Just because a lot of people believe something doens't make it right
Okay, I'm going to rant slightly. First of all, not all memes are created equal - some are good, some are bad, some are brilliant, and some are just stupid. With that in mind (and believe me, I plan on writing something more about memes in general later), I was reading this post, and came across the following comment:
Still, something's going on. One person can be a tin hat but if so many people smell smoke in the air, there must be a fire nearby.
Bzzt! Nice try, but sorry, thanks for playing. A lot of people can believe in something, and it is still a stupid idea. Something like 6% of the US population believes that NASA faked the Apollo moon landings. That means, based on the 2000 census, that approximately 16,885,314 people believe that the moon landings were faked! As I said, just because a lot of people believe in an idea, it doesn't automatically confer some sort of credible status to it.
The mere existence of urban legends ought to be proof that belief is not the same thing as the truth.
Still, something's going on. One person can be a tin hat but if so many people smell smoke in the air, there must be a fire nearby.
Bzzt! Nice try, but sorry, thanks for playing. A lot of people can believe in something, and it is still a stupid idea. Something like 6% of the US population believes that NASA faked the Apollo moon landings. That means, based on the 2000 census, that approximately 16,885,314 people believe that the moon landings were faked! As I said, just because a lot of people believe in an idea, it doesn't automatically confer some sort of credible status to it.
The mere existence of urban legends ought to be proof that belief is not the same thing as the truth.
posted by Garou at 12:12 AM
1 Comments:
As I recall, before the election someone found that the voters were so divided that a significant minority on both sides said that if their opposition was elected, they just would not recognize the legitimacy of the President. That may be part of what's going on here. Bitter Kerry supporters just won't see President Bush as President of the United States, and this is an expression of that.
On the other hand, I've also read Bush's proponents say they find voting irregularities favoring Kerry, so maybe it's just a general distrust in the system.
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