by thepseudosapian in Political Tags: conspiracy rationality satire abstract

Last night I found myself lying in bed thinking about Alex Jones*. And penguins. I hear a reader sitting in solitary protest, asking the world in general how the fuck Alex Jones and Penguins have anything to do with each other. We’ll get to that. But first, I’d like to discuss something.

There is a logical fallacy which people often make in which something a person says turns out to be true, and based on this, you assume that everything else they say is also true. The name escapes me, but this is pretty much exactly how nutters like Alex Jones and David Icke manage to convince paranoid antisheep to give them money. The realization of the truth in their statement sets the wheel of irrationality a spinnin’, and before you know it you are running around telling all of your friends to wake up to the agenda of the Illuminati lizards living on Saturn(citation needed 😉 )

As for the penguins, my thought pattern went something like this:

“Today I am insane, tomorrow I shall be a penguin. ”

If I wandered up to you on the street and casually asserted this, you might think I’m mad. But then, I did just say that I am mad, at least for today. Is it now logical to assume I am going to turn into a penguin? The Bayesian in me would say no. Until anyone decides to turn into a penguin, there is no justification for believing that anyone will.

So why does it change when it comes to Alex Jones? It’s illogical for pretty much the same reason that I am not a penguin, but yet people completely fail to recognize their flawed logic in this case. So maybe next time you find yourself accepting someones worldview based on a true statement, or a valid prediction, you might realize how silly you are being. You might think back to this post, realize that I have yet to become a penguin, and go on about your day.

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*No, not like that. But if imagining me naked in bed fantasizing about fat gun totin’ texan lunatics gets you off, go for it. You have my blessing.