------
Technology being kept hidden from us.
Based on the testimony of David Grusch, Karl Nell, Jay Stratton, Tim Gallaudet and 40 other first hand witnesses who testified to the ICIG, this very much seems to be true. We recovered craft of unknown origin, which we are reverse engineering and keeping it from the american people and academia.
Rep. Eric Burlison came out of a SCIF saying the same thing:
The government definitely has some control over the media when it comes to issues of national security (UFOs being one of the topics).
They also have the ability to keep disruptive tech and knowledge (which can be destructive to economic conditions/stability, or used for national defense), from the academic community...which naturally stifles the production of knowledge, innovation and things like clean, free(er) energy.
----------------------
Every political narrative is pure propaganda.
Some political narratives are propaganda. Look at AARO.
-----------------------
All the pop culture is just to distract us from things that matter.
Pop culture is pop culture. It's distracting us from things that matter, and sometimes there's nothing we can do about it.
Loving the deep discussion here. I hope Nick Bostrom is being referenced ironically though. If you clarify his credential as “demonstrated racist and 21st century eugenics philosopher” , it may alter your perception of his work and how his contributions to establishing truth should be approached with extreme caution.
I understand where you're coming from - but even super smart philosophers are allowed to have stupid thoughts. IOW, I try not to judge the merits of a philosopher's arguments on whether or not they're a racist asshole.
Hell, I'm OK even looking at multiple philosophical arguments from the same philosopher separately if just one of them might reveal a compelling idea.
For instance, Heidegger was probably a racist asshole too, but that shouldn't distract me from trying to understand his philosophy for interpretive phenomenological research. Hope that makes sense.
Like all conspiracy theories, this one has a ring of truth. Yes, I'm well-aware of the work being done on simulation theory. I'm sympathetic to the argument, although I also think it's ultimately irrelevant. And yes, the military does keep tech under wraps. Whether or not they're keeping actual UFOs under wraps (which I happen to believe is likely), I don't know, but even if that's true we don't know how far they've gotten in reverse engineering them and I've seen no evidence to this point to indicate that: 1. we have them, and if we do that 2. we've been able to make heads or tails out of them.
To say that the government has "some control" over the media is true in one sense; they can supply (or not) information, run rumors, trade info for access, etc. I also think they sometimes pressure outlets NOT to run stories. That's different than having "control," which I do not believe to be the case. There's too much competing media out there for that to make sense.
Yes, some political narrative IS propaganda, but one of the advantages of living in this time is that media consumers are savvy enough to recognize that the news can be spun.
As for pop culture - indeed, all culture - it is what it is. To say that it's distracting us from "things that matter" is to say that culture one of the things that doesn't matter. Which I obviously disagree with.
I am just happy to see people discussing these very important topics with nuance and mutual respect. This place is a breathe of fresh air. My two cents, as a buddhist I also believe the universe is fundamentally an illusion, but that doesn't mean what we do with our lives doesn't matter. In fact, its the only thing that matters. We are all an expression of the universe and are here to reject fear, spread love and become the kindest, best possible version of ourselves we can. I too see the value of culture, especially the arts, as art is the primary way that Humanity grapples with the mystery and beauty of being alive and self aware at all.
🙌
Great piece Michael!
Wayne King
dear michael,
the truth is in here!
love this: "The truth becomes as ultimately unknowable as the location of an electron. If you even believe in electrons. Personally, I think they’re a hoax. But I would encourage everybody to do their own research."
thanks for sharing as always! great piece!
love
myq
Ok, wait a damn minute…WTH is consensus reality?? I eagerly admit, I did not read any further other than to know that the right wing nuts were going to be mentioned!
But seriously, please define CONSENSUS REALITY!
I thought this term was more mainstream than, apparently, it is. Consensus reality is the world in which most of us live, the world in which we agree on a set of facts and live our live according to those facts. Another way of saying it would be "objective reality." As those facts change, our reality changes. So, in the Middle Ages, consensus reality was that the sun revolved around the earth. Now, consensus reality is the opposite. Consensus reality isn't Truth, in the sense that it allows for science and philosophy to expand/change our ideas of Truth.
this is fantastic, that there wasn't even consensus reality over the understanding of the term "consensus reality." AND NOW THERE IS!
A guy I ran across has a great term for it, "Epistemic Capture." To wit,
"Epistemic capture is what happens when a social system persistently cultivates less true or less warranted beliefs and prevents the cultivation of more true or more warranted beliefs. (Warranted beliefs are just beliefs based on good reasons.)"
https://danheck.medium.com/how-have-we-gotten-into-this-mess-and-how-can-we-get-out-bf131cc97d35
Comparing Fox "News" and MSNBC is like comparing an action thriller to a documentary.
Godzilla vs March of the Penguins.
So this is the part of the story when Godzilla starts his rampage and honorable populace meet fire with…Pee Wee Herman? No slur on Paul Reubens why by all accounts my was a generous and well liked man.
We are always led to believe that the President, surrounded by The Best and the Brightest-thank you David Halberstan but clearly our President only has the band width to process one voice at a time.
As a Californian, the idea of bringing back the California Republic is sounding attractive. Let Alabama and West Virginia do whatever they want. Reconsider Savannah
Some truth that's been memory holed. The DNC is a private corporation so they don't even believe in democracy.
https://ivn.us/posts/dnc-to-court-we-are-a-private-corporation-with-no-obligation-to-follow-our-rules
Out of the 8 reference links in that article, 2 link to Wikipedia pages, 4 lead to nothing, 1 leads to another article on the same site, and one leads to a completely unrelated website. Even the "Read More" link at the end is dead. This article is intentionally misleading, and presents zero backup. You need to do better than this.
🤣🤡🤣
Excellent retort. You sure showed him!
I mean, I probably would have tried to find another article that makes the same (or similar) point but I guess this works too...
I don't do other people's homework. You can Google🤷♀️ So could they. 🤡
Seems to me you're not willing to do your own homework. Also, if you're making the claim, then it's on you to prove it, not us.
Uh oh… an invader.
Ima take a comment break for awhile, but thought I’d weigh in on this one. Doing your own research is preferable, and indeed, laudable, if you can find valid data to base your research on. That’s always the hickey. Finding valid data. I remember the words of my 1970s high school “computer science” teacher, back when data was loaded via punchcards. Garbage in = garbage out.
Evergreen.
I feel like you've accurately described the woes of living in a post truth world.
It sucks and there's not a lot we can do about it.
That said, I do think it's worth addressing your unnamed quote, mostly because I can understand some of where that person is coming from - minus the hyperbole.
Let's go one at a time:
--------------
Universe is a simulation.
No, but based on the Nobel Prize in physics findings of quantum entanglement:https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-universe-is-not-locally-real-and-the-physics-nobel-prize-winners-proved-it/,
And the work of philosophers like Nick Bostrom:
https://simulation-argument.com/simulation.pdf)
Saying our local reality is not real - and referring to it as behaving like a simulation - is actually accurate. Similarly, there is a strong possibility that we will create simulation realities for ourselves, and those will eventually be difficult for us to detect as real or not real. Could we be there already? Yes. Weird but true.
------------
Technology being kept hidden from us.
Based on the testimony of David Grusch, Karl Nell, Jay Stratton, Tim Gallaudet and 40 other first hand witnesses who testified to the ICIG, this very much seems to be true. We recovered craft of unknown origin, which we are reverse engineering and keeping it from the american people and academia.
Rep. Eric Burlison came out of a SCIF saying the same thing:
https://www.askapol.com/p/it-appearssomebody-has-discovered?r=1ij7cx&triedRedirect=true
----------------------
Government controls the media and academia.
The government definitely has some control over the media when it comes to issues of national security (UFOs being one of the topics).
They also have the ability to keep disruptive tech and knowledge (which can be destructive to economic conditions/stability, or used for national defense), from the academic community...which naturally stifles the production of knowledge, innovation and things like clean, free(er) energy.
----------------------
Every political narrative is pure propaganda.
Some political narratives are propaganda. Look at AARO.
-----------------------
All the pop culture is just to distract us from things that matter.
Pop culture is pop culture. It's distracting us from things that matter, and sometimes there's nothing we can do about it.
-------------------------
Loving the deep discussion here. I hope Nick Bostrom is being referenced ironically though. If you clarify his credential as “demonstrated racist and 21st century eugenics philosopher” , it may alter your perception of his work and how his contributions to establishing truth should be approached with extreme caution.
I understand where you're coming from - but even super smart philosophers are allowed to have stupid thoughts. IOW, I try not to judge the merits of a philosopher's arguments on whether or not they're a racist asshole.
Hell, I'm OK even looking at multiple philosophical arguments from the same philosopher separately if just one of them might reveal a compelling idea.
For instance, Heidegger was probably a racist asshole too, but that shouldn't distract me from trying to understand his philosophy for interpretive phenomenological research. Hope that makes sense.
Like all conspiracy theories, this one has a ring of truth. Yes, I'm well-aware of the work being done on simulation theory. I'm sympathetic to the argument, although I also think it's ultimately irrelevant. And yes, the military does keep tech under wraps. Whether or not they're keeping actual UFOs under wraps (which I happen to believe is likely), I don't know, but even if that's true we don't know how far they've gotten in reverse engineering them and I've seen no evidence to this point to indicate that: 1. we have them, and if we do that 2. we've been able to make heads or tails out of them.
To say that the government has "some control" over the media is true in one sense; they can supply (or not) information, run rumors, trade info for access, etc. I also think they sometimes pressure outlets NOT to run stories. That's different than having "control," which I do not believe to be the case. There's too much competing media out there for that to make sense.
Yes, some political narrative IS propaganda, but one of the advantages of living in this time is that media consumers are savvy enough to recognize that the news can be spun.
As for pop culture - indeed, all culture - it is what it is. To say that it's distracting us from "things that matter" is to say that culture one of the things that doesn't matter. Which I obviously disagree with.
I am just happy to see people discussing these very important topics with nuance and mutual respect. This place is a breathe of fresh air. My two cents, as a buddhist I also believe the universe is fundamentally an illusion, but that doesn't mean what we do with our lives doesn't matter. In fact, its the only thing that matters. We are all an expression of the universe and are here to reject fear, spread love and become the kindest, best possible version of ourselves we can. I too see the value of culture, especially the arts, as art is the primary way that Humanity grapples with the mystery and beauty of being alive and self aware at all.
Culture provides relief and insulation from the reality of all you’ve described. It doesn’t change reality but lets you escape it momentarily.
We are born into cultures, which vary across the world, just as we're born into political, economic, and social systems.
Fair points, Michael! Thanks for the response!