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Scientology has clear paths to make money from their nonsense... What's the goal with arch trees/flat earth theory?

by YCode 9y ago

Cthulhu_ 9y ago
Maybe some of the more influential ones sell books and speak at seminars? I mean the article talks about a video being viewed hundreds of thousands of times, and articles like this will only get them more viewers - which equals money.
scott_s 9y ago
I don't think there is a goal. I think it's a relatively organic community made up of loosely connected people who are all susceptible to conspiratorial thinking.
lutusp 9y ago
> What's the goal with arch trees/flat earth theory? It's a very efficient fruitcake detector. It's sort of like a pyramid marketing scheme -- the dumbest people naturally float to the top.
J-dawg 9y ago
Similar to your point - with some conspiracy theories I get the emotional reasons for believing in them. Global warming denial, 9/11 was done by the government, etc. I get that on an emotional level the reality is pretty hard to handle, so the conspiracy theories are a sort of security blanket. However ridiculous they are, I can see how they are appealing on some level. But what's the emotional advantage of believing in a flat earth? And who is the imagined evil enemy who benefits from making us all think the Earth is a spheroid?
- SuperGent 9y ago
  To be different. To prove that YOU know something that all the others don't. For some people, this gives them meaning, a group to belong to, and reasons to hate/distrust others.
  - J-dawg 9y ago
    I guess you're right. It makes me wonder how many of own opinions might just be subconscious grabs for attention, even when I believe they're rational and carefully considered. It is a little unsettling if you think about it for too long!
- cr0sh 9y ago
  > 9/11 was done by the government One does have to wonder why, though, despite being one of the largest civilian tragedies ever to happen on our soil, no forensic analysis of the destroyed structure was done. Instead it was all picked up, put in trucks, then shipped overseas to be recycled. Then, virtually out of nowhere, we get a multi-hundred page document produced laying out new legislation (aka US PATRIOT Act), which was so swiftly voted on and passed that it was absolutely apparent that little to none of it had been read (or if it had, it was read long before it was ever introduced!); we know for a fact that many congresspersons admitted to not reading it before voting on it! Neither of these things had to happen. Both could have been done differently. Forensic analysis of the structure could have been performed. It would have been expensive, it would have been an engineering nightmare - but it could have been done. We are able to piece together down passenger jets; this would have been an order of magnitude or more greater in difficulty - but had we tried, we could have done it, and our knowledge would be that much better to make decisions with. But we didn't. And we still don't have an answer for why it wasn't done. I'm not even certain that the question has been raised much. Instead, we relied upon gut instincts and other emotional factors to pass a piece of legislation that appeared out of nowhere fully written, which couldn't have been developed in the short amount of time it was. It was as if the material presented was already available, waiting for the moment it could be unveiled. Shades of ALEC legislation, in fact. But it wasn't questioned, and those that did question it were called anti-American or worse, for daring to wonder why such wide reaching legislation wasn't honestly reviewed and debated upon by our representatives in government. We are still living with the repercussions of that decision today. These items are two distinct but intertwined pieces of history which have changed our country and the world. There are many other questions about that day and the days that followed which we the people don't have answers for, or the answers we do have seem vague, even deceptive, when examined closely. I'm not saying the "government did it", nor am I saying anything that the current understood narrative doesn't say. I'm more interested in what the narrative leaves out, what it doesn't say, what it doesn't explore - and why it isn't being explored, and why we continue to let it be unexplored. Likely, it is already too late to get any answers for these unanswered, and in some cases unasked questions which surround that fateful day in our history. We probably fear what the answers would reveal, which is why we didn't ask the questions, and why we suppressed those who dared to.
randomdata 9y ago
Entertainment. While those of us on HN might write code for fun, these people choose a different way to spend their free time. And like we might want to share our code with the world the same holds true for their creations.

Scientology has clear paths to make money from their nonsense... What's the goal with arch trees/flat earth theory?

by YCode 9y ago

Scientology has clear paths to make money from their nonsense... What's the goal with arch trees/flat earth theory?

Maybe some of the more influential ones sell books and speak at seminars? I mean the article talks about a video being viewed hundreds of thousands of times, and articles like this will only get them more viewers - which equals money.

scott_s 9y ago

I don't think there is a goal. I think it's a relatively organic community made up of loosely connected people who are all susceptible to conspiratorial thinking.

lutusp 9y ago

> What's the goal with arch trees/flat earth theory? It's a very efficient fruitcake detector. It's sort of like a pyramid marketing scheme -- the dumbest people naturally float to the top.

J-dawg 9y ago

Similar to your point - with some conspiracy theories I get the emotional reasons for believing in them. Global warming denial, 9/11 was done by the government, etc. I get that on an emotional level the reality is pretty hard to handle, so the conspiracy theories are a sort of security blanket. However ridiculous they are, I can see how they are appealing on some level. But what's the emotional advantage of believing in a flat earth? And who is the imagined evil enemy who benefits from making us all think the Earth is a spheroid?

SuperGent 9y ago
To be different. To prove that YOU know something that all the others don't. For some people, this gives them meaning, a group to belong to, and reasons to hate/distrust others.
- J-dawg 9y ago
  I guess you're right. It makes me wonder how many of own opinions might just be subconscious grabs for attention, even when I believe they're rational and carefully considered. It is a little unsettling if you think about it for too long!
cr0sh 9y ago
> 9/11 was done by the government One does have to wonder why, though, despite being one of the largest civilian tragedies ever to happen on our soil, no forensic analysis of the destroyed structure was done. Instead it was all picked up, put in trucks, then shipped overseas to be recycled. Then, virtually out of nowhere, we get a multi-hundred page document produced laying out new legislation (aka US PATRIOT Act), which was so swiftly voted on and passed that it was absolutely apparent that little to none of it had been read (or if it had, it was read long before it was ever introduced!); we know for a fact that many congresspersons admitted to not reading it before voting on it! Neither of these things had to happen. Both could have been done differently. Forensic analysis of the structure could have been performed. It would have been expensive, it would have been an engineering nightmare - but it could have been done. We are able to piece together down passenger jets; this would have been an order of magnitude or more greater in difficulty - but had we tried, we could have done it, and our knowledge would be that much better to make decisions with. But we didn't. And we still don't have an answer for why it wasn't done. I'm not even certain that the question has been raised much. Instead, we relied upon gut instincts and other emotional factors to pass a piece of legislation that appeared out of nowhere fully written, which couldn't have been developed in the short amount of time it was. It was as if the material presented was already available, waiting for the moment it could be unveiled. Shades of ALEC legislation, in fact. But it wasn't questioned, and those that did question it were called anti-American or worse, for daring to wonder why such wide reaching legislation wasn't honestly reviewed and debated upon by our representatives in government. We are still living with the repercussions of that decision today. These items are two distinct but intertwined pieces of history which have changed our country and the world. There are many other questions about that day and the days that followed which we the people don't have answers for, or the answers we do have seem vague, even deceptive, when examined closely. I'm not saying the "government did it", nor am I saying anything that the current understood narrative doesn't say. I'm more interested in what the narrative leaves out, what it doesn't say, what it doesn't explore - and why it isn't being explored, and why we continue to let it be unexplored. Likely, it is already too late to get any answers for these unanswered, and in some cases unasked questions which surround that fateful day in our history. We probably fear what the answers would reveal, which is why we didn't ask the questions, and why we suppressed those who dared to.

randomdata 9y ago

Entertainment. While those of us on HN might write code for fun, these people choose a different way to spend their free time. And like we might want to share our code with the world the same holds true for their creations.