All Episodes
Previous Next
Plain Text
Nov. 3, 2020 - Skeptoid
24:50
Skeptoid #752: Listener Feedback Live: Outpost 2020

Skeptoid answers some... interesting feedback LIVE at the Outpost 2020 con. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
|

Time Text
Live Listener Feedback 00:02:16
Live from Skeptoid's 2020 online conference, The Outpost, it's another episode of listener feedback.
All Skeptoid episodes are subject to expansion and improvement whenever a listener can add anything new to a topic.
And here we present another round of bits and pieces so interesting, we couldn't not add them in.
That's coming right up on Skeptoid.
A quick reminder for everyone, you're listening to Skeptoid, revealing the true science and true history behind urban legends every week since 2006.
With over a thousand episodes, we're celebrating 20 years of keeping it focused and keeping it brief.
And we couldn't have done it without your curiosity leading the way.
And now we're even offering a little bit more.
If you become a premium member, supporting the show with a monthly micropayment of as little as $5, you get more Skeptoid.
The premium version of the show is not only ad-free, it has extended content.
These episodes are a few minutes longer.
We get rid of the ads and replace them with more Skeptoid.
The extended premium show available now.
Come to Skeptoid.com and click Go Premium.
You're listening to Skeptoid.
I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.
Listener Feedback Live, Outpost 2020.
Welcome to a live episode of Skeptoid Listener Feedback brought to you from Outpost 2020, the virtual FandomCon aboard the space station, The Outpost.
And if this was an actual live conference, you'd hear this kind of applause and stuff, but we don't have that because it was virtual.
Today we're going to address some feedback sent in by listeners all over the world, covering topics from conspiracy theories to ancient aliens and everything in between.
We've transported these correspondents here aboard the station, so we'll get to hear their comments in person.
Debunking Rothschild Myths 00:08:07
Today the role of the correspondence will be played by conference attendees.
Let's get started with an email I received in response to Skeptoid number 311, debunking the Rothschild Conspiracy, in which I addressed the conspiracy theory that claims the 19th century Rothschild banking family secretly still exists as a powerful monolithic entity and today governs world events from behind the scenes.
Listener Mark Marsh sent in this intelligent and well-reasoned rebuttal.
You are a lying gatekeeping Zionist maggot.
This video is a pathetic attempt to hide and deny the power of Rothschild.
They control the world by denying that they have the power to do so and maintaining plausible deniability for their Zionist domination plan.
The Rothschilds, above all, are masters of hiding themselves.
They created communism.
Karl Marx was a family member.
Zionism and Bolshevism to perpetuate vast crimes against humanity, including World Wars 1 and 2, to advance their personal interests, which are totally focused on global control of all humanity.
You work for them, you lying Zionist piece of sh ⁇ .
My take on this piece of feedback is how uncomplimentary it is to this imaginary Rothschild cabal.
The implication is that this supposedly all-powerful global family could come up with no better public relations strategy than to find a relatively minor podcaster and pay him some secret salary for more than a decade to record episodes about Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Chemtrails, and the Flat Earth.
More than 750 shows, and somewhere in there is a tiny footnote saying something like, The Rothschilds really aren't that powerful anymore, that will be heard by an insignificant number of people who are already in the choir and already know that anyway.
In some dark conference room, the venerable Rothschild elders looked at one another and nodded and said, yeah, that's our best move to defend ourselves against the razor-sharp insight of the conspiracy theorists.
If this is indeed our correspondent's position, he must not have much respect for the Rothschilds, which raises the question of why he gets worked up into such a passionate frenzy over the supposed threat they pose.
Skeptoid number 191, Did Jewish Slaves Build the Pyramids, looked into the true identity of the builders of the Great Pyramids at the Giza Necropolis and compared it to the popular Sunday school belief that they were built by Jewish slaves of the Egyptians.
Listener Empress Signs sent in this thoughtful comment.
Mincing words does not make fake professor-looking man as credible as he pretends to be.
Of course, no Jewish slaves built or lived in Egyptian cities while in captivity in that place he wishes you to believe was called Egypt.
The Bible supplies us with the fact that no people were regarded as Jews, such as the Revelations 3.9 mention prods who will have us all die in real time to protect them, but rather a peculiar nation was fomented outside of Egypt where stiff-necked Jews were given the ultimatum only so-called blacks would come to suffer, including ongoing confusion of race or face.
Take that, science.
This correspondent does bring up one point that's deeply intriguing, that I am a fake professor-looking man.
It is in fact the strongest part of her argument, so I'd like to give an opportunity to some of our other correspondents to wield the same logical reasoning.
First, listener T.X. Roy used it to rebut my points in Skeptoid number 81, Ghost Hunting Tools of the Trade.
They should have picked a guy to present this who looks intelligent.
He seems like one of those religious preachers.
I don't care if ghosts are real or not.
These shows are entertaining.
Listener John Grabowski sent the following helpful observation in response to Skeptoid number 519, Alien Implants.
This guy looks like a puppet for some reason.
And Christopher A. employed similar rhetoric to debate my conclusions in Skeptoid number 404, The Boggy Creek Monster.
It's funny, I usually call Brian's fashion choices dad core, but he's unwittingly ahead of the curb here with Black Turtleneck with Blazer combo.
That look was just revealed in the 70s.
High fashion redux going on at the same moment.
And now with apologies, we're going to turn to the dreaded subject of 9-11 truthers.
In all the topics I've covered, no true believers are as passionate as those who still believe 9-11 was an inside job.
They take it to fanatical extremes, with their obsessions sometimes costing them their families, their jobs, and ultimately their sanity, pursuing this ultimate conspiracy theory.
This email came in response to skeptoid number 54, the Twin Towers Fire Melting Steel, from a listener whose name either actually is John Thomas or who wants us to think it is.
What a pile of shit this channel is.
OMG, nothing you've said is true.
You should be hung by the neck with your Peto Love and deep state cronies.
Buildings do not collapse due to fire.
This is why they have regulations and it was not damaged.
Even the dumbest of children can see that.
Anyone that believes the official story has to be some kind of or sheep.
Though I agree with this correspondent that his perspective may indeed be shared by the dumbest of children, that's unfortunately not the way we determine what conclusions are best supported by the evidence.
Here's another from an anonymous fan.
You are an ignorant fool.
No offense.
But the whole official story of 9-11 is a fairy tale, and your new video is lame and makes you look like a fool.
Certainly, no offense taken.
Why would I get the impression offense was intended?
And another email from Mal.
Shut the f ⁇ up.
It's debunked, Bed Tard.
I worked with steel constructions.
You are a Zionist scum.
It's most amazing to me that these beliefs persist, even after all these years, that steel can't be softened by heat from fire.
It's almost as if they've never heard of blacksmithing.
And even as I said in the episode, it's perfectly easy to see actual large steel girders from buildings that collapsed due to fire alone, as there are literally hundreds of examples from World War II incendiary attacks.
Some of these preserved girders have been on display since long before 9-11 at the Edo Museum in Tokyo, London's Imperial War Museum, Dresden's City Historical Museum, and others.
But more significantly, I want to highlight something you may have noticed, which is a common theme running through many of these listener comments.
Here it is again, illustrated by Sherry Jacobs, again in response to an episode debunking 9-11 myths.
You need to know, Brian Dunning, that we know the truth and you are going to be stopped.
You are guilty of treason and now in the cover-up of mass murder, that makes you a co-conspirator.
You are the filth that is ruining our great nation and has usurped our constitution.
Capital punishment is the sentence for treason.
So, Mr. Dunning, we've got you running scared, you chicken shit giant pig, to publish this BS, and I seriously hope that America is waking up and does not fall for more impossible lives.
Sailing Into QAnon 00:03:09
The obsession with Jews, or with Zionists, aka super Jews, is endemic to nearly all conspiracy theories.
Why has this one minority been singled out by the conspiracy theorists as most likely to conspire?
It's a fact that Jews have been blamed for virtually every conspiracy theory ever since Jews betrayed Jesus to the Romans 2,000 years ago, making them ultimately responsible for every bad thing that's happened to the Western Christian world over the ensuing centuries.
They are perceived as having the ultimate power and wielding the ultimate evil, with all nations chained in servitude to the Zionists.
As English writer David Bediel has noted, the Zionists are basically specter, which makes the conspiracy theorist James Bond.
Hey everyone, I want to remind you about a truly unique and once-in-a-lifetime adventure.
Join me and Mediterranean archaeologist Dr. Flint Dibble for a skeptoid sailing adventure through the Mediterranean Sea aboard the SV Royal Clipper, the world's largest full-rigged sailing ship.
This is also the only opportunity you'll have to hear Flint and I talk about our experiences when we both went on Joe Rogan to represent the causes of science and reality against whatever it is that you get when you're thrown into that lion pit.
We set sail from Málaga, Spain on April 18th, 2026 and finish the adventure in Nice, France on April 25th.
You'll enjoy a fascinating skeptical mini-conference at sea.
You'll visit amazing ports along the Spanish and French coasts and Flint will be our exclusive onboard expert sharing the real archaeology and history about every stop.
We've got special side quests and extra skeptical content planned at each port.
This is a true sailing ship.
You can climb the rat lines to the crow's nest, handle the sails.
You can even take the helm and steer.
This is a real bucket list adventure you don't want to miss.
But cabins are selling fast and this ship does always sell out.
Act now or you'll miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Get the full details and book your cabin at skeptoid.com slash adventures.
Hope to see you on board.
That's skeptoid.com slash adventures.
Let's take one more piece of feedback before leaving the realm of conspiracy theories.
This one came via Twitter in response to a tweet I made debunking the supposed proofs that the obviously fake alt-right hero QAnon is actually a real government insider and not just some genius troll having the time of his life catfishing the Alex Jones fanbase.
It came from Trava Moco Maga.
Well then, you continue being a statist and question nothing.
I'll continue looking for deeper meaning and real answers.
Remember Skepticism 00:11:14
Sorry, I don't believe everything the government tells me or the 9-11 Commission report.
Let's play name the logical fallacy.
If you don't believe that the hilariously, ludicrously fake personality QAnon is a deep state operative, you, one, are a statist, two, question nothing, and three, believe everything the government tells you.
What's the logical fallacy here?
Shout it out.
False dichotomy.
The options offered are not the only ones, rather they are merely the least likely possibilities, and no mention is offered of all the other far more probable ones, such as, for example, QAnon is some genius comedian yanking all the conspiracy theorists' chains.
So please, let's retreat to the relative sanity of hard science.
Skeptoid number 454, GMO Facts and Fiction, discussed, among other things, the many ways we've been altering the genome of plant crops for centuries, besides direct genetic manipulation.
Most notable among these is simple cross-pollination.
Darren wrote, I just seen your site, and it's misleading.
Cross-pollination is not like inserting genes.
A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Galatians 5.9, New King James Version.
Although the value to Darren's argument of references to the Bible and to leavening are unclear to me, I do agree that cross-pollination is not like inserting genes.
They are two different methods to change the plant's genes to better suit us.
Author Mark Linus compares banning genetic engineering in favor of cross-pollination to, quote, allowing brain surgeons to use a blunderbuss, but not a scalpel.
You'll change the genes all right, but who knows what you'll get.
For some reason, anti-GMO activists consider this relative uncertainty a merit.
Skeptoid number 635, the effects of mandated GMO labeling, riled up not just the anti-GMO crowd, but the anti-glyphosate crowd also.
Why embrace only one flavor of food woo when you can embrace them all?
Glyphosate is one of our newest and safest herbicides needed for farming.
Harmless to people and animals because we don't photosynthesize and thus lack the physiology with which glyphosate interferes.
A bravely anonymous correspondent charged, Brian, you're either incredibly misinformed on the payroll of Monsanto or just not able to understand the effect of glyphosate has on human health.
The WHO has declared it to be a probable carcitogen.
65 countries have banned it.
Although GMOs themselves have not been thoroughly vetted, the toxic doses of glyphosate have been clearly documented.
Note the avalanche of lawsuits against Monsanto.
You are clearly on the wrong side of this issue.
The fact that you defend the indefensible leaves me with the impression that, well, as I said, you're either hopelessly misinformed or just plain dishonest.
Either way, without credibility, can you say non-Hodgkin's lymphoma?
We could beat a dead horse and point out that virtually every scientific body on the planet criticized the World Health Organization placement of glyphosate into their Group 2A classification, which means that there is limited or insufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in humans.
Even all the other groups within the World Health Organization have protested it.
The fact is that there is no evidence of carcinogenicity in humans.
At least, not evidence that passes any kind of scrutiny.
Glyphosate belongs in Group 4, which means evidence suggests a lack of carcinogenicity in humans.
Moving on to physics.
Skeptoid number 341, Free Energy Machines, deconstructed the many claims for perpetual motion machines, devices which run all by themselves with no fuel source and can be used to produce free, unlimited energy forever.
Of course, they don't exist, as is trivially proven by the laws of thermodynamics.
But many conspiracy theorists insist they're real, and the government covers them up.
Because reasons.
Listener Ted Smith wrote in with his expertly crafted argument.
This production has got to be the most disgraceful in living memory.
Do you really think people will reject free energy because a man with a monotone voice says so?
F ⁇ you, d kid.
Your days are numbered.
I would like to see this as the complete text of a journal article.
It would really liven up the scientific literature.
Skeptoid number 141, The Bosnian Pyramids, analyzed some claims, popular in Europe, that a particular hill in Bosnia that's vaguely pyramidical on two sides is actually an ancient human-made pyramid.
Lest you suspect there is no urban legend so goofy that nobody would be deathly passionate about it, hear the comment from listener XXMOASRAL1XX.
Brian, you talk bullshit and lies all the time.
In fact, your claims are false intentionally.
F ⁇ your video.
F ⁇ your Juices and f ⁇ your life because you haven't want to lose her.
I asked him for some citations.
Still waiting hopefully.
This next piece of feedback came into the general email box with no context and does not appear to be a response to any specific episode.
In fact, I'm not even sure it represents a specific line of thought.
It came from Richard Stemley and began with the familiar adage, I am skeptical about skepticism.
Gee, never heard that one before.
Wuists always deliver this phrase as if it's a zinger, a real gotcha, that will leave the skeptic speechless.
I feel you have a very closed mind and are only able to see what is able to be proven by cold, hard evidence.
If we know that looking at three balls head-on, with two on either side of the center, we see all three balls and their centers.
At this point, I'm putting on a seatbelt in my office chair because I'm expecting a wild ride.
However, we shift 90 degrees.
Now we only see one ball entirely, depending on our elevation.
What if we move that perspective to the constellation, Orion Spelt?
Are we certain that we would only see one star?
Is one larger than the other?
Do three stars even actually exist?
Does the person asking the question actually exist?
This is a fool's errand and you are wasting your time debunking philosophical methods.
Get a real job.
I'm not sure at what point in your email you realized it was a fool's errand.
I'm just glad that moment finally did arrive.
Regarding this correspondent's penultimate thought, just before the somewhat misplaced advice that I get a job that is not imaginary, it was suggested that I shouldn't debunk philosophical methods.
I don't recall ever having done so as it's not relevant to my show.
So I invite this correspondent to please write again so that we can continue this productive and instructive conversation.
And so we are at last down to the final email.
This one bears the byline of Fuzzy Zeller, the noted golfer.
So either Fuzzy is a big-time Skeptoid listener, or this was written by someone hoping to be measured by Fuzzy's presumed critical thinking skills.
It came in response to Skeptoid number 92, Rethinking Nuclear Power, an episode which, like all Skeptoid podcasts, has no background music.
The background music is a telltale sign.
This guy is actually a deep state operatim.
It took Fuzzy to unmask me as QAnon.
So listeners, keep that feedback coming.
Except in the cases of all the emails included in this episode, feedback generally improves the quality of the show.
But once in a long while, we have to open up the drain at the bottom of the sump and let the sludge drain out.
That's done.
So now we can get back to the business of great stories, great feedback, and the shining of bright light on our favorite pop culture mysteries.
So until next time, there's one thought that I will leave you with, and that's to always be skeptical.
A great big Skeptoid shout-out to premium supporters Archon, Chad Walker, Prairie Dog Brecht, and Max Miller.
If you're a student or a teacher, don't forget our student question episodes.
Record any question and I'll play it and answer it for you right here in a special episode.
Come to skeptoid.com and click on student questions.
As long as you've got your podcast app open right now, please take a second and give Skeptoid a rating.
It really does help with the discovery algorithms that suggest Skeptoid to new listeners.
And we all know how much they need it.
And remember, premium membership is what keeps us afloat.
If you love the show, then make this a two-way street.
For just $5 a month or more, tax deductible for U.S. taxpayers, you can help ensure that this material is out there for those who need it for years to come.
Just come to skeptoid.com and click Go Premium.
You're listening to Skeptoid, a listener-supported program.
I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.
Hello everyone, this is Adrienne Hill from Skookum Studios in Calgary, Canada, the land of maple syrup and mousse.
And I'm here to ask you to consider becoming a premium member of Skeptoid for as little as $5 per month.
And that's only the cost of a couple of Tim Horton's double doubles.
And that's Canadian for coffee with double cream and sugar.
Why support Skeptoid?
If you are like me and don't like ads, but like extended versions of each episode, premium is for you.
If you want to support a worthwhile nonprofit that combats pseudoscience, promotes critical thinking, and provides free access to teachers to use the podcast in the classroom via the Teacher's Toolkit, then sign up today.
Remember that skepticism is the best medicine.
Next to giggling, of course.
Until next time, this is Adrienne Hill.
From PRX.
Export Selection