WEBVTT - Can you change the mind of a conspiracy theorist? 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:04.160 I'm Anny, and this is no such thing the show 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:08.039 where we answer our dumb questions and yours by actually 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:11.200 doing the research. On today's episode, we're trying to figure 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:13.840 out what exactly it would take to change the mind 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:23.120 of a conspiracy theorist. There's no no such thing, such 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:39.520 thing touch thank Okay, So I'll start this episode off 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:43.479 with a story that happened to me recently. I was 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:48.080 home in the Great State of Ohio a few months ago. 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:50.920 And you know, when you're when you go back home, 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:53.239 you're meeting up with some people that you haven't hung 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:55.480 out with for a long time, oftentimes people that you 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:56.120 grew up with. 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:56.880 Uh. 0:00:57.320 --> 0:00:59.720 And so we you know, group of friends, and I 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:02.600 went to a bar, a couple of drinks in we're 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:05.400 talking about politics, sure. 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:09.160 And lovely conversation to have you have a couple of drinks. 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:13.640 Especially in Ohio. Like the people I'm talking about our liberals, 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:16.880 but like they definitely think about politics differently than we do. 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:20.680 Yes, you know, living in our coastal elite environment. 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:24.720 Anyway, I can't remember how the conversation got here, but 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:28.440 I made a joke about Pizzagate. Do you guys remember 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:33.440 what Pizzagate of course, basically, you guys were on round zero. 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:39.560 Yeah, Me and Noah went to college in DC, and. 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:41.720 I used to work right next door to Commet Ping Pong, 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:44.000 so I knew a lot of people who worked there 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:44.920 at the time. 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:46.560 Yeah, and then but. 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:48.800 Yeah, it was crazy because then we were working at 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:52.360 BI when Pizza Gate happened, right, and then here I 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:54.480 am editing a video about it, and there's people I 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:56.880 knew and used to work with and see every day 0:01:57.320 --> 0:01:58.880 talking about this horrible thing that happened. 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:06.440 Yeah. Quick summary. During the twenty sixteen election, WikiLeaks published 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:10.840 all these emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign. Conspiracy theorists 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.079 went through the emails and claimed that they deciphered some 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:20.040 kind of coded references to child abuse. They decided that 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:23.440 one of the locations of this abuse was in the 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.600 basement of Comet Ping Pong, which was a pizza spot 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:29.640 in Washington, DC. And it got to a point where 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:32.560 someone actually went to Comet Ping Pong with a gun 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:39.240 trying to uncover this alleged layer where these activities were happening. 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:42.200 And I think he actually shot the gun at like 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:46.960 a lock that was on and locked door. Fast forward 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:49.359 many years, I'm in Ohio at this bar with some 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:54.280 friends and I make a joke about like barging into 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:59.600 an establishment quote like the pizzagate guy, and one of 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:01.880 the people and the group said to me, you know, 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.760 you joke about this, but there's actually a decent amount 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:11.040 of evidence out there that the stories around Pizzagate have 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.800 some credibility. Now, obviously I'm a few drinks in and 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:17.960 I decide to press him on this. I say, what 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:21.440 are you talking about? He says that there's a video 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:25.720 in the dark web or something that shows world leaders 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:30.240 participating in child abuse in one of these kind of 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:35.640 basement dungeon areas, like the one they thought was under 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:38.680 commet Ping Pong Pizza. So I press them a little 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:42.000 further and I ask, you know, do you think that 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:46.600 world leaders who wanted to engage in this activity would 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:50.240 record it on video? And that's kind of when the 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:53.480 conversation went off the rails. He was viewing all these 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:57.080 ideas and if I pushed back even a little bit, 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:00.440 he would just kind of spiral into these different team engines, 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:04.480 and I just I was blown away by how adamant 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:08.000 he was about all of this, considering how little he 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:09.120 was actually sick. 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:17.680 Is this so grow up, you grew up with this 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:18.919 guy kind of. 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:21.240 I mean it's one of those like in the friend 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:24.080 group situations around, Like you know, back then in high 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:25.680 school you're hanging out with people because you're in the 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:26.400 same homeroom. 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:28.440 Yeah, because you don't have a deep connection. 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:31.599 But did you get the sense from him that this 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:33.920 was his vibe in like high school? 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:36.800 We certainly in high school would talk about like. 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.039 Loose Change or yeah sure, yeah, yeah. 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:41.280 So if you don't know listeners, Loose Change was like 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:44.760 a documentary that came out back then about how and 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:46.800 why and the evidence that nine to eleven was an 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:49.800 inside job. And I think like believing that nine to 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:52.200 eleven was an inside job was like a like edgy 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:56.440 thing for me, as like a fourteen year old to think. Obviously, 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.760 once I grew a few more brain cells, I realized, 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:04.360 like this is probably not accurate. But yeah, I remember 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:06.520 actually now that you asked me, that we did talk 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:08.400 about that documentary a lot back then. 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:11.960 Oh yeah, I remember watching it on Google Video. Yes, 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:16.520 it was for YouTube, so is I just remember the interface. 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:20.360 But that's how LEAs changed, I think was maybe predominantly shared. Yeah, 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:22.080 I came out, which I think was like two thousand 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:25.680 and five six. But yeah, I remember watching him just 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:28.160 being like, wow, this is it's blowing my mind right now. 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.120 Yeah, no one doing anything about that. 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:32.560 Yeah, but it made me think about how easy it 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:36.040 is to believe this stuff because they'll they'll say something 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:38.720 that's like, well, you know, the mathematical burning point of 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:40.680 a blah blah blah, and then you see they put 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:46.239 a week screen we were fourteen. Yeah, yeah, I wonder 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:48.920 if that was just like kind of the starting point. 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:49.880 Yeah. 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:53.640 But outside of like that interaction, No, I never really 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.160 took him to me. He's like a like sports fan. 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:56.480 Yeah. 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:58.560 Yeah, he's not saying things on a daily basis. 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:04.520 It's not what his social media. Yeah, and I and 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.640 I think there's there's maybe something to the fact that, 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:10.039 like we were a few drinks in, Like I don't 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:11.360 know that you would just be bringing that. 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:13.119 Up at work or whatever. 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:13.960 Yeah. 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:16.920 A few sentences into this interaction, I was just like, WHOA, 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:21.560 how do you get to this point where you believe 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:25.200 something so wholeheartedly but you fold at even the smallest 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:29.279 amount of pushback. Yeah, because obviously the evidence is not 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:33.720 an existent, but conspiracy theories like Pizzagate and nine to 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:36.400 eleven was an inside job. Like, those are very serious 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:41.200 topics and theories that have probably led to real life 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:43.880 harm for people. But if you're someone who believes that, 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:47.320 like the government is hiding aliens or whatever, I'm actually 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.680 so okay with that. I would say most conspiracy theories 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.919 are kind of dumb and silly and just fun to 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:56.400 talk about. I was actually gonna ask you guys, like, 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:59.480 what are some conspiracy theories that you either used to 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:03.400 believe or you think are more feasible than other ones. 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:06.240 Have you guys heard about you know, Jim Morrison from 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:07.960 The Doors, the rock band. 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:10.520 No, I'm sorry, there's some white ship. 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:13.880 Kim. We're talking to two black guys. 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:16.800 From The Doors. 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:21.640 Resident White of the podcast. Falcimore played him in a 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:23.840 biopic in the nineties. 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.640 But oh okay, I do actually notice they think he's 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:28.119 still alive. 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:30.200 Yeah, so he he was like part of the twenty 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:31.880 seventh Club, which are like a bunch of rock stars 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:34.760 who passed away at twenty seven. Anyway, there's a theory 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:37.920 that he's still alive and is just living a quiet life. 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:40.840 Is like some guy named Frank in like Syracuse, New York. 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:43.560 Wow, Wow, did you watch the documentary. 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:44.920 I think there's a I haven't watched it. 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:47.720 There's a documentary, and then there's a new story of conspiracy. 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:49.360 Yeah, that team I think earlier this year. 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:51.280 I would love to watch them, because one thing I 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:53.960 will do is fucking watch a lot of Like I 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.200 don't ever believe in any of them. But there's a 0:07:56.240 --> 0:08:00.560 YouTube channel called the I think it's called the Why Files, 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.119 and it's just this guy who goes really deep into 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:06.160 random theories and then at the end he tells you 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:07.120 why they're bullshit. 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:08.120 Interesting? 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:09.920 What is another one? When I was in high school, 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:13.920 actually I was in the International Baccalaureate program, so I 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:17.840 kind of like AP but a little bit more vibes 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:26.000 based versus versus objective kind of fact knowing. But one 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.600 of my final papers actually was about the conspiracy that 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:35.240 there were two shooters during the JFK assassination. And they 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:38.439 talk about this in the movie too, that like if 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.320 there were only one shooter, the trajectory of the bullet 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:46.120 that hit him would have had to curve or something. Yeah, 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:49.080 that's to say nothing about like who killed him and why, 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:52.000 but like there's like decent evidence that there had to 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.400 have been two people that's a fun one. 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:58.680 I'm pretty anti conspiracy theory as a person. I watched 0:08:58.760 --> 0:08:59.760 this change. 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:02.120 And for you know, forty eight hours, thought that George 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:05.080 Bush did nine to eleven and then, like you said, 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:08.040 you like think about it for five more seconds and 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:10.480 you're like, actually, no, that's not what happened. 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:13.240 Yeah, And like some of it, some of the deep, 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.319 like the deeper conspiracy theories have like the nugget of. 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:19.439 Yeah, well yeah, yeah, that's that's the thing. 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:23.000 Because even to go back to the nine to eleven stuff, Yeah, okay, 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:25.520 was George Bush in their planning nine to eleven? 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:26.000 No? 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:27.360 Is there something too? 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:28.040 You know? 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:30.080 Okay, they knew something was gonna happen and did less 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:31.960 than they maybe would have to prevent it. 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:33.680 Yeah, because of other factors. 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.600 That's more of the believable side of the conspiracy theory, 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:39.520 Like some of the some of these theories are more 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:41.760 fun than the other ones were. Like I think just 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:44.880 the political environments changed so much, where this stuff is 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:48.760 so much more prevalent at high levels, where like I 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:51.040 used to think Alex Jones is really funny. Yeah, and 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:52.960 like you'd see clips of info Wars and he's talking 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.680 about the frogs being gay because the floor eyde or 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:58.120 this or that, and then it's like, well, it's way 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:01.400 less funny when he's talking about Sandy Hook and these 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:03.080 kids not ever existing or whatever. 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:05.720 It's like, it's just not funny anymore. 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:08.480 It's not funny because you have to think, You think about, 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:10.880 like what would it take for someone to believe something 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:11.240 like that. 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:15.679 And then there's actual harm done, you know, versus like, yeah, 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.200 if you think there is flat, yeah, no skin off 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:18.760 my back and. 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:20.839 You're an idiot. But it doesn't affect my life. 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:24.000 That's crazy. But it's like, but truly doesn't matter. 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:26.440 But to me now it's like it used to be 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:30.400 funny when Bob was the one die exactly believe that, 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:34.400 But now the issue is I feel like it's representative 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:38.360 of so much other stuff that's happening where it's like, oh, 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:40.280 it's not funny anymore, as so many people think the 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.120 world is flat, because it's like, yeah, it's representative of 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:44.920 likely it don't matter. 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:47.280 Everyone thinks they're the smartest person in a room. 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:49.800 I read a good book about the I think they 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:50.040 just did. 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.199 They did a Netflix documentary of it about the Manson murders, 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.480 and it the theory of this book is that Manton 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.360 was like a informant for the government, and then also 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:04.240 he was basically let loose, like they knew he was 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:05.920 doing all these crimes and stuff, but they say they 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:09.040 let him do it to kind of poison the hippie movement. 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:10.839 I think a lot of times these things aren't as 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:13.960 complicated as we want them to be. Yeah, and there's 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:18.640 it's more like a negligence than an active conspiracy. 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:19.839 Yeah. 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:21.360 I think you hit the nail on the heather because 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:25.760 it's like, there are such things as conspiracies. The things 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.920 that are conspiracy theories are like the more dumb things. 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:37.320 But obviously governments and organizations have conspired to do nefarious 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:41.560 things in secret, and they fuel conspiracy theories. It's just 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:45.200 that very few of these theories ever turn out to 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:45.720 be true. 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:47.120 Do you give us an example. 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:54.280 Yeah, So the Tuskegee Experiments, for example, was of like 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:58.800 forty plus year long study with the goal of tracking 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:03.160 the full progression of in a black community. They recruited 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:08.800 six hundred people into this study in exchange for free healthcare. Today, 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:12.800 the experiments are viewed as at best unethical, but at 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:17.960 worst straight up evil because these medical professionals were essentially 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:22.400 allowing people to die of syphilis, allowing the syphilis to 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:25.760 spread throughout the community, simply so that they can monitor 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:29.320 and document what exactly was going on. The study was 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:33.360 over forty years long, but fifteen years into the study, 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:38.000 penicillin became known as the main treatment for syphilis. And 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:43.400 so these medical professionals were letting people suffer despite their 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:47.000 being treatment for syphilis. So if you're in that community 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:49.200 and you're looking around and everyone's getting syphilis, and you 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.000 know that some studies being done, you might be like, 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:55.000 what the hell is going on? And it wasn't until 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:59.800 nineteen seventy two when a medical professional found out about 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:03.320 this study and leaked it to the Associated Press and 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:07.560 then boom, it's not a conspiracy theory anymore. And finally, 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:11.600 some twenty years after that, President Bill Clinton even apologized 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:15.680 for the Tuskegee experiments because they were conducted by federal 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:29.240 medical professionals. All Right, we did a call out online 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:31.920 to see if we could get some people to send 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:36.800 some conspiracy theories that they believe in and why, and 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:40.600 so before we continue our conversation, I just want to 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:46.320 play some of those for the listeners. 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:49.800 I guys, this is rich. 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:54.600 Nst heads know me as rich from episode one. I 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.840 think that the US military or US intelligence, so maybe 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:00.880 either like the Air Force or the CIA, is actually 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:05.760 behind or at least fueling the whole idea that Area 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:09.719 fifty one was where aliens were like dissected and UFOs 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:12.560 tested and all of that, because we do know that 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:17.480 that's where the Utwo spyplane was tested. And so I 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:21.160 think that by getting this idea of aliens out there 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.600 during the Cold War, it could have saved maybe some 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:29.800 difficulties and tensions that were happening with the Soviet Union 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:31.239 when we were just building stuff. 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:31.960 To spy on them. 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:36.360 I think that Benjamin Franklin was a grifter with a 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.360 great pr team. I live in Philadelphia, so his image 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:42.400 is everywhere. To a degree I find suspicious. He's credited 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:46.320 with inventing basically everything from electricity to bifocals to modern 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:48.680 day fire insurance. And I don't believe that one little 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:51.560 guy achieved all of this alone. He was never actually president, 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.800 but was somehow always there as an advisor and Elon 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:57.920 Musk kind of fraudster, the ideas guy with a big checkbook. 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:00.680 I just feel like it's extremely possible. All that everyone 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:02.880 hated him and he was a bad hang, but his 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:04.600 reputation has been scrubbed clean. 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:12.040 My theory is that Michael Jackson was a costrato. I 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:15.920 think there's a lot of reasons for that. Obviously, you know, 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:19.320 his voice never changed. He was making a lot of 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:24.560 money as a kid with a voice that hadn't changed yet. 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.640 I feel like I'm going crazy because it seems very obvious. 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:34.160 Hey, guys, be fine of your show here. I have 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:38.160 a conspiracy theory. The cosmetics industry is totally evil. That 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:42.440 stuff is essentially junk, synthetic junk. They selled you that, 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:49.000 and then they selled you the remedy to fix that 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.840 damage they have caused. The cosmetics industry is selling you 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.040 at the same time the poison and the cure. 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:03.080 I think that Tesla cyber trucks are a government contracting play. 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:06.600 So Tesla does not care about these cars meeting some 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.480 big consumer market. They don't need to sell well, they 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:11.560 don't care about bringing down the price. Doesn't matter to that. 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:14.320 Tesla is happy to have these kind of high rollers 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:16.760 kind of test out their weird car, and then in 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:19.040 a few years their plan is going to be to 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.440 secure some government contract and make the cyber truck the 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:23.920 official state car of the US. 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:25.400 That's my conspiracy theory. 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.640 Like I said, maybe not that spicy, but I'm very 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:29.360 attached to it. 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.360 So there's actually a pretty funny study that came out 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:54.360 of the University of Oxford. It took a look at 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:58.720 the viability of some of the more popular conspiracy theories, 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:03.800 like the moon landing hoax for example. Basically, they wanted 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:06.639 to see how many people would have to be involved 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:11.760 in such a conspiracy and also how long it would 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:16.440 take for that conspiracy theory to fall apart, because someone 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:19.560 inevitably would have to let it slip. Essentially, in the study, 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:22.320 this is called the failure time, the amount of time 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:24.760 it would take for the conspiracy theory to kind of 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:29.520 fall apart. The study calculated the failure time by essentially 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:36.600 studying other known famous scandals and seeing how long it 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:39.679 took those to kind of fall apart. All right, So 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:43.000 for the moon landing hoax, all right, we're talking about 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:46.919 peak NASA employment. How many people were working at NASA 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:52.680 at the time, four hundred and eleven thousand employees. According 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:56.639 to the study, it would take approximately three and a 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:01.639 half years before the employees like, you know, let it slip. 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:06.359 That's pretty impressive. Eleven and three. I would think not 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:07.040 all being paid. 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:09.520 Well yeah, I mean I think about a couple of 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:13.159 months if that oh yeah, that being said not to 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:15.960 be that guy, but not everyone at NASA needed to 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:16.760 know that it was fake. 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:17.280 Yeah. 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:20.080 Yeah, that's a good point. But I would say that 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:24.119 maybe if someone at NASA who wasn't involved with the 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:28.280 moon landing, they're probably still smart enough to know how 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:30.680 many people it would take to put someone on the moon. Yes, 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:33.640 and so if they knew the team size or whatever, yeah, 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:35.439 you might be able to be like, well that's fishy 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:36.920 if it's only taking five people. 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:39.080 Yeah, yeah, only on this project. 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:40.120 Yeah. 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:43.560 Another conspiracy theory that this study looked at was the 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:47.440 suppression of the cancer cure. So this idea that these 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:51.560 institutions could find a cure for cancer or already have 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:53.639 a cure for cancer, but won't release it because they 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.600 can make more money by treating cancer, that would take 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:00.520 three point one seven years to fall apart, according to 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:01.040 the study. 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:04.439 Well that one, it's like, no, you just say we 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:06.439 have the cares, it's gonna cost you a lot of 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:07.119 money to get it. 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:10.919 Well, have you guys seen Common Side Effects on HBO? 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:11.720 No, I need to. 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:16.320 Yeah, I'll recommend this to our listeners. Basically, it's this 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.040 animated show. It's by some of the people who did 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:23.360 King of the Hill, and it's about big pharma suppressing 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:26.400 a magic mushroom that's like a cure all for all 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:30.440 kinds of diseases. It's really funny and it's also really smart. 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:32.320 It makes you think a lot about how the healthcare 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:36.160 system is set up in this country. And honestly, it's 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.320 hilarious to hear the voice of Hank Hill being like 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:40.840 a pharma executive. 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:43.920 They brought me in, a CEO with one job settled 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:46.560 a huge fucking lawsuit that's coming at us because of 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:49.680 the depression and the suicidal thoughts that were a side 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:54.680 effect allegedly of spumaiva, which you know, no one talks 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:56.920 about how much arthritis we alleviated. 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:03.520 But fine, So the he's in I wanted to discuss 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:07.720 this today is because I recently listened to another podcast 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:11.840 called Alternate Realities. It's by a friend of mine named 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:16.280 Zach Mack. He's a reporter, a journalist and a podcaster. 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:19.520 And the whole show is about trying to convince his 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:25.760 father to stop believing in kind of QAnon conspiracy theories. 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:30.159 Since he has done a three episode piece on this, 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:31.920 I felt like he'd be a good person to get 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:34.960 in here and talk about you know what exactly would 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:39.840 it take to convince someone that their crazy conspiracy theory 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:43.119 is not true? So that's after the break. 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:50.080 It's called de Niana's freedom of speech. No, it's called 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:55.640 num of speech. It's misinformation. Now, who gets the right 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:59.840 to label it misinformation? When all these things happen, then 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:02.960 you will realize that I'm not as big a crackpot 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:05.159 as you think I am, and that these are not 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:10.479 conspiracy theories. These are reality. You're going to go, wow, 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:14.560 that's amazing. How did he know that? 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:18.359 That was a clip from Alternate Realities, a three episode 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:22.480 story that you can find on NPR's embedded series. We're 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:25.960 here with the creator of that show, Zach Mack. He's 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:28.800 a producer, he's a journalist, and he's a homie. He's 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:30.360 a friend of the pod. Thanks for being. 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:31.879 Here, Yeah, yeah, thanks for having me. 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:34.600 I listened to the show. It's incredible. It made me 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:37.919 tear up. It made me, you know, roller coaster of emotions. 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:40.000 But for people who haven't listened to it, could you 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:42.959 give us like a little premise, you know, walk us 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:46.400 through what happens. 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:50.280 Yeah, my father has been falling down the conspiracy rabbit 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:53.040 hole over the couple of years, last few years, and 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:56.280 a little over a year ago I had confronted him 0:21:56.320 --> 0:21:59.520 about it, and of course he didn't want to hear me. 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:02.760 We had just been having these same like circular arguments. 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:05.760 And what he did next surprise me, which is he 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:10.200 challenged me to a ten thousand dollars bet that ten 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:14.879 of his predictions, they're very like politically apocalyptic predictions that 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:16.879 he all believed was going to come true by the 0:22:16.960 --> 0:22:19.359 end of the year. So we made this bet early 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:21.800