Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The conspiratorial mindset...

Over the weekend past, my brother sent me an email with a link to a youtube video. In his defense he did clarify that he wasn't sure whether he should believe the claims the video, and by extension its author, makes. That video, is embedded within this blog posting. The video is short, about 5 minutes or so and it is important that you watch it in order for the rest of this post is to make ANY sense whatever. It has nothing to do with atheism or religion. If you are anything like me you'll want to take a hot shower and rinse your eyes thoroughly after watching it. Go ahead watch it...I'll wait...



Are you in pain now? Do you have an overwhelming urge to regurgitate your breakfast?

This is the type of non-critical supposition that passes for critical-thinking in our modern age. Putting aside the juvenile spelling errors and the obvious ridiculous claims, this video is case-study cognitive dissonance coupled with confirmation bias. Yet if you follow the video to its source at youtube's site and look at the comments, most show complete agreement with the outlandish and completely air-headed conclusions the author of this video makes. The author has the temerity...nay, audacity to make claims that can be rebuffed with about 90 seconds of research using a search engine.

My point is this: If we don't yell 'BULLSHIT' when we see it or hear it, this stuff has an unholy habit of crowing like a fungus and infecting everything.

Here is the PROPER explanation for the 'reversed flag'. It should be readily apparent to anyone, especially a boy or former boy who has built model airplanes!

I have built countless model airplanes in my life....

Whenever a US flag decal is used, the union, (that’s the blue field of stars) must be pointed in the direction of the travel of the aircraft, such that the flag appears to be advancing in the direction of motion. A little spacial reasoning will demonstrate that on the RIGHT side of the aircraft the flag would need to be reversed to appear advancing. On the LEFT side of the aircraft the flag would appear as we normally see it. Here's two pictures of Air Force One that clearly show this effect:

Right or starboard side, reversed-flag.

Left or port side, standard flag.

It logically follows that the human body is a something that moves. So in practice the SAME rule should apply were the flag to be displayed to the right shoulder as it does to the right side of an aircraft.

Now, the video goes a long way to show that soldiers in the past wore flags on their right shoulder that were NOT reversed. It then offers up a ridiculous explanation for the change. The author clearly has not done any homework. Before 2004 there was no all encompassing Army regulation outlining and mandating the proper wearing of a US flag on the uniform. Generally this was done of the soldiers own volition or under the direction of that soldiers unit. It should follow that there were no 'reversed flag' patches available even if the soldiers KNEW about the arcane rule outlining the proper placement of the 'union' with respect to motion. See this page for a proper treatment of this particular rule.

Further, "Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker approved the uniform item Feb. 11, and all Soldiers have until Oct. 1, 2005 to get the insignia sewn on their uniforms." (Taken from this webpage) Once the Army had a requirement and a policy naturally it was decided that it had better display the flag properly.

So rather than then endeavoring to find the reasons for the reversed flag, the author made a leap of stunning proportions to support what was clearly a deeply held conviction in lunatic conspiracy theories. This is part and parcel for these type of people.....and sadly with the 'dumbing down' of America and the absolute dearth of teaching critical-thinking skills their numbers are growing...

Who is the 'celery' really...?

R.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Uh...wow...celery...huh... well, here we have the rest of the story...

"Regulation 670-2:

When approved for wear, the full-color U.S. flag cloth replica is sewn 1/2 inch below the right shoulder seam of the temperate, hot-weather, enhanced hot-weather, and desert BDU; the BDU field jacket; and the cold-weather uniform. The flag is worn on the right shoulder, because, in the military, the "place of honor" is to a military member's right.

The full-color U.S. flag cloth replica is worn so that the star field faces forward, or to the flag’s own right. When worn in this manner, the flag is facing to the observer’s right, and gives the effect of the flag flying in the breeze as the wearer moves forward.

The rule dates back to the Army's early history, when both mounted cavalry and infantry units would designate a standard bearer, who carried the Colors into battle. As he charged, his forward momentum caused the flag to stream back. Since the Stars and Stripes are mounted with the canton closest to the pole, that section stayed to the right, while the stripes flew to the left."

People actually spend time making stuff like this huh? Amazing...

and ur assumption to my reaction was right on....

Robert said...

You further expounded upon my line of thought...

:-)

R.

b4d6uy said...

But what about the upside down stars on the Republican Party symbol. How do you explain that???

Robert said...

Well clearly those are indeed the mark of Beelzebub!

R.

Robert said...

I mean we ARE talking about the Republican Party here....Satan's minions on Earth! *big grin*

R.

b4d6uy said...

tru dat.

Anonymous said...

The more we study plants we find out that they interact with their environment in many ways similar to humans.

I think celery is probably a lot smarter than the people who made that video.

I can get a laugh out of the video but place don't ask me to listen to that song again.

Anonymous said...

I also want to add who much I loved the "My Wonderful Life" slide show, especially "Blue eyes and chocolate cake".

Robert said...

Welcome Back Ed!

I'm glad to see the cats did not 'do you in' though i am quite sure they considered it!

Yes my little blue-eyed princess is quite fetching. Don't let the her looks deceive... she's got the Lombardi fire. I pity the person who marries her.

R.

Robert said...

PS: It took me days to get that awful 70's crap outta my head!

Anonymous said...

Did you notice the word retribution misspelled two time and in two wring ways on the same slide?

Dan from The Battle Cry

Anonymous said...

And I can't spell either......that's what I get watching football with a notebook in my lap...

Dan