
Suspicious Minds - 0xbxd
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/21/style/ancient-aliens.html
======
georgeecollins
Modern Americans believe in an ideology that advocates the wisdom of the
"average person" that coexists with constant manipulation by elites. Ancient
Aliens is more proof that the average person is not particularly thoughtful
but instead susceptible to wishful thinking. Don't think that doesn't also
apply to politics, religion and economics.

~~~
dqpb
Consider this - Ancient Aliens won't convince most people who understand
science, but might convince people who believe in religion. I would argue that
the ideas in Ancient Aliens are more reasonable and thought provoking than
religious cosmology.

------
tbabb
I have unmitigated disgust for every single person with approval power over
the production of that show. Every single one of them is either an idiot or
conman. There is no middle ground.

~~~
rch
A lot of this type of content being produced and/or promoted by an internet
company based in Boulder, and I can assure you they are all in on the con.
Some of them want to focus more on yoga and health food, but the audience
numbers have pushed the whole operation towards aliens, crystals, and anti-
scientific thinking. I've come to see it as a purposeful attack on humanity's
rational faculty.

~~~
justinator
Gaiam?

~~~
rch
IIRC the media arm is a separate company now, but that's an excellent example.

~~~
justinator
Cosmic charlatans in Boulder aren't all that out of the ordinary. There's a
lot of well-off yet surprisingly naive people to pray upon.

[http://www.dailycamera.com/top-
stories/ci_29300615/boulder-p...](http://www.dailycamera.com/top-
stories/ci_29300615/boulder-psychic-charged-felony-theft-from-fashion-scion)

"If you see the Buddha on the road..." advice I guess never made a great
impression.

------
aj7
I look upon this mess as a barometer of how traumatic our educational system
is to people.

------
javajosh
With a loss of shared reality we will resort to violence. The only path to
shared reality is empirical reason.

Fiction is on thing, but these products that intentionally blur the line
between truth and falsehood are entirely wicked.

------
throwaway22222
Why does everything have to fall into intolerance and politics? I was
interested and then the article turned into crap.

~~~
davesque
Where? I mostly skimmed it but didn't see anything like that.

~~~
protomyth
I would assume (OP please correct) paragraphs 5 & 6 are probably what is being
referred to. It does seem a bit forced given the rest of the article.

