Yeah…nah.
Here’s what I think is happening instead.
I haven’t wanted to say this, but there is a problem with organized Skepticism even more than conspiracy theories. My claim is that from hard evidence NOT ONE of the following is an extraordinary claim:
The CIA not only gathers intelligence but kills people, violates rights, gaslights and evades scrutiny and oversight.
The U.S. hides bioweapons programs.
The U.S. engages in regime change through charity and aid programs.
We in the U.S. medically experiment on our own citizens without consent.
We run drugs.
The DOJ and FBI are actively and flagrantly obstructing justice.
Putin easily kills people outside Russia.
We conspire and use academics for sheepskin washing our dirty work.
U.S. newspapers actively avoid reporting stories about which the U.S. population is desperate for information. They also carry extremely non neutral biases.
We actively conspired to hide open and obvious presidential dementia. And by extension, there are massive conspiracies at every level below that one. At a mind boggling level.
There are Special Access programs that are about real and/or fake NHI/UFOs
Etc.
————
The last thing we need is skeptics telling us the bar for such conspiracies and/or governmental accountability requires extraordinary evidence.
Somehow the skeptics have it totally wrong.
After Watergate, Iran-Contra, COVID, Church/Pike committees, etc. these are no longer extraordinary claims to raise. They are ordinary claims.
I have no idea whether Lindsay Graham died of natural causes. But I can tell you the difference between a skeptic and a scientist looking at the claim.
A skeptic’s first move is to lurch for the budding conspiracy and try to pull the idea of foul play off the table first and then to require a mountain of evidence to consider such a thing.
A scientist firmly grabs the skeptic’s hand and forces him to put the hypothesis back on the table and says “Uh, you’re not in charge here. There’s a history…and I’m going to need to see something other than reference to null hypotheses, William of Occam and Carl Sagan…because that’s not how science and investigation works.”
Time for extra scientific skepticism to die I think. Covert operations and conspiracies are difficult enough to document as it is.
We don’t need skeptics as self appointed referees.
There’s an old story about Frank Sinatra I love. It’s probably apocryphal, but it’s worth sharing.
A young woman gets invited to a party at Frank and Nancy’s house. She’s nervous the whole time, and when Frank walks by, she backs up and accidentally knocks a vase off a table.
The vase shatters. The rooms gets dead quiet, and Frank’s daughter, Nancy Jr., goes, “Oh no! That was my mother’s favorite vase!”
The young woman, of course, is mortified.
Frank doesn’t miss a beat, though. He walks over, gives the young woman a reassuring pat on the shoulder, whispers a word or two in her ear.
He then turns around, picks up the matching vase from the other end of the table, and shatters it on the ground.
“I never liked those vases anyway.”
Helping people save face truly is the mark of grace and charisma.
À ceux qui répètent avec condescendance qu’Hélène n’était « qu’un personnage mythologique » — née d’un œuf, fille d’un cygne, et pouvant donc être incarnée par absolument n’importe qui — il faudrait peut-être poser une question simple.
Aujourd’hui, en 2026, les mêmes personnes applaudiraient-elles avec autant d’ardeur le choix de n’importe quelle actrice simplement “bankable” pour incarner Chang’e de la tradition chinoise, la Femme Bison Blanc des Lakotas, Oshun chez les Yoruba, Sedna chez les Inuits, Tanit de Carthage, Amaterasu du Japon, Al-‘Uzzā des Quraysh ou Mama Quilla des Incas ?
Ou assisterait-on soudain à de longues leçons sur « l’authenticité culturelle », la « représentation » et le « respect des héritages civilisationnels » ?
Il est fascinant de constater que le principe selon lequel « ce n’est qu’un mythe » ne semble jamais s’appliquer qu’aux figures fondatrices de l’Europe.
Car pour ces mêmes personnes qui soutiennent que l’on peut représenter Hélène sous n’importe quelle apparence puisqu’« elle n’était pas réelle », les mythes des autres traditions et des autres civilisations sont, eux, immédiatement traités comme l’expression inviolable d’une mémoire collective, d’une identité profonde et d’une continuité sacrée.
#HelenofSparta #HelenofTroy #GreekMyths
Charlemagne originaly was not buried in a coffin, but like a warlord from comics.
When Otto III opened his tomb 186 years after the burial, he found Charlemagne's remains sitting on the throne.
With crown on the head, scepter in his hand, and opened gospel on his lap.
This symbolic burial was meant to show Charlemagne's eternal imperial authority.
This evening a man delivered the most beautiful and passionate summary of the Iliad to me. Later I told Sam - your friend delivered the most beautiful and passionate summary of the Iliad to me. And he says he’s Italian, he will defend …. he will defend,
@ErickaAndersen Man, married a doctor and have two kids. She's older than me by 4 years. I work in IT, but i also have Ba and MS degree in Anthro snd Psych. She makes more money than I do, but we're intellectually on the same level. Your friend should prioritize compatibility over age or career
@sjq000@LostHistory9 They have to be pursued by the police to end up in the statistics to begin with. This data is useless propaganda by the state. I would put money down that you are some MI5 contracted misinformation management agent, for posting on this.