So, I heard several people now mention HAARP as the cause for all the natural disasters that have been happening lately. And here I thought the cause was rampant pollution and global warming!
But seriously, I’m looking at the HAARP page on wikipedia and it seems to be an array for studying the ionosphere? How in the hell do you go from “we’re using this to see what’s happening way up there in the sky” to “this causes tornadoes”? Who even started this garbage?
As far as I know, the “logic” is as follows:
- The ionosphere is very important for the weather
- HAARP is doing something with it
- Obviously not just studies, these antenna arrays use lasers or radiation to influence it directly.
- Pew pew
- Tornados
Nowadays blaming HAARP means they aren’t blaming Exxon. In the past I believe it was just conspiracy fodder.
Two things can be true at the same time:
- Government aligned capitalist profiteurs have been extracting value from the Earth for more than a century, causing massive damage to the ecosystem
- Governments have some control over the weather (from 1965, National Science Foundation)
I mean, just look at The Dimming and tell me that they’re all just stupid idiots who spent money and time on making a 2+ hour documentary, modifying planes to collect cloud samples, analyse and compare the results, etc? For what? Getting rich selling merchandise?
Sure, I’m open to all of them being quacks but I’d really like to have some conclusive counter-evidence.
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- people die
- society collapses
- ???
- profit
That’s the basic pattern for most conspiracies anyway. I’m still wondering how the conspiracy theorists expect billionaires will make even more money by cutting the human population to a tiny fraction of its current number. Well, I guess I’m just not smart enough to see the hidden truth or whatever.
Right? Billionaires have an obvious interest in the status quo - that’s why getting anything to ever change in ways that mildly inconvenience them is like pulling teeth.
Like others have pointed out in the thread, though: if you’re expecting rationality from conspiracy theorists, you’ve already lost.
HAARP is an old school conspiracy theory. I haven’t heard someone bring this one up in years. It’s your classic government control the weather theory.
I had no idea this was old school. I thought this was a recent thing. Though, the book in @Strangle@lemmy.world’s comment was published in 1995, so I guess I just hadn’t noticed until now.
As conspiracy theory bullshit goes, this is a true classic - almost up there with the Moon landing. Some Infowars-regurgitating twat was spamming about HAARP on an IRC channel I was on like 15+ years ago.
Long story short, the HAARP nonsense has its origins in psychology. If you want the long version, check this article. It also answers how conspiratorial thinking in general works, not just the nut jobs spreading wild stories about HAARP.
Because these delusions are based on defects of the mind, there’s no amount of facts that you can throw at this problem and expect it to be fixed that way. What wasn’t reasoned in, can’t be reasoned out of a broken mind like that. These people are in need therapy and support more than anything else.
If podcasts, are more your thing, consider listening to You’re not so smart - episode 197 conspiratorial thinking. I think the part about the history of small and large conspiracies was particularly fascinating. Grand conspiracies are impossibly difficult to pull off, because there’s always a weak link somewhere which will make the whole thing collapse sooner or later. On the other hand, small conspiracies are a reality, and there have been numerous documented cases of those happening in real life.
Because these delusions are based on defects of the mind, there’s no amount of facts that you can throw at this problem and expect it to be fixed that way. What wasn’t reasoned in, can’t be reasoned out of a broken mind like that.
This hurts to read, but I have to agree. Especially because the person who first told me about HAARP has a freaking degree in psychology.
Well, I know someone with a PhD in chemistry, and he still believes the covid vaccine is designed to kill people, cause a global collapse and all that. The human mind just is never truly safe from this type of thinking.
A PhD doesn’t mean anything other than that you are a fast learner and are dedicated enough to work on a project for years. It doesn’t mean you are intelligent or even that you know everything in your field, however it does usually result in you being an expert in a very specific small corner of your field.
I have a PhD
Because people are stupid. Stupid people believe stupid things. They don’t have logic, just stupidity.
