This is pettier than the usual dunk tank post, but this sub is like a microcosm of propaganda. These people are convinced there’s multiple species of aliens on earth already because some moths have flown across security cameras at night and Vegas lights reflect in the clouds sometimes.

I guess I can bring it back to how America is bad, since this is exactly what the CIA wants.

  • Abraxiel@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Before aliens; chop wood and carry water. After aliens; chop wood and carry water.

    sound advice

  • space_comrade [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    What’s particularly funny about UFO nuts is all of them are convinced there’s this grand government conspiracy where they lied to US citizens for decades for their own power and profit but the moment you suggest applying the same logic to propaganda about US geopolitical enemies like China they call you a shill or whatever lmao.

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, the weirdest turn in my life has been watching conspiracy nuts of the 90s turn into maga types. Decades ago these people had screwy ideas about UFOs and black helicopters, but the primary idea was the feds are the enemy and America is a fiction created to protect a small group of rich people with…magic powers or alien tech or something.

      I guess that was the problem because now that I type it out I see how easily that could twist into antisemitism or Qanon or woke mobs. The conspiracy people never figured out who the enemy was, it was just “them.”

      And they think there used to be a normal America that’s been subverted at some point.

  • windowlicker [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    My biggest struggle is my lack of motivation to continue playing Star Citizen. I spent like $300 on that game, and if all this shit is true, I think i have to focus on commendeering real alien spaceships.

    :data-laughing: :farquaad-point: these people are beyond parody

    • CascadeOfLight [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      if all this shit is true, I think i have to focus on commendeering real alien spaceships

      “If aliens are real, I must jack their ride”

      Based…? :posadist-nuke:

    • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      The replies, oh the replies.

      IDC what role you give me, I’ll join your crew! :D

      I’m down, but we’re gonna need an alien best friend to show us around our new home

      Maybe ChatGPT 8 will be ready by then and able! :3

      BAZINGA! :soypoint-1:

  • Bjork_shhh [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    this is exactly what the CIA wants

    why do they invest so heavily these dogshit new age fascist slave cults like Falun Gong/Shen Yun and the Dalai Lama? Its precisely because they offer idealist false consciousness instead of historical materialist objective science which ends up critiquing capitalism

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      I know that, at the end of the day, everything comes back to means of social control for economic benefit.

      But I don’t think these dorks are really seeing that far ahead. They think they’ve got evidence of aliens. And in a country where they’re totally alienated from their peers, everything they see and hear is filtered through digital media manipulation, and we’re running into a Clark’s Law of advanced technology that people are too uneducated to understand fully… how can we even argue otherwise?

      How is Aliens Are Real! any more or less credible than Iraq Has WMDs or Uighur Genocide? Its all just in the ether as news headlines that we consume from 3rd parties.

      Even just having a materialist conversation is hard because how do you have a discussion about material history when so much of that discussion is also dictated by what we read in books, watch on TV, and listen to on the radio? How the fuck do you talk about Lenin or Kissinger when these people are ultimately just historical figures that exist as footprints in a record outside our control?

  • MerryChristmas [any]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    I don’t mean to criticize you for posting this because it’s absolutely worth examining, but I feel like using c/dunktank to explore this topic is almost a form of punching down. It’s nothing to do with the content of your post - it’s just that this guy is clearly suffering from some sort of mental health episode and reaching out for support.

    Like I said, it’s a good topic. I just don’t think we should frame it as a dunk.

      • YoungBelden [any]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        that map means less than nothing without examining how the data was collected. reported to whom? who collected the data? were efforts made to combine databases from all the different countries? do all countries even have databases that a large number of people both know about and can report to? did the data collector translate reports in other languages?

        like, I doubt someone in China or Zimbabwe is gonna report (in English) to a US website if they see something strange in the sky.

        idc one way or the other about the topic but we gotta be more critical when encountering data presented like this

  • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    These people are convinced there’s multiple species of aliens on earth already because some moths have flown across security cameras at night and Vegas lights reflect in the clouds sometimes.

    This particular brainworm can be weaponised at any time. You can turn it into “there are spies everywhere”. You can turn it into “watch out for the reds under the bed”. You can turn it into “everyone is secretly trans”. Etc etc.

    I am actually starting to lean towards the idea that conspiracy theories are secretly fed into american society as a means of creating and maintaining these brainworms within society so that they can be easily transitioned into necessary tools of the state if/when required. It’s like pre-loading the textures of your propaganda, it makes the real propaganda sink in much more smoothly when you need to do it. A conspiracy about conspiracy theory brainworms.

    • macabrett@hexbear.netOP
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      1 year ago

      I’m pretty sure it’s known that the CIA did exactly what you describe with UFOs to provide cover for the very real crimes they do every day

    • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      This is kinda just natural. You can even see hints of it on the left with how many people are labeled “CIA assets”.

      It’s just a much simpler and more convenient explanation to ascribe bad things to a single nefarious and mysterious organization pulling the strings in the background. It’s an easy to trap to fall into and one we have to consciously remind ourselves to avoid. Don’t get me wrong, I know that the CIA has verifiably done insane shit, but I still see the term “CIA asset”/“CIA puppet” used concerningly often.

      It’s less a conspiracy in itself as much as it is our natural brainworms that cause conspiratorial thinking.

      • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        This is kinda just natural. You can even see hints of it on the left with how many people are labeled “CIA assets”.

        You say that but here in the UK we’ve had so many orgs that were infiltrated with as few as 5 members when they were literally just book reading clubs then go on to have huge spy scandals about fucking cops having sex with and making kids with the people they’re fucking spying on.

        Like, when they’re infiltrating us when groups are that fucking small I have a really hard time not seeing potential feds everywhere.

        • TreadOnMe [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          For example, the reason we call Robert Evans a fed is because he literally takes money from Bellingcat who are a news outlet that is basically exclusively funded to make the claim that the U.S. government and empire is good for progressive causes. That the only realistic alternative is American ISIS (as if protestant christo-fascists would ever be able to ally themselves together enough to pull something like that off, they literally can’t go three months without snitching on each other, and also forgetting that the U.S. was one of the primary funders of ISIS and was trying to pit it against Syria).

          And given the fact that they are allied with “Data for Progress” and the billionaires that funded the massive progressive-libertarian wet-fart that was Occupy, we have to make the assumption that even if the feds are not in control of those movements, they are not actually threats to capitalist order (which if you know any historical theory or praxis, of course they are not), which is why they are allowed to take root in the American zeitgeist.

          Just like how we know that the OG BLM members from 2014 are not the same people that got prime-time media interviews and then squandered the money on a mansion, because the OG members were dead from ‘gang-related killings’. Even if they weren’t feds (which they probably were, remember the weird armed BP larpers who then advocated for ‘respecting the police’), the alternative is with allies like these, who needs feds?

          Look, I know I genuinely sound crazy sometimes, but to me it is far more insane that all of this information has been completely glossed over and memory holed and no-one ever brings it up. Not Chapo, not True-Anon, no one questions the veracity and authenticity of these movements.