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What do you believe?

My sister made me listen to a Joe Rogan podcast about a guy claiming to have worked in Area 51 on flying saucers. After 5 minutes, I knew the guy was lying about everything. I tried to listen, but it sickened me to my stomach.

There are people who believe:

  • QAnon is a real guy, that he is telling “the truth”
  • Vaccines cause autism
  • 5g causes Covid
  • Jews run the world
  • Other races are inferior to their own
  • The world is flat

We can’t trust audio recordings anymore. They can be faked. Deep fake videos are getting better and better. We can’t trust the news, can’t trust our leaders, can’t trust our own eyes. We can’t trust anything.

Objective truth is what actually happened. Maybe that is a concept that never truly existed. We only see and hear through the lens of our emotions and experiences. YouTube and Facebook are pushing us more and more to the extremes. We don’t know what to believe.

Unfortunately, there is a trait somewhere deep inside of us. We WANT to believe. We want to believe in something. It’s in us so deep that we will pretend in magic and suspend all logic just to support our beliefs. It is this trait at the core of our very beings that may be the death of us all.

If we don’t believe in science and evidence, we will poison ourselves. We will put our trust in dictators and autocrats. If we don’t fund schools and educate our children, they will grow up and believe in the worst ideas. It is likely too late. We are sliding down a slope that may have no return.

On the bright side, we may all be living in a simulation, so none of this really matters.

I believe, without any evidence to support it, that we will emerge from this haunting period better and stronger as a species. I believe that we will innovate our way out of climate catastrophe. I believe we will not kill ourselves, but rather improve the lives of people decade after decade. I believe in a brighter future, despite all of the bad things I see. If I didn’t believe in this, I imagine I would succumb to a deep depression. So I maintain hope.

What silly thing do you believe in?

Comments

3 responses to “What do you believe?”

  1. L Avatar
    L

    Though I love your articles, I have to disagree on this one. The scientist in S4 being interviewed by Rogan has passed all rigorous lie detector tests (there were many) and has talked about unreleased technology (the finger scanner) used in those facilities that later became released (20 something years later).

    There are so many details to his story that stayed consistent throughout the 20 plus years, comparing interviews before and after.

    Reply
    1. Glen Lipka Avatar
      Glen Lipka

      When aliens 👽 show up, I will send him an apology.

      Reply
  2. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    I particularly can’t stand the conspiracy theories that require an inane number of people to be involved. For the world to be flat, that would mean that every pilot in the world would have to be part of covering up the facts. For climate change, it would require that every single country in the world is part of the conspiracy. These seem so much worse than the ones that are just random associations, like 5g causes Covid. Or that my existence has caused the Jets to be terrible and never reach the superbowl. There is just something in human psychology that some people believe anything they hear, especially if it comes from someone charismatic.

    Reply

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