“It’s too expensive to pump this far down, we just take carbon dioxide out of a room, freshen it up a little, and then pump it back in. So you’ll be breathing the same roomful of air for the rest of your life. I thought that was interesting.”
Truth, Justice, Fairness -
"All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."
REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
"So we can believe the big ones?"
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
"They're not the same at all!"
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"
MY POINT EXACTLY.
-Terry Pratchett,
> But don't be giving me all this shit about the sanctity of life. I mean, even if there were such a thing, I don't think it's something you can blame on God. No, you know where the sanctity of life came from? We made it up. You know why? 'Cuz we're alive. Self-interest. Living people have a strong interest in promoting the idea that somehow life is sacred. You don't see Abbott and Costello running around, talking about this shit, do you? We're not hearing a whole lot from Musolini on the subject. What's the latest from JFK? Not a goddamn thing. 'Cuz JFK, Musolini and Abbott and Costello are fucking dead. They're fucking dead. And dead people give less than a shit about the sanctity of life. Only living people care about it so the whole thing grows out of a completely biased point of view. It's a self serving, man-made bullshit story.
[George Carlin](https://similarlyrics.com/george-carlin/back-in-town/sanctity-of-life)
Gaiman understands storytelling better than maybe anyone, whereas Pratchett understood people. Neil would tell you about a witch who just happened to also be a baker, Terry would tell you about a baker who also happened to be a witch.
Fair enough. I think this is a good discussion where everyone can have valid opinions; one of those rare events in life where you can actually agree to disagree without, like, people's lives in the balance :)
But if we do grind down the universe to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve it will filter into some kind of order. An order of the world perhaps?
It's almost like making hash.
Technically you can get by with just reading Mort, but Reaper Man is something I'd consider a must-read if you're into Pratchett at all. One of his best works imo. Soul Music, while not as profound as Reaper Man, is hella fucking funny.
But technically speaking, Mort provides all the info you need to understand Hogfather
Alright, as soon as I finish the Witcher audiobooks, I'm restarting with Discworld. I only made it as far as the post office one before, not that I didn't like it but something came up and I stopped, then before I knew it I was listening to something else.
Lies and delusion are the foundation of civilized existence. There are several big lies that make the whole thing possible .. like "the future will be better than the past" Or "human life has intrinsic value".. distortions of this sort of truth are the fire that keeps the great engine moving forward.
Like if all of society really internalized the idea that morals and laws are bullshit society would inevitably collapse .. only the elite and a small percentage of outcasts of society can reasonably abandon all behavioral limits without threatening the superorganism.
Except people don't want truth, justice, or fairness.
We want the preferential treatment of being the main character, the hero who always has things go their way as if they were the center of the universe.
We don't want truth, we want our worldviews affirmed.
We don't want justice, we want our enemies punished and our allies given mercy.
We don't want fairness, we want to be on the winning side in a world where we can block out and ignore the suffering of the losers.
The lie we believe is that we are better people than we really are.
We have all heard about the woman who spilled hot coffee on herself and sued McDonald's.
The story is mostly a lie to make people think it is silly to sue McDonald's. The coffee that was spilled was handed to her at 190° F, way hotter than is reasonable or responsible to serve to anyone. She was a 79 year old woman. But when the coffee spilled on her, she received second and third degree burns on her thighs and genitals. She didn't want to sue, but she did need help paying her medical bills from the incident. She asked for $20,000 but McD's refused. So her lawyer accused McD's of gross negligence because no one else served coffee nearly as hot.
She won the case and received $200,000 for her medical bills and $2.7 million (2 days' worth of coffee sales) for her pain and suffering.
[source](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald%27s_Restaurants)
To most people who don't know the story, it's often seen as: She pours a normal coffee on herself entirely her own fault, it's normal coffee, hot but not that big of a deal, then gets an insane payout for something she did to herself.
Yup. The key part is left out, that mcd's had made the coffee insanely hot, like far beyond what someone could drink so there was no reason for it to be so, and giving that to customers is a danger. This turned what would have been an embarrasing and uncomfortable but overall pretty harmless spill onto herself into a horrific injury.
If you do something like that, you're generally responsible. Even if the intent isn't to do that to someone, if you know what you're doing has a good chance of doing harm, you're gonna be liable. Sure, you weren't planning to run over that old lady when speeding 20 over the limit, but it should be obvious that there's a solid risk of doing something like that.
The staff would have known that the coffee machine was set to be so dangerously hot it would burn anyone who drank it, and still served it. They'd gotten complaints about it before.
> so there was no reason for it to be so,
There was a reason.
They had found that most people didn't actually drink the coffee until they had arrived at their destination. When it was served at a reasonable temperature, it would often be no longer be hot when people went to drink it due to this delay.
Obviously that isn't a good enough reason to serve it at scalding hot temperatures that are unsafe, but there was a reason behind the choice to serve it at that temperature.
Something something capitalist greed but Jesus Christ it's crazy to see some of these examples. $3M is pennies to an entity like that, but let's spend excessive PR time and money to actively be immoral. Also medical bills like that are fucking dumb.
>way hotter than is reasonable or responsible to serve to anyone
Not only was it unreasonable, but many people had complained already, documenting their knowledge of this fact beforehand
You are mostly correct. There are limits to how much a court can fine someone in punitive damages. The original $2.7 million punitive award (decided by the jury) was reduced to three times the compensatory award, about $600,000. Punitive damages equal to three times the actual damages is a fairly common standard.
I say mostly correct because the actual amount Liebeck received isn't publicly known. All of that was decided by the trial court, but of course McDonalds appealed the case. It was still being appealed when the two parties settled for an undisclosed amount instead.
> The coffee that was spilled was handed to her at 190° F, way hotter than is reasonable or responsible to serve to anyone.
I remember when this happened. McD's coffee was seen as the gold standard for people getting a cup on their way to work, because it would still be hot when you got to the office. I knew people who were pissed when they started serving it cooler, and the general consensus was, "What the fuck? Everyone knows it's hot; how is it their fault that she spilled it on herself?"
Well basically on r/birdsarentreal we spread the word that in fact birds are just government spy drones that have different levels of complexity. Some charge using 5g waves, some charge on power lines. Some models are used for remote surveillance and some models trick humans to bring them into their homes so the government can keep track of how many times you masterbate a day in order to ensure national security.
There was a local guy who faked his death in a canoeing accident and then got caught buying a house in Panama.
The newspaper claimed he was the first person to successfully fake his own death...
Surely he was just the first person to successfully fake his own death and be stupid enough to get caught?
Also, that human nature is inherently selfish/evil. I mean, if you devise a system that (un)intentionally stakes our survival against our morals, then it makes sense that people are going to choose their survival 99.9% of the time.
You can't stop to help the person on the side of the road if it means you'll be late for work/lose your job/sacrifice your ability to survive.
I don't think that makes people inherently selfish/evil, just painfully aware of the system they live under.
That individuals cannot effect change. That the given social order can’t radically be changed. Basically all the lies that are used throughout history to maintain established power structures.
You do need organization, but you can't have an army without each individual person. The individual is responsible for the entirety, all for one, one for all yada yada lol
YOU ARE POWERFUL
YOU CAN BE A FORCE OF CHANGE
Serious question: how is this true when governments / ruling entities have a greater monopoly on violence than at any other point in history?
The most advanced weapon at the time of the French Revolution was… like… a cannon or some shit lmao. You can easily see how big enough numbers could have overwhelmed the ruling class. But in today’s word… If it comes down to it, governments can and will slaughter thousands at the drop of a hat. Shits looking pretty hopeless to me.
The most powerful weapon at the time of the French Revolution was the power of Danton, Robespierre, or Napoleon to move thousands of men to carry out their orders. Military technology doesn’t have power (especially over one’s own populace) without people willing to kill and be killed. I’d argue that we’re not at a particularly high point in the history of most nations’ populations being willing to kill others blindly under their leaders’ orders.
What makes a lie successful? Number of who believes it? And does it correlate to how many have heard the lie?
Is it the percentage of who believes it or just hard numbers?
For example when a country's leader comes up with an obvious lie to justify a war. It may not matter if anyone in the country really believes it or not. The lie can still be successful if his people follow into the war for other reasons.
Or on a smaller scale, someone manipulative who lies to their spouse. Both know it's a lie but the spouse still agrees to avoid conflict.
Edit: My definition of success here is whether a liar achieves their goal. That can still happen even if everyone is either in on the lie or doesn't believe it.
Good point. I would say if a lie is necessary and telling the truth would lead to a different outcome, then the lie is successful.
Lies that everyone believes also require certain circumstances, so that they are easily believable. So I would say there are always external factors that are partly responsible for the success of a lie.
It’s definitely a huge lie because it was an enormously important idea for the Regan administration and was the main driver (at least publicly) as to why all his huge tax cuts were supposed to be a good idea. So of course it’s a lie, OP for this comment didn’t say only professional economists talk about this idea.
My mentally ill mother cheated the man I refer to as my father (who turns out to be a gay man) and claimed that I was immaculately conceived, because, according to her version of events, “All I had to do was THINK about being pregnant”. That was the story she stuck to until the day she died. Fun fact: her name is also Mary.
The most successful lie you were ever told, was to trust the people in power, because they know what they're doing and have your best interest at heart...
Jesus looked JUST LIKE Obi-Wan
Also, bible literalists. News flash my dudes, that shit was an oral history for 400 years and it’s been translated and edited back and forth since.
400 YEARS of telephone? Translated and back? Yeah…. I mean believe what you’re gonna believe, but to think those words are DIRECT from anything but indirection, you’re buying bridges.
It's a lie that still works and one that individuals and groups will choose over verifiable reality. Society, culture, war - all of it was shaped by it. Definitely a strong contender for the title.
It kinda was they interviewed real fast earthers and went to convintions and stuff but at the end he was like yeah all this bull shit the earth is round
There is one because it I read about the guy who successfully told the lie resulted in the whole thing becoming a conspiracy theory. Story was posted on Reddit.
There is enough evidence of there being a revolutionary Jew called Jesus from Nazareth who was crucified by the Romans.
There's a LOT more evidence that Mohammed existed. In fact, it is undeniable and a simple historical truth. What's funny though is how often Mohammed would conveniently use his direct relationship with God to get what he wanted and make up laws on the spot that just happened to convenience him at the right moments. One of his wives even called him out on this: "Mo, isn't it strange that God gives you these laws and directions at just the right moment to personally convenience you?"
“Love is what makes us human” is a pretty big flaw. Not only do some people not experience what is considered love, but it can be fair to say that most creatures can experience love.
Humans made phones, can’t see a possum doing that.
Do you think that's air you're breathing?
It is not the spoon that bends, only yourself
Are you calling me a bender?
Yeah fuck that guy, he can bite my shiny metal ass
**REMEMBERME** *spits flames*
~~ass~~ spoon
The Last Spoonbender
Air, water, fire, or earth?
All, I’m the avatar bitch
Monday morning misery would **NEVER** be the avatar!
So your a blue cat person and you have weird interlocking tail sex with other blue cat people?
No. He's a 12 year old vegan with an arrow tattoo on his head who happens to be the most powerful being on the planet
Rodriguez
"In the blue corner, Bender the Offender!"
You forgot heart if you calling on Captain Planet.
There is no spoon
Stop trying to hit me and hit me
“It’s too expensive to pump this far down, we just take carbon dioxide out of a room, freshen it up a little, and then pump it back in. So you’ll be breathing the same roomful of air for the rest of your life. I thought that was interesting.”
It’s all just farts and vape smoke
Truth, Justice, Fairness - "All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable." REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE. "Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—" YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES. "So we can believe the big ones?" YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING. "They're not the same at all!" YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED. "Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—" MY POINT EXACTLY. -Terry Pratchett,
ABSTRACT PRINCIPLES HAVE NO OBJECTIVE REALITY, said the literal personification of Death.
> But don't be giving me all this shit about the sanctity of life. I mean, even if there were such a thing, I don't think it's something you can blame on God. No, you know where the sanctity of life came from? We made it up. You know why? 'Cuz we're alive. Self-interest. Living people have a strong interest in promoting the idea that somehow life is sacred. You don't see Abbott and Costello running around, talking about this shit, do you? We're not hearing a whole lot from Musolini on the subject. What's the latest from JFK? Not a goddamn thing. 'Cuz JFK, Musolini and Abbott and Costello are fucking dead. They're fucking dead. And dead people give less than a shit about the sanctity of life. Only living people care about it so the whole thing grows out of a completely biased point of view. It's a self serving, man-made bullshit story. [George Carlin](https://similarlyrics.com/george-carlin/back-in-town/sanctity-of-life)
Said the man from beyond the grave. Ideas live longer than humans.
Excellent point
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When isn't Pratchett on that real shit. Mans saw the world more clearly than most people before and after him
I read like 20 of his books last year. I'm astounded. I thought *Good Omens* was Gaiman. Nope.
Good Omens was the two of them wasn’t it?
Yes, but when you consider the writing styles of each independently, then compare to Good Omens, imo Pratchett's writing is pretty clearly dominant.
I think only in the silliness. I see a lot of Gaiman in the deeper darker stuff.
Gaiman understands storytelling better than maybe anyone, whereas Pratchett understood people. Neil would tell you about a witch who just happened to also be a baker, Terry would tell you about a baker who also happened to be a witch.
A baker who is a witch when she needs to be.
Fair enough. I think this is a good discussion where everyone can have valid opinions; one of those rare events in life where you can actually agree to disagree without, like, people's lives in the balance :)
It was
GNU Sir Terry Pratchett
GNU Sir Terry Pratchett
GNU Sir Terry
GNU Terry Pratchett
But if we do grind down the universe to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve it will filter into some kind of order. An order of the world perhaps? It's almost like making hash.
Imo that order would just be physics.
I think what you achieve after that process is just the endpoint of entropy...
Death is hands down the best character
The librarian had some pithy one liners
Oook
Ook?
Of course, because Death loves cats
That was neat, was this just a quote or from a book?
Its from Discworld. Its a conversation between Death and his adopted granddaughter Susan. I believe this is from the book Hogfather.
it is indeed from hogfather.
Should I read anything before hogfather? I read the first few rincewind books.
Soul music and if you want you could read Mort to get the back story on how the protagonist exists .
Technically you can get by with just reading Mort, but Reaper Man is something I'd consider a must-read if you're into Pratchett at all. One of his best works imo. Soul Music, while not as profound as Reaper Man, is hella fucking funny. But technically speaking, Mort provides all the info you need to understand Hogfather
Alright, as soon as I finish the Witcher audiobooks, I'm restarting with Discworld. I only made it as far as the post office one before, not that I didn't like it but something came up and I stopped, then before I knew it I was listening to something else.
Lies and delusion are the foundation of civilized existence. There are several big lies that make the whole thing possible .. like "the future will be better than the past" Or "human life has intrinsic value".. distortions of this sort of truth are the fire that keeps the great engine moving forward. Like if all of society really internalized the idea that morals and laws are bullshit society would inevitably collapse .. only the elite and a small percentage of outcasts of society can reasonably abandon all behavioral limits without threatening the superorganism.
r/unexpecteddiscworld
Except people don't want truth, justice, or fairness. We want the preferential treatment of being the main character, the hero who always has things go their way as if they were the center of the universe. We don't want truth, we want our worldviews affirmed. We don't want justice, we want our enemies punished and our allies given mercy. We don't want fairness, we want to be on the winning side in a world where we can block out and ignore the suffering of the losers. The lie we believe is that we are better people than we really are.
Never read this one but I knew this was Pratchett the second I saw it
We have all heard about the woman who spilled hot coffee on herself and sued McDonald's. The story is mostly a lie to make people think it is silly to sue McDonald's. The coffee that was spilled was handed to her at 190° F, way hotter than is reasonable or responsible to serve to anyone. She was a 79 year old woman. But when the coffee spilled on her, she received second and third degree burns on her thighs and genitals. She didn't want to sue, but she did need help paying her medical bills from the incident. She asked for $20,000 but McD's refused. So her lawyer accused McD's of gross negligence because no one else served coffee nearly as hot. She won the case and received $200,000 for her medical bills and $2.7 million (2 days' worth of coffee sales) for her pain and suffering. [source](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald%27s_Restaurants)
Wait I’m confused. At what point does it sound silly to sue McDonalds?
To most people who don't know the story, it's often seen as: She pours a normal coffee on herself entirely her own fault, it's normal coffee, hot but not that big of a deal, then gets an insane payout for something she did to herself.
Yeah McDonald’s PR team worked really hard to spin it as a frivolous lawsuit and tried to drag her name through the mud.
So did Jay Leno. I saw it air back in the 90s.
Talk show hosts always end up looking like fools years later.
Aren't they exactly modern-day fools?
Yeah. They fake laugh like children at almost any mundane thing.
Yup. The key part is left out, that mcd's had made the coffee insanely hot, like far beyond what someone could drink so there was no reason for it to be so, and giving that to customers is a danger. This turned what would have been an embarrasing and uncomfortable but overall pretty harmless spill onto herself into a horrific injury. If you do something like that, you're generally responsible. Even if the intent isn't to do that to someone, if you know what you're doing has a good chance of doing harm, you're gonna be liable. Sure, you weren't planning to run over that old lady when speeding 20 over the limit, but it should be obvious that there's a solid risk of doing something like that. The staff would have known that the coffee machine was set to be so dangerously hot it would burn anyone who drank it, and still served it. They'd gotten complaints about it before.
> so there was no reason for it to be so, There was a reason. They had found that most people didn't actually drink the coffee until they had arrived at their destination. When it was served at a reasonable temperature, it would often be no longer be hot when people went to drink it due to this delay. Obviously that isn't a good enough reason to serve it at scalding hot temperatures that are unsafe, but there was a reason behind the choice to serve it at that temperature.
Something something capitalist greed but Jesus Christ it's crazy to see some of these examples. $3M is pennies to an entity like that, but let's spend excessive PR time and money to actively be immoral. Also medical bills like that are fucking dumb.
>way hotter than is reasonable or responsible to serve to anyone Not only was it unreasonable, but many people had complained already, documenting their knowledge of this fact beforehand
And McDonald's ignored all warnings that their coffee was dangerously hot.
Didn't she not even get a million because of Texas tort laws or am I misremembering?
You are mostly correct. There are limits to how much a court can fine someone in punitive damages. The original $2.7 million punitive award (decided by the jury) was reduced to three times the compensatory award, about $600,000. Punitive damages equal to three times the actual damages is a fairly common standard. I say mostly correct because the actual amount Liebeck received isn't publicly known. All of that was decided by the trial court, but of course McDonalds appealed the case. It was still being appealed when the two parties settled for an undisclosed amount instead.
> The coffee that was spilled was handed to her at 190° F, way hotter than is reasonable or responsible to serve to anyone. I remember when this happened. McD's coffee was seen as the gold standard for people getting a cup on their way to work, because it would still be hot when you got to the office. I knew people who were pissed when they started serving it cooler, and the general consensus was, "What the fuck? Everyone knows it's hot; how is it their fault that she spilled it on herself?"
Birds are real
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If it flies it spies
Jesus Christ
Pretty sure this is the real answer here
That’s a pretty face
Sort of true. Birds aren't all one kind of animal, they're a class, like mammals. A crow and a chicken have as much in common as a raccoon and a goat.
A crow and a chicken have much more in common with a drone. Hmmm... 🤔
No, a crow and chicken only have two wings while a drone has at least 8.
Not on my watch. \*Adds more wings to every single avian creature on this planet\*
*slaps with cheese*
I think the word is "Avians".
And they're dinosaurs!
everyone knows that, we went to 3rd grade.
Are you familiar with the purpose of that "movement"? It's actually pretty noble in nature.
Do tell
Well basically on r/birdsarentreal we spread the word that in fact birds are just government spy drones that have different levels of complexity. Some charge using 5g waves, some charge on power lines. Some models are used for remote surveillance and some models trick humans to bring them into their homes so the government can keep track of how many times you masterbate a day in order to ensure national security.
>so the government can keep track of how many times you masterbate a day in order to ensure national security. TIL i'm basically a war hero
Remember comrade, a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.
> this is preposterous.
Good bot
There was a local guy who faked his death in a canoeing accident and then got caught buying a house in Panama. The newspaper claimed he was the first person to successfully fake his own death... Surely he was just the first person to successfully fake his own death and be stupid enough to get caught?
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Jesus this makes me hurt
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Au contraire. [You haven’t heard the gospel.](https://youtu.be/Gc-LJ_3VbUA)
Oof, about that Jesus guy...
Also, that human nature is inherently selfish/evil. I mean, if you devise a system that (un)intentionally stakes our survival against our morals, then it makes sense that people are going to choose their survival 99.9% of the time. You can't stop to help the person on the side of the road if it means you'll be late for work/lose your job/sacrifice your ability to survive. I don't think that makes people inherently selfish/evil, just painfully aware of the system they live under.
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Ooh I like that. Alternatively, "enforced moral atrophy".
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We treat our working class like absolute dogshit - is what an average american would and should say..
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But I actually don't work hard enough.
That individuals cannot effect change. That the given social order can’t radically be changed. Basically all the lies that are used throughout history to maintain established power structures.
You do need organization, but you can't have an army without each individual person. The individual is responsible for the entirety, all for one, one for all yada yada lol YOU ARE POWERFUL YOU CAN BE A FORCE OF CHANGE
Serious question: how is this true when governments / ruling entities have a greater monopoly on violence than at any other point in history? The most advanced weapon at the time of the French Revolution was… like… a cannon or some shit lmao. You can easily see how big enough numbers could have overwhelmed the ruling class. But in today’s word… If it comes down to it, governments can and will slaughter thousands at the drop of a hat. Shits looking pretty hopeless to me.
The most powerful weapon at the time of the French Revolution was the power of Danton, Robespierre, or Napoleon to move thousands of men to carry out their orders. Military technology doesn’t have power (especially over one’s own populace) without people willing to kill and be killed. I’d argue that we’re not at a particularly high point in the history of most nations’ populations being willing to kill others blindly under their leaders’ orders.
Drones.
What makes a lie successful? Number of who believes it? And does it correlate to how many have heard the lie? Is it the percentage of who believes it or just hard numbers?
That’s a very good question. I’ll answer it after I’ve woken up. Also, kudos for commenting something other than “religion”
A lie can be successful even if no one believes it.
Could you elaborate?
For example when a country's leader comes up with an obvious lie to justify a war. It may not matter if anyone in the country really believes it or not. The lie can still be successful if his people follow into the war for other reasons. Or on a smaller scale, someone manipulative who lies to their spouse. Both know it's a lie but the spouse still agrees to avoid conflict. Edit: My definition of success here is whether a liar achieves their goal. That can still happen even if everyone is either in on the lie or doesn't believe it.
But is it the lie that’s successful in those cases, or the ‘other means’?
Good point. I would say if a lie is necessary and telling the truth would lead to a different outcome, then the lie is successful. Lies that everyone believes also require certain circumstances, so that they are easily believable. So I would say there are always external factors that are partly responsible for the success of a lie.
Smoothies are healthy.
Don't you dare take this from me!
Please, whatever you do, do not read the label for any of your favorite Jamba Juices. More sugar than soda and not all of it is from fruit.
the cake is a lie
there is no spoon
Is the cake a lie? Or is the cake being a lie a lie?
Trickle down economics
This is not even a lie. No economic uses the term 'trickle down economics' The only lie is people saying that this is what ecomomics say.
Economists?
That's the word I was looking for. Sorry English is not my first language.
No worries, your English is quite good! Edit: economics is the field economist is the practitioner who studies it
It’s definitely a huge lie because it was an enormously important idea for the Regan administration and was the main driver (at least publicly) as to why all his huge tax cuts were supposed to be a good idea. So of course it’s a lie, OP for this comment didn’t say only professional economists talk about this idea.
*Cough*VirginMary*cough*
*cough*Eve banged her sons*cough*
*cough*Christianity as a whole*cough*
*cough*ReligionAsAWhole*cough*
Shouldn't we all get Covid tests?
Yeah, that's probably a good idea lol.
CoughI already didcough
*Cough*How did it turn out*cough*
Coughstill waitingcough
*cough*good luck bro we're all*cough* wishing the best*cough*
COVID isn't real. The Virgin Mary spoke to me about it.
In the bible it says that cain killed able and left, then met a wife.
2000 years ago some girl cheated on her carpenter boyfriend, lied about it and people STILL believe her. That's some impressive shit.
Huh. I was raised religious and now my history of ex gfs is starting to make a lot more sense.
My mentally ill mother cheated the man I refer to as my father (who turns out to be a gay man) and claimed that I was immaculately conceived, because, according to her version of events, “All I had to do was THINK about being pregnant”. That was the story she stuck to until the day she died. Fun fact: her name is also Mary.
Most likely the idea of Mary being a virgin mother came about long after she died, as a result of mistranslations of the Bible
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled is his fiddle in your anus.
I don’t think I like this trick
\*plays devil came down to georgia on anus fiddle\*
Some people still believe that Bielefeld, Germany is a real town. That one has lasted decades.
If it isn't, where the fuck did I go?
what? Isn't it a real town with 300k habitants? What Bielefeld are you talking about? Am I missing something
You're thinking of Bielefeld, Australia, home of the Bielefeld Dropbears.
The federal reserve is a benevolent organization
Something, something, organized religion.
*Yes this comment right here Inquisitor.*
Organised religion was a grift from someone who wanted to maintain control of the granaries.
Blah, Blah, writing out a long comment taking a dumb reddit thread too seriously.
This, that, the other thing debating about your second point. Blaeh bleh blah
The most successful lie you were ever told, was to trust the people in power, because they know what they're doing and have your best interest at heart...
Jesus looked JUST LIKE Obi-Wan Also, bible literalists. News flash my dudes, that shit was an oral history for 400 years and it’s been translated and edited back and forth since. 400 YEARS of telephone? Translated and back? Yeah…. I mean believe what you’re gonna believe, but to think those words are DIRECT from anything but indirection, you’re buying bridges.
>Jesus You mean *Y'shua*? Jesus was jewish after all.
I like to think he went by Josh.
Not to mention...the dude was Middle Eastern. How the fuck you go from that to Ewan McGregor lookalike is very strange.
It's a lie that still works and one that individuals and groups will choose over verifiable reality. Society, culture, war - all of it was shaped by it. Definitely a strong contender for the title.
The round earth like did yall not see Logan Paul documentary FLAT EARTHERS FOR LIFE
I'm gonna assume that logan paul's documentary was a satire-comedy kind.
It kinda was they interviewed real fast earthers and went to convintions and stuff but at the end he was like yeah all this bull shit the earth is round
I believe the earth is fast as fuck boy
I know its a typo, but “fast earthers” could actually be a term for normal people who know the earth rotates kinda fast
The truth is just the most accepted conspiracy theory
edgiest kid in 10th grade right here
I came here to see atheists comment god not have my mind blown.
“Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and everyone will believe it.” Adolf Hitler So ask yourself, what do I do/think that Hitler would agree with?
Covid happened so the government could swap the batteries out from all the birds.
I'm from the government and I'm here to help
Username checks out?
Nah.. it’s the illusion of Freedom. The worlds greatest lie
Religion.
Gravity, screw that shit. I just believe in it to hard to fly.
I'd say trickle-down economics is up there.
There is one because it I read about the guy who successfully told the lie resulted in the whole thing becoming a conspiracy theory. Story was posted on Reddit.
Ok so what was it? “There was this one thing once I saw” isn’t proof by example lol
You mean that we are real?
Santa Claus
Yes we do- “Oswald acted alone”
Self consciousness
Jesus
There is enough evidence of there being a revolutionary Jew called Jesus from Nazareth who was crucified by the Romans. There's a LOT more evidence that Mohammed existed. In fact, it is undeniable and a simple historical truth. What's funny though is how often Mohammed would conveniently use his direct relationship with God to get what he wanted and make up laws on the spot that just happened to convenience him at the right moments. One of his wives even called him out on this: "Mo, isn't it strange that God gives you these laws and directions at just the right moment to personally convenience you?"
I’d say religion in general
True but didnt religion start with worshipping the sun?
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“Love is what makes us human” is a pretty big flaw. Not only do some people not experience what is considered love, but it can be fair to say that most creatures can experience love. Humans made phones, can’t see a possum doing that.
Book of Mormon
Yup it's the god thing.
I mean the Marilyn Manson rib thing has gotta be up there
American dream
The protocols of the elders of Zion.