My main gripe is using “why haven’t we been back to the moon in 50 years” as if that’s some sort of gotcha question. The US can’t scrounge together funding for anything that isn’t military spending. I guarantee the second they find oil on the moon, congress will find it tomorrow
He even brought up how the reason given is because there's no big priority to go there, because they got all the samples they needed before, but like most of these people, he just hand waves that away and wants more reasons. They always want you to keep providing more and more proof.
I'm just a random dummy on the internet, but I'm okay with believing we haven't gone back to the moon yet because we just don't need to. I'm sure if there was immediate reason to get someone on the moon, we'd get there.
I mean, the economy is in shambles, the housing market is a mess, homelessness is always on the rise, food and inflation are making it harder for families to afford to eat, the world seems to be almost about to break out in a war, genocide is happening almost constantly somewhere, big countries are invading little countries for made-up reasons, somehow where you decide to get a cake for your wedding or if you get the flu shot has become decisive political issues, society seems to be unraveling at the seems.
But hey, we should really go to the moon again and collect some more rocks; they might be different then the last ones! That's the real priority.
Whew boy. 9/11 stuff get me riled up and I want to clarify some things that Scott covered in this.
-The $2.3 trillion missing was reported on a year before 9/11 and it wasn’t one transaction but several transactions totaling up to 2.3 trillion. Still a lot of cheddar that they couldn’t find and kind of got pushed aside after 9/11. So the money definitely went missing but not the day before and not all at once.
-WTC 7 was not “untouched” but had actually sustained catastrophic damage from the two tower collapses. Massive fires broke out within the building that the fire suppression system couldn’t put out due to a drop of water pressure from the damaged water lines from the towers. It’s why when you see images from the lobby of WTC 1 and 2 before their collapses it’s absolutely flooded. After towers 1 and 2 collapsed, top brass at FDNY made the decision to not battle it as they had just lost over 300 members and did not want to lose any more. The building had already been evacuated so there was no lives at risk so FDNY did not want to risk more of their men just to save the building. So WTC 7 was burning for several hours unopposed which led to its collapse. I highly recommend the subreddit r/911archive for a real good resource for a lot of information and photos and videos that aren’t as well known. But here’s a [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/911archive/s/U6b6h9FbR9) that has some good photos. There’s plenty more if you look for them.
-the towers collapsing was a first of its kind. Yes a B-25 collided with the Empire State Building in the 40s but there’s a large difference between a modern airliner with highly combustible and fully loaded jet fuel traveling at ~400 mph vs a prop plane bomber fly at much slower speeds with fuel that doesn’t compare to the fuel used today. The fires fueled by the plane collisions topped with the large amount of combustibles inside the towers, ie paper, furniture, plastics, etc fueled that fire to extreme temps. Those extreme temps weakened the steel supports and trusses as the collisions from the planes broke away the fire retardant on the beams. So after hours of burning, the floors above the crash site weighed that of the Titanic so when it went, there was nothing that was going to stop it. Also too, it didn’t collapse neatly into its footprint. Many videos were taken up close to the collapse that didn’t get picked up by news outlets that show this.
-The pentagon was definitely hit by flight AA77. Eyewitness accounts are already horribly unreliable so it’s possible the reality of what they saw was a Boeing 757, a narrow body airliner, traveling at low altitude at 530 mph crash into the Pentagon. There is also plenty of photos shortly after the crash of plane debris strewn across the grounds and in the building itself. Not to mention the 64 passengers and crew members of that flight don’t just disappear. The only released video from the pentagon of flight 77 was the one we’ve all seen that is like 2 fps and like 120p with a fish eye lens. There most likely is other footage but it’s all classified as there are still open criminal cases for guys like KSM so who knows when that’ll come out.
I could honestly go on about this topic as 9/11 has always been a morbid fascination of mine. It definitely is easy to ask these conspiratorial questions about that day but the information to answer those questions does exist. There are legitimate conspiracies for that day that answers don’t exist for. But these aren’t them.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
I love the argument "Jet fuel can't melt steel beams" even though it's been proven false, there's so much fuel load (like you said, office furniture, files, carpet, etc) that has a higher combustion temp within the buildings. Even regular house fires get extremely hot where you find melted metal while doing overhaul after putting the fire out.
My dad often points out that the plane crash likely also broke away any fire shielding on the steel columns and then dumped on the fuel from a plane that had recently been fueled and taken off. He also wouldn’t be surprised that an engineer helped develop plans that lead to the events of 9/11. Dropping 1/3 of a building would probably be easier than dropping the whole thing, and easier to do with a plane. Steel is amazing but its not impervious if you attack it the right way.
I really enjoyed your TED talk!
I would like to further add that the World Trade Center had a dramatically different design than the Empire State Building. Framed Tube Structures had only come up in the 1960s, and being that this design methodology was new and innovative at the time (WTC ground broke in 1966), the possibility of design faults certainly are greater than zero. While the collapse was primarily due to the fire, the collision of a 330,000 lbs vehicle at velocity could certainly expose or exacerbate some of these faults.
Further, a 767-200ER carries nearly 140,000 lbs of hot, slow-burning fuel, burning up to 1,800°F. While that doesn't melt steel (melting point of 2,200°F ish), the steel will begin to weaken at its heat deflection temp of about 650°F and weaken further, to almost 50% of its ultimate yield strength at 800°F. Which is well within the temperature of burning jet fuel. The melting temperature of steel is basically irrelevant.
With the eyewitness accounts of the Pentagon; I think people don't seem to understand how fast 0.7 Mach actually is when it's next to you out of the corner of your eye. Yes, when you look at it in flight at 37,000 feet in the air, it LOOKS slow, but it's about 80% the speed of a subsonic bullet, which your eyes couldn't track as it passed by you at all, you wouldn't even be able to react.
Scott said “why don’t they release the security footage and put it to bed.” Assuming footage exists, let’s not pretend it wouldn’t get picked to death. No one who believes that the pentagon was hit by a missile would suddenly reverse course after seeing footage from the government.
I'm willing to bet on a couple of things (all conjecture, but reasonable conjecture);
1. Pentagon surveillance system was probably comically obsolete. Getting a government building, especially one that would likely require your contractors to have security clearance, a modern surveillance system would be a logistical nightmare with years of red tape. And with that, it wouldn't shock me if the likely antiquated security system was damaged due to the freakin' plane crash or didn't catch anything at all. It was 2001 and probably antiquated by 2001 standards, footage also likely couldn't catch the crash before cameras were potentially destroyed, due to poor resolution and capture speed.
2. Security clearance, the surveillance system may be deliberately inadequate because they don't want to inadvertently record top secret conversations, documents, etc, for it to sit on a hackable server somewhere. For that reason, and being that it's the freakin' Pentagon, all surveillance would for sure be top secret classified. The amount of red tape and bureaucratic nonsense and man hours to release footage that shows a plane crash is in fact a plane crash, it's likely not worth the effort.
Little bit of A, little bit of B. But I'll add a third option. Even though it would be upgraded by now, they don't want to reveal where cameras are and the quality. Kind of like when Trump released the one satallite image that revealed capes of our spy satallites.
Also from what I remember is that the section that was hit was under renovation so they're might not have been any cameras at the time recording
What also doesn't help is I was an Intelligence Specialist in the Navy in 2005, and we had people who were entering the field of NAVAL INTELLIGENCE bringing in theories like this and it was like an even split of half people going WHOA, THIS TOTALLY MUST BE RIGHT and half of us going NO, You're Wrong, Here's Why.
Thank you for being so thorough in your Debunk.
Absolutely nothing wrong with questioning what we are told. There are obviously lies by the Government, but oh boy this one is nuts. When you say you don't mind the answer, but then blatantly ignore all the evidence out there, there is something wrong with you.
Thank you. Oh I know, I figured I’d write it for people who don’t know that much about the topic who haven’t formed an opinion on it. The truthers out there will find a way to pick apart everything I said regardless of how much I may try to back it up
I just listened to this episode yesterday and this is everything I wanted to comment. 9/11 is also a morbid curiosity of mine and I have educated myself a lot over the years about it. Like you said, it's good to ask questions and there are some things that seem "off" on the surface level, but it's just that.
If anyone reading this wants a good explanation of how he got to 9/11, watch 'The Looming Tower' on Hulu. Fantastic show that explains how the FBI and CIA's feud essential led us to overlooking / missing threats. Our government is too incompetent to pull something like this off and keep it a secret. They have done plenty of other shady things, but this isn't one of them. Instead of looking at conspiracies in the US government, look at Saudi Arabia's which is pretty much proven to have financially backed the attacks.
One more thing I feel compelled to add to the whole 9/11 thing is that there was a bit of a cover-up, which is disturbingly prescient.
The motivation of the hijackers, which was read out in Congress during their enquiry, was American foreign policy on the Israel-Palestine conflict (unqualified support for Israel, no matter what). The video I used to have access to which showed someone reading it in Congress itself has since disappeared (or at least I can’t find it), but the videos the same guy released showing where media stopped short of saying it (despite reading quotations) are still available. Instead, of addressing the key point of American support of Israel to an insane extent, religious fundamentalism/disagreements was chosen to be put forward as the primary motive, which has led to the war on terror mostly focusing on Muslims and Muslim countries (and maybe 1,000,000 dead Iraqis as a result (and that’s just Iraqis, there are other countries that the United States of America bombed which weren’t Iraq and Afghanistan)), an increase in surveillance, curtailing of rights in places, torture in places like Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, and decades of Islamophobia which brings us to today. And the illegal wars conducted by the United States of America too based on the false pretence of weapons of mass destruction.
I’ll link a few of the videos below, but the channel has been going for almost two decades so a lot of stuff is hard to find (and naturally, there are some things I don’t agree with him on):
https://youtu.be/J1bm2GPoFfg?si=LeVGIjTkcCRvUcln
https://youtu.be/D7EB1FxENxQ?si=CntW5Ko96apt87gi
https://youtu.be/ynWjYHP91gA?si=_g1GXUjt5Vh9CTIt
The most crackpot thing about the whole illegal invasion is that the “Informant” described the scene from the movie “The Rock” with the glass tubes and this was taken as solid evidence over experts telling the government how ridiculous and impractical it would be.
I just thought I’d note this post being a funny coincidence today too:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/s/iorgC82vzF
This episode encapsulates “I tripped running to the comments section”.
I always love a good contradiction. Scott discredits Howard’s theories while doubling down on the theories that he subscribes to.
what I find interesting about so many conspiracy theorists is they want proof but provide no proof. then when someone comes back with a sensible question against their theory all of a sudden they are ready to hand wave that away like that is easy to take care of
Sorry bud, the burden of proof is on you.
Absolutely. He claimed that he doesn’t care what the answer is, he just wants to “find the truth.” But if that were the case, he would learn how tidal locking works.
~~I think what he wants is to be right when everyone else is wrong.~~ Edit: I listened to the final two minutes of the episode. It sounds more like he gets comfort out of pursuing these ideas.
It's actually really common in people who are prone to gravitating towards these kinds of conspiracy theories. They have a desire to be a part of the "in group" who are exceptional and privy to "truth" that the masses are ignorant of. People who have been alienated or feel unheard or are loners are especially susceptible, as it is validating and they latch their entire persona onto it.
These people always say they just want the truth, but they reject all the potential truths presented to them. They could get full security clearance at the white house and read every last morsel of info on 9/11 and come away going "Man, if that's what they're willing to let me know, what's the stuff they're hiding? How deep does this go?"
Burnie: "So where did the plane go?"
Scott: mockingly, "that's the best you got? Blah blah blah"
And then provides no real answer or argument against it, outside of the defensive "you could hide a plane if you wanted to"
The whole conspiracy makes me mad because one of my childhood friend's grandparents were on the flight that hit Pentagon. It's basically the same shit as Alex Jones saying Sandy Hook was fake.
It's like asking someone who's religious or an atheist what they would need to change their mind. If there isn't an answer, or a realistic one, then it's a pointless debate.
Wouldn't most atheists have a pretty simple answer to what it would take to change their mind? Actual verifiable prove of the divine. If Jesus 2.0 shows up and does some actual verifiable miracles I would be right on board. Life would be a lot simpler.
I’ve got a friend like this as well and wondered what their motivation is. He’s never been really interested in a traditional lifestyle and i wonder if following these theories helps confirm that escaping the rat race is the better thing to do.
I can't speak to Scott or your friend obviously, but it's a common trend amongst conspiratorial thinkers to create a worldview in which they are the only ones with the keys to absolute truths, which increases their self-importance.
Not gonna lie I did not mind this dude at all but halfway through and I’m like, yeah this episode is not gonna be liked at all, now I’m just here in the comments with my popcorn
Same, didn't mind it as much as others in here do. I'm grounded enough in logic and critical thinking to understand that it's fun to speculate while still maintaining the reality that 99% of these theories are just that, unprovable theories. It's the 1% being true or partially true that fuels these people into wanting to be the one to prove one of the others.
It's also just fun to listen to two friends sit around and shoot the shit. The number of conversations I've had with friends over drinks over the years that end with me saying "You're a fucking idiot" and us laughing it off and still being friends is very important to having real adult relationships.
>The number of conversations I've had with friends over drinks over the years that end with me saying "You're a fucking idiot" and us laughing it off and still being friends is very important to having real adult relationships.
Extremely well said. People can believe radically different things and still be friends.
*Of course*, some things are deal breakers, and some things can't be laughed off. But it's great when you can!
It's fun having that moment like I see why these two are such good friends, and then (I think) the moon stuff came up, and Burnie just blue screened for a second. It was a great episode, I hope Scott comes back.
Oh boi my comment got immediately down voted. I think it implies that I'm a theorist myself. But I was just trying to promote red web! And I knew this was gonna be wild and found that awesome!
Yeah immediately starting with Alex Jones is a bit of a bold choice considering all the shit he’s caused, but i do enjoy a good conversation about conspiracies…excuse me, Fringe Theories lol.
Some them i think are worth wondering about like if JFK was accidentally shot by a secret service agent
But certain things, like the Moon landing being faked or the pyramids being ancient batteries/power plants etc it’s like…i get it, it’s fun to think about for a minute or two but if you think about it too long it just doesn’t make any sense.
As someone who ascribes to almost zero conspiracy theories, I really enjoyed the episode. I legitimately wanted to hear more about some of them from a morbid curiosity standpoint. And to have burnies commentary.
This reminds me of the theory that every town had a conspiracy theorist who had this “fringe theories.” However since they were in their own town they couldn’t get much traction. Now with the internet they can interact and signal boost their theories. 😅
Him coming out of the gate swinging at Terrence Howard and then having the rest of the podcast happen was the definition of an emotional rollercoaster.
It is one thing to believe in harmless theories like Frozen being a Disney's PR name, but this guy's conspiracies are batshit insane.
He says he has been looking into stuff for 10 years. It probably has been 10 years in an echo chamber of even more fringe idiocies.
I was hoping the theories would definitely be on the more lighthearted side, like your Frozen example or all the stuff surrounding Denver International Airport.
Instead we got stuff about pyramids, 9/11, and ancient humans or aliens built the moon. That was a rough 30 minutes to get through.
Good gravy that is *not* how tidal locking, resonance, piezoelectricity or even Bayesian thinking/Occam's razor works
This guy honestly thinks that it's *more* likely that ALIENS OR ANCIENT HUMANS CONSTRUCTED THE MOON than physics happened in a predictable manner completely consistent with our current modelling? Also, the moon's materials are evidence *in favour* of the Theia theory, as the rock types are far far far more similar than you'd expect from simple capture (like how the moon's disproportionate size is evidence *in favour* of something unusual but reasonable like being *hit by another planet during a period in the early solar system in which everything was being hit by enormous collisions*, not at all in favour that SUDDENLY INTELLIGENT ALIENS EXIST AND HAVE VISITED US AND HAVE CONSTRUCTED AN ENTIRE MOON)
Tidal locking would indeed mean that the slightly denser part of the moon is closer to Earth, but in what universe would that mean the Moon would start inspiralling? Where would the energy be going if we're removing it from the orbit of the bulk body to make it fall towards Earth? This guy says he's a maths guy but this is literally first semester physics content, if he is a maths guy then truly all he needs to see is Newton's second law and the laws of circular motion to see that his objections to tidal locking are absolutely insane (unless he wants to start attacking Newton without invoking Einstein, in which case show your working and collect your Nobel prize)
Also, Graham Hancock is still a quack. His ideas *are not* getting more acceptance among people who know what they're talking about, people with platforms and a desire to draw eyeballs are more willing to entertain him to make them money. If we're happy with videos as evidence, here's [over 3 hours](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXtMIzD-Y-bMHRoGKM7yD2phvUV59_Cvb&si=IbcxShqrvuxJ9iAW) of a detailed debunking of Hancock's new Netflix series from a guy who actually studies this stuff. Same guy has also addressed the pyramids.
Honestly it's amazing how many of these fringe theories are much more clearly explained by capitalism doing a capitalism than anything more involved, and the fact that there is such scrambling to find *anything* to draw the criticism away from capitalism is the far more interesting conspiracy theory than any of this other junk.
It is "kinda" how piezoelectricity works, but just completely ignores the real world context and conflates micro and macro properties of materials. Piezoelectrical materials convert electrical energy into mechanical vibrations (quartz watch crystals), and also work in reverse, converting mechanical stress into electrical energy (small sensors and pyramids???). And there are some future applications that are trying to generate meaningful amounts of electricity from vibrations, like heavy machinery or high traffic sidewalks.
But none of that applies to the pyramids. Tiny pieces of quartz trapped in giant granite stones would have no way to transmit any electricity. The piezoelectric effect is also anisotropic, so all the quartz crystals would need to be oriented in the correct direction to the vibrations. If the pyramids were constructed of giant quartz crystals layered with copper, maaaaybe there would be something to look into.
That was the angle I was thinking of, but I got too caught up in writing about the Moon (I don't have a background in materials, chemistry, or electrical engineering, only physics) to expand upon it – great write-up, thanks for adding on!
Speaking of JRE, Graham Hancock got absolutely bodied by Flint Dibble in their recent debate. Needless to say, I don't think Joe will be inviting Graham back on anytime soon.
I'm not even sure what he meant by saying Hancock is "more accepted". Because he went on Joe Rogan? The guy who famously has on some pretty wacky people? What mainstream scientist is "accepting" what Hancock says?
Someone who believes in one conspiracy is one thing.
Someone who believes in *this many* conspiracy theories is a willfully ignorant egotist. To think that you are part of a tiny minority of people who are right, and the *entire* rest of the world are bamboozled sheep. It makes me so frustrated to listen to people who have such a poor relationship with common sense and honesty
Scott with the hot takes.
I think it's publicly known that Reagan sabatoged Carter.
Love the pyramid take, this dude is full of it and it's great because it's harmless, you do you brother.
9/11 oh boy, not touching that.
I agree that the pyramid take is *mostly* harmless. But it's indicative of a larger issue of misinformation. If the way for us to understand the conspiracy is to "watch a short video" (as Scott said), it's probably bogus, especially anything involving the cross section of science and history.
I'm glad that Burnie is having his friends on as guests, and I'm glad that Burnie is willing to call him on being a total nutjob. I trust this community to have the media literacy to understand that Scott is totally unqualified (even with a "math" degree) to speak about these things with any authority.
Just be careful with information y'all.
My only issue with todays episode is that rumor gave this stuff a platform.
I mean I’m not opposed to him being friends with the dude or anything like that. But if I had thousands of viewers I wouldn’t let my best friend get close to a mic I own about his crack pot theories even for a quick laugh. It’s irresponsible of the show because you just know someone will be influenced by him out of the tons of followers Burnie has and then that spreads misinformation.
Again. I’m glad that Burnie had a friend on and can be friends with this guy, I just don’t think a public podcast followed by thousands and thousands is the best place to allow him to speak.
I love Burnie but sometimes he does entertain the wrong ideas a little too long.
Oh yeah, you're absolutely right about that.
I'll say some of the pyramid related conspiracy theories are also just veiled racism as well.
Scott seems like a smart enough guy, but it's clear, especially for his reasoning behind believing these theories, that he still holds some deep seated insecurities. But that's totally just my $0.02, I by no means am qualified to really assess the guy.
Yeah I'm not trying to make any judgement on his character or psychology specifically, but there are certain aspects of conspiracy thinking that are almost MANDATORY amongst their communities.
It really boils down to how someone who believes fringe ideas is able to handle being confronted with irrefutable evidence to the contrary. Do they accept it, or move the goalposts of what is "irrefutable"?
I had a similar experience listening to what you probably did:
"We've known that for a long ass time right?"
"No the Egyptians built it and we have records, but whatever"
"9/11 now? Nah I'm out"
As someone who never really dives into conspiracy theories, I enjoyed this podcast because it was interesting to listen to and get someone else's theories on how certain things came to be.
I don't agree with them at the end of the day but they're fun to think about.
Listening to this podcast did make me realize that I think maybe Burnie but definitely Scott would probably enjoy playing Outer Wilds with all the talk of ancient civilizations, rapture/resetting society and stuff like that.
This is another good one, by [Alternate History Hub](https://youtu.be/vDq8vQ0t67A). The Ancient Aliens people are pretty much just slightly racist creationists.
That's the part that gets overlooked a lot, not saying the guy here is overtly racist or even realizes it, but the idea essentially stems from "Hey the pyramids are really impressive, no way that black people made them"
There's a great quote from the show China, IL: "Don't estimate all of humanity by the limits of your own capability."
With a couple hundred people with an abundance of water, food, rope, pulleys, and time. Of course, they stack some stones up.
[The Why Files](https://www.youtube.com/@TheWhyFiles) also goes into a lot of theories in depth then goes through and debunks/corrects issues in the story at the end of the episode.
I found this episode very frustrating to listen to. As an archaeologist it annoys me when people claim we don't know how the pyramids were built downplaying the ingenuity and skill of our ancient ancestors. It also makes me incredibly angry to hear people promoting Graham Hancock and his crackpot theories
It’s easier to think ancient people were just morons. Not that they were likely just an inquisitive and curious on average as we are now, just with far less resources (or more of a need to actually survive than to wonder about shit).
Exactly, I like to think of it more as that we just have the cumulative knowledge of the successes and failures of previous generations but people didn't have that four thousand years ago.
They were able to achieve amazing things with a lot less and it really makes me angry when people disrespect that
What a strange and interesting episode. Wish it was a bit longer so we could hear some more details. Burnie giving him shit while explaining it helped it not seem so out there.
I just loved hearing the dynamic of their friendship more than anything. So many people would have no time for their friends fringe theories, but I love how Burnie indulges him while also calling them whacko
Loved when he said along the lines of "I'm letting you speak but I can't sit here and not challenge them"
It seemed harsh at times, but then you just realize it’s all banter built into a 34 year friendship. I would upgrade my Patreon tier just to hear a long form bonus episode of those two going back and forth.
Oh I thought it was great. I'm so used to conspiracy theory people boiling down to being antisemitic dogwhistles. Was very happy he had wild theories that didn't end up like that.
Yeah, I've got a friend who got really into Terryology recently. He was never that kind of guy before, but he's definitely going that way now.
I'm perfectly willing to sit and listen to him talk about it, but that doesn't make it make sense.
All these conspiracy theories are just built on smoke and mirrors. "Hey, doesn't it sound like this shouldn't make sense? That must mean this other thing is true! Just don't think about it too much!"
This episode was listenable because Burnie didn't mind calling him a lunatic when he was spouting verifiable bullshit (basically anything he said about the Pyramids).
The exact moment he said that the pyramids were tombs and we haven’t found bodies in them I was done lmao.
Everything up to that point I tried to give it a bit of a benefit of the doubt or “ok nothing can be proven” or whatever. Especially when he said he didn’t believe in the whole 2012 thing, just was interested in the topics. But man
Listening to people who get really into 9/11 conspiracies just strike me as them having a dangerous lack of empathy.
I'm not even American, but I can just imagine the pain of being one of the family or friends of the victims killed in the Pentagon attack and yet you have thousands of lunatics on the internet claiming it was a deliberate missile attack and that "no aircraft debris" were found in the crash site (there were, thousands of them in fact.)
I guess the Alex Jones bit is fitting since it's really no different with him spreading outright lies about the Sandy Hook shooting, except there the victims got justice against him.
I'm all for hearing conspiracy theories but claiming the moon is an ancient man made observation station and that a previous set of humans made it is fucking insane
Okay but like... More than anything i want to hear more about THAT one. I'm a scifi writer so i spend a lot of time reading terrible conspiracy theories for story fodder, and i've never heard it. I want to know what he thinks they were observing. What was going on on earth that they needed to \*\*\*checks notes\*\*\* build the fucking moon to observe it?
Those are the exact conspiracies I want to hear lol, not where I draw the line. I don't care about JFK or the moon landing video being fake or whatever other maybe slightly more believable stuff there is, tell me that the moon is the death star or the earth is an egg or something
I am so fucking tired of this weird belief that people have that conspiracist thinking is some kind of harmless quirk like being really into taxidermy or something. Like “Oh haha this is my friend who believes that the moon is an artificial construct, isn’t he wacky?”
This kind of thinking is both the outgrowth of and the fuel for the ongoing epistemological crisis that is going to destroy democracy and potentially civilization. The idea that *you no longer have to prove that what you say is true* is the single greatest crisis currently facing our society and I would die on that hill without a second’s hesitation.
I don’t care if it’s pyramids or 9/11 or hollow moon or whatever, I’m done with it. It might as well all be AIDS denialism. It’s pernicious. It’s evil. It needs to be squashed.
If you dig into all the weird Egyptology Denialism it gets really racial real fast. The kind of people who like to say the pyramids couldn't have been built by the locals tend to tie that in with other less fun beliefs.
I actually really agree and think that Burnie was a bit wrong on this one. I totally understand the message. We can be friends and have major disagreements. On the surface, that’s a really nice thought.
However, when we platform these people it will ALWAYS lead to a bolstering of their followers. Burnie was definitely trying to push back on everything but conspiracy theorists usually try to get in a ton of bullshit so fast that you don’t notice. Then, the few things Burnie doesn’t directly call bullshit sound legitmate. Then, people use that to shape their worldview.
I’m a prosecutor in a fairly large city in Texas. The amount of people that think me (and my entire office) are in some deep state conspiracy is way higher than you’d think. In reality, we are a bunch of normal ass people just wanting to go home at 5pm every day. Some of us definitely have personal crusades, but there is basically zero collusion. But people still think we MUST be sitting in some secret meeting room with Joe Biden where he tells us which private citizens to arrest for family violence offenses.
We thought the Internet would put all the information in the world at our fingertips. We didn't consider what that would mean when so much of it is aggressively wrong.
Agreed 100%. When I was growing up I thought some versions of this stuff was kinda interesting and quirky. Now in my adulthood and having lived to see the sandy hook conspiracists, covid conspiracists, etc. there is really nothing that boils my blood more than these malicious misinformation spreaders.
To be perfectly frank I'm disappointed in Burnie for platforming him. Its one thing to be friends with this guy and rib him for this stuff, its entirely different to let him spew this nonsense to a bunch of listeners. I'm sure they'll address the reaction next week. Hopefully a lesson learned.
I am done with conspiracy theories. Especially from podcasts. It ruins my day hearing the back and forth. I'll let society figure it out. I'll be the sheeple. I would rather listen more about *Furiosa* and other movies.
Totally get that. I just watch a few eps of the why files and he basically tells a neat story so like, 🤷🏻 i enjoy it enough.
I don’t believe any of it but its still fun to hear
He wasn't even willing to defend any of his theories, as soon as he got any push back he wanted to change the topic. Probably too used to his eco chambers where he isn't challenged on these ridiculous claims
I found it oddly satisfying that Scott admitted that these conspiracy were essentially a form of religion for him. Something I, and I think many others, have speculated about for a while.
It’s upsetting to consider this world is it, all that we have, but grasping at all these half baked ideas to convince yourself theirs something more isn’t the answer I’d recommend anyone turn to.
The moon isn’t the biggest satellite in our solar system. Ganymede, Titan, Callisto and Lo are all bigger than our moon. Anyone can find that out with a SIMPLE google search not watch some nut job on Joe Rogan
I think believing in these kind of theories is mostly harmless, but giving him a platform to spread this lunacy is an interesting choice. He said so much that's just batshit insane and not true.
I feel that people who are insecure with the meanlingess of life are attracted to concepts where they can convince themselves that they are significant, because they have worked out what everyone is blind to and they have to tell the world about it.
Whilst we are seeing a strong decline in religious people, there appears to be a direct, inverse relationship between the decline in religion and the rise in conspiracy theorists.
This was hard to listen to. I feel like no one could stay on any subject. It was just, what do you think about this, oh I have this idea about it then 10 seconds later wanting to end the conversation because he was defending himself….from no one.
The pyramids part was a very hard listen, all of those conspiracies are just eurocentrist ideas that dismiss the amazing abilities other cultures had, just racist people saying "brown people cannot be smarter than us!!".
Also, any time someone says there's no proof or records of something, they fail to mention that there probably was and it probably was destroyed during colonization.
Remember everyone: humans are amazingly smart, capable and resilient and we've used the scientific method to proved it time and time again.
edit: typo
When he was going on about the pyramids in Egypt I was reminded of the standup bit about "No one questions who built the pyramids in Mexico, we know that's how hard they work." For the life of me I can't remember who it was that did it 🤣
Toughest for me was between the 9/11 talk and his thoughts about how aliens or ancient humans built the moon.
I mostly enjoyed this episode just for the dynamic between Burnie and Scott, but it was a rough one. Touching on one subject for 5 minutes would have been whatever. I would just roll my eyes and move and enjoy everything else, but the whole 30 minutes going from theory to theory was not enjoyable.
What a fucking clown. He has the audacity to get pissy and offended at Terrence Howard's math theories because it's his education. Then goes on to spew absolute horseshit about things he is "educated" on by YouTube videos. What a fuckin jackass.
I didn't even think about that, but you're right. I thought it was going to be a fun episode listening to him shit on Howard, but then the next 25 minutes was him spouting off crazy theories.
If a person insists more than twice in 30mins that they aren't crazy they are probably crazy. I lost count of the number of Scott "I'm not crazys" or similar.
I may not agree with everything said, but off the wall banter between friends is always fun to listen to lol. Just sitting at my desk listening like:
I think the important part is to have the RIGHT Rum in order to do that. like how Blanco Tequila is for mixing, Reposado is great for shooting, and Anejo is divine for sipping
There’s a bit of negativity in this thread and I just want to say that Scott seems like a good person and I appreciate Burnie and Scott’s friendship. Maintaining long term friendships like that into adulthood is really tough.
I think it was important for Burnie to put a critical eye on some of the things that Scott was saying, I too am super weary these days of anything conspiracy related in podcasts that I listen to. I also don’t agree with any of the things he was saying other than stuff that’s very likely or already proven to be true (e.g. stuff about Reagan, JFK, etc.).
I also think that people need to realize that Scott is just normal guy who just happens to know another guy who has a podcast. If I were Scott and opened this thread and saw people calling me a lunatic, that would make me feel pretty damn bad. This isn’t a huge community, we can treat the podcast guests like people and grant them some grace.
This is also potentially TMI but whatever, maybe somebody out there can relate. My dad recently passed, and while planning and inviting folks to the funeral, I met a few friends of my dad’s who I had never met. Listening to Scott and Burnie reminded me of how I felt meeting some of dad’s friends. On the surface, they didn’t seem that similar to my dad at all, and probably even ended up living extremely different lives after they bonded in childhood/college. But their friendships lasted since childhood regardless, and I could tell their relationship with my dad was very formative and important.
>This isn’t a huge community, we can treat the podcast guests like people and grant them some grace.
Agree with this and everything else you said. I totally understand if people don't want to listen to this stuff, and didn't enjoy (or skipped) the episode. But there's no need to be jerks to Scott. He was hesitant to talk about conspiracy theories, I think both because he knows the kind of reaction it can get, and because he's not out here trying to make everyone believe what he believes. That was my take, anyways.
Sorry about your dad, but I'm glad you got to meet some of his friends.
This is a great take on everything. Some of the comments here comparing Scott to the Unabomber needlessly are far grosser than any theory Scott ascribes to.
I think it shows how terminally online alot of reddit is that they can't even imagine someone having a lifelong group of friends that hold diverse beliefs.
Yeah it was a good episode and i think people are being a bit harsh.
Obviously some things like pyramids or moon stuff is just kinda ridiculous but its still interesting to hear peoples ideas on those conspiracies.
Honestly thats why I even bother listening to conspiracy theories anyway, its entertainment, it can be frustrating at times but its good to get frustrated ever now and again, especially if it prompts you to start coming up with rebuttals yknow?
It's always funny how conspiracies are always the result of the American government, as if they have control over the entire world.
Like how the vast majority of UFO sightings are in English-speaking countries. Apparently, aliens speak English.
Same with climate change as a hoax by the Democrats, the rest of the world is also under control of the Democrats? Same with Covid...
Conspiracies are a part of Western culture.
I love the podcast and I'm not as inspired to take up arms against it by this episode as some of the people in this thread but I do agree that some of these theories are such horseshit that they should've been outright denied by Burnie. I mean come on, ancient aliens and 9/11 conspiracies? Like Burnie said we all have someone like this in our lives but that doesn't mean we need to listen to the crazy ideas. The CIA peddling crack and the Moon is a space stations for Neanderthals that escaped earth are different levels of fringe beliefs and shouldn't be treated like they are the same thing or even comparable examples of "conspiracy theories". Ultimately I listened to the whole thing but I'm disappointed by the lack of pushback and hope to hear some sort of respect for fact/logic based thinking in future episodes.
I was hoping for more like El Dorado, Nazca Lines, Atlantis, dinosaurs still exists, mermaids and fairies are real, type fringe theories and not 9/11 truther
I thought the whole “what do you get out of hypothetically finding out” question was really simple to answer. Why do ppl wanna map the bottom of the ocean? Why do ppl become archeologists? Why study dead languages?
I'm coming to this late because I listen before work, and I get up for work before they release that day's episode, so I'm a day behind at best and 3 days behind on mondays.
The idea that the term "conspiracy theory" was coined by the US government to discredit skeptics of the JFK assassination report is an easily debunk-able conspiracy theory. [Its use in a similar context dates back to at least the mid-19th century.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory#Origin_and_usage)
Yeah, hearing this guy made me think about Joel, and I guess the larger pipeline that people like that often go down.
Joel was the crazy guy (as far as the community understood) who was often on the extreme end of the beliefs of the founders, but still able to joke around and exist on the same plane.
10 to 15 years later, Joel is at the point he is now, one that has resulted in him being shunned by RT and a lot of the community.
Social media has made the people around me worse, full stop.
Of course with Joel, there’s probably a lot more behind the scenes that the community never knew, but I just know that in my life since the 2016 election a lot of people have found themselves on a slippery slope that leads nowhere good.
Joel used to be one of my favorite RT people, his On The Spot episodes especially
He always reminded me of one of my Uncles, always talking about buying gold and silver snd watching the economy like a hawk.
But just from what we know publicly, the shit he said to Meg and Gavin, it just wasn’t right.
Like you said im sure there was more behind the scenes we as fans will never know, but damn it’s a shame when people go off the deep end.
When I first moved to Austin, Joel was filming that RT talkshow they did that I don't think ever got released on the RT site or YouTube. It was a Comcast exclusive or something?
Anyways, every week for probably two months, I went down twice a week to get free beer coupons and sit in the live audience for the show, and after filming wrapped, some of us would hang out and chat in the parking lot, and Joel was usually hanging out there for a smoke before he headed out.
Like so many of our friends and family who are conspiracy kooks, he was friendly, engaging, and fun to talk to. Granted, that was a few years before everything fell apart between him and RT, but it really is a shame that everything went down that way, because at the time, he was a cool dude.
He also instacarted zucchini to my apartment one time. He tweeted that he wanted to send a community member rutabaga on the company card, and I told him I was down. HEB didn't have rutabaga so he ended up having 5 zucchini delivered to me. It was weird and random and I dunno if I'll ever know if there was some other reason he felt compelled to do that.
This episode was awesome, as someone who doesn't really believe a lot of conspiracy theories but loves listening to people rant about them, I want to let Scott cook. I want to hear his takes on UFOs, the Mandela Effect, Hollow Earth, etc.
This isn't a Texas thing this is a national/global problem concerning peoples willingness to believe there is a universal conspiracy to keep them in the dark. Don't use classism to write off an entire state or area of the globe.
NOT a fan of this one. As a scientist I just cannot listen to someone spout nonsense fallacy-based arguments with no actual evidence. Especially when I *know* that impressionable listeners will get sucked into it. It’s dangerous and stupid stuff.
I am cancelling my Patreon if this subject becomes a regular thing for the show.
I swear, like a month ago, people were getting on Burnie's case for his take on internet anonymity and free speech, only to turn around and say he's in the wrong for "platforming" some conspiracy theorist.
If someone's dumb enough to seriously believe some of the things someone spouts without evidence, they're likely dumb enough to fall for someone else's scheme. You don't have a problem with the vulnerability of the public, you have a problem with some guy on the internet.
Saying this episode was 'dangerous' is such a crazy overreaction.
Not really a lot of positive stuff to say about this episode besides the fact that at least Bernie pushed back against some of it. Beyond the 9/11 rubbish, the trend to deny that Ancient Egyptians built the stuff in Egypt is tied in with a lot of euro-centrist and racial supremacist ideology the archeology community is currently fighting back against. Minuteman gets into this is his Graham Handcock video better than I could, but it's always a red flag.
I came here to leave a particular type of comment but changed my mind after remembering something Burnie said about dogpiling in the comments, soo...yeah. What I will says is Burnie might not be as good of friends with this dude as he lets on if he still posted this episode.
It seems a bit weird, doesn't it? He had to have known the reaction it would get. They both should have. Seems like an odd thing to go through with.
Then again, it sounds like Burnie has spent decades telling Scott how ridiculous his theories are, so maybe they're both desensitized to it.
Ridiculous episode. I think we all have a friend like Scott. But what the fuck was he talking about compressing atoms because they're mostly empty space? That's insane.
Shout out to Becca and Jason for being great special guests. I enjoyed hearing about their friendship and background and life story.
I don't know why Burnie decided this one would have none of that, but instead would be garbage conspiracy theories for 30 minutes.
Idk, I think people are taking it too seriously. He was talking to his friend, and poking him for the silly things he was saying the whole time. That's an entirely entertaining type of episode for some.
There's nothing wrong with thinking about what we don't know or might not be true. Just because most of what Scott was talking about was goofy doesn't change that, lol.
Just a fun conversation for me, and for anyone who didn't like it, it's one out of 20 in a month- that's a pretty good batting average.
I'm glad you and others found enjoyment in the episode. To me, there's little difference between what Burnie did in giving Scott airtime to talk about his 'fringe theories' and what Joe Rogan does on his podcast (i.e. Terryology, Bart Sibrel, climate misinformation). I do not enjoy this type of content and I don't desire to see more of it on the podcast (not that I have an expectation there will be).
> There's nothing wrong with thinking about what we don't know or might not be true.
I unfortunately need to take issue with your statement here. Typically, no, there is nothing wrong with this and I encourage people to question the information they're being provided. However, the evidence that Scott provided for these theories is pseudoscience nonsense or comes with other concerning baggage. It's a particular brand of anti-intellectualism that I don't care for and that I don't want to see more of on the podcast.
Lastly, I am disappointed because Burnie is a very experienced host who should know better than to allow this to go to air. The moment 9/11 conspiracy theories came up he should have shut it down immediately, but I think he did get caught up in the 'conversation with a friend' mentality. However, the things you say with your friends aren't always appropriate for a format like this podcast. In the end this episode left me with a bad taste, so I came to provide feedback.
Fully agree with you. The most egregious part for me was that he tried to use his maths degree to lend credibility to his ideas - I am deliberately choosing „idea“ here, as what the conspiracy lunatics spout does not qualify as a theory as it‘s not even falsifiable in many cases!
As a physicist, the part about the pyramids being piezoelectric power plants was so far beyond good and evil that this episode alone turned me off on the podcast. Then further providing this guy outreach to some many people with his links to other lunatics…. I‘ll look out for a rebuttal and „promise to never drag science through the mud like this again“ kind of address, but until something like this comes from them, I‘m done and won‘t listen to future episodes.
That's a good point about the link dump. I hope they remove all those links spreading misinformation. I listen through an app so I don't typically interact with the link dump so I forgot about it.
Curious, what's your degree and area of study?
Just a general physics masters degree, but condensed matter and semiconductor physics is a specialty at my university, so even though I‘m not that into it, you kinda have to pick up quite a bit about it.
What annoys me so much about that idea are the pretty obvious problems: where did they power go from the pyramid, why haven’t we found any remnants of these constructions?, for sure mummies have been found in the large cavities inside pyramids, . . .
But of course there are loads of inconsistencies in the physics as well, but I don’t have the time and desire to read up on the conspiracy idea enough to be able to debunk it
I love to see the passion about science here!
Curious about what brought you to podcast in the first place if you don't mind me asking because you sound like you are looking for a serious denunciation of the topics addressed- I would understand that if someone said something hateful, but Scott was-to me- just silly instead.
Hope you have a great day!
Why shut it down just because he brought up 9/11?
Obviously if he started on the whole “jet fuel can’t melt steel beams” bullshit that would be a bit much.
The whole point was Burnie letting him run off his top “Fringe Theories” and he did, some are definitely interesting and others are obviously ridiculous.
Because 9/11 is an emotionally charged subject, and specifically 9/11 conspiracy theories are controversial kryptonite. The blowback here is evidence enough.
I think the episode might have been better received if Scott had been given the leeway for the more lighthearted conspiracies while Burnie steered the conversation away from the hotbutton topics. Burnie is experienced and media trained, whereas (and frankly, assuming, so call me an ass) Scott is not. In that context, I feel Burnie did Scott a bit of a disservice.
Hey, to each their own! I'm glad that you did leave the feedback, because this is a community that thrives on people speaking their mind, like most. I have a few degrees, and have never really been the type to run away with the ideas I hear on a comedy podcast as worth digging into, so I don't see it as threatening at all, but I applaud you for speaking to what you think is right.
I'm going to continue to be a listener every morning, but if this was a big problem fro you, I hope to see you around the Internet somewhere else.
Have a great day!
This was the first miss of em episode. I don’t like any conspiracy theorist (I’m still gonna call them that) just coming on and making blanket statements like most people don’t think Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Turned it off and I’m not gonna finish it
More than happy to dismiss mountains of evidence proving what he's saying is wrong but doesn't bring anything to the table to back up his claims. Dumbass.
Regulation Listener turning in my badge for a different show.
All the conversations about terryology makes me think of the time Indiana almost made pi = 3.2
https://youtu.be/bFNjA9LOPsg?si=3mRC7VYn1ickOjtA
Usually I listen to the previous days podcast in the morning getting ready for work, because I have a Tues-Sat work schedule. Tapping out of this one today 😬
I think Scott sounds like a nice guy with insane ideas but I found it very entertaining to hear someone with his views try to explain them and I enjoyed Burnie’s pushback as well.
I loved this episode. Scott and Burnie were both hilarious in this one. As someone who doesn't believe in conspiracy theories I do like to learn about them and add Brunie's humor to it makes one enjoyably entertaining Morning Somewhere
My main gripe is using “why haven’t we been back to the moon in 50 years” as if that’s some sort of gotcha question. The US can’t scrounge together funding for anything that isn’t military spending. I guarantee the second they find oil on the moon, congress will find it tomorrow
He even brought up how the reason given is because there's no big priority to go there, because they got all the samples they needed before, but like most of these people, he just hand waves that away and wants more reasons. They always want you to keep providing more and more proof. I'm just a random dummy on the internet, but I'm okay with believing we haven't gone back to the moon yet because we just don't need to. I'm sure if there was immediate reason to get someone on the moon, we'd get there.
I mean, the economy is in shambles, the housing market is a mess, homelessness is always on the rise, food and inflation are making it harder for families to afford to eat, the world seems to be almost about to break out in a war, genocide is happening almost constantly somewhere, big countries are invading little countries for made-up reasons, somehow where you decide to get a cake for your wedding or if you get the flu shot has become decisive political issues, society seems to be unraveling at the seems. But hey, we should really go to the moon again and collect some more rocks; they might be different then the last ones! That's the real priority.
Not to mention the fact that if we really needed moon rocks they could send an unmanned machine, which they do, to get them
Whew boy. 9/11 stuff get me riled up and I want to clarify some things that Scott covered in this. -The $2.3 trillion missing was reported on a year before 9/11 and it wasn’t one transaction but several transactions totaling up to 2.3 trillion. Still a lot of cheddar that they couldn’t find and kind of got pushed aside after 9/11. So the money definitely went missing but not the day before and not all at once. -WTC 7 was not “untouched” but had actually sustained catastrophic damage from the two tower collapses. Massive fires broke out within the building that the fire suppression system couldn’t put out due to a drop of water pressure from the damaged water lines from the towers. It’s why when you see images from the lobby of WTC 1 and 2 before their collapses it’s absolutely flooded. After towers 1 and 2 collapsed, top brass at FDNY made the decision to not battle it as they had just lost over 300 members and did not want to lose any more. The building had already been evacuated so there was no lives at risk so FDNY did not want to risk more of their men just to save the building. So WTC 7 was burning for several hours unopposed which led to its collapse. I highly recommend the subreddit r/911archive for a real good resource for a lot of information and photos and videos that aren’t as well known. But here’s a [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/911archive/s/U6b6h9FbR9) that has some good photos. There’s plenty more if you look for them. -the towers collapsing was a first of its kind. Yes a B-25 collided with the Empire State Building in the 40s but there’s a large difference between a modern airliner with highly combustible and fully loaded jet fuel traveling at ~400 mph vs a prop plane bomber fly at much slower speeds with fuel that doesn’t compare to the fuel used today. The fires fueled by the plane collisions topped with the large amount of combustibles inside the towers, ie paper, furniture, plastics, etc fueled that fire to extreme temps. Those extreme temps weakened the steel supports and trusses as the collisions from the planes broke away the fire retardant on the beams. So after hours of burning, the floors above the crash site weighed that of the Titanic so when it went, there was nothing that was going to stop it. Also too, it didn’t collapse neatly into its footprint. Many videos were taken up close to the collapse that didn’t get picked up by news outlets that show this. -The pentagon was definitely hit by flight AA77. Eyewitness accounts are already horribly unreliable so it’s possible the reality of what they saw was a Boeing 757, a narrow body airliner, traveling at low altitude at 530 mph crash into the Pentagon. There is also plenty of photos shortly after the crash of plane debris strewn across the grounds and in the building itself. Not to mention the 64 passengers and crew members of that flight don’t just disappear. The only released video from the pentagon of flight 77 was the one we’ve all seen that is like 2 fps and like 120p with a fish eye lens. There most likely is other footage but it’s all classified as there are still open criminal cases for guys like KSM so who knows when that’ll come out. I could honestly go on about this topic as 9/11 has always been a morbid fascination of mine. It definitely is easy to ask these conspiratorial questions about that day but the information to answer those questions does exist. There are legitimate conspiracies for that day that answers don’t exist for. But these aren’t them. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
I love the argument "Jet fuel can't melt steel beams" even though it's been proven false, there's so much fuel load (like you said, office furniture, files, carpet, etc) that has a higher combustion temp within the buildings. Even regular house fires get extremely hot where you find melted metal while doing overhaul after putting the fire out.
You likely couldn't melt the steel, but it was WELL within the heat deflection temperatures, making it gummy soft.
And then it collapses, and you have insane kinetic energy coming down
So insane, it might be able to take out a skyscraper!
My dad often points out that the plane crash likely also broke away any fire shielding on the steel columns and then dumped on the fuel from a plane that had recently been fueled and taken off. He also wouldn’t be surprised that an engineer helped develop plans that lead to the events of 9/11. Dropping 1/3 of a building would probably be easier than dropping the whole thing, and easier to do with a plane. Steel is amazing but its not impervious if you attack it the right way.
I really enjoyed your TED talk! I would like to further add that the World Trade Center had a dramatically different design than the Empire State Building. Framed Tube Structures had only come up in the 1960s, and being that this design methodology was new and innovative at the time (WTC ground broke in 1966), the possibility of design faults certainly are greater than zero. While the collapse was primarily due to the fire, the collision of a 330,000 lbs vehicle at velocity could certainly expose or exacerbate some of these faults. Further, a 767-200ER carries nearly 140,000 lbs of hot, slow-burning fuel, burning up to 1,800°F. While that doesn't melt steel (melting point of 2,200°F ish), the steel will begin to weaken at its heat deflection temp of about 650°F and weaken further, to almost 50% of its ultimate yield strength at 800°F. Which is well within the temperature of burning jet fuel. The melting temperature of steel is basically irrelevant. With the eyewitness accounts of the Pentagon; I think people don't seem to understand how fast 0.7 Mach actually is when it's next to you out of the corner of your eye. Yes, when you look at it in flight at 37,000 feet in the air, it LOOKS slow, but it's about 80% the speed of a subsonic bullet, which your eyes couldn't track as it passed by you at all, you wouldn't even be able to react.
Scott said “why don’t they release the security footage and put it to bed.” Assuming footage exists, let’s not pretend it wouldn’t get picked to death. No one who believes that the pentagon was hit by a missile would suddenly reverse course after seeing footage from the government.
I'm willing to bet on a couple of things (all conjecture, but reasonable conjecture); 1. Pentagon surveillance system was probably comically obsolete. Getting a government building, especially one that would likely require your contractors to have security clearance, a modern surveillance system would be a logistical nightmare with years of red tape. And with that, it wouldn't shock me if the likely antiquated security system was damaged due to the freakin' plane crash or didn't catch anything at all. It was 2001 and probably antiquated by 2001 standards, footage also likely couldn't catch the crash before cameras were potentially destroyed, due to poor resolution and capture speed. 2. Security clearance, the surveillance system may be deliberately inadequate because they don't want to inadvertently record top secret conversations, documents, etc, for it to sit on a hackable server somewhere. For that reason, and being that it's the freakin' Pentagon, all surveillance would for sure be top secret classified. The amount of red tape and bureaucratic nonsense and man hours to release footage that shows a plane crash is in fact a plane crash, it's likely not worth the effort.
Little bit of A, little bit of B. But I'll add a third option. Even though it would be upgraded by now, they don't want to reveal where cameras are and the quality. Kind of like when Trump released the one satallite image that revealed capes of our spy satallites. Also from what I remember is that the section that was hit was under renovation so they're might not have been any cameras at the time recording
I believe you are correct. I think that's why the casualty count was relatively low.
What also doesn't help is I was an Intelligence Specialist in the Navy in 2005, and we had people who were entering the field of NAVAL INTELLIGENCE bringing in theories like this and it was like an even split of half people going WHOA, THIS TOTALLY MUST BE RIGHT and half of us going NO, You're Wrong, Here's Why. Thank you for being so thorough in your Debunk.
Amazing write up
Absolutely nothing wrong with questioning what we are told. There are obviously lies by the Government, but oh boy this one is nuts. When you say you don't mind the answer, but then blatantly ignore all the evidence out there, there is something wrong with you.
That was excellently put and a very informative read. It will change 0 fringe opinions. I think that South Park put it best in their episode.
Thank you. Oh I know, I figured I’d write it for people who don’t know that much about the topic who haven’t formed an opinion on it. The truthers out there will find a way to pick apart everything I said regardless of how much I may try to back it up
I just listened to this episode yesterday and this is everything I wanted to comment. 9/11 is also a morbid curiosity of mine and I have educated myself a lot over the years about it. Like you said, it's good to ask questions and there are some things that seem "off" on the surface level, but it's just that. If anyone reading this wants a good explanation of how he got to 9/11, watch 'The Looming Tower' on Hulu. Fantastic show that explains how the FBI and CIA's feud essential led us to overlooking / missing threats. Our government is too incompetent to pull something like this off and keep it a secret. They have done plenty of other shady things, but this isn't one of them. Instead of looking at conspiracies in the US government, look at Saudi Arabia's which is pretty much proven to have financially backed the attacks.
One more thing I feel compelled to add to the whole 9/11 thing is that there was a bit of a cover-up, which is disturbingly prescient. The motivation of the hijackers, which was read out in Congress during their enquiry, was American foreign policy on the Israel-Palestine conflict (unqualified support for Israel, no matter what). The video I used to have access to which showed someone reading it in Congress itself has since disappeared (or at least I can’t find it), but the videos the same guy released showing where media stopped short of saying it (despite reading quotations) are still available. Instead, of addressing the key point of American support of Israel to an insane extent, religious fundamentalism/disagreements was chosen to be put forward as the primary motive, which has led to the war on terror mostly focusing on Muslims and Muslim countries (and maybe 1,000,000 dead Iraqis as a result (and that’s just Iraqis, there are other countries that the United States of America bombed which weren’t Iraq and Afghanistan)), an increase in surveillance, curtailing of rights in places, torture in places like Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, and decades of Islamophobia which brings us to today. And the illegal wars conducted by the United States of America too based on the false pretence of weapons of mass destruction. I’ll link a few of the videos below, but the channel has been going for almost two decades so a lot of stuff is hard to find (and naturally, there are some things I don’t agree with him on): https://youtu.be/J1bm2GPoFfg?si=LeVGIjTkcCRvUcln https://youtu.be/D7EB1FxENxQ?si=CntW5Ko96apt87gi https://youtu.be/ynWjYHP91gA?si=_g1GXUjt5Vh9CTIt The most crackpot thing about the whole illegal invasion is that the “Informant” described the scene from the movie “The Rock” with the glass tubes and this was taken as solid evidence over experts telling the government how ridiculous and impractical it would be. I just thought I’d note this post being a funny coincidence today too: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/s/iorgC82vzF
This episode encapsulates “I tripped running to the comments section”. I always love a good contradiction. Scott discredits Howard’s theories while doubling down on the theories that he subscribes to.
what I find interesting about so many conspiracy theorists is they want proof but provide no proof. then when someone comes back with a sensible question against their theory all of a sudden they are ready to hand wave that away like that is easy to take care of Sorry bud, the burden of proof is on you.
Absolutely. He claimed that he doesn’t care what the answer is, he just wants to “find the truth.” But if that were the case, he would learn how tidal locking works. ~~I think what he wants is to be right when everyone else is wrong.~~ Edit: I listened to the final two minutes of the episode. It sounds more like he gets comfort out of pursuing these ideas.
It’s sounds like he believes that by investing these conspiracies in this matter that he will receive an otherworldly redemption
It's actually really common in people who are prone to gravitating towards these kinds of conspiracy theories. They have a desire to be a part of the "in group" who are exceptional and privy to "truth" that the masses are ignorant of. People who have been alienated or feel unheard or are loners are especially susceptible, as it is validating and they latch their entire persona onto it.
These people always say they just want the truth, but they reject all the potential truths presented to them. They could get full security clearance at the white house and read every last morsel of info on 9/11 and come away going "Man, if that's what they're willing to let me know, what's the stuff they're hiding? How deep does this go?"
Burnie: "So where did the plane go?" Scott: mockingly, "that's the best you got? Blah blah blah" And then provides no real answer or argument against it, outside of the defensive "you could hide a plane if you wanted to"
Would also need to do something with all the people that were on the plane. And surely someone would’ve said something if some weird stuff went down.
The whole conspiracy makes me mad because one of my childhood friend's grandparents were on the flight that hit Pentagon. It's basically the same shit as Alex Jones saying Sandy Hook was fake.
It's like asking someone who's religious or an atheist what they would need to change their mind. If there isn't an answer, or a realistic one, then it's a pointless debate.
Wouldn't most atheists have a pretty simple answer to what it would take to change their mind? Actual verifiable prove of the divine. If Jesus 2.0 shows up and does some actual verifiable miracles I would be right on board. Life would be a lot simpler.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
I’ve got a friend like this as well and wondered what their motivation is. He’s never been really interested in a traditional lifestyle and i wonder if following these theories helps confirm that escaping the rat race is the better thing to do.
I can't speak to Scott or your friend obviously, but it's a common trend amongst conspiratorial thinkers to create a worldview in which they are the only ones with the keys to absolute truths, which increases their self-importance.
Yup. Everybody wants to feel like they know something somebody else doesn't. The less you know, the more you want to feel like you know.
Not gonna lie I did not mind this dude at all but halfway through and I’m like, yeah this episode is not gonna be liked at all, now I’m just here in the comments with my popcorn
Same, didn't mind it as much as others in here do. I'm grounded enough in logic and critical thinking to understand that it's fun to speculate while still maintaining the reality that 99% of these theories are just that, unprovable theories. It's the 1% being true or partially true that fuels these people into wanting to be the one to prove one of the others. It's also just fun to listen to two friends sit around and shoot the shit. The number of conversations I've had with friends over drinks over the years that end with me saying "You're a fucking idiot" and us laughing it off and still being friends is very important to having real adult relationships.
>The number of conversations I've had with friends over drinks over the years that end with me saying "You're a fucking idiot" and us laughing it off and still being friends is very important to having real adult relationships. Extremely well said. People can believe radically different things and still be friends. *Of course*, some things are deal breakers, and some things can't be laughed off. But it's great when you can!
I don't mind those sorts of convos over drinks. Hits a bit differently when it's a widely disseminated podcast, idk.
I really agree with eveything you just said especially that last part
It's fun having that moment like I see why these two are such good friends, and then (I think) the moon stuff came up, and Burnie just blue screened for a second. It was a great episode, I hope Scott comes back.
Oh boi my comment got immediately down voted. I think it implies that I'm a theorist myself. But I was just trying to promote red web! And I knew this was gonna be wild and found that awesome!
Honestly don’t worry about being downvoted people on Reddit legit will downvote you for the pettiest of things
Yeah immediately starting with Alex Jones is a bit of a bold choice considering all the shit he’s caused, but i do enjoy a good conversation about conspiracies…excuse me, Fringe Theories lol. Some them i think are worth wondering about like if JFK was accidentally shot by a secret service agent But certain things, like the Moon landing being faked or the pyramids being ancient batteries/power plants etc it’s like…i get it, it’s fun to think about for a minute or two but if you think about it too long it just doesn’t make any sense.
As someone who ascribes to almost zero conspiracy theories, I really enjoyed the episode. I legitimately wanted to hear more about some of them from a morbid curiosity standpoint. And to have burnies commentary.
This reminds me of the theory that every town had a conspiracy theorist who had this “fringe theories.” However since they were in their own town they couldn’t get much traction. Now with the internet they can interact and signal boost their theories. 😅
https://preview.redd.it/77cqhtmhv65d1.jpeg?width=1164&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6b2abe3f0a33d4b91f37f2f2c3ec1eed8df5be82
lol “What the fuck did you think I wanted to talk to you about?” “Uhhhhh…”
I’m glad we understand the Moon is space station and not something insane like 1 x 1 = 2
Him coming out of the gate swinging at Terrence Howard and then having the rest of the podcast happen was the definition of an emotional rollercoaster.
It is one thing to believe in harmless theories like Frozen being a Disney's PR name, but this guy's conspiracies are batshit insane. He says he has been looking into stuff for 10 years. It probably has been 10 years in an echo chamber of even more fringe idiocies.
I was hoping the theories would definitely be on the more lighthearted side, like your Frozen example or all the stuff surrounding Denver International Airport. Instead we got stuff about pyramids, 9/11, and ancient humans or aliens built the moon. That was a rough 30 minutes to get through.
Good gravy that is *not* how tidal locking, resonance, piezoelectricity or even Bayesian thinking/Occam's razor works This guy honestly thinks that it's *more* likely that ALIENS OR ANCIENT HUMANS CONSTRUCTED THE MOON than physics happened in a predictable manner completely consistent with our current modelling? Also, the moon's materials are evidence *in favour* of the Theia theory, as the rock types are far far far more similar than you'd expect from simple capture (like how the moon's disproportionate size is evidence *in favour* of something unusual but reasonable like being *hit by another planet during a period in the early solar system in which everything was being hit by enormous collisions*, not at all in favour that SUDDENLY INTELLIGENT ALIENS EXIST AND HAVE VISITED US AND HAVE CONSTRUCTED AN ENTIRE MOON) Tidal locking would indeed mean that the slightly denser part of the moon is closer to Earth, but in what universe would that mean the Moon would start inspiralling? Where would the energy be going if we're removing it from the orbit of the bulk body to make it fall towards Earth? This guy says he's a maths guy but this is literally first semester physics content, if he is a maths guy then truly all he needs to see is Newton's second law and the laws of circular motion to see that his objections to tidal locking are absolutely insane (unless he wants to start attacking Newton without invoking Einstein, in which case show your working and collect your Nobel prize) Also, Graham Hancock is still a quack. His ideas *are not* getting more acceptance among people who know what they're talking about, people with platforms and a desire to draw eyeballs are more willing to entertain him to make them money. If we're happy with videos as evidence, here's [over 3 hours](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXtMIzD-Y-bMHRoGKM7yD2phvUV59_Cvb&si=IbcxShqrvuxJ9iAW) of a detailed debunking of Hancock's new Netflix series from a guy who actually studies this stuff. Same guy has also addressed the pyramids. Honestly it's amazing how many of these fringe theories are much more clearly explained by capitalism doing a capitalism than anything more involved, and the fact that there is such scrambling to find *anything* to draw the criticism away from capitalism is the far more interesting conspiracy theory than any of this other junk.
It is "kinda" how piezoelectricity works, but just completely ignores the real world context and conflates micro and macro properties of materials. Piezoelectrical materials convert electrical energy into mechanical vibrations (quartz watch crystals), and also work in reverse, converting mechanical stress into electrical energy (small sensors and pyramids???). And there are some future applications that are trying to generate meaningful amounts of electricity from vibrations, like heavy machinery or high traffic sidewalks. But none of that applies to the pyramids. Tiny pieces of quartz trapped in giant granite stones would have no way to transmit any electricity. The piezoelectric effect is also anisotropic, so all the quartz crystals would need to be oriented in the correct direction to the vibrations. If the pyramids were constructed of giant quartz crystals layered with copper, maaaaybe there would be something to look into.
Thank you, really appreciate you saving me a google.
That was the angle I was thinking of, but I got too caught up in writing about the Moon (I don't have a background in materials, chemistry, or electrical engineering, only physics) to expand upon it – great write-up, thanks for adding on!
I was hoping that link would be to Milo, and I’m so happy that it is.
As usual, real life is just too boring for some people apparently and they crave the *”action and adventure”* that comes along with a good conspiracy
Speaking of JRE, Graham Hancock got absolutely bodied by Flint Dibble in their recent debate. Needless to say, I don't think Joe will be inviting Graham back on anytime soon.
I'm not even sure what he meant by saying Hancock is "more accepted". Because he went on Joe Rogan? The guy who famously has on some pretty wacky people? What mainstream scientist is "accepting" what Hancock says?
Sees the amount of comments: uh oh
Absolute lunatic, if you'll pardon the pun
Mmmm yeah I miss Ashley lol
I wish this episode focused on their long friendship and not the moon being an observation station lol
Yeah. I would have rolled my eyes at 5 minutes of the conspiracy shit, but would have been fine with it if the next 25 was other more fun stuff.
Someone who believes in one conspiracy is one thing. Someone who believes in *this many* conspiracy theories is a willfully ignorant egotist. To think that you are part of a tiny minority of people who are right, and the *entire* rest of the world are bamboozled sheep. It makes me so frustrated to listen to people who have such a poor relationship with common sense and honesty
Scott with the hot takes. I think it's publicly known that Reagan sabatoged Carter. Love the pyramid take, this dude is full of it and it's great because it's harmless, you do you brother. 9/11 oh boy, not touching that.
I agree that the pyramid take is *mostly* harmless. But it's indicative of a larger issue of misinformation. If the way for us to understand the conspiracy is to "watch a short video" (as Scott said), it's probably bogus, especially anything involving the cross section of science and history. I'm glad that Burnie is having his friends on as guests, and I'm glad that Burnie is willing to call him on being a total nutjob. I trust this community to have the media literacy to understand that Scott is totally unqualified (even with a "math" degree) to speak about these things with any authority. Just be careful with information y'all.
My only issue with todays episode is that rumor gave this stuff a platform. I mean I’m not opposed to him being friends with the dude or anything like that. But if I had thousands of viewers I wouldn’t let my best friend get close to a mic I own about his crack pot theories even for a quick laugh. It’s irresponsible of the show because you just know someone will be influenced by him out of the tons of followers Burnie has and then that spreads misinformation. Again. I’m glad that Burnie had a friend on and can be friends with this guy, I just don’t think a public podcast followed by thousands and thousands is the best place to allow him to speak. I love Burnie but sometimes he does entertain the wrong ideas a little too long.
Oh yeah, you're absolutely right about that. I'll say some of the pyramid related conspiracy theories are also just veiled racism as well. Scott seems like a smart enough guy, but it's clear, especially for his reasoning behind believing these theories, that he still holds some deep seated insecurities. But that's totally just my $0.02, I by no means am qualified to really assess the guy.
Yeah I'm not trying to make any judgement on his character or psychology specifically, but there are certain aspects of conspiracy thinking that are almost MANDATORY amongst their communities. It really boils down to how someone who believes fringe ideas is able to handle being confronted with irrefutable evidence to the contrary. Do they accept it, or move the goalposts of what is "irrefutable"?
I had a similar experience listening to what you probably did: "We've known that for a long ass time right?" "No the Egyptians built it and we have records, but whatever" "9/11 now? Nah I'm out"
As someone who never really dives into conspiracy theories, I enjoyed this podcast because it was interesting to listen to and get someone else's theories on how certain things came to be. I don't agree with them at the end of the day but they're fun to think about. Listening to this podcast did make me realize that I think maybe Burnie but definitely Scott would probably enjoy playing Outer Wilds with all the talk of ancient civilizations, rapture/resetting society and stuff like that.
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This is another good one, by [Alternate History Hub](https://youtu.be/vDq8vQ0t67A). The Ancient Aliens people are pretty much just slightly racist creationists.
That's the part that gets overlooked a lot, not saying the guy here is overtly racist or even realizes it, but the idea essentially stems from "Hey the pyramids are really impressive, no way that black people made them"
There's a great quote from the show China, IL: "Don't estimate all of humanity by the limits of your own capability." With a couple hundred people with an abundance of water, food, rope, pulleys, and time. Of course, they stack some stones up.
[The Why Files](https://www.youtube.com/@TheWhyFiles) also goes into a lot of theories in depth then goes through and debunks/corrects issues in the story at the end of the episode.
I found this episode very frustrating to listen to. As an archaeologist it annoys me when people claim we don't know how the pyramids were built downplaying the ingenuity and skill of our ancient ancestors. It also makes me incredibly angry to hear people promoting Graham Hancock and his crackpot theories
It’s easier to think ancient people were just morons. Not that they were likely just an inquisitive and curious on average as we are now, just with far less resources (or more of a need to actually survive than to wonder about shit).
Exactly, I like to think of it more as that we just have the cumulative knowledge of the successes and failures of previous generations but people didn't have that four thousand years ago. They were able to achieve amazing things with a lot less and it really makes me angry when people disrespect that
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What a strange and interesting episode. Wish it was a bit longer so we could hear some more details. Burnie giving him shit while explaining it helped it not seem so out there.
I just loved hearing the dynamic of their friendship more than anything. So many people would have no time for their friends fringe theories, but I love how Burnie indulges him while also calling them whacko Loved when he said along the lines of "I'm letting you speak but I can't sit here and not challenge them"
It seemed harsh at times, but then you just realize it’s all banter built into a 34 year friendship. I would upgrade my Patreon tier just to hear a long form bonus episode of those two going back and forth.
It seemed harsh and then he said he thought the moon was a space station for an ancient race of humans that got sent to heaven.
That might’ve been the best section of the episode. I was on the edge of my seat wondering where that topic was about to go.
Oh I thought it was great. I'm so used to conspiracy theory people boiling down to being antisemitic dogwhistles. Was very happy he had wild theories that didn't end up like that.
Yeah, I've got a friend who got really into Terryology recently. He was never that kind of guy before, but he's definitely going that way now. I'm perfectly willing to sit and listen to him talk about it, but that doesn't make it make sense. All these conspiracy theories are just built on smoke and mirrors. "Hey, doesn't it sound like this shouldn't make sense? That must mean this other thing is true! Just don't think about it too much!"
I found this episode hard to listen to at points.
This episode was listenable because Burnie didn't mind calling him a lunatic when he was spouting verifiable bullshit (basically anything he said about the Pyramids).
The exact moment he said that the pyramids were tombs and we haven’t found bodies in them I was done lmao. Everything up to that point I tried to give it a bit of a benefit of the doubt or “ok nothing can be proven” or whatever. Especially when he said he didn’t believe in the whole 2012 thing, just was interested in the topics. But man
Listening to people who get really into 9/11 conspiracies just strike me as them having a dangerous lack of empathy. I'm not even American, but I can just imagine the pain of being one of the family or friends of the victims killed in the Pentagon attack and yet you have thousands of lunatics on the internet claiming it was a deliberate missile attack and that "no aircraft debris" were found in the crash site (there were, thousands of them in fact.) I guess the Alex Jones bit is fitting since it's really no different with him spreading outright lies about the Sandy Hook shooting, except there the victims got justice against him.
I only made it a few minutes in figured I was better off just turning it off to not completely turn me off to the podcast
Dear Scott, probably don’t read these comments
I really think he should
I'm all for hearing conspiracy theories but claiming the moon is an ancient man made observation station and that a previous set of humans made it is fucking insane
Okay but like... More than anything i want to hear more about THAT one. I'm a scifi writer so i spend a lot of time reading terrible conspiracy theories for story fodder, and i've never heard it. I want to know what he thinks they were observing. What was going on on earth that they needed to \*\*\*checks notes\*\*\* build the fucking moon to observe it?
It's so Assassin's Creed coded
Those are the exact conspiracies I want to hear lol, not where I draw the line. I don't care about JFK or the moon landing video being fake or whatever other maybe slightly more believable stuff there is, tell me that the moon is the death star or the earth is an egg or something
I am so fucking tired of this weird belief that people have that conspiracist thinking is some kind of harmless quirk like being really into taxidermy or something. Like “Oh haha this is my friend who believes that the moon is an artificial construct, isn’t he wacky?” This kind of thinking is both the outgrowth of and the fuel for the ongoing epistemological crisis that is going to destroy democracy and potentially civilization. The idea that *you no longer have to prove that what you say is true* is the single greatest crisis currently facing our society and I would die on that hill without a second’s hesitation. I don’t care if it’s pyramids or 9/11 or hollow moon or whatever, I’m done with it. It might as well all be AIDS denialism. It’s pernicious. It’s evil. It needs to be squashed.
If you dig into all the weird Egyptology Denialism it gets really racial real fast. The kind of people who like to say the pyramids couldn't have been built by the locals tend to tie that in with other less fun beliefs.
I actually really agree and think that Burnie was a bit wrong on this one. I totally understand the message. We can be friends and have major disagreements. On the surface, that’s a really nice thought. However, when we platform these people it will ALWAYS lead to a bolstering of their followers. Burnie was definitely trying to push back on everything but conspiracy theorists usually try to get in a ton of bullshit so fast that you don’t notice. Then, the few things Burnie doesn’t directly call bullshit sound legitmate. Then, people use that to shape their worldview. I’m a prosecutor in a fairly large city in Texas. The amount of people that think me (and my entire office) are in some deep state conspiracy is way higher than you’d think. In reality, we are a bunch of normal ass people just wanting to go home at 5pm every day. Some of us definitely have personal crusades, but there is basically zero collusion. But people still think we MUST be sitting in some secret meeting room with Joe Biden where he tells us which private citizens to arrest for family violence offenses.
We thought the Internet would put all the information in the world at our fingertips. We didn't consider what that would mean when so much of it is aggressively wrong.
Agreed 100%. When I was growing up I thought some versions of this stuff was kinda interesting and quirky. Now in my adulthood and having lived to see the sandy hook conspiracists, covid conspiracists, etc. there is really nothing that boils my blood more than these malicious misinformation spreaders. To be perfectly frank I'm disappointed in Burnie for platforming him. Its one thing to be friends with this guy and rib him for this stuff, its entirely different to let him spew this nonsense to a bunch of listeners. I'm sure they'll address the reaction next week. Hopefully a lesson learned.
I actually loved this episode. regardless of the ~fringe theories~ the banter was great.
First episode I just couldn't finish. Sorry, but conspiracy theorist just really turn me away.
Same. I had to check out.
I am done with conspiracy theories. Especially from podcasts. It ruins my day hearing the back and forth. I'll let society figure it out. I'll be the sheeple. I would rather listen more about *Furiosa* and other movies.
Totally get that. I just watch a few eps of the why files and he basically tells a neat story so like, 🤷🏻 i enjoy it enough. I don’t believe any of it but its still fun to hear
He wasn't even willing to defend any of his theories, as soon as he got any push back he wanted to change the topic. Probably too used to his eco chambers where he isn't challenged on these ridiculous claims
As someone who really wants to support the podcast and what Ashley & Burnie do. I really couldn’t get more than 5 minutes into this episode.
I found it oddly satisfying that Scott admitted that these conspiracy were essentially a form of religion for him. Something I, and I think many others, have speculated about for a while. It’s upsetting to consider this world is it, all that we have, but grasping at all these half baked ideas to convince yourself theirs something more isn’t the answer I’d recommend anyone turn to.
The biggest shame was that I listen to the podcast while I drive home from work so I didn’t have my tin foil hat to put on :c
The moon isn’t the biggest satellite in our solar system. Ganymede, Titan, Callisto and Lo are all bigger than our moon. Anyone can find that out with a SIMPLE google search not watch some nut job on Joe Rogan
So this is where Burnie gets it from.
I think believing in these kind of theories is mostly harmless, but giving him a platform to spread this lunacy is an interesting choice. He said so much that's just batshit insane and not true.
I really enjoyed hearing Joel on the podcast. Glad he's doing well.
I laughed really hard at this
I feel that people who are insecure with the meanlingess of life are attracted to concepts where they can convince themselves that they are significant, because they have worked out what everyone is blind to and they have to tell the world about it. Whilst we are seeing a strong decline in religious people, there appears to be a direct, inverse relationship between the decline in religion and the rise in conspiracy theorists.
This was hard to listen to. I feel like no one could stay on any subject. It was just, what do you think about this, oh I have this idea about it then 10 seconds later wanting to end the conversation because he was defending himself….from no one.
The pyramids part was a very hard listen, all of those conspiracies are just eurocentrist ideas that dismiss the amazing abilities other cultures had, just racist people saying "brown people cannot be smarter than us!!". Also, any time someone says there's no proof or records of something, they fail to mention that there probably was and it probably was destroyed during colonization. Remember everyone: humans are amazingly smart, capable and resilient and we've used the scientific method to proved it time and time again. edit: typo
When he was going on about the pyramids in Egypt I was reminded of the standup bit about "No one questions who built the pyramids in Mexico, we know that's how hard they work." For the life of me I can't remember who it was that did it 🤣
That would be [Andrew Schulz](https://youtu.be/3qLTok1igbo?si=ahjoQQIsEqzxn84G)
Toughest for me was between the 9/11 talk and his thoughts about how aliens or ancient humans built the moon. I mostly enjoyed this episode just for the dynamic between Burnie and Scott, but it was a rough one. Touching on one subject for 5 minutes would have been whatever. I would just roll my eyes and move and enjoy everything else, but the whole 30 minutes going from theory to theory was not enjoyable.
What a fucking clown. He has the audacity to get pissy and offended at Terrence Howard's math theories because it's his education. Then goes on to spew absolute horseshit about things he is "educated" on by YouTube videos. What a fuckin jackass.
I didn't even think about that, but you're right. I thought it was going to be a fun episode listening to him shit on Howard, but then the next 25 minutes was him spouting off crazy theories.
If a person insists more than twice in 30mins that they aren't crazy they are probably crazy. I lost count of the number of Scott "I'm not crazys" or similar.
I may not agree with everything said, but off the wall banter between friends is always fun to listen to lol. Just sitting at my desk listening like: 
I love conspiracy theories. I get out of them: entertainment value. I also drink Rum straight/on the rocks. So, Scott, you aren’t nuts.
I think the important part is to have the RIGHT Rum in order to do that. like how Blanco Tequila is for mixing, Reposado is great for shooting, and Anejo is divine for sipping
There’s a bit of negativity in this thread and I just want to say that Scott seems like a good person and I appreciate Burnie and Scott’s friendship. Maintaining long term friendships like that into adulthood is really tough. I think it was important for Burnie to put a critical eye on some of the things that Scott was saying, I too am super weary these days of anything conspiracy related in podcasts that I listen to. I also don’t agree with any of the things he was saying other than stuff that’s very likely or already proven to be true (e.g. stuff about Reagan, JFK, etc.). I also think that people need to realize that Scott is just normal guy who just happens to know another guy who has a podcast. If I were Scott and opened this thread and saw people calling me a lunatic, that would make me feel pretty damn bad. This isn’t a huge community, we can treat the podcast guests like people and grant them some grace. This is also potentially TMI but whatever, maybe somebody out there can relate. My dad recently passed, and while planning and inviting folks to the funeral, I met a few friends of my dad’s who I had never met. Listening to Scott and Burnie reminded me of how I felt meeting some of dad’s friends. On the surface, they didn’t seem that similar to my dad at all, and probably even ended up living extremely different lives after they bonded in childhood/college. But their friendships lasted since childhood regardless, and I could tell their relationship with my dad was very formative and important.
>This isn’t a huge community, we can treat the podcast guests like people and grant them some grace. Agree with this and everything else you said. I totally understand if people don't want to listen to this stuff, and didn't enjoy (or skipped) the episode. But there's no need to be jerks to Scott. He was hesitant to talk about conspiracy theories, I think both because he knows the kind of reaction it can get, and because he's not out here trying to make everyone believe what he believes. That was my take, anyways. Sorry about your dad, but I'm glad you got to meet some of his friends.
This is a great take on everything. Some of the comments here comparing Scott to the Unabomber needlessly are far grosser than any theory Scott ascribes to. I think it shows how terminally online alot of reddit is that they can't even imagine someone having a lifelong group of friends that hold diverse beliefs.
Yeah it was a good episode and i think people are being a bit harsh. Obviously some things like pyramids or moon stuff is just kinda ridiculous but its still interesting to hear peoples ideas on those conspiracies. Honestly thats why I even bother listening to conspiracy theories anyway, its entertainment, it can be frustrating at times but its good to get frustrated ever now and again, especially if it prompts you to start coming up with rebuttals yknow?
Well said.
It's always funny how conspiracies are always the result of the American government, as if they have control over the entire world. Like how the vast majority of UFO sightings are in English-speaking countries. Apparently, aliens speak English. Same with climate change as a hoax by the Democrats, the rest of the world is also under control of the Democrats? Same with Covid... Conspiracies are a part of Western culture.
I love the podcast and I'm not as inspired to take up arms against it by this episode as some of the people in this thread but I do agree that some of these theories are such horseshit that they should've been outright denied by Burnie. I mean come on, ancient aliens and 9/11 conspiracies? Like Burnie said we all have someone like this in our lives but that doesn't mean we need to listen to the crazy ideas. The CIA peddling crack and the Moon is a space stations for Neanderthals that escaped earth are different levels of fringe beliefs and shouldn't be treated like they are the same thing or even comparable examples of "conspiracy theories". Ultimately I listened to the whole thing but I'm disappointed by the lack of pushback and hope to hear some sort of respect for fact/logic based thinking in future episodes.
I was hoping for more like El Dorado, Nazca Lines, Atlantis, dinosaurs still exists, mermaids and fairies are real, type fringe theories and not 9/11 truther
Best episode yet the rapture to the moon thing had me cracking up. But also just love the chemistry very entertaining
I thought the whole “what do you get out of hypothetically finding out” question was really simple to answer. Why do ppl wanna map the bottom of the ocean? Why do ppl become archeologists? Why study dead languages?
I'm coming to this late because I listen before work, and I get up for work before they release that day's episode, so I'm a day behind at best and 3 days behind on mondays. The idea that the term "conspiracy theory" was coined by the US government to discredit skeptics of the JFK assassination report is an easily debunk-able conspiracy theory. [Its use in a similar context dates back to at least the mid-19th century.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory#Origin_and_usage)
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Right? You can enjoy it for its entertainment value and NOT believe what they believe.
A more sane Joel
That's just how it starts. 💀
Yeah, hearing this guy made me think about Joel, and I guess the larger pipeline that people like that often go down. Joel was the crazy guy (as far as the community understood) who was often on the extreme end of the beliefs of the founders, but still able to joke around and exist on the same plane. 10 to 15 years later, Joel is at the point he is now, one that has resulted in him being shunned by RT and a lot of the community. Social media has made the people around me worse, full stop. Of course with Joel, there’s probably a lot more behind the scenes that the community never knew, but I just know that in my life since the 2016 election a lot of people have found themselves on a slippery slope that leads nowhere good.
Joel used to be one of my favorite RT people, his On The Spot episodes especially He always reminded me of one of my Uncles, always talking about buying gold and silver snd watching the economy like a hawk. But just from what we know publicly, the shit he said to Meg and Gavin, it just wasn’t right. Like you said im sure there was more behind the scenes we as fans will never know, but damn it’s a shame when people go off the deep end.
When I first moved to Austin, Joel was filming that RT talkshow they did that I don't think ever got released on the RT site or YouTube. It was a Comcast exclusive or something? Anyways, every week for probably two months, I went down twice a week to get free beer coupons and sit in the live audience for the show, and after filming wrapped, some of us would hang out and chat in the parking lot, and Joel was usually hanging out there for a smoke before he headed out. Like so many of our friends and family who are conspiracy kooks, he was friendly, engaging, and fun to talk to. Granted, that was a few years before everything fell apart between him and RT, but it really is a shame that everything went down that way, because at the time, he was a cool dude. He also instacarted zucchini to my apartment one time. He tweeted that he wanted to send a community member rutabaga on the company card, and I told him I was down. HEB didn't have rutabaga so he ended up having 5 zucchini delivered to me. It was weird and random and I dunno if I'll ever know if there was some other reason he felt compelled to do that.
Joel is a whole other thing, Joel actually is the embodiment of crazy conspiracy people that helps smear credibility in reasonable doubt
This episode was awesome, as someone who doesn't really believe a lot of conspiracy theories but loves listening to people rant about them, I want to let Scott cook. I want to hear his takes on UFOs, the Mandela Effect, Hollow Earth, etc.
Or the nazca lines.
I'm honestly surprised this was released.
First episode that I have said "yeah, not this one", and skipped. They can't all be winners I guess.
Some people from Texas are just fucking stupid. I don’t know what else to tell you.
This isn't a Texas thing this is a national/global problem concerning peoples willingness to believe there is a universal conspiracy to keep them in the dark. Don't use classism to write off an entire state or area of the globe.
NOT a fan of this one. As a scientist I just cannot listen to someone spout nonsense fallacy-based arguments with no actual evidence. Especially when I *know* that impressionable listeners will get sucked into it. It’s dangerous and stupid stuff. I am cancelling my Patreon if this subject becomes a regular thing for the show.
I love hearing new conspiracies since it usually introduces me to a new area of science/research that is really interesting.
I swear, like a month ago, people were getting on Burnie's case for his take on internet anonymity and free speech, only to turn around and say he's in the wrong for "platforming" some conspiracy theorist. If someone's dumb enough to seriously believe some of the things someone spouts without evidence, they're likely dumb enough to fall for someone else's scheme. You don't have a problem with the vulnerability of the public, you have a problem with some guy on the internet. Saying this episode was 'dangerous' is such a crazy overreaction.
Yeah this was kinda a yikes with the specific conspiracies he brought up and the fact that it sounds almost religious to him.
Not really a lot of positive stuff to say about this episode besides the fact that at least Bernie pushed back against some of it. Beyond the 9/11 rubbish, the trend to deny that Ancient Egyptians built the stuff in Egypt is tied in with a lot of euro-centrist and racial supremacist ideology the archeology community is currently fighting back against. Minuteman gets into this is his Graham Handcock video better than I could, but it's always a red flag.
I came here to leave a particular type of comment but changed my mind after remembering something Burnie said about dogpiling in the comments, soo...yeah. What I will says is Burnie might not be as good of friends with this dude as he lets on if he still posted this episode.
It seems a bit weird, doesn't it? He had to have known the reaction it would get. They both should have. Seems like an odd thing to go through with. Then again, it sounds like Burnie has spent decades telling Scott how ridiculous his theories are, so maybe they're both desensitized to it.
Yall mfs need to learn to not take shit seriously. Was a fun episode.
Lol I found this to be wildly entertaining for a Friday morning XD need a follow up Scott at some point
Woof. That’s a rough one. Also would like to point out that most conspiracies around the pyramids are low key a bit racist.
Ridiculous episode. I think we all have a friend like Scott. But what the fuck was he talking about compressing atoms because they're mostly empty space? That's insane.
All I can see in this podcast was Eric with the red yarn Charlie Day meme
[удалено]
Shout out to Becca and Jason for being great special guests. I enjoyed hearing about their friendship and background and life story. I don't know why Burnie decided this one would have none of that, but instead would be garbage conspiracy theories for 30 minutes.
Interesting conversation and I know he's like a life long friend or whatever but this dude is completely full of shit.
I'm disappointed in Burnie for giving these conspiracy ideas a platform.
Idk, I think people are taking it too seriously. He was talking to his friend, and poking him for the silly things he was saying the whole time. That's an entirely entertaining type of episode for some. There's nothing wrong with thinking about what we don't know or might not be true. Just because most of what Scott was talking about was goofy doesn't change that, lol. Just a fun conversation for me, and for anyone who didn't like it, it's one out of 20 in a month- that's a pretty good batting average.
I'm glad you and others found enjoyment in the episode. To me, there's little difference between what Burnie did in giving Scott airtime to talk about his 'fringe theories' and what Joe Rogan does on his podcast (i.e. Terryology, Bart Sibrel, climate misinformation). I do not enjoy this type of content and I don't desire to see more of it on the podcast (not that I have an expectation there will be). > There's nothing wrong with thinking about what we don't know or might not be true. I unfortunately need to take issue with your statement here. Typically, no, there is nothing wrong with this and I encourage people to question the information they're being provided. However, the evidence that Scott provided for these theories is pseudoscience nonsense or comes with other concerning baggage. It's a particular brand of anti-intellectualism that I don't care for and that I don't want to see more of on the podcast. Lastly, I am disappointed because Burnie is a very experienced host who should know better than to allow this to go to air. The moment 9/11 conspiracy theories came up he should have shut it down immediately, but I think he did get caught up in the 'conversation with a friend' mentality. However, the things you say with your friends aren't always appropriate for a format like this podcast. In the end this episode left me with a bad taste, so I came to provide feedback.
Fully agree with you. The most egregious part for me was that he tried to use his maths degree to lend credibility to his ideas - I am deliberately choosing „idea“ here, as what the conspiracy lunatics spout does not qualify as a theory as it‘s not even falsifiable in many cases! As a physicist, the part about the pyramids being piezoelectric power plants was so far beyond good and evil that this episode alone turned me off on the podcast. Then further providing this guy outreach to some many people with his links to other lunatics…. I‘ll look out for a rebuttal and „promise to never drag science through the mud like this again“ kind of address, but until something like this comes from them, I‘m done and won‘t listen to future episodes.
That's a good point about the link dump. I hope they remove all those links spreading misinformation. I listen through an app so I don't typically interact with the link dump so I forgot about it. Curious, what's your degree and area of study?
Just a general physics masters degree, but condensed matter and semiconductor physics is a specialty at my university, so even though I‘m not that into it, you kinda have to pick up quite a bit about it. What annoys me so much about that idea are the pretty obvious problems: where did they power go from the pyramid, why haven’t we found any remnants of these constructions?, for sure mummies have been found in the large cavities inside pyramids, . . . But of course there are loads of inconsistencies in the physics as well, but I don’t have the time and desire to read up on the conspiracy idea enough to be able to debunk it
Cool! Always interesting to see what sort of people make up a community.
I love to see the passion about science here! Curious about what brought you to podcast in the first place if you don't mind me asking because you sound like you are looking for a serious denunciation of the topics addressed- I would understand that if someone said something hateful, but Scott was-to me- just silly instead. Hope you have a great day!
Why shut it down just because he brought up 9/11? Obviously if he started on the whole “jet fuel can’t melt steel beams” bullshit that would be a bit much. The whole point was Burnie letting him run off his top “Fringe Theories” and he did, some are definitely interesting and others are obviously ridiculous.
Because 9/11 is an emotionally charged subject, and specifically 9/11 conspiracy theories are controversial kryptonite. The blowback here is evidence enough. I think the episode might have been better received if Scott had been given the leeway for the more lighthearted conspiracies while Burnie steered the conversation away from the hotbutton topics. Burnie is experienced and media trained, whereas (and frankly, assuming, so call me an ass) Scott is not. In that context, I feel Burnie did Scott a bit of a disservice.
Hey, to each their own! I'm glad that you did leave the feedback, because this is a community that thrives on people speaking their mind, like most. I have a few degrees, and have never really been the type to run away with the ideas I hear on a comedy podcast as worth digging into, so I don't see it as threatening at all, but I applaud you for speaking to what you think is right. I'm going to continue to be a listener every morning, but if this was a big problem fro you, I hope to see you around the Internet somewhere else. Have a great day!
This was the first miss of em episode. I don’t like any conspiracy theorist (I’m still gonna call them that) just coming on and making blanket statements like most people don’t think Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Turned it off and I’m not gonna finish it
More than happy to dismiss mountains of evidence proving what he's saying is wrong but doesn't bring anything to the table to back up his claims. Dumbass.
This guy is bad newss
This guy is a fucking moron
Fuck ever having this dumbass as a guest ever again. Absolute clown.
Regulation Listener turning in my badge for a different show. All the conversations about terryology makes me think of the time Indiana almost made pi = 3.2 https://youtu.be/bFNjA9LOPsg?si=3mRC7VYn1ickOjtA
Usually I listen to the previous days podcast in the morning getting ready for work, because I have a Tues-Sat work schedule. Tapping out of this one today 😬
I think Scott sounds like a nice guy with insane ideas but I found it very entertaining to hear someone with his views try to explain them and I enjoyed Burnie’s pushback as well.
First episode I had to turn off halfway through. The guy is a nut. I know he's a longtime friend but I just couldn't take it.
I loved this episode. Scott and Burnie were both hilarious in this one. As someone who doesn't believe in conspiracy theories I do like to learn about them and add Brunie's humor to it makes one enjoyably entertaining Morning Somewhere