Pseudoscience & Assorted Woo

Or more specifically, people who either fail to understand, or refuse to understand science (aka the THING that works) and the scientific method/methodological naturalism (aka HOW the thing works), thus leading them down a rabbit hole of incredulity and stubborn arrogance.

Example one: Flat Earthers

Claim: I can’t visualise the Earth being an oblate spheroid/reference elipsoid/geoid and don’t understand Euclidean geometry or trigonometry …… therefore it isn’t true.

Conclusion: Argument from incredulity.

As Karl Popper once said: “True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.”

Example two: Homeopathy practitioners/homeopathy recipients (willing)

Claim: Muh hippy hippy shake of the water (20 times including dilution) and muh hippy hippy drippy on the sugar qubez = muh wellness!
(There is more to it but basically if you miss one dose then you just overdosed).

Conclusion: Argument from “Candygram for Mongo?!”

As Walter Kotschnig once said: “Be open-minded, but don’t be so open-minded that your brains fall out”.

Example three: Young Earth Creationists

Claim: I read a book written by primitive, goat-herding savages who had no understanding of how the universe works and I KNOW more than these so called “scientists” who use language like “we think”, “we believe”, “it’s likely” and “it might be the case” therefore big bang cosmology, physics, astrophysics, astronomy, evolutionary theory, modern biology, modern cladistic taxonomy, genetics, embryology, evo-devo, paleontology, anthropology, geology, the study of the stratigraphic column and radiometric dating are wrong because they contradict what my invisible friend said or may not have said (depending on your interpretation). Breathe.

Conclusion: God of the gaps fallacy/God is what dunnit cuz muh holy buuk!!!

As Christopher Hitchens (I believe) once said: “Positive claims require positive evidence, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and that which is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence”

Example four: Vegan Pseudoscience

Claim: BUT HUMANS HAVE SMALL CANINE TEETH SO WE CAN’T BE CARNIVORES!!!!!

Conclusion: Argument from brain fog due to lack of DHA/If you have a small-to-average sized dick then you can’t be good at wrecking vagina!!! (because apparently tongues, dexterous digits and dick extender sex toys aren’t a thing).

I honestly can’t think of any quotes or witticisms from intellectuals of any stripe for this one as Vegans are a particularly modern, 21st century menace which intellectuals of the future will have to tackle (if they are still permitted).

There is no way that these people truly believe this surely?

In Summary: Since time immemorial, there seems to have been this kind of MO that has existed in which there are two types of people in the business of charlatanry – those who sell the t-shirts and those who buy the t-shirts.
The same is true of Flat Earthers, Homeopaths, Young Earth Creatards and Vegan Pseudoscientists alike. Basically cunts.

Nominated by: Two In The Stink

82 thoughts on “Pseudoscience & Assorted Woo

  1. I always thought that Carl Sagan sounded a bit like Kermit the Frog.
    What was the question again?

  2. A short time ago I read an article on Statins and the various side effects, some bloke (can’t remember the name) decided to do a a fairly limited study to see if the side effects were felt because they were expected.
    Half the study group were given a placebo and a significant number of the the placebo group developed side effects. Interesting!

    With science there has to be a degree of trust as well a scepticism, I can’t pretend to be able to understand everything in science and nature but I keep an open mind.

    I watched an excellent program on Quantum Biology and the explanation of the mechanisms involved, like the transformation of tadpole to frog using the quantum theory to show the rapid transformation from one state to the other.

  3. Does this mean the Erich Von Daniken is a cunt? Surely not. He was on the right track way back in the sixties.

    • I had his, and loads of other UFO books back in the day. Woke up one morning and realised what a cunt I had been and burnt the fucking lot.

      • They were all the rage at the time, Harry. Back then to be ‘far out’ was the thing to be. Ha, ha. I remember that those books had lots of dodgy photos that ‘proved’ what he said must be true!

  4. I like science as a method of investigation, but it suffers all the flaws that have plagued human psychology since the time of the Greek philosophers: Arrogance, corruption, political influence, etc.

    What I don’t like is ‘scientism’, the ‘science is settled’ type mindset of plebs who think that by parroting the claims of some scientist or theory that there is no room for debate. Or that the theory can’t be wrong.

    These people annoy me far more than flat earthers or vegans, because they’re deliberately obfuscating further scientific inquiry and debate. At least the crazies have open minds.

    • Any science that is influenced by “Arrogance, corruption, political influence, etc” is not real science.

      • That’s a nice platitude, Ruff, but basically discounts most of modern mainstream science!

        I think you have a blindspot. Time to examine 🍄

      • 🍄 It’s a journey. You are clearly still working your way through the ‘magical thinking’ stage. 🙂

      • Thought is magic. If you believe it’s contained wholly within the synaptic gap then you didn’t go deep enough my friend!

  5. As long as we don’t elevate science to religion status where scientists become the new priesthood that cannot be questioned. Science can be manipulated as much as religion.

    Science also comes with risk, it should be a tool but not our master.

    • This has largely happened already. Try and challenge climate change, viral theory, relativity, the big bang.. and poof that’s the end of your funding and career.

      The Nobel Prize helps reinforce dogma. So do documentaries from curtain haired soyboy types and an army of school teachers preaching one side of the story.
      (I think “poof” dumped your post in the mod basket. All good now – DA)

      • Top tip, to announce something disappearing, instead of “pööf” simply type “shirtlifter”.

        to the nom, vegans, flatters, homeopaths and creationists are welcome to their delusions…provided their beliefs are NEVER permitted to have a role or impact on public policy or the economy.

  6. Excellent nom. I believe it was St Mother Teresa of Calcutta who remarked
    “Even distraction requires variety when your life’s reality is based on bull shite!”

  7. You can lump the anti vaxers in with in with these pseudo scientists. They come up with spurious nonsense about vaccines. From one end that they dont work to the loonie fringe that claim there are nano transmitters in them intended to control us. Via 5G naturally.
    Polio is now only endemic in 2 countries. Pakistan and Afghanistan. They export polio to the west from there. This is down to the Taliban spreading and enforcing nonsense. Boko Haram think along the same lines.
    This is the category which the anti brigade belong in.
    Peace be upon them.

    • And Nigeria.

      Coincidentally nations where DDT is eithet still used for mosquito eradication or as a pesticide.

      Great example of scientism. What if vaccination, based on viral and germ theory, is actually wrong? Have you ever even entertained that possibility?

      • BCC
        You should know better than to question or even suggest a different perspective on vaccines.
        After all, the good people at Pfizer are hastily preparing one as we speak.
        Hopefully they’ll chip and vacc the mask fetishists and leave the rest of the tinfoil hat brigade alone to live their lives.

      • Here, here. Dogmatists abound at the moment. Most of them claim to be “following the science”. They are the real cunts.

  8. Human beings can convince themselves of anything if they want to.

    If I believe the earth is round but my neighbour believes it is flat, who’s to say who’s right? And how would we show who’s right?

    The answer comes down to one thing: EVIDENCE.

    The whole point of science is to find out the truth about a given premise.

    Whereas non-scientific (and potentially dangerous) thinking starts with a premise and then looks for things that support it, scientific thinking constantly tries to disprove itself. That alone makes all the difference in the world.

    A scientist comes up with a premise: A causes B. Rather than look for all the cases where A causes B to support his premise, he starts by trying to disprove that A Causes B. Then, if after rigorous attempts to prove himself wrong it seems to hold up that A does indeed cause B, he’ll publish his results. Then it’s up to his peers to check and double check his findings. They will probably want to run their own experiments, to see if they replicate the results or disprove for themselves that A causes B.

    This is tremendously important to understand, as we live in a time when misguided aspects of relativist thinking abound and unscientific, scaremongering stories run rampant on social media, blogs and the media generally. Scientists are painted as the corrupt stooges of evil big business and proper thought is too easily drowned beneath waves of misinformed public feeling.

    We forget or ignore at our peril the importance of EVIDENCE-BASED FACT.

    • Except the reverse is also true.

      I can list you multiple scientists who have had their careers ruined, gotten ostracized and ridiculed for daring to stand up against the consensus. The media and public then refusing to even debate the matter.

      Scientists are just people. And people make mistakes, engage in self-deception, etc. That is not to say they are bad people, just misguided.

      The more rigid and dogmatic science becomes the more inevitable it is that a single shockwave will tumble it entirely. That is the real danger, which is why flexibility is needed, and why the principle opposition in terms of financial and political meddling must be exposed.

      • The shit government’s efforts to curtail any debate on Covid 19 measures is a classic example of your last point, BCC, arising from their legitimate fear that the scientific case for non medical interventions is not based on solid evidence.

        Imagine the despair, anger and turmoil if millions of people find out that their businesses, their educations and whole lives have been destroyed based on shaky evidence portrayed as scientific fact.

    • Well that’s all well and good, but….

      If the earth is round and is spinning at 1000 mph, why don’t I feel dizzy, if I go on the waltzer I get sick as a dog therefore I can only conclude that the earth is flat and stationary 😂

      #flatearthrules

  9. A nomination which I fully endorse! However, the FUCKWIT CUNTS at the esteemed University of Cambridge have just realised that 2 Seminal works by Darwin, with which they were entrusted, have not been seen for 20 years and must have been “lost”.
    (1) It shows how often the Cambridge Academics use their world class collection of manuscripts and first editions (2) How the fucking bejeezus can a so called “responsible” organisation not look after its treasured possessions? CUNTS should be sacked and shot!

  10. Plenty of bullshit science going on in Boris “mad as a shithouse rat” Johnson’s government at the moment.

    Maybe this is off topic but when you use dodgy science to convince people and you are then exposed as a shyster then people have a hard time with anything you say.

    On the subject of vaccines, I think the road it is leading to (chips, cards, passports of freedom etc) is where I have an issue. That and the fact that all the same cunts seem to have a finger in the pie….Boris’ pet loony boffins having pharma shares for example.

    If I see those cunts get injected with it, I’ll take it…remember T Blairs stoopid refusal to say if his brats had had that other jab?

      • But it does all hinge on one initial miracle called the Big Bang. We’ll just overlook that and proceed from there!

      • No. It all hinges on provable evidence.

        And what have miracles got to do with the evidence-based price of fish?

      • And if all provable evidence stems out of an unproven miracle then it really doesn’t amount to much.

        Either way science can not escape bumping up against the metaphysical. Sooner or later you’ll realize objectivity is a belief and nothing more.. reality is not solid all the way through.

  11. Coincidentally, I mentioned Willard Quine in a response to Deploy’s request for a bibliography on political theory just a couple of days ago.

    Quine’s particular flavour of philosophical naturalism (qGoogle) synchronised with Edmund Gettier’s treatment¹ (and demolishing) of “justified true belief” (JTB) as the most workable definition of knowledge. Although Bertrand Russell’s famous “stopped clock” though experiment had presaged this 1960s epistemological storm, Gettier’s (and Quine’s) later and extremely thoroughgoing analysis still holds up reasonably well fifty years on.

    An appreciation of knowledge as JTB (or indeed not) construes the kernel of all problems which beset any serious discourse on “pseudoscience and assorted woo”. An appreciation of Popperian falsifability has as a prerequisite the proper understanding of what knowledge actually might be.

    All of this, of course, must be in place long before Machian considerations of inertial frames of reference, Poincaré’s conjecture, Penrose’s hyperbolic geometric treatment of the implications of 2-spinors (three random exemplars there) can begin to be entertained. Nothing meaningful can begin to be contemplated without first appreciating the most basic nature, at least structure, of knowledge itself. The residue of stubborn attempts to do otherwise is often messy, and frequently invokes dangerously silly belief systems – some of which prove remarkably durable!

    ¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettier problem

  12. Are you cunting:

    -people who dare to question the validity of science or dare to have an opposing view?

    -alternative medicine and holistic therapies?

    -blokes with a decent “bride frightener?

    If so, guilty in all three counts 😀

    • Exactly CG, I agree science is important and has helped progress the human race etc but the total reliance on science is a cunt.

  13. Interesting cunting TITS,
    I believe the Creator is the greatest mathematician, scientist and geometrist ever. Without the creator there wouldn’t be any science etc…I know you mentioned goat herders but a lot of ancient civilisation’s (Mayan, Aztecs and ancient Britons) knew more than we credit them for regarding the universe etc.
    May the Creator bless you all.

  14. The problem with the reliance on science is that the scientists can’t agree on much…take Covid for example and the mess we are now in.
    ‘We are following the science’ the politicians say yet it hasn’t done much good has it?
    Fuck the vaccine, as God blessed me with good looks and a 6’3 muscular physique and big cock and I’m 42 I’ll let my natural immune system take care of Coronavirus.
    Go fuck yourselves…with a bunson burner.

    • ‘I’ll let my natural immune system take care of Coronavirus.’

      I’ll wager the person that was in respiratory arrest and was RSI’d, yesterday felt pretty much the same thing.

      • How old was the unfortunate person you mentioned DCI Gene Cunt? Any medical conditions etc? there is a chance Covid could get me and I may have an underlying condition or a bad reaction to it.
        I could also get ran over by a bus tomorrow. When it’s our time to go it’s our time to go.
        Keep up your good work old chap. 👍🏽

    • That’s the spirit B&W👍

      I had a “thing” with a red headed lass, who ended up at UCL studying physics abs astrophysics.
      So yes, for a few months in 1989, I did fuck science. Three times a week😉👍

      • I’m on the look aaaaht for a red head CG…this overreaction to Covid 19 has totally messed up the social life. 😁

    • We are following the science’ the politicians say yet it hasn’t done much good has it?

      A. Most politicians abandoned the topic after Year 5 Nature Study. They don’t understand science in any meaningful sense, and, like the rest of the general public, will invariably cherrypick the bits they like and leave the difficult stuff and unpleasant conclusions alone.If ours had been following the science, they’d have sealed the borders as soon as the virus showed up. The science was well established by SARS 1, which we didn’t get thanks to some very fast responses (eg) by Canada.

      B. Big Black and White Cunt like you scared of a little prick*? PMSL. It isn’t just about you, though, is it? The science (established during hundreds of outbreaks of filthy diseases worldwide) says that if you can immunise a decent chunk of the population, the disease can’t spread. So fuck yourself with a sharp needle for the sake of the rest of the population before I call you a cunt.

      *in the arm…

      • I get your points Komodo and if the older and vulnerable members of society want the vaccine and need protecting then that’s fine by me.
        If they give it to the them and it builds up immunity like the flu jab then fine, however think if all the money it’ll save only having to vaccinate the vulnerable? Oh I forgot Matt Hancunt has ordered 100 million of the vaccine…enough for 50 million people so apart from children that’s enough for everyone…but not me.
        I don’t trust this vaccine, and I don’t trust the way it’s been rushed… who’s to say in 5 years healthy people who took the vaccine won’t start getting ill or develop immune system problems. I’ll stick with what nature gave me thanks.

      • The choice is rather simple.
        1. Immunise 70-80%, the virus dies out, job done
        2. Immunise only the vulnerable, the disease continues to circulate and kill, very likely mutating so that the original vaccine is ineffective. In any case immunity will wear off in (say) a year and you’re comitted to booster shots and preparing for lockdowns at the drop of an infected immigrant.
        I agree any untried remedy needs to be taken with caution. The cure is unlikely to be worse than the disease, though.

        Sorry, bad temper, arm still sore from ordinary flu jab yesterday.

      • This is the problem though Komodo, we are an open nation…we have thousands coming here everyday on business/holiday’s, ‘refugees’ etc. So unless the world is vaccinated then I don’t think it’ll work.

      • B&WC: You’re wasting your time mate. Anyone getting a flu jab is not going to respond to basic reason and logic on this. At that point they are beyond help because they believe in it too much.

    • “Go fuck yourselves…with a bunson burner.”

      Is that what Christianity has come to in 2020?

      Afternoon B&WC 😂

      • I am leading the fight back for Christianity RTCP, it’s like my own crusade. Even Dick Fiddler has been quoting the Bible lately, I know deep down you believe in the most high.
        May God bless you.

      • As a white male born in 1953 to industrious, responsible parents dahn the sarf of England, how could I not believe in His existence?

        Not sure about all this “love thy neighbour” and “turn the other cheek” guff though…

  15. I don’t bother with JRCALC anymore. I just ask Facebook and YouTube. Far more reliable than proven scientific medical evidence….

    • Aaah, Gene, you naughty man, you are using what Southpark called “The Chewbacca Defence”😄.

      Just because some scientific findings are irrefutable, does not mean ALL are 🤔

      • In order to refute a Youtube woo video all you have to do is make another Youtube video, and see if the number of ignorant cunts who Like it exceeds the number of ignorant cunts who Like the original. No evdidence or formal argument is required, but a clip of a cute kitten will shift the balance in your favour, perhaps.

        In order to refute a formal scientific finding, you need an alternative hypothesis and evidence (conforming to rigorous rules of validation) to support it. Feel free to offer yours.

      • I love cute kittens😍😍😍
        Other types of pussy , too🥳

        Q.E.D komodo👏👏👏

  16. I once knew a hippy type bird who insisted the world was flat and other such crackpot lunacy. Naturally, I nodded in agreement and said I believed it too. Reason being she was as fit as fuck and I wanted to get my end away.

      • Aye, I’d say it was worth it, CG. I can still see her bouncing about in a bikini as she attempted to walk across the rocky part of Blackpool beach.

      • Jesus-a bikini in Blas-Vegas? That’s one hardy lady👏

        -I had one of the best weeks of my life in Blackpool-with an absolutely gorgeous girl from Sheffield. Sigh😢
        -The other enduring memory was the stink of chip fat😂

    • I’d agree that Tony Blair was the Messiah if it got me a shag with a fit bird with massive knockers.

  17. Great cunting and some good replies….
    I must admit I do love a good conspiracy theory or bullshit story, even though I do know it’s all bollocks.
    My favourite has to be the Hindu gods…. fucking batshit crazy.
    The monkey god hanuan (or something) is my favourite.
    The god of wind fucked a monkey and their kid was half man half monkey. He can change size at will, fly, carry mountains and uses his burning tail to set fire to other people’s shit….
    Hard to believe that anyone could believe shite like this but I guess they are out there.

  18. Question for our esteemed science egg-heads:

    The Wuhan – vaccine.
    Vaccines use nano-particles of a form of aluminium, to bind to cells. These particles can and do get into the brain. And persist for decades.
    Aluminium has a proven link to neurological diseases like Altseimers.
    Therefore science proves that vaccines can be extremely dangerous to human health.
    Auto immune diseases are on the increase due to molecular mimicking.

    So are vaccines safe?

    • I am truly fucked, had an aluminium pressure cooker for years.

      I will take the risk of the vaccine over the risk of dying due to lack of O2 getting to my brain.

    • I hope this helps:

      You might have heard about a U.S. Food and Drug Administration imposed limit of 25 micrograms per day on aluminum. It’s worth noting that this number has to do with total parenteral nutrition (TPN) or feeding through an intravenous. We regularly consume much more aluminum than this in food or breast milk, and vaccines are not IVs. They are injections under the skin, not into the bloodstream. After several decades of use and study, there is no good reason to believe that the small doses of aluminum used in vaccines are dangerous.

      https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health/should-we-worry-about-metals-vaccines

      Therefore science proves that vaccines can be extremely dangerous to human health.

      It does no such thing. It asserts that there may be a connection. Though I daresay if you drank a couple of gallons of flu vaccine you might experience problems.

      Now if you’d told us that using aluminium cookware posed a risk to health, you’d be on safer ground.

    • By Mike Adams
      Global Research, May 31, 2020
      Natural News 20 April 2015
      Region: Europe
      Theme: Science and Medicine

      First published in April 2015. The H1N1 vaccine fiasco ordered by the (corrupt) WHO Director General is of relevance to the current debate on a COVID-19 vaccine.

      The 2009 swine flu vaccine caused severe brain damage in over 800 children across Europe, and the UK government has now agreed to pay $90 million in compensation to those victims as part of a vaccine injury settlement.
      This is the same swine flu vaccine that the entire mainstream media ridiculously insists never causes any harm whatsoever. From the quack science section of the Washington Post to the big pharma sellout pages of the New York Times, every U.S. mainstream media outlet exists in a state of total vaccine injury denialism, pushing toxic vaccines that provably harm children.
      “Across Europe, more than 800 children are so far known to have been made ill by the vaccine,” reports the International Business Times.
      The vaccine caused narcolepsy and cataplexy in hundreds of children. Both are signs of neurological damage caused by vaccine additives which include mercury, aluminum, MSG, antibiotics and even formaldehyde.

      After Bill Gates criticized the Trump administration’s decision to withhold funding to the World Health Organization, right-wing social media personality and America Firster Candace Owens accused Gates of being a “vaccine-criminal.” In a Facebook post on April 15th that has since generated 38,000 reactions and over 6,000 comments—as well as being shared more than 22,000 times—she elaborated:

      FACT: Bill and Melinda Gates, along with their partners at the World Health Organization have been unethically experimenting with non-FDA approved vaccines on African and Indian tribes for YEARS… As this information is getting out, Snopes has bent over backwards to try to say that it is technically false. It is not and it is easily researchable and verifiable. I suggest every single person take the time today to educate themselves and read this academic review on the long efforts Bill Gates and the World Health Organization have taken, under the guise of “philanthropy”, to develop and mandate worldwide vaccines.

      • Ah, Global Research. Old friends, strongly connected to such wholly independent outfits as Voltaire.net, Veterans Today, and Alabama Moon, as I remember. Check the connections. RT is another one. Lefties are very fond of GR for some reason.

        As of three years later, the jury was still out as to what had acrually caused the narcolepsy. And adjuvant? The same adjuvant had been used in another vaccine, without adverse effects.

        https://www.statnews.com/2018/07/05/flu-vaccine-2009-pandemic-narcolepsy/

        (Stat is as far as I can see a reputable outlet equally unbeholden to big pharma and Moscow)

        A complicated story. Far better to believe the unbiased Russian-backed outlets who will tell you it’s all the gummint’s fault .

      • I would genuinely like to know if there has ever been a treatment or vaccine that was developed in such a short space of time, so short that never mind long term side effects, even short to medium side effects cannot be determined? Then expect every person on earth to take it?
        Most things developed in a wartime scenario, which this feels like, are pressed into service, and are modified/refined during use as snags and limitations are identified, and I can guarantee this will be the story of these vaccines.
        I’m not going to mock, or slag off those that want to be first in the queue to have these vaccines, in fact I think a certain section of them are showing real balls for risking their lives to get them and the rest of humanity out of this mess, others will be taking it out of blind reliance of the word of their leaders.
        Personally, I’m going to leave it until it’s made so prohibitive to have any life whatsoever without being able to prove you’ve had it, which won’t be long.
        What price freedom?

      • I completely understand your POV, which is based on having informed yourself of the real risks. Even I’d be happier with the Oxford vaccine, which uses the same approach as the seasonal flu vaccine (which has a good safety record, but imperfect effectiveness) than with Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine, which is completely innovative and may have the potential (MAY! My opinion only! Not a fact!) for longterm problems.

  19. Do I need to know about ‘modern cladistic taxonomy’? No, I don’t think I’ll bother.
    Ignorance is bliss.

  20. “Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.”

    (Francis Vincent Zappa)

    Considering some of the above posts, I’m inclined to agree.

    • And I am inclined to agree with you RTC. Although to be honest, I haven’t understood about 99.9% of what people have written here.

      Perhaps we should have a separate cunting nomination for people who use excessively long-winded over-intellectual arguments to make themselves seem intelligent?

    • Also, Frank Zappa knew what he was talking about as he knew all about stupidity, he did call his children Moon Unit and Dweezil, after all!

      • They all appear to have thrived though. Probably because he brought them up to think for themselves and recognise bullshit when they heard or saw it.

  21. Dying of covid is in the dna my nan is 90 has angina and had COVID-19, still alive my son severe asthmatic got Covid-19, mild symptoms still alive , it’s the same with any illness some survive cancer , some die , luck off the draw

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