Speaking troof to power
Stingray
writing at Atomic Nerds totally nails the troofer movement - conspiracy theories, etc...
Truther@home
The last time LabRat let bitey off the leash, it prompted Tam to ponderThis ties in nicely with one of my favorite questions I ponder while chewing pencils to splinters, which is �Why do fuckwits love conspiracy theories?�
Commenter MarkHB opined in replyGlib answer: It saves them having to think.
Well, not quite so much, I suspect. Now, take all of the following with a large pillar of salt. LabRat is the bio-geek of the household, so calling anything I�m about to say an oversimplified generalization is a bit like saying a man struck by lightning is feeling a bit under the weather, but the problem as I see it is that they can�t help but think.
When your computer doesn�t have anything to do, the processor can throttle down. It doesn�t need to be grinding away very hard just to run a screen saver. The brain, however, is not like this. When the brain has unallocated processing capacity, it pretty much has to find something to do. It finds a book to read. It loads Halo and tosses sticky grenades onto Brutes. It writes a web browser plugin to make thumbnailing images easier. It writes a blog. It follows TV shows obsessively and creates fandoms. No matter what it is with that free time, it does something. Since you can�t just install seti@home on the wetware between your ears, that means it�s up to the individual to find some way to use those spare brain cycles. Some people try to just throttle down the processor, trying to achieve a perfectly empty mind through meditation, but about the point where the mind is good and empty, some stray thought pops in. Probably something along the lines of �Wow, that cow looks like I feel right now all the time. I bet there isn�t a stray thought in there messing up his day. That cow has it all figured out!� And then that leads to silliness like the notion that you had lived before and since you once ate a cow you were cosmically screwed until you atone for having lunch off the critter that�s got it all figured out, and then� sorry, kinda got off on a tangent there*.
There are plenty of great outlets for these spare cycles, too. Smart folks redefine physics, or write best-selling novels. Then there are not so great outlets, like gay incestuous male-pregnancy Harry Potter fanfic, or more to the current point, conspiracy theories.
What follows is wonderful. Nails it -- totally nails it!
Posted by DaveH at January 23, 2009 9:55 PM