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[-] passepartout@feddit.org 75 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

In other words:

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Although honestly, this becomes harder to apply every day.

[-] Draegur@lemm.ee 68 points 2 weeks ago

Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.

[-] MajinBlayze@lemmy.world 30 points 2 weeks ago

Things get much harder to justify this way when you account for how easily malice can manufacturer stupidity for malice to hide in.

[-] wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 weeks ago

And how easily stupidity nurtures hollow, fetid wounds for new malice to grow.

[-] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

Consider your wisdom stolen with the intent to reproduce, good sir and/or ma’am.

[-] ZeffSyde@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

That's my favorite Isaak C. Clark quote.

/S

[-] GraniteM@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

And any sufficiently depraved malice is indistinguishable from stupidity.

[-] Dragonstaff@leminal.space 11 points 2 weeks ago

There's way too much malice in the world to rely on pithy witticisms too heavily.

[-] Artyom@lemm.ee 3 points 2 weeks ago

You can always explain reality with that quote, you just have to realize you've been an optimist in your definition of stupidity.

[-] Dragonstaff@leminal.space 35 points 2 weeks ago

This is odd to say when the YouTube algorithm has been proven to push right wing propaganda.

The concept of "conspiracies" is a bit off. It's not a "conspiracy" when Bezos kills the Washington Post's endorsement of Harris, or fires journalists who criticize him. YouTube doesn't need to remove a video if the algorithm never shows it to anybody.

It is kinda crazy to imagine a secret cabal of rich people who surreptitiously run the world, rather than the well known cabal of rich people who openly run the world.

[-] dzsimbo@lemm.ee 9 points 2 weeks ago

Meh, I kinda get it. Like who has more power, Trump or the Walton family? The latter is fairly in the background. Sachlers were (and are) getting away with the opiate epidemic.

Sure there is a level, where it's only seeing shadow men, but Bill Gates, Musk or Bezos as a final boss seems anticlimatic. I do subscribe to the deep state idea, but I see it more like powerful people trying to keep their power, but it's more of a random walk than an orchestrated psyops.

[-] WhatsTheHoldup@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

It is kinda crazy to imagine a secret cabal of rich people who surreptitiously run the world, rather than the well known cabal of rich people who openly run the world.

The cabal of rich people who run the world were a hell of a lot less open about it before tech billionaires came onto the stage.

Do we actually know the rich billionaires running the world, or do we just know the owners of Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Twitter and Facebook? (And then Warren Buffet is there too)

[-] NewDayRocks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 weeks ago

This is odd to say when the YouTube algorithm has been proven to push right wing propaganda.

This is not a conspiracy. The conspiracy is saying YouTube does this because they are right wing company.

[-] Dragonstaff@leminal.space 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

YouTube pushes right wing content because right wing goals benefit their owners. I don't know how you define "right wing company", but what else would you call a company that promotes fascists and strictly polices leftists?

[-] NewDayRocks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 weeks ago

but what else would you call a company that promotes fascists and strictly polices leftists

That last part is relevant, because thats not what YouTube does and what makes it a conspiracy

[-] ccunning@lemmy.world 32 points 2 weeks ago

The fact that I WAS ABLE to find the YouTube video just PROVES ISM tHE ENliGhtENEd one!

I’m surrounded by simpletons 😮‍💨

[-] CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 6 points 2 weeks ago

The fact that I can't find the the YouTube video just PROVES the government is covering everything up!

[-] Wilco@lemm.ee 17 points 2 weeks ago

When you ban discussion related to a conspiracy or make it illegal to be a DENIER of said event ... you are basically confirming the conspiracy as correct.

[-] REDACTED@infosec.pub 23 points 2 weeks ago

By this logic, Holocaust in Germany didn't happen as it's illegal there to deny it. I get your point, but it's flawed

[-] Wilco@lemm.ee 1 points 2 weeks ago

No, its not flawed. I know many people here in the US that are holocaust deniers based solely on the fact that it is illegal in most of Europe.
You honestly cannot do research to prove portions of the holocaust records could be wrong without risking imprisonment.

[-] x00z@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Denying is maybe illegal but questioning it is not.

So get your facts straight.

[-] Wilco@lemm.ee 1 points 2 weeks ago

My facts are straight. Questioning it is the same as denying it in most, if not all, of those 17 European countries where there are holocaust denial laws.

Professors and researchers get threatened when they suggest that it was actually Russians that did a lot of the killing. They get arrested when the point to the Pogroms that saw every religion being attacked.

It is what it is. 17 countries in Europe have "holocaust denial" laws ... and that is suspect to a lot of people.

If it suddenly became illegal to openly state that aliens may exist ... many would see this as a cover up and confirmation.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 0 points 2 weeks ago

It's not illegal in most of Europe. If you say it in most of Europe in polite company you'll get punched most likely, but you won't get arrested.

It's literally only Germany which have made it illegal for the fairly obvious reasons

[-] SCmSTR 2 points 2 weeks ago

In certain people's heads, anything is possible.

[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago

I am not much one for grand conspiracies but if I was a secret society doing 9/11 and shit, I wouldn't care much about a 9/11 video as in the current context it is a just a ripple in the ocean of misinformation. It might even be more fruitful to keep the video but do some articles ridiculing the video.

[-] WhyIAughta@lemm.ee 2 points 2 weeks ago

Also, when was the Israeli Mossad considered a secret society?

[-] InternetPerson@lemmings.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

Don't argue with crazy. Those people need help, not a rational discussion (which they are not capable of).

[-] plyth@feddit.org 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

How should a secret society remove such a video without silencing the author?

https://xkcd.com/1425/

It is easier to do the above three things. Removing a video draws attention to it because the author will post it on other channels. Other people will upload it to check the claim that it is removed.

It's much easier to drown a problematic video in other content so that only few people discover it. So some people know the real truth, but nobody believes them or cares about them.

[-] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Are you sure you linked the right xkcd?

https://xkcd.com/1224/

[-] ThatGuy46475@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Every xkcd is the right one

[-] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Probably, but this one seems to be righter

https://xkcd.com/1224/

[-] Venator@lemmy.nz 5 points 2 weeks ago

Or even upload similar videos with crazier less logical conspiracies included so you can lump them all together to discredit them.

[-] andybytes@programming.dev 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

9-11 was a joint effort by America's allies like Saudi Arabia and Israel and people in the intelligence department to create a false flag event to push us into a 20 year war for absolutely fucking nothing now the United States is supporting a genocide so at this point I would think that anybody who is a serious person would have got a fucking clue. Now there is a video of Julian Assange talking about what this was all about. See, we don't win wars. We use them to bleed the tax bases of Europe and the United States. To weaken the powers of democracy, so now we live in a world of monopoly. It's not a conspiracy. It's capitalism. Believe it or not, I don't care. You're gonna feel the pressure eventually. The war in Ukraine is an attempt to separate capitalist Russia from Europe. Europe is on its knees like dirty dogs, groveling to the American Empire, which really doesn't offer them much of anything. While Russia offered them cheap gas. Now all these capitalist societies can eat my ass, but still. I mean changing your framework, being relative, telling the truth, paying a fucking attention, I mean getting a fucking clue, these are all things required to really assess the situation. And this is why sometimes memes come off a little limp dicked.

[-] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

It's pretty hard to find 9/11 or other conspiracy videos on YouTube. It used to be just searching "documentary" brought them up.

[-] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

Do you wanna Streisand Effect the conspiracy? Because removing the video is how you Streisand Effect the conspiracy.

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago
[-] RedditIsDeddit@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

so someone rubbed their last two brain cells together for this one I guess

[-] paraphrand@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

There’s a UFO person who has been around for a long time who claims they were offered a billion dollars to shut up.

[-] kiagam@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago

Anyone willing to pay a billion dollars to keep a secret secret, is also willing to kill someone who does not take the billion dolar bribe

[-] KingOfTheCouch@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 weeks ago

And that's how you know for sure they are full of shit, or at the very least schizophrenic.

If I saw aliens, and some dude in a suit hushed me with a billion dollars, I'd be living on a yacht the next day.

this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
988 points (100.0% liked)

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