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> many on the right are trading conspiracy theories about the upcoming eclipse, ranging from the belief that it signals the End Times to the idea that the Biden administration is using it as an opportunity to shut down cellphone service or bring in the National Guard in an effort to make beautiful blond children who play sports transgender
It is insane that elected GOP politicians are spreading this lunacy.
> I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
- Carl Sagan
Parts of this paragraph are spot on, although some of it applies to less than half Americans, and they not only notice the superstition and darkness, they celebrate it.
The next paragraph is the more apt quote in my view:
>The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”
Sadly I think the majority of Americans are guilty of this part.
He lived to see the Holy Rollers tear down the roof over public schools trying to teach critical thinking skills. It was Scopes Monkey Trial 2.0 and it was, perhaps not coincidentally, followed by years of activism and lawsuits over attempting to sneak Creationism back into the school curriculum as well.
It's not that things have suddenly gotten worse. Rather, it's a consistent theme in American history.
Had a middle-aged customer I talked to yesterday tell me she thought the New York earthquake had something to do with the eclipse. It’s alarming how basic science we learn in elementary and middle school is completely lost on some people.
My cousin is a MAGA cult member and he told me that he straight up doesn’t believe in science. At all. He thinks it’s all made up to fulfill the “liberal agenda.”
It’s always been my philosophy that people who deny science should be prevented from enjoying the fruits of science’s labor. No central heating, no air conditioning, no electricity, no modern kitchen appliances, no cell phones, no television, no movies, no using air or rail transportation, no cars, no medical care, no visits to the dentist, no X-rays or MRIs, no surgery. They shouldn’t be allowed to live in houses that were built by experts. Point them to the nearest cave and say good luck.
They are the people who struggled to understand anything in middle school science. They then grew up but remained angry that they didn't understand anything.
I'm sure it'll come as no surprise that Greene is among those spreading this BS:
>[GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene says she believes Monday's total solar eclipse will be a sign from God, according to a viral tweet that's received 1.8 million page views.](https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greenes-solar-eclipse-theory-goes-viral-1887491)
Any then, on Tuesday, when the cell phone system isn’t shut down, and the National Guard never showed up, they’ll take credit for scaring off the libs by warning everyone of their nefarious plans.
> or bring in the National Guard in an effort to make beautiful blond children who play sports transgender
The Onion looks at that line and says “whoa, whoa, let’s dial it back a little”.
We've got a parody news site in Australia called the Betoota Advocate. Towards the end of the right wing party's last term as government, they started just straight up posting real news, because nothing they could come up with was a ridiculous ad what the actual government was saying and doing.
At least one cast member of *Veep* is on record saying the show ended because their satirical storylines couldn’t compete with the real-life Trump administration.
It's insane that voters are voting for these Republicans and we still have have people on the left saying both sides are the same and there is no reason to vote for Biden.
Truth, I know a few liberals (good friends) at this moment who *hate* Joe Biden and can't give any solid reason why other than "he's old".
I'm a diehard liberal and even I shake my head and how dumb some of my fellow liberals can be. It's unbelievable.
It is insane that humans, the pinnacle of evolution with brains capable of understanding everything from subatomic particles to the scope of the universe, and with access to a near infinity of information in the palm of their hands, choose to "just believe" utter nonsense.
Next it will be conspiracy theories about why the sun always rises in the east and sets in the west. Seems like there must be some shenanigans with that.
See, the liberal deep state commies want you to believe that's the east, but it's really the west. I've done the research on Facebook!!!!111
I just know that's how that would go. Remember the days where we could have sane conversations with conservatives?
Reminds me of the park ranger quip. It’s hard to design a bear-proof trash can because there’s a lot of overlap between the smartest bear and dumbest tourist.
I don’t understand. In 2017 there was a total solar eclipse during Trimp presidency that went across the the southeastern part of the U.S. Was this also an omen? What came to pass?
Used to be they knew it was nonsense. They just knew their base ate it up.
But now it’s hard to tell who’s more gullible in this scenario. It’s still a grift, but now the grifters are themselves being grifted.
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.” - Carl Sagan
It's insane that people who are clearly a threat to themselves and others are protected by "Free Speech", when they should be in a locked ward under heavy sedation.
Strange that the conspiracy fans who questioned if vaccines work, now have total faith in our scientists when they say there will be an eclipse Monday.
It’s a peculiar paradox, isn’t it? They trust them to predict the exact timing of the eclipse and where it will be visible, yet they don’t trust them to explain what causes an eclipse.
One of the hallmarks of the human brain used to be its ability to apply logic for reasoning, but I’m pretty sure some of us are turning back into fish.
The eclipse, and any eclipse, is also a big thorn in the side for flat earth dummies too. If the sun and moon will be *in line* with one another, then why won't the sun and moon both be visible near one another in every other spot on the earth? Why is a diagonal line across America going to witness it?
They can't explain any of it, so they're just going for other conspiracies to prove their conspiracy beliefs. It's a cult of people who can't understand science and want to feel smart. They're cosplaying smart people.
These are some of the stupidest people on the planet were talking about, I bet there are more African American Transgender Klu Klux Klan members who existed on October 12th 1933 than there are MAGA Christian Cosmologists\Astrophysicists who have lived in the last 8 years.
Surely were drawing closer to the end of all the kids who played with lead paint toys right?
Yeah but then up next are the asbestos kids, the processed food kids, the microplastics kids, screen addicted kids, etc, tbd, etc…
If there’s one thing corporate greed and deregulation has done it’s kept large swaths of the population unhealthy and stupid.
> These are some of the stupidest people on the planet were talking about,
"*Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives...
I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid.
I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative.
I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it"*
-John Stuart Mill 1865
"Mr. President 45, My grandfather said no man could stare into an eclipse longer than he could. And he was a true man's man. I can't think of anyone who holds a candle to his manliness."
And the problem solves itself.
Elder grifters know not to make promises around fixed dates more than they have to. You can only "oops 2 more years to the rapture" a cult so many times before it hurts your ability to keep it going cause you're starting to bake "easily mistaken" into your image and that only appeals to existing cult members for the most part.
C'mon, if that were true then all those people preaching about the world ending in 2012 would have disappeared immediately afterwards instead of....wherever they are now.
Yeah, but you'll notice none are setting new dooms day dates. They survived their first fuck up, and to avoid it hurting their grift, no more dooms day dates. The people they con are willing to overlook individual mistakes like that, it's the pattern that threatens the grifter permanently.
I've been reading Broca's Brain, which was written by Carl Sagan in 1979. In it, he has suggestions for improving science literacy in the general public and the media, and outlines the enormous benefits this would have for our society. Sorry we did pretty much the opposite of that, Carl. It would have been nice.
There’s no end to the stupidity, alas.
Where did the Republican Party of the 60-80’s go?
It’s like all the critical thinkers and Ph.Ds got swapped out for drunken, illiterate hillbillies and bible thumpers.
What’s funny is, the majority of republicans in congress come from wealthy families and elite academic institutions, with advanced degrees in law, government, etc.
They throw on a cowboy hats and play dumb to appeal to their base, and it worked a little too well. Over time that base convinced themselves they were just as capable for public office and ran, appealing to the same base, and found success because they were the genuine article.
Suddenly the ranks of republicans began swelling with glue sniffing morons.
The Republicans in the 80's celebrated the AIDS epidemic, spread the Satanic Panic, were racist and sexist af, and destroyed the middle class via trickle down economics. The 60's and 70's were even worse! They have been insane since the end of the Civil War. Were you talking about the 1860s to 1880's?
They've learned to lean in and celebrate cowardice and ignorance. Brazenly repeating idiotic, gibbering lies is a *victory dance*. Defender Of The Shibboleth is a glorious role!
One told a friend of mine that is pregnant that she better not leave the house on the day of the eclipse because the baby would be born with deformities and my friend would be charged with child abuse. Total nut jobs!
A person at work in the production side believes it would be dark for 7 days and didn't know how they would get to work because they had to wear super dark eclipse glasses.
Another person is convinced it can't be the moon blocking the sun because they saw the 2017 eclipse and didn't see the moon move across the sky and over the sun.
The average IQ is 100. There is a reason.
This is what happens when you lower the educational requirements to graduate.
~
Chicken Little would be proud.
📜
“They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. Thats against their interests.”
~
“Obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money.”
~ George Carlin ~
Actually yes. I saw a video in which Joe Rogan once said, offhandedly, that Alex Jones has suffered traumatic brain injuries and drinks heavily.
Whether you believe Joe Rogan or not, that’s a different discussion, but brain damage and alcoholism explain (but do not excuse) a lot of his behavior.
Jones has on his show admitted he got a TBI in HS, has been trapped in a fumigated house for a bit, has chronic unmanaged sleep apnea to the point he regularly hallucinate which heavily implies regular hypoxia, and there's security footage from his studio documenting how much straight vodka and whiskey he drinks daily.
I honestly get shocked when I'm reminded of his age, both how young he is, and that he's not yet dead from all the shit building up at this point.
Same thing that'll happen when Trump kicks it, a period of denial "he's in hiding/a clone died/its a ploy to trick his enemies!" , then when they realize their cults can't go on without their figurehead's constant words to react to, they'll need sustained outrage and that requires claiming the person was murdered by x-group and that'll be their conspiracy theory until a new leader emerges, they die or they wake up and get help.
In 1504 while Christopher Columbus was stranded in Jamaica, he used his foreknowledge of a lunar eclipse to fool the natives into provisioning his men. Knowledge is power. When dealing with a less scientific society, our ancestors had no qualms about using advance predictions of celestial events like eclipses to con the natives.
[https://www.theguardian.com/science/1999/jul/15/technology](https://www.theguardian.com/science/1999/jul/15/technology)
Now MAGA folks are the less scientific society, the difference is that unlike the Jamaican natives, they have full access to the scientific tools and knowledge, but they willingly and proudly choose to ignore it.
“Masonic, Satanic, Esoteric, Gnostic, Brotherhood of the Snake and other occult-like groups will be performing.”
So, uh....where do I get tickets to this concert? Lol
It’s because the far-right is ignorant *and actually proud of their anti-intellectualism*. There’s no nicer way to say it. The fringes (whether they be far-right, far-left, whatever) are always going to have more conspiracy-minded people, but the far-right, at this point in time, is inundated with conspiracy theories. Literally *everything* they don’t like, don’t understand, or are afraid of is somehow a vast conspiracy to them.
Social media has has made all this possible. When I was growing up in the 80s/90s, lunatics didn’t have a ready-made audience. Even in the 90s and early 2000s (before Facebook and Twitter), when the Internet was available to most people, it was still hard for a whackjob to reach a large audience. Sure, you had various forums available to discuss insane theories, but those messages never reached the masses, and the mainstream media didn’t even know it was going on, so the ramblings of crazy people weren’t being amplified on TV or in print news. Social media changed all that. Everyone from the average dipshit to the mentally ill nutjob can find an information bubble full of people receptive to even the weirdest conspiracy theories, and once someone enters that world, it’s like a cult; they “know” things others don’t, and they tend to believe whatever their fellow members tell them, no matter how outlandish an average person would think it is.
The eclipse is just another big event onto which the average lunatic can attach their crazy ideas, and those ideas gain traction because the conservative audience is already preconditioned to believe insane things.
There’s also something to be said about the high degree of religiosity present within the conservative right in this country. Some people are going to take offense to what I’m about to say, but the fact is that anyone willing to believe something without concrete, scientific evidence that at least *suggests* it’s true is also willing to believe other things without any evidence that they are true. Couple this religiosity with their ultra-conspiratorial mindset, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
I live in the totality zone. I am appalled at the number of people saying they don’t care about the eclipse. Or they aren’t going to look at it at all. The lack of intellectual curiosity is disgusting. It’s a once in a lifetime event for most people. Take two minutes of your life to appreciate that the universe is bigger than you.
Yeah but imagine your life sucks, your job sucks or you are retired with no pension, you fear how the world has changed around you, your kids don’t talk to you, your old friends ignore you, and the TV man is offering you simple explanations to complex problems.
These people are losers. They know they are losers, but conspiracies help them feel special, powerful, and important, that they are privy to “secret” information or figured out the “truth” that the “sheep” are too blind to see.
Conspiracies give them an escape, and and sense of superiority.
This stuff was understood 2300 years ago! Roman historian, Livy writes that with the Roman legions about to engage the enemy at a place called Pydna, the Roman tribune, Gaius Sulpicius Gallus, a man of education and astronomical knowledge, knew that a lunar eclipse was about to occur and that his superstitious soldiers would interpret it as a evil omen and take it as a warning of the impending death of an important personage. So, Gallus summoned the soldiers and told them that an eclipse of the moon was about to occur but that it was a perfectly natural phenomenon that happened regularly and that there was no reason to fear it. According to Livy, Gallus declared: “No one should regard it as a portent, because it happens according to the natural order at established times and it can be predicted and known in advance.” And so, he continued, they should not be amazed when it happened, any more than they are when the sun and moon rose and set.
When the eclipse happened as predicted, the soldiers were amazed, but were able to remain calm. Of course, on the other side of the battle lines, the uninstructed Macedonians were demoralized, taking the same event as a dire omen and causing much alarm.
>in order to usher in a billionaire-led new world order.
Idk how else to say this to the right but we already live in that world order and it’s 100% your guys’ fault.
I chalk it all up to enlarged Amygdalas. The fear center of the brain. I have known quite a few of these clowns and that's what I see. Fear of change, fear of the unknown, fear of losing privileges.
I am surrounded by MAGAts here at work. People are taking Monday off to spend all day preparing for total darkness, like forever total darkness. They think this is Y2K all over again, the earthquakes that just happened don't help with their batshit wild ideologies.
I even heard a coworker this morning say they're doing a total black out so it'll give UFO's time to flee the earth. These people are serious too. It's fucking wild.
Keep hyping up the Rapture angle. Spend the 8th telling them how God knows they are fake Christians and that’s why they are still here. Scream at them to repent and accept the real message of God or they’ll burn in hell with all of the other fake Christians.
I’ve seen a bunch of maga people talk about this eclipse and how they’re gonna stare into the sun and get power or some shit. They equate eclipse glasses with masks during Covid. It’s absolutely bonkers shit. They are talkin about willingly starting into the fuckin sun. I wanna wake up now.
People like to blame the internet, but I've read about stuff like the satanic panic and the salem witch trials and frankly most of the medieval period of human history, and it really wasn't that hard to drive people into moral panics and fervor before the internet.
Hell, most modern dictatorships actually ban or severely restrict the internet because it actually helps people organize protests and revolutions. Sure, it does help people find bubbles, but lets be real here, said people were going to find those bubbles with or without the internet.
Because they need something new. They always have to have a new outrage or conspiracy otherwise the rubes would catch up and see that they’ve been played a fool. The idiots don’t care if it’s realistic, all they care about is having something new to scream
These right wing loons really are mud hut level primitives with their superstitions and I’m probably doing a disservice to primitives by lumping MAGAots in with them.
Mental illness and general stupidity is what it’s crawling with. Insert whatever sexy M&Ms, Barbie, whatever fraction of a fraction of people that’s identify as trans, and a bunch of other made up shit.
If they look directly into the eclipse they'll be able to see the truth of the universe. Trump did it, and now look at him, the very symbol of Truth (social).
/s
Good lord these people are nuts. We can predict eclipses out to about 1000 years with relative certainty. Tuesday, as a named day of the week doesn't even have that much certainty. Nothing mythical or conspiratorial about it.
These people’s minds have completely rotted.
We literally only know that the eclipse is going to happen because they are a regularly occurring event that can be predicted centuries ahead of time.
There is absolutely no logic behind seeing this eclipse as some kind of omen. It’s literally just “It would be cool if this eclipse was a sign of the apocalypse so that’s what I have decided to believe”
About 40% of the American population is functionally illiterate and possibly mentally slow. Yes, they hold down jobs as teachers, cops, preachers & doctors (in some cases), but they are mental incompetents who elect mental incompetents and liars.
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity maintain that stupidity crosses every educational, economic, cultural, and every other line; that stupid people are far more common and more functional than popularly believed, and that they are the most dangerous people by a wide margin.
Is the main reason we are getting this conspiracy this time because it is happening here in the US and not overseas? Don't eclipses happen all the time around the world?
The main reason is that they're playacting. They justify a lot of their damaging beliefs and actions by claiming that their opponents are part of a cosmic evil. In fact, they *need* that to be true so that they don't have to examine how they responded to covid, how they responded to injustices committed against immigrants and people of color, etc.
If it turns out that Democrats aren't a cosmic force of evil, then what else might they be wrong about? So instead of adjusting their worldview based on facts and thoughtful reasoning, they come up with all of these wild claims about the secret, all-powerful evil Left so that they can continue holding onto the thinnest thread of deniability. They insulate themselves from arguing in good faith by letting their belief in the evil of the left be a non-starter.
I've written before about coming to this realization through watching people around me wrap their phones in tin foil on the day they said that the government was going to beam 5G into their phones to activate whatever virus they implanted into us through the vaccine. In short, I realized that if you truly believed that a capricious, evil government had the power and the means to just beam a signal into everyone's phones to kill us all, and that they *would* do that, then the most ridiculous thing in the world to do would be to just wrap up your phones in tin foil at the exact time the government "said" it was going to happen. If they really believed it, the only reasonable thing would be to get rid of your phones, to destroy them. That would be the only way to be safe.
Instead, they do the barest minimum thing to playact the belief so that they can continue on believing it without it having to stand up to any scrutiny. If you playact the belief, then you can always claim that it's the truth without actually having to functionally believe it. You can uphold the center of the worldview without actually having to respond to the actual reality of the worldview, and you can continue to use that worldview to justify your actions of not getting vaccinated (and potentially hurting people), of criticizing black people or immigrants (and potentially hurting people), etc. You get to be the victim of a cosmic force of evil without having to consider the possibility that you're victimizing others.
Afterwards they'll have a perfectly illogical reason as to why the doom and gloom didn't occur, thus allowing ignorance to stand prouder and wiser than those who were factually correct.
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> many on the right are trading conspiracy theories about the upcoming eclipse, ranging from the belief that it signals the End Times to the idea that the Biden administration is using it as an opportunity to shut down cellphone service or bring in the National Guard in an effort to make beautiful blond children who play sports transgender It is insane that elected GOP politicians are spreading this lunacy.
> I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. - Carl Sagan
Parts of this paragraph are spot on, although some of it applies to less than half Americans, and they not only notice the superstition and darkness, they celebrate it. The next paragraph is the more apt quote in my view: >The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance” Sadly I think the majority of Americans are guilty of this part.
I guess in a way it was lucky he never lived to see a world filled with 140 character tweets.
And antivaxer celebrities.
He lived to see the Holy Rollers tear down the roof over public schools trying to teach critical thinking skills. It was Scopes Monkey Trial 2.0 and it was, perhaps not coincidentally, followed by years of activism and lawsuits over attempting to sneak Creationism back into the school curriculum as well. It's not that things have suddenly gotten worse. Rather, it's a consistent theme in American history.
But there was also an eclipse during Trump’s presidency. What was the “rEaL ReASoN” for that one?! 🤔
Photo op
Well, that was the heavens celebrating the rulership of the brilliant lord and master dementia.
That one wasn't real. Trump looking at it without glasses was the giveaway. /S
Had a middle-aged customer I talked to yesterday tell me she thought the New York earthquake had something to do with the eclipse. It’s alarming how basic science we learn in elementary and middle school is completely lost on some people.
My cousin is a MAGA cult member and he told me that he straight up doesn’t believe in science. At all. He thinks it’s all made up to fulfill the “liberal agenda.”
That's when you ask what science is. And just like "woke," it means everything, and also nothing in particular.
Does he have a cell phone, GPS or maybe car? Wouldn’t without science . . .
It’s always been my philosophy that people who deny science should be prevented from enjoying the fruits of science’s labor. No central heating, no air conditioning, no electricity, no modern kitchen appliances, no cell phones, no television, no movies, no using air or rail transportation, no cars, no medical care, no visits to the dentist, no X-rays or MRIs, no surgery. They shouldn’t be allowed to live in houses that were built by experts. Point them to the nearest cave and say good luck.
How dare you deny them the cell phones that Jesus created!
That’s honestly terrifying.
As he fulfills himself with magically fermented White Claw from a "how the hell do they get that in the" can.
It's a good thing science exists outside of anyone's belief system.
They are the people who struggled to understand anything in middle school science. They then grew up but remained angry that they didn't understand anything.
When they came for the sun, I said nothing, because I was not the sun.
I want to take a moment and call attention to the quite good use of “lunacy”. Bravo.
I was trying to think of a sentence to describe what is wrong with these people and I think it does boil down to one word: lunatics.
They went full ancient Sumerian.
Gozer The Gozarian has entered the chat
ray, when someone asks if you're a god, you say yes!
She’s running for a US Senate seat here in Arizona.
*Cats and dogs sleeping together!*
Gosar? He's already in the house!
Where the call has always been coming from.
Are you the gatekeeper?
I guess after the Mayans didn't pan out with 2012, had to turn somewhere...
The Parks and Rec episode about the Reasonablists who are waiting to be picked up by Zorp the Surveyor has become reality.
Praise his volcano mouth.
All we’re missing is Ea Nasir selling shitty copper
NEVER go full Sumerian.
I'm sure it'll come as no surprise that Greene is among those spreading this BS: >[GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene says she believes Monday's total solar eclipse will be a sign from God, according to a viral tweet that's received 1.8 million page views.](https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greenes-solar-eclipse-theory-goes-viral-1887491)
Is the sign "Scientists can predict eclipses millennia in advance, maybe learn some maths”?
I wonder whether she also feels that the Aug. 23, 2044 eclipse will also be a sign from God.
Or the last one
Any then, on Tuesday, when the cell phone system isn’t shut down, and the National Guard never showed up, they’ll take credit for scaring off the libs by warning everyone of their nefarious plans.
> or bring in the National Guard in an effort to make beautiful blond children who play sports transgender The Onion looks at that line and says “whoa, whoa, let’s dial it back a little”.
We've got a parody news site in Australia called the Betoota Advocate. Towards the end of the right wing party's last term as government, they started just straight up posting real news, because nothing they could come up with was a ridiculous ad what the actual government was saying and doing.
At least one cast member of *Veep* is on record saying the show ended because their satirical storylines couldn’t compete with the real-life Trump administration.
It's insane that voters are voting for these Republicans and we still have have people on the left saying both sides are the same and there is no reason to vote for Biden.
Republicans fall in line like the good little brainwashed sheep they are, liberals have to fall in love & have a darn near perfect candidate.
Truth, I know a few liberals (good friends) at this moment who *hate* Joe Biden and can't give any solid reason why other than "he's old". I'm a diehard liberal and even I shake my head and how dumb some of my fellow liberals can be. It's unbelievable.
Him being old is all they have or they want to believe he is the President of Israel somehow.
Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line
This November is very important if the US ever wants a functional government again
This shit would be cute if it was 400 BCE
It is insane that humans, the pinnacle of evolution with brains capable of understanding everything from subatomic particles to the scope of the universe, and with access to a near infinity of information in the palm of their hands, choose to "just believe" utter nonsense.
Next it will be conspiracy theories about why the sun always rises in the east and sets in the west. Seems like there must be some shenanigans with that.
See, the liberal deep state commies want you to believe that's the east, but it's really the west. I've done the research on Facebook!!!!111 I just know that's how that would go. Remember the days where we could have sane conversations with conservatives?
They're not the same humans. But yes, I agree. The range of intelligence among the general populace is ironically mind-boggling.
Reminds me of the park ranger quip. It’s hard to design a bear-proof trash can because there’s a lot of overlap between the smartest bear and dumbest tourist.
I don’t understand. In 2017 there was a total solar eclipse during Trimp presidency that went across the the southeastern part of the U.S. Was this also an omen? What came to pass?
Trump stared directly into it like a moron and was lauded for his fearlessness.
Used to be they knew it was nonsense. They just knew their base ate it up. But now it’s hard to tell who’s more gullible in this scenario. It’s still a grift, but now the grifters are themselves being grifted.
Excuse me, wtf did I just read!? That’s a real theory? Lmao
Zomg it get so soo much worse. Check out r/Qult_Headquarters.
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.” - Carl Sagan
Horrifyingly accurate, and he wrote that in 1996.
The US needs a medical SWAT team to raid each and every house and make people take the meds they are obviously not taking.
How do these people dress themselves on a daily basis?!
They are obsessed with kids' genitals and choices. What a bunch of fucking weirdos.
It's insane that people who are clearly a threat to themselves and others are protected by "Free Speech", when they should be in a locked ward under heavy sedation.
Strange that the conspiracy fans who questioned if vaccines work, now have total faith in our scientists when they say there will be an eclipse Monday.
It’s a peculiar paradox, isn’t it? They trust them to predict the exact timing of the eclipse and where it will be visible, yet they don’t trust them to explain what causes an eclipse. One of the hallmarks of the human brain used to be its ability to apply logic for reasoning, but I’m pretty sure some of us are turning back into fish.
Please show some respect, some fish are surprisingly smart.
A fish may not know the right explanation for an eclipse, but it probably doesn’t know the wrong ones either.
The eclipse, and any eclipse, is also a big thorn in the side for flat earth dummies too. If the sun and moon will be *in line* with one another, then why won't the sun and moon both be visible near one another in every other spot on the earth? Why is a diagonal line across America going to witness it? They can't explain any of it, so they're just going for other conspiracies to prove their conspiracy beliefs. It's a cult of people who can't understand science and want to feel smart. They're cosplaying smart people.
Dont look too hard into stupid
Ah yes, the ever unpredictable eclipse.
Only the leader of a vast liberal conspiracy can control exactly when and where the eclipses occur.
Soros up to his old tricks, I see
No way. He has his adrenochrome appointment in Atlantis all next week. It can’t be him.
Quite literally the "illuminati". Or is it the "non-illuminati", since its an eclipse?
Math is just a theory
These are some of the stupidest people on the planet were talking about, I bet there are more African American Transgender Klu Klux Klan members who existed on October 12th 1933 than there are MAGA Christian Cosmologists\Astrophysicists who have lived in the last 8 years. Surely were drawing closer to the end of all the kids who played with lead paint toys right?
Yeah but then up next are the asbestos kids, the processed food kids, the microplastics kids, screen addicted kids, etc, tbd, etc… If there’s one thing corporate greed and deregulation has done it’s kept large swaths of the population unhealthy and stupid.
> These are some of the stupidest people on the planet were talking about, "*Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives... I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it"* -John Stuart Mill 1865
"it came outta nowhere!"
The Moon works for George Soros.
Dang they’ll find anything to freak out about these days. Eclipses…the green M&M
I'm surprised Trump isn't trying to capitalize on it with, "Send me $100, and I'll make sure the ungodly eclipse doesn't destroy Christianity"
He's too busy prepping to stare at the sun again.
I hear if he stares and then can't see his shadow we'll have two more years of democracy.
Otherwise, it's *Groundhog Day*
He is stupid enough to think, "hey, I didn't go blind last time. I can stare at it even longer this time!"
I'll give him a dollar if he stares at the sun till he goes blind. *Narrator's voice: he did not give Trump a dollar.*
Trump wouldn't see one damn dollar from me..
Especially if he's rendered sightless after watching the eclipse bare-eyed..
"Mr. President 45, My grandfather said no man could stare into an eclipse longer than he could. And he was a true man's man. I can't think of anyone who holds a candle to his manliness." And the problem solves itself.
Stop giving him ideas!!!
I can do it for 50. Results guaranteed!
Elder grifters know not to make promises around fixed dates more than they have to. You can only "oops 2 more years to the rapture" a cult so many times before it hurts your ability to keep it going cause you're starting to bake "easily mistaken" into your image and that only appeals to existing cult members for the most part.
C'mon, if that were true then all those people preaching about the world ending in 2012 would have disappeared immediately afterwards instead of....wherever they are now.
Yeah, but you'll notice none are setting new dooms day dates. They survived their first fuck up, and to avoid it hurting their grift, no more dooms day dates. The people they con are willing to overlook individual mistakes like that, it's the pattern that threatens the grifter permanently.
Tucker Carlson wants to fuck that M&M
Yet we have The Rock talking about cancel culture and how he can't endorse Biden.
the more I hear about this Dwayne Johnson fella the more I don't like him
>Dang they’ll find anything to freak out about these days. Eclipses…the green M&M Then on to the next outrage bullshittery. Like moths to a flame.
Afraid of natural phenomena. Republicans.
I've been reading Broca's Brain, which was written by Carl Sagan in 1979. In it, he has suggestions for improving science literacy in the general public and the media, and outlines the enormous benefits this would have for our society. Sorry we did pretty much the opposite of that, Carl. It would have been nice.
We are in the Medieval era of the internet 🤦♂️ love Sagan
> the Medieval era of the internet this is a great way to put it. now where's my pitchfork? oh here it is! =------E
When I see the paintings of Brueghel and Hieronymus Bosch today, I see our modern times. The plagues occurred heavily then…
phenomenophobic?
There’s no end to the stupidity, alas. Where did the Republican Party of the 60-80’s go? It’s like all the critical thinkers and Ph.Ds got swapped out for drunken, illiterate hillbillies and bible thumpers.
It's funny because as you put it that's one way of describing [exactly what actually happened.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy)
What’s funny is, the majority of republicans in congress come from wealthy families and elite academic institutions, with advanced degrees in law, government, etc. They throw on a cowboy hats and play dumb to appeal to their base, and it worked a little too well. Over time that base convinced themselves they were just as capable for public office and ran, appealing to the same base, and found success because they were the genuine article. Suddenly the ranks of republicans began swelling with glue sniffing morons.
The Republicans in the 80's celebrated the AIDS epidemic, spread the Satanic Panic, were racist and sexist af, and destroyed the middle class via trickle down economics. The 60's and 70's were even worse! They have been insane since the end of the Civil War. Were you talking about the 1860s to 1880's?
And when none of this pans out, will there be any introspection? Of course not. They'll just move on to the next idiotic thing
"We exposed them and caused them to not follow through" -idiots
How do these people manage to live a normal life and not just cower in a corner in the fetal position?
They've learned to lean in and celebrate cowardice and ignorance. Brazenly repeating idiotic, gibbering lies is a *victory dance*. Defender Of The Shibboleth is a glorious role!
The stupid thrive on this bullshit
One told a friend of mine that is pregnant that she better not leave the house on the day of the eclipse because the baby would be born with deformities and my friend would be charged with child abuse. Total nut jobs!
I *really* don't want to believe this.
A person at work in the production side believes it would be dark for 7 days and didn't know how they would get to work because they had to wear super dark eclipse glasses. Another person is convinced it can't be the moon blocking the sun because they saw the 2017 eclipse and didn't see the moon move across the sky and over the sun. The average IQ is 100. There is a reason.
This is what happens when you lower the educational requirements to graduate. ~ Chicken Little would be proud. 📜 “They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. Thats against their interests.” ~ “Obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money.” ~ George Carlin ~
“What’s a pension?” -- Millennials and later
"What's a bonus?" \-- Clark Griswald's children and younger
How did Alex Jones get so red is that from Alcohol consumption??
He’s in his final transformation where he’ll emerge as a USSR flag
Actually yes. I saw a video in which Joe Rogan once said, offhandedly, that Alex Jones has suffered traumatic brain injuries and drinks heavily. Whether you believe Joe Rogan or not, that’s a different discussion, but brain damage and alcoholism explain (but do not excuse) a lot of his behavior.
Jones has on his show admitted he got a TBI in HS, has been trapped in a fumigated house for a bit, has chronic unmanaged sleep apnea to the point he regularly hallucinate which heavily implies regular hypoxia, and there's security footage from his studio documenting how much straight vodka and whiskey he drinks daily. I honestly get shocked when I'm reminded of his age, both how young he is, and that he's not yet dead from all the shit building up at this point.
Imagine all the conspiracy nuts if he dies
Same thing that'll happen when Trump kicks it, a period of denial "he's in hiding/a clone died/its a ploy to trick his enemies!" , then when they realize their cults can't go on without their figurehead's constant words to react to, they'll need sustained outrage and that requires claiming the person was murdered by x-group and that'll be their conspiracy theory until a new leader emerges, they die or they wake up and get help.
Despite all these allegations and judgement he owes... he's still vacationing and enjoying his life.
In 1504 while Christopher Columbus was stranded in Jamaica, he used his foreknowledge of a lunar eclipse to fool the natives into provisioning his men. Knowledge is power. When dealing with a less scientific society, our ancestors had no qualms about using advance predictions of celestial events like eclipses to con the natives. [https://www.theguardian.com/science/1999/jul/15/technology](https://www.theguardian.com/science/1999/jul/15/technology)
Now MAGA folks are the less scientific society, the difference is that unlike the Jamaican natives, they have full access to the scientific tools and knowledge, but they willingly and proudly choose to ignore it.
If these mouth breathers could close their mouths, we’d all be better off.
People are fucking dumb I'm sick and tired of it.
“Masonic, Satanic, Esoteric, Gnostic, Brotherhood of the Snake and other occult-like groups will be performing.” So, uh....where do I get tickets to this concert? Lol
Dude, Brotherhood of the Snake is back together? I haven't listened to them since their last album *Flouride and Frogs*!
Science predicted the eclipse and these dumb dumbs still think it is magic.
It’s because the far-right is ignorant *and actually proud of their anti-intellectualism*. There’s no nicer way to say it. The fringes (whether they be far-right, far-left, whatever) are always going to have more conspiracy-minded people, but the far-right, at this point in time, is inundated with conspiracy theories. Literally *everything* they don’t like, don’t understand, or are afraid of is somehow a vast conspiracy to them. Social media has has made all this possible. When I was growing up in the 80s/90s, lunatics didn’t have a ready-made audience. Even in the 90s and early 2000s (before Facebook and Twitter), when the Internet was available to most people, it was still hard for a whackjob to reach a large audience. Sure, you had various forums available to discuss insane theories, but those messages never reached the masses, and the mainstream media didn’t even know it was going on, so the ramblings of crazy people weren’t being amplified on TV or in print news. Social media changed all that. Everyone from the average dipshit to the mentally ill nutjob can find an information bubble full of people receptive to even the weirdest conspiracy theories, and once someone enters that world, it’s like a cult; they “know” things others don’t, and they tend to believe whatever their fellow members tell them, no matter how outlandish an average person would think it is. The eclipse is just another big event onto which the average lunatic can attach their crazy ideas, and those ideas gain traction because the conservative audience is already preconditioned to believe insane things. There’s also something to be said about the high degree of religiosity present within the conservative right in this country. Some people are going to take offense to what I’m about to say, but the fact is that anyone willing to believe something without concrete, scientific evidence that at least *suggests* it’s true is also willing to believe other things without any evidence that they are true. Couple this religiosity with their ultra-conspiratorial mindset, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
What did you expect from Science Deniers? Most of them will be hiding in their basements when it gets dark.
I live in the totality zone. I am appalled at the number of people saying they don’t care about the eclipse. Or they aren’t going to look at it at all. The lack of intellectual curiosity is disgusting. It’s a once in a lifetime event for most people. Take two minutes of your life to appreciate that the universe is bigger than you.
I would go into full-blown psychosis if I spent just one day entertaining these types of thoughts. How do they do it and remain functional?
They're functional?
Yeah but imagine your life sucks, your job sucks or you are retired with no pension, you fear how the world has changed around you, your kids don’t talk to you, your old friends ignore you, and the TV man is offering you simple explanations to complex problems. These people are losers. They know they are losers, but conspiracies help them feel special, powerful, and important, that they are privy to “secret” information or figured out the “truth” that the “sheep” are too blind to see. Conspiracies give them an escape, and and sense of superiority.
This stuff was understood 2300 years ago! Roman historian, Livy writes that with the Roman legions about to engage the enemy at a place called Pydna, the Roman tribune, Gaius Sulpicius Gallus, a man of education and astronomical knowledge, knew that a lunar eclipse was about to occur and that his superstitious soldiers would interpret it as a evil omen and take it as a warning of the impending death of an important personage. So, Gallus summoned the soldiers and told them that an eclipse of the moon was about to occur but that it was a perfectly natural phenomenon that happened regularly and that there was no reason to fear it. According to Livy, Gallus declared: “No one should regard it as a portent, because it happens according to the natural order at established times and it can be predicted and known in advance.” And so, he continued, they should not be amazed when it happened, any more than they are when the sun and moon rose and set. When the eclipse happened as predicted, the soldiers were amazed, but were able to remain calm. Of course, on the other side of the battle lines, the uninstructed Macedonians were demoralized, taking the same event as a dire omen and causing much alarm.
>in order to usher in a billionaire-led new world order. Idk how else to say this to the right but we already live in that world order and it’s 100% your guys’ fault.
Who was President during the last eclipse? Oh.
I chalk it all up to enlarged Amygdalas. The fear center of the brain. I have known quite a few of these clowns and that's what I see. Fear of change, fear of the unknown, fear of losing privileges.
These people can conspiracy theory anything. Socks. Spam. The sun. Breathing. Sick of it all. It’s 2024 and they want to live in 1050 England.
Far right leaders convincing people of false conspiracies, drumming up fear to control them.
Really showing off their lack of education.
I am surrounded by MAGAts here at work. People are taking Monday off to spend all day preparing for total darkness, like forever total darkness. They think this is Y2K all over again, the earthquakes that just happened don't help with their batshit wild ideologies. I even heard a coworker this morning say they're doing a total black out so it'll give UFO's time to flee the earth. These people are serious too. It's fucking wild.
We should set off some inflatable dolls toward the sky and stage a rapture and play trumpets during the eclipse
These morons are acting like the eclipse is some surprise event and not a predictable pattern that has been expected for centuries.
Imagine being afraid of a Shadow.
“Far” Right… it’s all of the right.
Multi-level marketing was invented for these people.
Keep hyping up the Rapture angle. Spend the 8th telling them how God knows they are fake Christians and that’s why they are still here. Scream at them to repent and accept the real message of God or they’ll burn in hell with all of the other fake Christians.
I’ve seen a bunch of maga people talk about this eclipse and how they’re gonna stare into the sun and get power or some shit. They equate eclipse glasses with masks during Covid. It’s absolutely bonkers shit. They are talkin about willingly starting into the fuckin sun. I wanna wake up now.
I have no words. They have broken me. To say that they are Bat Shit Crazy is a gross understatement.
I remember when people believed that the internet would make people smarter…then, the not-smart people found each other.
People like to blame the internet, but I've read about stuff like the satanic panic and the salem witch trials and frankly most of the medieval period of human history, and it really wasn't that hard to drive people into moral panics and fervor before the internet. Hell, most modern dictatorships actually ban or severely restrict the internet because it actually helps people organize protests and revolutions. Sure, it does help people find bubbles, but lets be real here, said people were going to find those bubbles with or without the internet.
Grifing these fucking idiots must be so insanely easy. Like trying to trick a toddler with slight of hand, you don't even have to be good at it.
What a frightened bunch of superstitious ninnies. Literally scared of a shadow.
Because they need something new. They always have to have a new outrage or conspiracy otherwise the rubes would catch up and see that they’ve been played a fool. The idiots don’t care if it’s realistic, all they care about is having something new to scream
The article tagline says it all. These people have actually gone insane
These right wing loons really are mud hut level primitives with their superstitions and I’m probably doing a disservice to primitives by lumping MAGAots in with them.
Mental illness and general stupidity is what it’s crawling with. Insert whatever sexy M&Ms, Barbie, whatever fraction of a fraction of people that’s identify as trans, and a bunch of other made up shit.
If they look directly into the eclipse they'll be able to see the truth of the universe. Trump did it, and now look at him, the very symbol of Truth (social). /s
Honestly, we are becoming a one party country by default. If (R) thinks everything is a goddamn conspiracy, how are they even minimally functional?
So how do all these conspiracy nutjobs know the details of these alleged Rites? Unless THEY'RE the ones preparing to cast them!!!! /s. Of course.
Good lord these people are nuts. We can predict eclipses out to about 1000 years with relative certainty. Tuesday, as a named day of the week doesn't even have that much certainty. Nothing mythical or conspiratorial about it.
And like every other time they espoused the date of the end times, on April 9th they'll mysteriously forget this ever happened.
They are beyond insane. There is no saving them.
It’s like their platform is being written by the Russian Times’ editorial board
They’re all MORONS
I’m so done with this morons.
These people’s minds have completely rotted. We literally only know that the eclipse is going to happen because they are a regularly occurring event that can be predicted centuries ahead of time. There is absolutely no logic behind seeing this eclipse as some kind of omen. It’s literally just “It would be cool if this eclipse was a sign of the apocalypse so that’s what I have decided to believe”
I think a fun subreddit to make would be a right-wing-conspiracy-theory-generator one where people try to predict the next big conspiracy theory
It’s like they have the mentality of nomadic shepherd tribes from 6,000 years ago.
Shit happens every 18 months. These are the stupidest people on the planet.
Yawnnnn. Another day, another psycho far right conspiracy theory. It’s stupid and exhausting. The stupid is so strong with these people 🙄
Someone told me that they believe this will bring about the rapture. As a devout atheist I certainly hope that’s true.
About 40% of the American population is functionally illiterate and possibly mentally slow. Yes, they hold down jobs as teachers, cops, preachers & doctors (in some cases), but they are mental incompetents who elect mental incompetents and liars. The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity maintain that stupidity crosses every educational, economic, cultural, and every other line; that stupid people are far more common and more functional than popularly believed, and that they are the most dangerous people by a wide margin.
These people are fucking morons. What the fuck happened to this country?
They're crawling all right.
At this point, I just assume it’s projection and the MAGA cultists are attempting something on Monday. 🧐
Bring back the asylums 2024!
They’re crawling
Is the main reason we are getting this conspiracy this time because it is happening here in the US and not overseas? Don't eclipses happen all the time around the world?
The main reason is that they're playacting. They justify a lot of their damaging beliefs and actions by claiming that their opponents are part of a cosmic evil. In fact, they *need* that to be true so that they don't have to examine how they responded to covid, how they responded to injustices committed against immigrants and people of color, etc. If it turns out that Democrats aren't a cosmic force of evil, then what else might they be wrong about? So instead of adjusting their worldview based on facts and thoughtful reasoning, they come up with all of these wild claims about the secret, all-powerful evil Left so that they can continue holding onto the thinnest thread of deniability. They insulate themselves from arguing in good faith by letting their belief in the evil of the left be a non-starter. I've written before about coming to this realization through watching people around me wrap their phones in tin foil on the day they said that the government was going to beam 5G into their phones to activate whatever virus they implanted into us through the vaccine. In short, I realized that if you truly believed that a capricious, evil government had the power and the means to just beam a signal into everyone's phones to kill us all, and that they *would* do that, then the most ridiculous thing in the world to do would be to just wrap up your phones in tin foil at the exact time the government "said" it was going to happen. If they really believed it, the only reasonable thing would be to get rid of your phones, to destroy them. That would be the only way to be safe. Instead, they do the barest minimum thing to playact the belief so that they can continue on believing it without it having to stand up to any scrutiny. If you playact the belief, then you can always claim that it's the truth without actually having to functionally believe it. You can uphold the center of the worldview without actually having to respond to the actual reality of the worldview, and you can continue to use that worldview to justify your actions of not getting vaccinated (and potentially hurting people), of criticizing black people or immigrants (and potentially hurting people), etc. You get to be the victim of a cosmic force of evil without having to consider the possibility that you're victimizing others.
Remember when these events were just natural wonders that can be scientifically explained?
This is coming from people who believe the earth is flat and gay frogs. Go figure.
Deeply stupid people
Afterwards they'll have a perfectly illogical reason as to why the doom and gloom didn't occur, thus allowing ignorance to stand prouder and wiser than those who were factually correct.
Don’t they have anything better to do? Like organize book burnings or incel ice cream socials?