This is the News!

[Funt Solo]

Come off it, the pair of you.
Piling on the personal abuse does more harm than any wrong-headed post.

You're cherry-picking what you consider to be "personal abuse". I was described as "prejudicial", suffering from "personal bias" and "dishonest" - none of which I was being. You did not ride to my defense (not that I want or need that).

For my part, I was simply describing facts - but using words which you found unpalatable. It's a funny old world - but for some reason a lot of people regard swears as being automatic argument losers. But - Boris Johnson (to take an example from recent history) is a proven bullshitter. My using tart language doesn't make him a truth-teller. Or - what's worse - the PM gaslighting a nation, or someone calling him a name (that accurately describes his behavior)?

Are we pushing away those who might be brought around to a more reasoned position

There's a counter to this position proffered by folk who have studied deep conspiratorial thinking - and it's basically that trying to reason your way through the minefield of illogic is a lost cause. Whatever reason you proffer will be countered by a new, even more convoluted conspiracy, until eventually you arrive (if you're lucky) at an admission that facts aren't really important.

Or - if you debate with an idiot a magical thinker, you give credence to their idiocy magical thinking in the minds of the audience, who are commonly tricked by the "seesaw" fallacy (aka false balance).

Or - watch this video from the 15:20 mark: Fist Of Fun S2 E5

[Funt Solo]

I can be incredibly dense sometimes. Whereas one might look up to the sort of fictional character who "doesn't suffer fools gladly", it's also the case that, in an uneven playing field, one might accidentally find oneself punching down without having meant to. Self-reflecting on that, I'd like to thank JohnW and Tjm86 for being kinder voices of reason.

---

Switching topic (back to the news), I always like when a real headline looks like it came from Newsthump:

Zuckerberg 'not holding breath' over Musk cage fight

[rogue69]

It finally happened the world has gone mad
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fXyYp5hZaIY

[JohnW]

It finally happened the world has gone mad
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fXyYp5hZaIY

No, no, no, no
and no.

Enough of this shit.

Really.
I mean it.

Encase the whole lot in concrete and push it overboard – at least 200 nautical miles from any inhabited shore.

Now leave me alone and let me think happy thoughts.

[JayzusB.Christ]

What the absolute fuck is that all about? Maths is now just a subjective opinion? Shit off.

[Angry Vince]

What the absolute fuck is that all about? Maths is now just a subjective opinion? Shit off.

I think I'll be talking to my bank manager about that. "My mortgage is $450,000? That's just, like, your opinion, man."

[The Legendary Shark]

"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four. If that is granted, all else follows."  Orwell, 1984.

"There.Are.Four.Lights." Picard, Chain of Command.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

Speaking as someone with a Maths Degree...


...shit, we've been rumbled!

[Funt Solo]

Loving all the fire caused by an out of context mini-clip from an insane 24 hour news cycle where they'll interview anyone about anything.

But, sure ... RAGE! They're trying to steal our sums!

[The Legendary Shark]

Some people will believe this. There are arguments to support 2+2=5 (such as, for very large values of 2), and a minority will plug this into their world-view as supporting evidence, as I am about to do but, I hasten to add, in the name of liberty rather than base racism.

It's how the Infowar works, in tiny increments. That snippet won't impact many, but it'll impact a few, thereby creating yet another division between people who believe in X and people who don't. If that minority grows, it will start to be supported by other groups for whatever reason, or even absorbed by larger movements, perpetuating the idea that 2+2=5 if you want it to be. This kind of thinking will be the ruin of humanity because it turns objective truths into subjective lies. I can't remember the philosopher's name (Kant?), but his ideas about how nothing can really be known seem to have impacted society in, I think, a negative way. Even quantum physics and string theory shrug their shoulders and agree, and the effect it's had on our politicians and tycoons has been breathtaking; they all seem to have taken black-belts in sophistry. Is anything we know true?

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false."  - William J. Casey, CIA Director (1981)

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

2+2=/=4 always. It all depends on what numerical system you're using:

2+2=100 in binary
2+2=11 in ternary/tricimal
2+2=10 in quarternary/quatrimal

But you tend to find in higher n-imal counting that:

2+2=a sinister conspiracy to replace white people

[JayzusB.Christ]

Loving all the fire caused by an out of context mini-clip from an insane 24 hour news cycle where they'll interview anyone about anything.

But, sure ... RAGE! They're trying to steal our sums!

Despite my sweariness, I can't say I felt rage at all.  More irritation and incredulity.

[The Legendary Shark]

Not rage for me, either - more like disappointment.

[Hawkmumbler]

Millionaires Movie Club is a satellite repost repository for well known huckster and all around misogyny mine Fresh and Fit podcast (just checking the popular uploads page will be enough to give any level headed person an aneurism) so yeah. Cheers for proliferating that sort of thing.

[Tjm86]

Speaking as someone with a Maths Degree...

...shit, we've been rumbled!

Aye.  Just wait until they find out about Non-Euclidean Geometry.  I can just imagine the reaction when they discover that what they thought was 'straight' is anything but!

On a slightly more serious note though ... does that woman actually realise how stupid she sounds. 2 + 2 is racist???????  It really is a classic case of "better to stay quiet and be though a fool than open your mouth and prove it!"

FFS!!!!!!!!!