#pseudoscientific nonsense

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

#alternative medicine #pseudoscience #magician #con artist #pseudoscientific nonsense #religion is a mental illness

[exoflash]

the only thing that irritates me as badly as new agers is western christians trying to explain away the spiritual with pseudoscience

#brightts ramblings #religion #spirituality #someone i know believes that if your dna is wiped from existence my god it'll wipe people's memories #which is the moat pseudoscientific nonsense ive ever seen #AND TIED IT INTO SIMULATION THEIRY WITH #'well it's all a computer system run by god so it's like deleting a program' #EVEN DELETING A FILE LEAVES A TRACE UNTIL IT IS FULLY OVERWRITTEN WHICH CAN TAKE MULTIPLE FULL DRIVE WIPES #AND EVEN THEN. EVEN THEN DATA CAN BE FOUND #its like new age which puts so much focus on dna #like i do stay rational and believe everything should be approached from a scientific ANGLE #but you do not know everything. #you don't understand how sea creatures function why do you think you know #exactly how an almighty creator of the universe would wok #work*

[perdvivly]

Just got one person’s modus ponens is another person’s modus tollens-ed so hard it actually made my head spin a bit.

#you see if we throw out [bad hypothesis testing method] then we’d have to throw out [a bunch of pseudoscientific nonsense] #me nodding along like an absolute rube: yes. we would get to do that #them: an this shows that we obviously shouldn’t throw out [bad hypothesis testing method] >:) #me: *shocked pikachu face*

[linddzz]

Luckily the "what if the SHARK impregnated our ray???" seems to be dying down and bigger news organizations have the corrected information in their articles, but I wanted to share this great blog post by marine conservation biologist David Shiffman that covers both the cool actual science that got overshadowed while actually calling out the facility for how unscientifically they handled it and for the fact that they doubled down (esp since newer media they've put out is softly backtracking and it looks like they're attempting to play it off as a joke that the news misreported. Nope. They put the idea out there like it was as possible as parthenogenesis while calling themselves scientists at a "shark lab")

From the conclusion:

Unfortunately, poor handling of this story has made it likely that we are on track for another year where the most-shared news story about a shark or ray is pseudoscientific nonsense, rather than about their dire conservation needs, their importance to marine and coastal ecosystems, or amazing new discoveries about them. As a longtime supporter of zoos and aquariums and the roles they play in public science education, I am especially troubled by some of the public-facing communications here. If your goal is sharing knowledge with the public, there’s value in gaining accurate knowledge about the subject yourself first. Sharing wrong facts is not “raising awareness” or educating the public, and falsely claiming “anything is possible, don’t trust the experts” is, to put it mildly, not helping the ocean.

It's a great article to drop in if the "omg shark/ray babies???" keeps spreading. Or if you just enjoy niche science drama. The aquarium world doesn't get much of that

#to call them out even harder than the article does: it wasnt a random staff at the facility it was the founder/ceo/curator who owns it #which im fine saying bc she kept signing her full ass name to every statement #and to her double down post thats linked in the article #marine biology #marine life #science education #idk i care a lot about a place calling itself a science center being so fucking bad at it #i guess the aquarium world doesnt need to deal with 'roadside zoo' level nonsense #so now that something like it came up people doing the YOURE NOT AFFILIATED WITH ME

[churchofthecomet]

gamers, the target audience of this post is roughly zero people. but in case you're one of those zero people, you should know:

Neurolinguistic programming (NLP), the psychological manipulation technique that Sophie Devereaux claims to use on Leverage, doesn't actually work. It's a discredited/pseudoscientific branch of psychology that's only good for selling self-help books and sham therapies. The manipulation Sophie does with marks is more accurately called covert hypnosis or conversational hypnosis (since NLP is mainly used in pseudo-therapeutic environments -- taking it "on the street" is its own thing). It's slightly more controversial than therapeutic NLP, but it probably isn't effective either. See the Talk page for the covert hypnosis Wikipedia article since the article itself is being skewed by an NLP true believer.

What Sophie is doing is 10% blatant, obvious, simple manipulation that has little to do with NLP (eg acting really sexy about cars in s3e8) and 90% magic because she's on a TV show (eg implanting ideas about the guy's new password in s3e2).

Everyone's skills on this show are presented unrealistically. Hardison's hacking is completely nonsensical, and Eliot's victims routinely pass out for 5-10 minutes, but don't end up brain damaged or dead. I think Sophie's "skills" deserve a special mention because the idea of NLP is still being sold by actual con artists. If you give money to an NLP therapist, you'll at best see no change in your mental state, and at worst miss out on real life-saving treatment or end up in a cult.

#leverage #sophie devereaux

[breelandwalker]

Dear Conservatives, TERFS, and Other Fascists,

No amount of pearl-clutching, religious rhetoric, pseudoscientific nonsense, or sneering disapproval will extinguish queerness as a human phenomenon.

No amount of lobbying or legislation will stop children from being born who will turn out to be trans or nonbinary or genderqueer. No amount of abuse or prohibition from parents, schools, communities, or lawmakers will prevent the existence of queer children, teens, and adults.

No amount of suppressing discussion or expression of gender identity or queerness makes people less trans or less queer. All it does is hurt your children, the very people you claim to want to protect.

We have always existed. We will always exist. This is not a political statement - it is simple fact.

We are human beings with human rights and we do not require your approval.

Fuck you and the fascist circlejerk you rode in on.

Sincerely,

Queers Everywhere

#Human rights aren't a matter for political debate #That's why they're called RIGHTS

[nocturnowlette]

I don't know if this has been said before, but Everywhere at the End of Time is one of the most interesting examples of mass suggestibility and psychological priming that I've ever seen.

Some people seem to think that suggestions are only something that can be done with trance, but it's simply a core part of human communication. If you've ever gone into the comments of a youtube video that you liked and read a bunch of positive comments and left liking the video more after, you've been suggested.

If someone has ever anonymously insulted you and altered the way you saw yourself for a while, you've been suggested. If you've ever been a victim of losing "the game" or told your breathing is now manual, you've been suggested.

Suggesting someone is the mere act of summoning an idea in their mind that alters their behavior or perception. Even for a few particular series of hypnotic files, there seems to be intentional campaigns run to make them seem "dangerous" and "too effective" to plant the idea in the mind of anyone who listens to it.

In a weirdly similar sense, the buzz around Everywhere at the End of Time is essentially a self-sustaining feedback loop of suggestion. I am not saying that the album is not an experience or is without artistic merit or doesn't affect someone in any way, necessarily. However, I would be much more surprised if listening to repeated degrading loops of old music for 6 hours doesn't exhaust someone's brain.

The idea of it simulating dementia, however, is complete nonsense. I don't know where the idea started, but it seems to be in that perfect zone of "a little hard to believe, but easy to find 'proof' of as you listen". The moment someone finds themselves exahausted from hours of this album, find their brain challenged in a way it normally isn't, suddenly that seed of an idea planted in their head starts to sprout. And, as it continues and the concrete effects mix with the person's paranoia about the suggestion, it will eventually become as real as if it genuinely was. Over the course of 6 hours, at least.

And, once this "effect" was observed enough, it was given cultural legitimacy through personal testimony en masse and pseudoscientific "video essayists" trying to find these magical elements that simulate fuckin dementia. It's so fascinating to see happen in real time, and an interesting isolated example of how an idea can affect not just persons, but people.

Luckily for us, suggestions have a tendency to fade. Your breathing went back automatic again, after all.

#owlette #hypnosis #suggestion #everywhere at the end of time #eateot #music #the caretaker #sociology

[foone]

History of the IBM PC's expansion bus, 1981-2023:

1981: 8bit ISA

1984: 16bit ISA

1987: MCA

1988: EISA

1992: VLB

1992: PCI

1997: PSEUDOSCIENTIFIC TRANSPHOBIC NONSENSE

1998: PCI-X

2003: PCI Express

2013: M.2

#trans shitposting

[booksandwitchery]

Stigmatization of the "Witch" and the Atrophy of Magickal Abilities

Folks seemed to like my post about demystifying the term “energy” in the witchcraft sphere, and that’s really cool because I think this topic is both interesting and important. Since I’m very much in the broom closet, it means a lot that we have an online space to celebrate each other’s esoteric ideas.

I’ve been thinking more deeply about the stereotypes surrounding witch culture. I wonder how many people out there are, for all intents and purposes, living the witch lifestyle but calling it by a different name. There is so much overlap between witchcraft and many different belief systems (Eastern especially), which is why witchcraft can be practiced regardless of one’s religion or lack thereof. But this stigma of the witch as problematic, kooky, evil, or otherwise unwholesome must leave people (including the witches by another name) with so many feelings or beliefs that go unvalidated.

Perhaps a middle-aged biology professor rejects the existence of gods but feels spiritual about morning dew on leaves, or freshly fallen snow. He doesn’t give himself permission to consider adopting a spiritual practice of any kind because in his social circles, any ritualistic praxis is equated either with theism or pseudoscientific mysticism. A church-going mother of three is drawn to divination or aligning her life with the phases of the moon but is ashamed because she’s been told her whole life that occult or pagan practices are wrong. A young adult recovering from the psychological damage of a strict religious upbringing closes herself to any ritualistic practice because society has conditioned her to equate ritualism and spirituality with deity worship or mystical nonsense.

It's no wonder so many of us feel lost! I want to give all these hypothetical people a big hug and tell them that what they’ve been told is just flat wrong.  In the book The Power of Ritual, Casper ter Kuile remarks that ritual practices have become too tied up with bits of religious culture—that “institutions have turned mysteries into dogmas” and “the interlocking systems of oppression depend on our feeling alone and ashamed.”

I think that this is the very reason why humans have grown estranged from their own psychic and magickal capacities; like a muscle, these abilities atrophy when they go unused. Consequently, we lack even the ability to conceptualize and describe many valid facets of our own existence. I hope that someday, as a result of my own path, I can help people to strengthen these muscles and connect more deeply with the world.

#paganism #witchcraft #witch #just witchy things #pagan #neopaganism #secular witchcraft #witches of tumblr #ritual #occultism #occult #sass witchcraft #chaos magick #magick #witchblr #witch community #as above so below #witchy #spilled ink #spilled thoughts #spilled words #women writers #writers of tumblr #litblr

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Weapons-grade stupid.

#germ theory #terrain model #virology #science denial #science denialism #toxicity #detox #bioresonance #pseudoscience #pseudoscientific nonsense #pseudoscience vs science #science vs pseudoscience #science #medicine #alternative medicine #quackery #energetic resonance #religion is a mental illness

[natalieironside]

The thing about anecdotal evidence is that back in like late high school / early college I got briefly into bodybuilding and I tried out the paleo diet for as long as funds allowed and it was amazing, I had never felt better or had more energy or relished the experience of eating and being full more than that, I lost fat and gained muscle and it just generally worked as advertised. Then I returned to society and tried to tell people about it and they were like "Wtf that's literally pseudoscientific nonsense on par with crystal healing and homeopathy. What are you even talking about?" And I was so baffled because, y'know, things seem to be going very well on my end.

Anyways can you guess who had like the worst digestive problems going diagnosed and untreated during most of her youth? That's right, it was me.

[johannestevans]

bigots that say T is a rage hormone, that it makes you violent, angry, uncontrollably horny - yes, this is very harmful to trans people and is used to argue against our transition or imply we're dangerous

but it highlights toxic cisgender ideology

when cis people say that T makes you angry or violent, when they say that testosterone is the cause of physical or sexual violence

they are saying that when cisgender men are violent, they can't control it. they are saying cis men are inherently violent, and cannot be blamed

this is an argument cisgender people use constantly to further their rape culture and rape apologism. by saying that cisgender men "can't help themselves", similarly to when they use their pro-paedophilia talking points about how teenage girls are sexier than adult women

they are going "you cannot hold cis men accountible for their violent actions. it is not a choice when cis men harm others, when cishet men harm women, when they rape or assault others, it's not their fault! they're just helpess victims of their own hormones!"

and this is a lie. it is not just a choice to rape or physically harm another person - it is a series of choices, all of them choices to harm and violate another person. it is a choice when they refuse to communicate or ignore refusals and rejections.

testosterone does not make someone a less able communicator, it does not make you uncontrollably angry or uncontrollably horny. cisgender men do not punch walls because they have T-based systems. they do it because they refuse to learn other emotional regulation coping mechanisms

cisgender men do not destroy objects or smash things because they cannot control their feelings. they do so to intimidate and frighten others around them, or again, bc they refuse to learn other coping mechanisms

and it's noteworthy that arguments about T are frequently highly racialised as well, and that people's pseudoscientific points about how testosterone is the Aggression hormone often coincide w nonsense about how Black people are hypermasculine etc

like this assertion that T is the violence hormone, coinciding with "oh, Black men are more masculine, therefore angrier and more aggressive than white guys" or any similar ideological talking points are using pseudoscience to justify white supremacy

bc binary cisgender ideology is part of white supremacist thought - the construction and policing of bioessentialist binary sex fictions are in the same boat as the "science" of race and those white supremacist ideologies

#musings

[olivescales3]

🔥 worldbuilding element you love and/or hate >:3

Thank you mutual for the ask!

Tumblr removed the access to edit drafts of asks... So whatever I wrote beforehand will be in a screenshot, sorry about that!

Laval and Cragger's actions here were pretty disgusting as they took advantage of Reegul's deformity to make fun of him and even almost kill him.

I'll also point out that, in addition to Reegul's deformity, he also mutilated himself to look like he belonged to the Raven Tribe.

However, this is the only canon case of hybridization. Other hybrids (e.g. Lion x Crocodile, or Rhino x Eagle) would, in theory, result in stillborns.

Lavertus' relationship with Crunket would eventually cause the fall of the Crocodile Tribe, as Crunket was the queen of the Crocodile Tribe, not just mere royalty. Without heirs, because Lavertus was in the way (due to them not being able to hybridize, and if they were able to, there would be ethical issues), there would no longer be a Crocodile Tribe unless another royal family took power, and Crominus did just that.

Not saying that Crominus was right, but Lavertus wasn't right either. He was placing the Crocodile Tribe's existence in jeopardy, whether in politics (fight between crocodiles and lions) or just descendance overall.

Note that Cragger kept a grudge against Lavertus too. Well, him knowing that Lavertus could've made him not be born is upsetting enough. IIRC, Cragger made a backhanded joke with Lavertus' catchphrase, after the lion had rescued him and the MCs; something along the lines of "I'm grateful for your help! Or... Am I?" and Lavertus didn't laugh. I couldn't find a transcript for this though, but istg it was on the episode A Phoenix Has Landed.

Sir Fangar also flinched at the idea of thinking that Li'ella was beautiful, simply because she was from another tribe.

I also can't stop laughing at the idea that someone literally called Sir Fangar a pedo, when he clearly stated that he didn't remember her "Did I, what? No! Of course not!". He's just being delusional, and it's obvious by the way he speaks.

Outside of hybridization ethics, interpreting different species of animals as human races is icky at best... because pseudoscientific racism is a thing, y'know, the scientifically disowned theory of human ethnicities being each their own sub-species with their own traits... 😐

Something that I love about Chima's worldbuilding is that the Phoenixes made Chi and shaped Chima for the post-Illumination tribes.

Chi means god in igbo; Chima means "god knows it all" in igbo; Chi means knowledge in japanese; Chi means water and source of life in chinese; shima (with an s) means island in japanese. How cool is that?

Something that I despise in Chima's worldbuilding, however, is the persuader plant. It should simply not exist. It's lazy, unintuitive, and it erases a lot of coherence that ties character arcs and plot together. The dream sequences were also pretty out of place too.

Oh! Also! Eris is hinted to be a Phoenix, but not only is this something shoehorned and nonsensical, but it's also pretty weird, since Eris was supposed to be Flinx' mother, FLUMINOX' WIFE! Fluminox keeps hitting on her (praising her for having the soul of a Phoenix I guess) and it's pretty creepy. Her season 3 dream sequences are also lazy exposition too.

This has a lot of stuff going on. I hope I don't kindle some Chima fandom war or something. Ninjago's entire existence is already enough lol

#lego chima #lego legends of chima #legends of chima #writerblr #writers #writers of tumblr #writing #writeblr #lego #ask #asks #ask answered #ask anything #worldbuilding #answered asks

[incorrectmahabharatquotes]

don't post this if you don't want the drama, but if you're curious its a user called vindhyavasini who is defending it on their blog. they aren't actively telling people to drink it true, but they are defending it with lots of scientific misinformation and links to shady articles

Thanks, anon, for telling me the context behind this. I found the post you were referring to and it indeed has a ton of scientific misinformation in it. I understand that they're not telling people to drink it, which is good. However, they're still spreading around harmful pseudoscientific nonsense which is pretty bad. I don't know why people can't just research on their own and find out what's actually supported by science and actual clinical trials.

Can you believe I had to respond to this because the mods with actual science and medical degrees saw the gaumutra post and got a headache so bad that their brains shut down just to process the amount of misinformation?

PSA: Don't use cow urine/gaumutra as a medicine or drink it for shits and giggles. You literally risk dying from that. Don't do it. Rigorously fact check any farfetched and ridiculous claims you see.

-Mod S

#mod replies #ask reply #asks #mod: s

[creature-wizard]

In which a fake ex-Illuminati programmer makes up some weird shit about cult programming

Hey folks! Have you heard terms like "jewel programming," "metal programming," or "color programming"? Did you hear about an evil cult that intentionally induces dissociative identity disorder in people in order to control them? Did you know that all of this traces back to woman who claimed to be a former member of a global Satanic conspiracy, whose story followed the template laid out by known frauds like Mike Warnke and whose claims about the Illuminati are just repackaged antisemitism?

Over here I discussed the first three chapters in an e-book that supposedly details the activities and methods of this cult. Now I'm moving on to chapter four, where she describes the supposed methods the Illuminati uses to begin the programming process.

Svali's obsession with the idea of early training gets even weirder. Now she's claiming that the Illuminati gives DID to unborn babies in the 7th-9th month of pregnancy:

Techniques used include: placing headphones on the mother's abdomen, and playing loud, discordant music (such as some modern classical pieces, or even Wagner's operas). Loud, heavy rock has also been used. Other methods include having the mother ingest quantities of bitter substances, to make the amniotic fluid bitter, or yelling at the fetus inside the womb. The mother's abdomen may be hit as well. Mild shock to the abdomen may be applied, especially when term is near, and may be used to cause premature labor, or ensure that the infant is born on a ceremonial holiday.

She claims that trainers look for signs of dissociative ability in newborn babies, and will subject the infant to various abuses to induce fragmentation. And like... y'know, maybe the kinds of abuses she describes might induce dissociation and DID, but let's be real - these are not guaranteed results. However, the kinds of abuses she describes would certainly give a lot of kids issues so severe that you have to ask yourself how the hell it could possibly be worth it.

But the thing is, Svali's comprehension of trauma and DID are cartoonishly pseudoscientific. She essentially sees them as a brutal, yet efficient means to an end. Because alters don't always share memories, then this is clearly a perfect means for a global satanic cult to keep itself hidden. There's simply no awareness of other trauma-related disorders or common co-morbidities with DID. The fact that severe trauma tends to damage's a child's ability to learn skills and retain information, and therefore undermines her claim that all these kids are groomed into various forms of hypercompetence, doesn't seem to occur to her.

For Svali, DID appears to be a plot device, nothing more.

In chapter five, Svali begins to describe color, metal, and jewel programming. Supposedly, colors are associated with different alters, while metals and gems are awarded upon certain achievements - for example:

Emerald will often come later (ages 12 to 15). This is considered very precious, and is linked to family loyalty, witchcraft, and spiritual achievement. Emeralds will often have a black cat, or "familiar" linked to them.

In chapter five, Svali claims that the Illuminati also uses brain wave programming, which entails "having a young child go into a deep trance state, where they then learn to dissociate into a certain brain wave pattern." Supposedly, trainers give children hypnotic drugs and monitor their brainwaves. This only makes sense if you, like Svali, think that DID is the perfect cover for a global satanic conspiracy. Otherwise, it looks like a bunch of overcomplicated nonsense in a quest for questionable results.

Different brainwave states (alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, and phi/theta/omega) are associated with different skills/behaviors, which are mostly unrelated to what we actually know about brainwaves. For example, Svali claims that:

Delta: this is one of the more cognitive brain wave states, and will often be highly dissociated. It may also be the "ruling" or controlling state over the other brain wave systems.

In reality, delta waves are associated with deep sleep - the exact opposite of "cognitive."

In chapter seven, she claims that children undergo "military programming" from age three, and are gradually taught to kill actual people. And in this chapter, we can see another problem with Svali's claims emerge - she describes an Illuminati that is fatally self-defeating:

Exercises for older youth will include games where groups compete against each other, and the older teen leads, with the help of an adult advisor. Groups that win are rewarded, groups that lose are punished. The youth are taught to leave behind the weak, or slow members. Unfit members are shot or killed, and the youth leader learns to do these tasks.

Meanwhile, the actual military does not work like this, because this is a really fucking bad way to operate. You know what does work this way, though? Shitty fiction written by edgelords.

In chapter eight, Svali claims that some children are given CIA programming, where they basically learn spy shit, and all that photographic memory stuff. (Reminder that there is no evidence that photographic memory is even real, much less that it can be trained through the kinds of abusive methods Svali describes.)

And here we can see that Svali gets at least some of her ideas of what spies do from pop fiction:

An older youth, or adult, will also be taught not only how to lure a target into bed, but later how to kill them, if they are an assassination target, while they are asleep or relaxing after sexual relations.

And then it gets even weirder with:

Often, before an assignment for an assassination, the cult member will be indoctrinated with reasons why killing the victim is a service to humanity. They will be lied to and told that they are the head of a porno ring, a pedophile, or a brutal villain. This will engage the assassin's natural anger towards the person, and will motivate them, while helping to overcome their natural moral reluctance and guilt at killing a human being.

But... wait, Svali, aren't you contradicting yourself? Didn't you just claim that the Illuminati was pro-all-of-that shit? Didn't you claim that CSEM was "big business" in the Illuminati? Haven't you been claiming that brutality is just normal training methods here? Why would someone programmed to see these things as normal and good have a reaction like this?

And then she claims that there's governmental programming, where people are trained to get into government for the purpose of overthrowing it. She claims that they infiltrate and subvert both local and national government, and support whoever's sympathetic to the Illuminati.

Next she claims that there's scholarship programming, where children are taught ancient history, languages, and all the stuff a scary world dominating satanic cult would want to learn about, I guess.

With that done, I think this is a good time to end the post. In the next chapter, Svali's going to start talking about the alleged satanic purposes of one of Evangelical Christendom's favorite boogeymen: Hollywood movies.

#svali #satanic panic #sra #satanic ritual abuse #conspiracy theorists #conspiracy theories #conspiracism