[HN Gopher] Facebook ads told me to become a certified cryptozoo...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Facebook ads told me to become a certified cryptozoologist, so I
       did
        
       Author : psychanarch
       Score  : 106 points
       Date   : 2021-11-25 12:01 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.vice.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.vice.com)
        
       | apeace wrote:
       | It's unfortunate that this article is probably serving as a great
       | ad for the scam cryptozoology school. I think the article
       | would've been just as good if they'd left out the name of it.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | winternett wrote:
       | I'm very proud of my history of never clicking a Facebook ad in
       | over 10 years... Most of them are really just shills for
       | capturing targeting data to associate with my profile anyway.
       | 
       | This also explains why Facebook shows me wildly random ads for
       | Viagra alternatives, yoga pants, conservative news, and better
       | kitty litter than my current brand... All things which have no
       | relevance to me, yet quite often triggering my urge to click
       | "Hide Ad", but that too in itself is also a marker that creates a
       | record I'm sure... What a mental health nightmare it's all turned
       | into.
       | 
       | I log on a lot less to social media than I used to, and use
       | AdBlock + UBlock everywhere ritually.
        
         | petters wrote:
         | I haven't used Facebook in years, but when I did the ads were
         | fantastic. The only platform were the ads seemed like a net
         | positive for me.
        
         | dhosek wrote:
         | I deleted facebook and twitter in January and it's been a
         | measurable improvement in my quality of life. Before I did, I
         | made a point of clicking _every_ ad for a while to f-ck the
         | algorithm. It took only about a day of that for every ad to be
         | personal injury lawyers.
        
           | bcg361 wrote:
           | You might be interested in ad nauseam, an extension that
           | clicks on every add for you: https://adnauseam.io/
        
           | treeman79 wrote:
           | Life is better without Twitter.
           | 
           | Grandparents had a fit over me cutting FB. Grandkid pictures
           | are a serious matter.
        
         | jollybean wrote:
         | "explains why Facebook shows me wildly random ads for Viagra
         | alternatives, yoga pants, conservative news, and better kitty
         | litter than my current brand."
         | 
         | Scroll to the bottom of CNN - it's all rubbish ads. That's just
         | the long tail of attention-scamming, it's not FB.
        
           | winternett wrote:
           | On the back-end it's likely linked to FB data though... A
           | whole lot of sites began to lag when facebooks DNS went
           | offline earlier this year and that was quite telling. That
           | data on us flows all the way across the net.
        
             | jollybean wrote:
             | Yes I agree, but that said, it's just noise.
             | 
             | Also, FB learning algorithm is not some Orwellian disaster
             | - the ads will get marginally better if you click them and
             | that's it, I don't suggest there is any real harm there.
             | 
             | Google, on the other hand, is much more powerful and they
             | know much more about you and the results they chalk up
             | (that you depend upon for life, work) are geared to this.
             | 
             | Google doesn't have a 'Zuck' to pin it on, such is
             | populism.
             | 
             | And FYI the 'big culprit' is VISA. They sell your data to
             | FB and that's a big chunk of how FB learns. But it's not in
             | the headlines, no Congressional 'Whistle blowers' etc.,
             | they fly under the radar.
        
         | gundmc wrote:
         | It's really a shame that this is the top comment, because the
         | article itself tells a pretty interesting adventure and is not
         | in the slightest about Facebook Ads beyond the title and
         | introduction.
        
         | geoduck14 wrote:
         | >This also explains why Facebook shows me wildly random ads for
         | Viagra alternatives, yoga pants, conservative news, and better
         | kitty litter than my current brand... All things which have no
         | relevance to me
         | 
         | Well maybe if your cat practiced yoga, he wouldn't need better
         | litter - or viagra.
         | 
         | I'm still thinking how to associate a cat on viagra with
         | conservative news... maybe something about Bill O'Riley.
        
           | winternett wrote:
           | Sometimes I make random facebook posts to my page with
           | strategically placed keywords in them based on what I want to
           | see more of though, like "baby squirrels" and it works
           | without fail for about a month at a time...
           | 
           | This is what it's all come to... hah.
        
           | gnicholas wrote:
           | I believe Bob Dole was a Viagra spokesperson.
        
         | purplecats wrote:
         | The purpose of all ads isn't for you to click them. By the time
         | you have decided not to click it or engage further with it, it
         | has already won.
        
         | sushsjsuauahab wrote:
         | Well, with regard to conservative news, there's about a 50%
         | chance that you would be interested, not necessarily enough to
         | click though
        
           | catillac wrote:
           | Significantly less given that they're on HN, but I suppose
           | there's no way FB would know that this person posts on HN.
        
             | sushsjsuauahab wrote:
             | And thats why they just blanket spam ads to everyone :)
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | ma2rten wrote:
         | Have you considered the possibility that facebook might just
         | not be that good at targeting?
        
           | reilly3000 wrote:
           | Yes Facebook is more loose with targeting then it represents
           | to its ad buyers, but also as buyers are notoriously bad at
           | selecting clever targeting. There is a case of misaligned
           | incentives. The more highly-targeted ad, the more likely it
           | leads to a sale, yet for Facebook or really any ad seller
           | they want to maximize the revenue of every impression, and
           | broadly targeted (irrelevant) ads fill that demand quite
           | nicely. Less filters = more potential revenue, even at the
           | expense of their advertiser's ROI. It's a balance. It's also
           | why if you are buying ads you never try the platform-provided
           | tools, which claim to optimize for ROI but generally tend
           | toward yield. Google's liberal suggestions of broad-match
           | keywords are not to be trusted.
        
           | winternett wrote:
           | Facebook is probably hiring more human psychologists and
           | marketing specialists than developers now. It explains why
           | they aren't really innovating anything particularly new and
           | useful in anything but their profit funnel.
           | 
           | Many companies get stuck on pleasing investors more than
           | users once they reach that stage of monopoly after they've
           | gone public, and that's why regulation kills them once
           | opportunistic manipulation is exposed.
           | 
           | Unfortunately it takes a really bad/unfortunate consequence
           | of their manipulation to occur before regulation properly
           | steps in.
        
         | kgeist wrote:
         | >All things which have no relevance to me
         | 
         | For the past 6 months, every single ad on Youtube (TV app) for
         | me is about Indians singing something in Hindi... I wonder why
         | that happens. I'm not Indian, I don't understand Hindi, and I'm
         | not interested in Indian pop music. Yet Youtube thinks I'm a
         | huge fan and I have no idea what to do about it.
        
           | rolleiflex wrote:
           | Have you by any chance sold any Android phones you used to
           | own at one point? Google I think does associative linking
           | based on phones. If your phone eventually found its way to
           | India, Google might have started to think something similar.
           | This happened to me personally, except I was both of the
           | people in the exchange, that's how I know.
        
         | nine_k wrote:
         | I, on the contrary, clicked every relevant ad on facebook. Now
         | they learned my preferences and show me mostly ads about
         | vintage 8-bit computers and tracker music software and groups.
         | 
         | And no ads about viagra or yoga pants.
         | 
         | I'd say that FB ads generally can target much better than
         | general web ads because they can track and profile you
         | precisely, e.g. from your posts, comments, and other
         | interactions. But at least you sign up for that when you agree
         | with FB's EULA when creating an account. General web ads are
         | worst: they try badly to track you to become more targeted, but
         | can't get targeted enough to stop being annoyingly off the mark
         | even if they wanted.
        
           | maneesh wrote:
           | I honestly enjoy FB ads much more than the average political
           | content, covid posts, food pictures that I see on my
           | timeline. I find such cool tech and software from the ads
           | that target me.
        
           | bryans wrote:
           | You can accomplish this without clicking on any ads. Just
           | send a DM to someone with all of the keywords you want to see
           | ads for, and you will start seeing them within a few minutes.
           | It's the best way to find new startups with highly specific
           | relevance.
        
             | nine_k wrote:
             | TIL!
        
       | notpachet wrote:
       | If you find this stuff interesting, I recommend watching
       | Cryptozoo[1]. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece, but it's
       | definitely a more interesting film than whatever latest Marvel
       | release happens to be making the rounds.
       | 
       | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptozoo
        
       | kingcharles wrote:
       | A LinkedIn ad the other day urged me to apply for the position of
       | CEO of Boeing.
       | 
       | I was just released from jail.
       | 
       | Coincidence?
        
         | balls187 wrote:
         | Will you be writing about this experience (I recall another
         | thread where you discuss being on the receiving end of a state
         | sponsored attack).
        
           | kingcharles wrote:
           | Yes, absolutely. I do want to write about it, but there are
           | certain aspects that I feel I can't until the situation is
           | over, and that might be another 6 months, or as much as
           | another 3-4 years.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | Was your crime skimping on safety resulting in deaths of
         | people? That would be too spooky if it were.
        
         | belter wrote:
         | Not a coincidence. Either you share the same lawyer or the same
         | psychiatrist...
         | 
         | "Facebook recommended that this psychiatrist's patients friend
         | each other"
         | 
         | https://splinternews.com/facebook-recommended-that-this-psyc...
        
           | sorokod wrote:
           | Or perhaps you share the same social network platform - time
           | to leave?
        
             | cheaprentalyeti wrote:
             | It's time for me to leave when all of my stalkers start
             | getting professional certification.
        
           | gota wrote:
           | Wait, if that's true its not impossible to perform targeted
           | search to find out who is under psychiatric treatment...
           | that's not ideal, to say the least
        
             | Bombthecat wrote:
             | Stuff like this is already known for a long time.
        
               | avs733 wrote:
               | 'known' doesn't mean everyone is aware of something, just
               | that one person knows it.
               | 
               | that is a really important reality for interacting in
               | society that I think we often miss in having discussions
               | with others. Just because something is 'objectively true'
               | or 'a fact' doesn't mean that everyone is aware of that
               | fact, when people express surprise at knowledge new to
               | them it seems odd to think that indicating others
               | previously knew that information is somehow a helpful
               | response?
        
             | vxNsr wrote:
             | It's what led me to uninstall their app, and ultimately to
             | basically stop using their website bec the desktop version
             | is impossible to use and the mobile version is also kinda
             | annoying. the result is I don't use it.
        
             | jazzyjackson wrote:
             | its very not ideal - facebook just assumes if you're on the
             | same ip address you should have the right to know each
             | other's identities. see also: https://gizmodo.com/how-
             | facebook-outs-sex-workers-1818861596
        
           | nisegami wrote:
           | People from the same small town, have common contacts and
           | regularly visit the same location. Nothing out of the
           | ordinary, but 1. the fact this it is a healthcare provider
           | creeps people out; 2. people don't already know Facebook
           | collects and uses that information.
        
       | Zababa wrote:
       | That's interesting. I personally abandonned ground meat and
       | equivalents some time ago. These days I eat less meat but the
       | meat I eat is "real" meat, usually cuts of beef that I cook
       | quickly in a hot skillet and eat with a bit of salt. It's great
       | that they are alternative for people that are into ground meat.
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | Remember that movie about a guy who ate at McDonald's for a
       | month, to observe the effects? [1]
       | 
       | Someone should do the same with Facebook ads. I wonder what
       | somebody would feel and look like after engaging with every ad on
       | the platform.
       | 
       | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Size_Me
        
       | markus_zhang wrote:
       | I have always been fascinated by these kinds of things.
       | Cryptozoology, UFOs, Occult...wish I could have the resources to
       | pursuit them scientifically. X-Files is still my top-3 TV show
       | but it's quite a bit cliche after 30 years.
        
         | thwarted wrote:
         | The commercials for the old Time Life series, "Mysteries of the
         | Unknown" keeps popping into my head recently.
        
         | bashonly wrote:
         | x-files only seems cliched because every crime procedural and
         | every paranormal genre show since have ripped it off in one way
         | or another. still rules.
        
           | markus_zhang wrote:
           | Yeah exactly. I rewatched the series a couple of months ago,
           | still very good.
        
       | rob_c wrote:
       | No, you became a vice.com writer. But hey, if the store bought
       | "qualifications" from it help you have at it, but there's better
       | use of your time (putting down social media for a book being one)
        
       | brrrrrm wrote:
       | Unrelated to the content, anyone else having trouble reading this
       | article?
       | 
       | After three reloads from what seems to be way too many
       | interactive ads, the page crashed entirely. I got about one
       | paragraph in before this: https://postimg.cc/2qQ3qPjy
        
         | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
         | I don't, but I don't have any ad-blocking outside of what
         | Firefox supplies by default, and I'm sure that's the
         | difference.
        
           | brrrrrm wrote:
           | You're probably right, I'm browsing with iOS safari and no
           | ad-block
        
             | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
             | No ad-block? Well that's surprising.
        
               | intrasight wrote:
               | Thank you for encouraging me to install an ad blocker for
               | iOS. Now I can read that article ;)
        
         | reilly3000 wrote:
         | Yes it was pretty brutal, they have all manner of
         | interstitials, exit-pops, app ads, video ads, and more.
         | Publishers thing they have to do this crap to survive, but they
         | are actually ensuring their demise. I had to try three times to
         | get through the article as my UX was totally disrupted when I
         | scrolled up. Two modals stacked atop each other, hoping to
         | catch me before I left. Yuck.
        
         | ruuda wrote:
         | Works fine with javascript disabled. The images don't load, but
         | on Vice they usually add nothing to the story anyway.
        
       | 8bitsrule wrote:
       | >My assistant suggested we first try the "wood-knock" technique.
       | According to expert Bigfootologists, the creatures are said to
       | communicate with one another by hitting tree trunks with thick
       | branches...
       | 
       | Sounds like Tamlin's 'assistant, a lawyer' is an id^H^H^H^H
       | hasn't spent much time in the bush. BIG NOISE generally means:
       | run fast and hide deep.
        
         | dhosek wrote:
         | I'm old enough to remember terminal speeds slow enough that you
         | could see "is an id" spelled out and then the cursor back up
         | and the replacement text appear.
        
       | motohagiography wrote:
       | I like this stuff because I think things like Ancient Aliens are
       | the Subgenius and Discordianism of our time. The genius of it is
       | that it is a note for note send up of ideologies of every kind,
       | literally, the logic of an idea, where when you project it on
       | something, the reflection doesn't illuminate the object so much
       | as reinforce the underlying idea itself as a lens. If I could
       | coin a term for it, I would call it "profound comedy," where the
       | genius of it is that when you apply its structural absurdity to
       | other ideas whose logic people iterate into funhouse mirror
       | beliefs, it shows how equally dumb they are. The laughter is
       | involuntarily revealed truth. This is what makes it so dangerous
       | and subversive, and the people who react to it do so because they
       | know they are being mocked with impunity.
       | 
       | I would seriously consider donating to a cryptozoology
       | scholarship fund.
        
         | qrybam wrote:
         | Reads like it was written by GPT-3.
        
           | ycombinete wrote:
           | Or Slavoj Zizek
        
         | selestify wrote:
         | > The genius of it is that it is a note for note send up of
         | ideologies of every kind, literally, the logic of an idea,
         | where when you project it on something, the reflection doesn't
         | illuminate the object so much as reinforce the underlying idea
         | itself as a lens.
         | 
         | Could you expound on this? I'm afraid I don't quite understand
         | what you are saying
        
           | hluska wrote:
           | It sounds like David Icke. If you really need someone to
           | expound on this, you could read the source but we're both on
           | HN and likely reasonably similar. Can I give you some loving
           | advice??
           | 
           | Forget this. There's nothing good in Icke. I've seen way too
           | many brilliant hackers get sucked into David Icke's bullshit
           | on their way to a crash.
           | 
           | If you still really need closure, I can sum it up as the
           | royal family, the elite and the 'Illuminati' are lizards,
           | descended from aliens. Find architects who designed buildings
           | for the Baha'i faith, then trace their contributions back to
           | North American parliaments, legislatures and the like. Find
           | the allusions to the Baha'i faith, find the allusions to
           | Freemasonry and then you'll see the projection of reality.
           | Once you've seen the projection, you're free from it.
           | 
           | Be safe. If you want to rap about the ideas with someone
           | reasonably safe, I'm Greg and my email is in my profile. If
           | you're getting lost, I'll give you my phone number.
           | 
           | Be safe and healthy.
           | 
           | Edit - The danger of Icke is that he takes basic geometry and
           | civil engineering and somehow turns them into conspiracy. If
           | you're remotely scientific, you'll see signs of Icke all
           | around you. But some principles are principles because they
           | work. We don't need conspiracy theories to explain how
           | professions grow.
           | 
           | Edit 2 - Don't google David Icke. You'll want the time back
           | and I can't offer refunds. :(
        
             | batshit_beaver wrote:
             | What in tarnation
        
               | hluska wrote:
               | I can't make this shit up. The dude has published many
               | books and found people who actually believe it all...
               | 
               | If this startup thing doesn't work out, maybe I'll just
               | start a cult. :)
               | 
               | Edit - The second paragraph was a bad attempt at a joke.
               | Don't start cults. Fuck David Icke.
        
               | colechristensen wrote:
               | > If this startup thing doesn't work out, maybe I'll just
               | start a cult. :)
               | 
               | I know you're not being serious but unfortunately many
               | people are in this kind of thinking. All over society are
               | movements and groupthink driven by a small group of
               | people that realized that you can get a whole lot of
               | money and power by making people believe outlandish
               | things.
        
               | pstuart wrote:
               | I googled him. It took 3 seconds to realize I wanted my 3
               | seconds back.
        
               | hluska wrote:
               | Shitballs. Sorry bud - I edited the original post to
               | suggest that people don't google him. I'm sorry you went
               | through that. :(
        
               | pjc50 wrote:
               | This is why debunking doesn't work and "pre-bunking" is
               | actively harmful.
        
               | pstuart wrote:
               | Thanx, but I was braced based on your advice ;-)
               | 
               | It's still in the same general territory as QAnon and the
               | fact that 1/5 Americans drinks that kool-aid fills me
               | with despair (and fear).
               | 
               | https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/study-
               | finds-...
        
               | b3morales wrote:
               | Though Icke predates QAnon by quite a bit, and I would
               | almost say it is derivative of his "material". And the
               | themes of the "Protocols of the Elders..." of course are
               | shamefully evergreen in such discourse.
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | hutzlibu wrote:
             | Well, I'd say for me googling him was fun. But I also just
             | watched "Inside Job" a new cartoon series on netflix about
             | all that(including shape shifting lizzard people), so I was
             | in the mood.
             | 
             | But I know, it is less fun, when you have to deal with
             | people who takes that shit serious.
        
           | b3morales wrote:
           | I think parent is talking about the mindset or way of
           | thinking that leads to revisionist history/conspiracy
           | theory/etc. And saying that this mindset doesn't have much
           | actually to do with the specific details of any given
           | object/plotline (e.g. the Nazca lines). It's more of a self-
           | reinforcing worldview, that there is a Story, that everything
           | is significant in the story, everything points to everything
           | else, and nothing means what appears on the surface.
           | 
           | The novel _Foucault 's Pendulum_ is a book about this
           | mindset; the _Illuminatus!_ trilogy is too in a way, though
           | it 's more experiential than descriptive. There are a few
           | non-fiction books, though I'm blanking on the key author's
           | name. For a very contemporary non-fiction (albeit
           | opinionated) take see _A Game Designer 's Analysis of QAnon_
           | https://medium.com/curiouserinstitute/a-game-designers-
           | analy...
        
             | hackingthelema wrote:
             | > There are a few non-fiction books, though I'm blanking on
             | the key author's name.
             | 
             | I don't know if he is who you had in mind, but Robert Anton
             | Wilson -- who was one of the writers on the _Illuminatus!_
             | trilogy -- has at least two non-fiction books on it. One is
             | _Prometheus Rising_ , the other is _Quantum Psychology: How
             | Brain Software Programs You and Your World_. They are both
             | a series of essays with exercises at the end of each
             | chapter. If I remember correctly, Quantum Psychology was
             | more about language and semantics, and Prometheus Rising
             | was more about belief systems and viewpoints.
             | 
             | Quantum Psychology is both written in and a guide to
             | E-Prime, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Prime (Edit, via
             | wiki: 'E-Prime refers to a version of the English language
             | that excludes all forms of the verb to be, including all
             | conjugations, contractions and archaic forms. Some scholars
             | advocate using E-Prime as a device to clarify thinking and
             | strengthen writing.')
        
               | b3morales wrote:
               | Thank you, not the person I was thinking of but that's an
               | excellent point-out.
               | 
               | I had two books in mind that I was completely
               | misremembering as by the same author. In fact they are by
               | two different journalists. _The United States of
               | Paranoia_ and _Voodoo Histories: The Role of the
               | Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History_.
        
           | hackingthelema wrote:
           | In Discordianism, there is something called the Law of
           | Fives[1], which says, 'all things happen in fives, or are
           | divisible by or are multiples of five, or are somehow
           | directly or indirectly appropriate to 5.' There is also a
           | memo from one founder to another quoted which says, 'I find
           | the Law of Fives to be more and more manifest the harder I
           | look.'
           | 
           | Robert Anton Wilson has some interesting personal experiments
           | about this in his book Prometheus Rising, where you go
           | looking for a quarter on the ground under different personal
           | contexts[2]. Other instances are things like the 23 enigma[3]
           | or ancient aliens.
           | 
           | I took motohagiography's comment to be on this phenomenon,
           | where the state of mind, or how you prime the mind (e.g. with
           | images or ideas), changes what you tend to find. It can be
           | applied in all sorts of contexts -- prime the mind with ideas
           | like conspiracy theories, and you see them everywhere. Fnord.
           | 
           | [1] http://www.principiadiscordia.com/book/23.php
           | 
           | [2] https://nevalalee.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/looking-for-
           | quart...
           | 
           | [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_Enigma
        
             | wombatpm wrote:
             | My meds must be off because I'm seeing the fnords again
        
             | AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
             | Interestingly, we had a thread not all that long ago about
             | illusions and their relationship to the brain's prediction
             | systems. It seems plausible that things like this are
             | related.
             | 
             | [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29254496
        
         | guythedudebro wrote:
         | Is this comment supposed to make sense?
        
           | salawat wrote:
           | It does. It's just more abstract wishy washy and
           | metacognitive than most people tend to sanely run.
           | 
           | The general theme or oomph of the point is that the world,
           | and beliefs we hold tend to converge on certain structural
           | relationships because they just work. Even if it isn't a
           | concrete 100% accurate description of what we see in front of
           | us it just feels right, so we hit a mental stop point and go
           | on about our day.
           | 
           | The belief literally feels good. To hell with reality, this
           | is how it is. One of the tenets of Discordianism is there is
           | no objective truth or order, as truth itself is just
           | surprisingly convenient organizations of the fundamentally
           | chaotic underpinnings of existence, and everyone sees things
           | differently or different aspects of things thereof. We can
           | all be looking at the same thing and see things completely
           | differently, and in a strange sort of way, nobody is wrong.
           | Fnord.
           | 
           | Therefore, as Eris dictates, there is no one true
           | Discordianism, or world, as everyone's view of the world is
           | true into and unto themselves. Fnord!
           | 
           | It can be disturbing to many, because it allows you to
           | completely detach from all of your prior assumptions. Someone
           | completely detached from everyone else's reality isn't
           | terribly yuseful, but they are free to peer through the Chaos
           | to find any momentary tendrils of direction that become
           | revealed.
           | 
           | The original poster posited positive utility from applying
           | these principles to any mode of thought in such a way as to
           | identify when those belief structures have fallen or been
           | distorted by the same mannerisms of thought that make equally
           | quacky, though more mainstream ideas feel good, thusly
           | revealing that the holder of the idea is in a state of mental
           | metastatic equilibrium.
           | 
           | This makes the Discordian in the room a surprisingly strong
           | catalyst for change, or at least the most aware of the set of
           | Reality Distortion Fields at work/being projected by those in
           | charge, and as a consequence, a threat to unified
           | manipulation, and an escape hatch to individual notions of
           | reality. Fnord
           | 
           | Hail Eris!
           | 
           | -A Discordian Malcontent
        
         | jazzyjackson wrote:
         | what is the truth that ancient aliens is revealing? that people
         | are gullible? i don't get it
        
           | motohagiography wrote:
           | So called "ancient astronaut theory," is an ideology. The
           | premise is the hypothetical that earth was once inhabited by
           | extraterrestrials, and then when you view archeology and
           | history through that lens, and provide explanations for any
           | outstanding questions or uncertainties using this underlying
           | assumption as a premise (could it be aliens? ancient
           | astronaut theorists say yes!), you have a complete and very
           | accessible critical theory of history that is very
           | entertaining bunk.
           | 
           | I could write the same series as Ancient Objectivists,
           | Ancient Anarchists, Ancient Socialists, Ancient Elites, etc.
           | The details they use as justification do not illuminate the
           | subject, they use archeological and historical stories as
           | evidence of their theory - it's all the same thing.
           | 
           | The reason people get the satisfying feeling of "it all makes
           | _sense_ " is because the one stupid idea seems to be
           | reinforced by relatively neutral facts, when in fact, it's
           | just a dumb idea displayed along side facts.
        
             | hluska wrote:
             | Hey bud, I made a reply on this thread and now feel guilty
             | about it. I've got nothing against you and you're a
             | wickedly smart person. Please please please don't think I
             | was mocking you or anything you believe. You're a wickedly
             | smart person and a talented writer. Those are the only
             | opinions I have about you. Okay???
             | 
             | I have strong opinions about some of the cats who publish
             | these ideas. Those opinions in no way inform the opinion I
             | have of you.
        
               | saltyfamiliar wrote:
               | > Please please please don't think I was mocking you or
               | anything you believe. You're a wickedly smart person and
               | a talented writer. Those are the only opinions I have
               | about you. Okay???
               | 
               | Why do you sound like you just found out motohagiography
               | has high-level connections to the mob? Honestly this
               | entire thread is starting to trigger my schizoid
               | tendencies because I have no idea what half the people in
               | it are talking about.
        
               | jazzyjackson wrote:
               | I guess we deserve this for clicking into a crypto-
               | zoology thread but I'm right there with you
        
               | hluska wrote:
               | I'm going to make this a separate reply because it's
               | important. "Schizoid" tendencies might just be a turn of
               | phrase. If so, it's insensitive but I can't stop you.
               | 
               | If that's not just a turn of phrase and you're being
               | serious, you can find a lot of good in medical science.
               | If you need someone to go with you, I'm based in Canada
               | but have a passport. My email is in my profile and
               | anything you send stays between us unless you're planning
               | on harming yourself. Then seriously holmes, it's on.
        
               | hluska wrote:
               | The simplest answer is that I was an asshole. Someone
               | posted an idea and someone else asked for clarification.
               | Rather than act like an adult, I put on my dickbag hat
               | and shit all over the idea. My issue is with David Icke
               | yet for some incomprehensible reason, I jumped into a
               | thread that didn't involve me and added my own personal
               | shit.
               | 
               | I injected David Icke rather than give Motohagiography
               | the chance to explain their own words. At best, I was a
               | bully.
               | 
               | It was wrong of me and I fucked up. I could have behaved
               | like an adult and made a difference. Instead I acted like
               | a brute and made a spectacle. What the fuck was the point
               | of any of that???
               | 
               | Edit - I have a better way to describe it. I acted like a
               | racist! I saw signs of David Icke and turned dick. A more
               | adult adult would have shut the fuck up...alas, I'm bad
               | at that.
               | 
               | Edit 2 - If I was writing about someone else, I would
               | have used the words "complete fucking asshole". Let me
               | restate. The simplest answer is that I was a complete
               | fucking asshole. :)
               | 
               | Thanks for calling me out bud! :)
        
               | b3morales wrote:
               | For what it's worth (although I'm not motohagiography) I
               | didn't read your comment upthread as an attack on the
               | commenter. Warnings about this stuff can be appropriate,
               | because it's seductive. You did a bit of conclusion-
               | jumping, but misreading the original comment was an easy
               | mistake to make -- it's pretty dense.
        
               | jazzyjackson wrote:
               | I think it's puzzling for some of us that someone might
               | be so apologetic and deferential for speaking their mind
               | in a text forum - this is what we're all here for, free
               | association; someone's post reminds you of David Icke and
               | projection of meaning, by all means tell us all about it.
               | 
               | edit: I'm not the person you're replying to
        
               | hluska wrote:
               | You're making a lot of assumptions.
               | 
               | First, you're assuming that I came across David Icke by
               | chance. I didn't. Someone I love has schizophrenia and is
               | currently homeless. David Icke was part of his path. Fuck
               | David Icke.
               | 
               | Second, you're assuming I have no compassion. What if
               | someone reading this is sick?? I can be a dickbag or
               | possibly set myself up as someone worth confiding in.
               | 
               | I'll err on the side of being someone worth confiding in.
               | Sorry bud but your opinion isn't very important to me.
        
               | motohagiography wrote:
               | I consider it a supreme privilege to have these thoughts
               | read by anyone at all, so really, thank you, no issues
               | here at all, even if someone (else) takes shots. This is
               | public discouse, and sometimes it gets bumptuous. :)
        
               | hluska wrote:
               | Seriously friend, I don't want to take shots at you.
               | You're cool and I have precisely zero reasons to take
               | shots at you. You're (likely) good in my books - I only
               | wrote about David Icke.
               | 
               | If you feel I took a shot at you, I apologize. That was
               | not my intent, but I behaved like a brute. That was
               | completely wrong and I'm sorry. I have no excuses only
               | sorrow. :(
               | 
               | Edit - Sorry, I forgot to mention that I really dig your
               | attitude. I was a dick and I'm sorry.
        
         | wombatpm wrote:
         | Don't be mocking the one true goddess! Lest Eris cast you out,
         | leaving you to partake of hotdogs with no hotdog buns for all
         | eternity or 5 weeks --which ever comes first.
         | 
         | -Pope Wombatpm, KSC Burning Cow Cabal of lesser Chicago
        
           | apocalypstyx wrote:
           | What does this mean for those of us who eat leftover hotdogs
           | straight from the refrigerator, no bun, no condiments, no
           | nothing?
        
             | wombatpm wrote:
             | You need to find the person who eats hotdog buns with only
             | condiments and marry that person
        
             | scollet wrote:
             | We'll pray for you.
        
         | Lamad123 wrote:
         | Totally agree!! Ancient Aliens has depleted the American
         | market.. They they seem to have a pathological focus on RSS and
         | BJP propaganda.
        
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