Quote from: Idiophone on January 31, 2020, 04:43:37 PM

troll

I'm not trying to be a troll, but I'm having a great deal of difficulty understanding the logical basis for the lizard stuff.
I would agree that it is stupid to accept things that you're told without question. I would agree that governments lie to us, mislead us, and keep things hidden. It's important to make up your own mind about everything, really. Lizards is a huge mental leap though.

There's an interesting piece in The Atlantic about recent polling of Americans - results below showing percentage and number of people believing each point. The 'global warming is a hoax' one I find scary at 37%. Lizards are way down the list. I've added my own comments to show that I do believe some 'conspiracy theories'. I've also added a copy below, without my crappy comment column, in case anyone wants to quote it and can't be bothered doing the table re-formatting.

Conspiracy______________________________	Percent believing	Number of Americans believing	My crappy thoughts_________________________________
JFK was killed by conspiracy	51 percent	160,096,160	Yeah, maybe, maybe not. It's plausible.
Bush intentionally misled on Iraq WMDs	44 percent	138,122,178	I 100% believe this.
Global warming is a hoax	37 percent	116,148,195	No. Comprehensively disproven.
Aliens exist	29 percent	91,035,072	I believe this just on the number of galaxies and probably planets in the universe. As to whether they've visited Earth, I have no opinion.
New World Order	28 percent	87,895,931	??
Hussein was involved in 9/11	28 percent	87,895,931	No. 9/11 was falsely linked to Hussein in order to give the US an excuse to invade Iraq? Yes.
A UFO crashed at Roswell	21 percent	65,921,948	Very doubtful. I've been to Roswell though. Weirdly.
Vaccines are linked to autism	20 percent	62,782,808	Not really. Vaccines save lives.
The government controls minds with TV	15 percent	47,087,106	Through propaganda and biased reporting, yes.
Medical industry invents diseases	15 percent	47,087,106	I wouldn't put it past them.
CIA developed crack	14 percent	43,947,966	Plausible.
Bigfoot exists	14 percent	43,947,966	No.
Obama is the Antichrist	13 percent	40,808,825	What? Ha ha ha.
The government allowed 9/11	11 percent	34,530,544	Hmm. They certainly exploited it after it happened. Not convinced they let it happen though.
Fluoride is dangerous	9 percent	28,252,264	Not in normal fluoridated water, no.
The moon landing was faked	7 percent	21,973,983	No. Thousands of people worked on that project.
Bin Laden is alive	6 percent	18,834,842	No. The US would be setting themselves up to be humiliated if this was true.
Airplane contrails are sinister chemicals	5 percent	15,695,702	Not really.
McCartney died in 1966	5 percent	15,695,702	No. Would have saved us from hearing the frog chorus though.
Lizard people control politics	4 percent	12,556,562	WTF?

https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/04/12-million-americans-believe-lizard-people-run-our-country/316706/

Conspiracy______________________________	Percent believing	Number of Americans believing
JFK was killed by conspiracy	51 percent	160,096,160
Bush intentionally misled on Iraq WMDs	44 percent	138,122,178
Global warming is a hoax	37 percent	116,148,195
Aliens exist	29 percent	91,035,072
New World Order	28 percent	87,895,931
Hussein was involved in 9/11	28 percent	87,895,931
A UFO crashed at Roswell	21 percent	65,921,948
Vaccines are linked to autism	20 percent	62,782,808
The government controls minds with TV	15 percent	47,087,106
Medical industry invents diseases	15 percent	47,087,106
CIA developed crack	14 percent	43,947,966
Bigfoot exists	14 percent	43,947,966
Obama is the Antichrist	13 percent	40,808,825
The government allowed 9/11	11 percent	34,530,544
Fluoride is dangerous	9 percent	28,252,264
The moon landing was faked	7 percent	21,973,983
Bin Laden is alive	6 percent	18,834,842
Airplane contrails are sinister chemicals	5 percent	15,695,702
McCartney died in 1966	5 percent	15,695,702
Lizard people control politics	4 percent	12,556,562