How do you know it isn’t true? Why is a CIA conspiracy to implant transceivers in the teeth of the mentally ill less plausible than an Illuminati/Satanist conspiracy to plant secret occult messages in the Superbowl’s halftime show?
Personally I find both theories very far-fetched, but I’d be more willing to entertain them if the people who put those theories forward were capable of holding them up to critical examination.
I think They Might Be Giants did a pretty good job of explaining the importance of performing tests on your theories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kf51FpBuXQ
Nothing is true! Everything is permitted!
I’m up for critical examination!
I’m asking the same thing of you:
“How do you know it isn’t true?”
This is just a theory that you personally couldn’t be bothered exploring and you are of the opinion that it is far-fetched.
You can’t falsify the brain in the jar theory, but that doesn’t mean it’s a theory not worth thinking about just because you personally couldn’t be bothered. It’s also a theory that is not necessarily comparible to the theory about the illuminati. Your other comparisons too, have elements that are not comparible. Using apples to illustrate what you think about oranges doesn’t always translate into something worthwhile for me, personally.
The even theoretical impossibility to prove/disprove that hypothesis ranks it solid into the intellectual masturbation class of problems to keep philosophers busy so they wouldn’t meddle into real issues.
…which, on a second thought, makes it actually fairly useful…
I don’t know it isn’t true, but you’re asking me to prove a negative. That’s not critical examination, it’s shifting the burden of critical examination to others. I suggest reading up on Russell’s Teapot.
If you don’t know it isn’t true, how can you assert the opinion that it isn’t worth persuing or examining?
“I’m not a prostitute, but I could give you what you want
I love your braids and your mouth full of floss
Love the way my ass go bum-bum-bum-bum
Keep your eyes on my bum-bum-bum-bum-bum
And think you can handle this gadong-a-dong-dong
Take my thong off and my ass go vroom” - from Missy Elliot’s “Work It”
Yeah… brilliant stuff!
Because if you cannot prove or disprove it, you also cannot know if it is or is not true. Therefore you can not know if it is worth pursuing/examining, and even if the potential benefit could be nonzero, the opportunity cost of not spending the same time/effort on something that’s provable makes this a sucker proposition.
There are so many things to deal with that some sort of triage is a must. Provability is a good initial gauge to sort out the highly likely to be unsalvageable.
It makes more sense than a large multi-century conspiracy that, in a time of big data analysis where we can discern pregnancies from buying habits at Target, can go undetected.
You want the gadong-a-dong-dong?
You can’t handle the gadong-a-dong-dong!
Keep your eyes on my bum-bum-bum-bum-bum, for certain limited definitions of “bum-bum-bum-bum-bum”, where “bum-bum-bum-bum-bum” means “an unprovable theory that will keep you occupied and ignoring real social problems you could actually have an impact on.”
Exactly.
It’s well-known that subversive, secret and occult messages are found even in most mundane and nonsensical song lyrics. Why else would the authorities spend so much time deciphering “Louie Louie”.
There’s further evidence of this when usually brilliant lyricists such as the great Bob Dylan come out with what is, on the surface, utterly trite rubbish but to the open-eyed contains many layers of mystic symbolism designed to further the journey of the Illuminated.
Let’s examine some of Mr. Zimmerman’s work. (The name Zimmerman is in itself is telling, translating as “The Man in The Room”, one who has found the repository of knowledge.)
Now we’ve realistically got two options here. One being “This is filler material written by someone who’s best days are long past and is seeking only another paycheck”. Not terribly likely given his consummate skill and lifetime track-record.
Or there’s something more going on there…
Exhibit A is from the crypto-communist album “Under a Red Sky” released as a triumphant rallying call in 1990 to those of his Brethren, fresh from the shackles of the Eastern Bloc.
The song is Wiggle Wiggle, the opening song from that album, which deals in such weighty matters as transformation, resurrection, the ultimate quantum entanglement of us all and other matters of interest to the Illuminated.
The 4th verse is key, corresponding to the 4th quarter of the circle, the plasma state of matter and, of course, the waning moon and Earth.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Soup doesn’t wiggle. Unless it’s cosmic soup, the primordial soup and the wiggle is that of string, oscillating at the core of the multiverse which leads inevitably to…
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
The eternal circle and cycle of death and rebirth, sending us around again unless…
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
…you can break the cycle by placing an insurmountable obstacle in it’s path. This is the wisdom that Bob’s imparting. Or not. He could just be fucking with us, which would go down like, well, a ton of lead. Muse upon that phrase for deeper insight. Ton. Of. Lead. Why not a ton of feathers. Or, indeed, five tons of flax.
Wiggle—you can raise the dead
Breaking the cycle and providing us with the limitless ability to perceive the True Unseen, to see things are they are/were/will be. Raising the dead, indeed, Robert!
So you can see, childish album filler from an old has-been or profound Cosmic instruction from one of the great Minds of our Time.The answer to that is obvious.
Or perhaps even a more insidious revelation, such as this song by 'I, Brute Force", “To Sit on a Sandwich”
Savile.
Probably as a result of sexual abuse in their boarding schools, the British upper classes have a nasty undercurrent of paedophilia, abuse of women, and in fact general abuse of everybody who has less power than they do. Savile was able to join that group and make use of its protections. Oddly, it was only when the news about similar abuse by Pakistani men in Rotherham came out, that a light started to be shone on the activities of some politicians and lawyers. We are now learning that Saudi diplomats in the UK abuse women because, due to their diplomatic immunity, they can.
But it isn’t Satanism. It’s what some people, especially those who have an abusive upbringing, will do if they think they can get away with it. It happens in many societies. It isn’t a world wide conspiracy, but what theologians call “The problem of evil”.
It’s what psychologists call the cycle of abuse, and it’s proven to exist. That which traumatizes the juvenile is attractive to said juviniles in adulthood.
@kupfernigk
Foot fetish is an easily identifiable marker of the cycle of abuse. People who have vivid memories of being stepped on, kicked and otherwise assaulted via the foot, while small and in a universe of foot-dominant visage seem to universally be sexually attracted to feet once they reach puberty. This is also borne out in other types of object fetishisms, and while I understand that the explanatory theory is very Freudian, the data seems to support it. Sometimes a cigar is a just a cigar, but for a lot of people, being stepped on, or kicked or forced to smell feet or toe sucking is very erotic and the only records relating to such paraphillias (mild as they may be) seem to have the common element of being at foot level as a child and having feet cause harm at such a young age.
ETA:
Which isn’t to say foot fetishism is fucked up. Just that it’s an easily traceable phenomenon. If getting your balls stepped on gets you off, have at it. If sucking on toes is heavenly, why stop?
Wait, what? I thought it was Cultural Marxists sapping the Precious Fluids from us via advertising? It’s the Illuminati too? Well, fuck.
It’s fluoride that’s contaminating our precious bodily fluids. If we all had bad teeth and lived to 30 on average everything would be perfect.
/Sarcasm
Now I’m wondering what secret and occult messages could be found in some of my favourite music
The conspiracy theorists couldn’t be as wrong as the people who thought this was a drinking song, could they?
Isn’t everything a drinking song?
That… depends. Drinking songs themselves often contain deep wisdom. Compare and contrast the words to the old folksong “John Barleycorn” with Masonic initiation practices, for example.
Looked at with the rightFeye, any songNcould containOjust aboutRany personal gnosisDyou care to find.
