this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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We've got a bunch of new people now so let's bring back a classic post. What low stakes conspiracy theory do you believe that you cannot prove but feels right to you?

I'll start: I believe that dating apps have made a concerted effort to smear in person meeting people and tie it to being "creepy" through social media so you are forced to meet people online(which was the creepy option just 15 years ago)

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[–] stigsbandit34z@hexbear.net 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (8 children)

Public programs are purposely underfunded to make it easy for people to point to why they don’t work (the average person doesn’t think about/care whether they get funding), making it easier to continue the process of privatizing everything.

Many conspiracy theories aren’t actually conspiracy theories but a consequence of profit-driven motives that give the illusion of a conspiracy theory.

[–] ratboy@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

As someone who works with houseless folks this is absolutely without a doubt a thing. There are for profit companies springing up that do similar social services that I do, too, so the privatization part even applies. It's fucked

[–] ZapataCadabra@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

That's just observable facts.

[–] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

The first one is just political strategy, it's known as starve the beast

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[–] john_browns_beard@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

There is a small but self-sustaining breeding population of cougars living in the Adirondacks and possibly most of upstate New York, but this will never be officially confirmed by the various government environmental agencies because then they would have to take real action to protect them. Cougars have everything they need there and there's really no reason to believe they're just walking 1800 miles and not breeding.

This is the case for a lot of other heavily forested places east of the Rockies as well.

[–] Mindfury@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

oh hey, it's the Gippsland Panther but in America

Also the Tasmanian Tiger still exists, and proclaiming it extinct was actually the best way to protect it

[–] grey_wolf_whenever@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

is this a conspiracy??? Im from up there and everyone seems to just accept it there

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[–] GnastyGnuts@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

GrossMargaret Thatcher probably fucked a dog and killed it. She just seems like the kind of person that would do that, and she was tight with Pinochet.

[–] UlyssesT@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

"Smart" consumer products are intentionally spying on you. Full stop.

That's why it's so hard to find a not "smart" anything. The added material cost is well worth the additional surveillance, be it for the sake of ruling class parasites buying and selling the surveillance data, or for their buddies fedposting

If I were a ghoul at Nestle, I would have spent the past couple decades propping up the shittiest local water utilities, lobbying to make sure their shittiest policies are kept and their most generous programs abolished. Having a local entity with a monopoly on providing water to the area is often the worst of both worlds in the US. You get the inflexibility of a government bureaucracy because they have no reason to improve and you get the shady billing practices of a corporation because of the insistence that we not just give people water for free. When it comes time to privatize your local water supply, many people will be chomping at the bit to bring in “competition” because they hate their local utility so much.

[–] 420blazeit69@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

Major sports leagues are not rigged in the sense that winners are pre-determined, but the refs are told to keep games, serieses, and playoff races close, because blowouts and dominance are boring.

An NBA ref got busted for betting on games and IIRC talked about how the league would make the above obvious to refs (at least in the postseason). There's too much money changing hands and too little accountability for shady shit to not happen at all, and this is the type of thing all owners could have a handshake agreement on because they'll all profit from it and it doesn't really prejudice any team specifically.

[–] Freeanotherday@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I go back and forth. But this week I 100% believe Justin from Canada is Fidel's kid.

[–] sawne128@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

Also, Hua Guofeng was Mao Zedong's son. I mean think about it, they were both Chinese and they both had the same haircut.

[–] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Frosted Flakes are not great, they're just paying Tony the Tiger to say that.

[–] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

THEY'RE GRRRRRRFINE!

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[–] StalinwasaGryffindor@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Crosswalk buttons and hold open/close door buttons in elevators are just there to give an illusion of control

[–] Owl@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Those are both regional.

Almost no open/close buttons do anything in the US, but they're completely honest in Japan.

Crosswalk buttons may: actually hurry up the cycle and stop traffic sooner, wait until the next red light and show a crossing indicator that it'd otherwise skip, or do nothing at all. This can change from city to city, from intersection to intersection, and even over a schedule throughout the day.

[–] teddy-bonkerz@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

In my experience a reasonable amount of elevator close buttons have an effect, at least where I've been in the US

[–] CeeMoney@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Toby Keith had "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue" pre-written years before 9/11 and wrote it generically enough so that it could apply to whatever war Amerikkka entered next.

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[–] sisatici@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago

Jeff bezos didnt kill himself (duh)

[–] HumanBehaviorByBjork@hexbear.net 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

okay here's one i'm actually serious about that's kind of controversial: Koko the gorilla did not know sign language. in fact she did not know any language. she was very intelligent and emotionally deep, but she did not do what humans do when we communicate with each other through spoken or signed words. at most she repeated some actions that got her some reward, but she did not associate the actions with any meaning beyond the reward. her trainer did not know ASL and did not bother properly codifying the reduced version she supposedly taught Koko. instead she convinced herself of her conclusion, and having done so, worked to imbue any pseudo-signing behaviors by Koko with linguistic meanings whether they made sense or not.

I believe pretty much the same thing about everyone on youtube and tiktok who made those button boards that their dog or cat presses to "talk." i think these cases and claims are worth investigating scientifically, but so far no one has definitively demonstrated what would be a very surprising conclusion i especially find it suspect when they say things like "so far Grover has learned over 80 words!" and what they mean is their golden retriever has pressed over 80 buttons that said a word that the owner could come up with some explanation for.

[–] SootySootySoot@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

The claim she 'knew language' or could 'speak sentences' is obvious nonsense. But there's no doubt that animals like dogs can indeed learn hundreds of words and associate them with real-world concepts. I've seen videos where someone has a hundred different stuffed toys in another room, and they can tell the dog to get a specific item with complete reliability. So I've no doubt a dog could convey a desire for a specific object, for example. Conveying any abstract concepts, or stringing any sentences beyond a single word, I certainly haven't seen done with any objectively measurable success.

[–] HumanBehaviorByBjork@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Yeah I suppose that's true, I was too extreme in saying animals can't learn any language when I meant they can't compose sentences like a lot of these people claim they do.

[–] Egon@hexbear.net 1 points 2 years ago

I remember seeing someone deboonk it once, but I won't say I think animals can't learn language-based communication. Like dogs can learn commands, they can learn that a sound conveys a meaning. Surely animals can then also learn that a motion conveys meaning.

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