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A weird conversation
#1
A weird conversation
I have a friend that I've known since high school and I'm pretty sure I just pissed him off.  A little history, he has tried, in the past, to convince me of a 9/11 conspiracy, global warming (he got that one right, to his credit) and, a year or so ago, EVPs.  He was recording static and then filtering it all to hell until he could, almost without fail, pick out words which had meaning to him, including his name.

Today, it was the Mandela Effect, except with a Matrix twist.  For those of you who aren't familiar (I actually came across this a couple years or so ago), the Mandela Effect is essentially a collective misremembering of facts or events.  It is named for Nelson Mandela, who many believed had died in prison in the 1980s, but who really died decades later in 2013.  Apparently tons of people thought that he had died in the 1980s.  There was probably some news coverage which people misunderstood or something and it became "common knowledge", but it was wrong.

He gave me a couple of examples from movies today.  In Forest Gump  the quote we all know, "Life is like a box of chocolates" is actually "Life was like a box of chocolates".  From Field of Dreams the quote was all know, "If you build it, they will come" is actually "If you build it, he will come".

This, of course, is easily explained.  I watched the scenes.  In Forest Gump it's kind of ambiguous.  It could go either way.  If you aren't paying attention your mind will fill in the ambiguous blank with whatever sounds right to you.  In Field of Dreams the voice is a whisper.  It does clearly say "he", when you're paying attention.  But who is paying that close of attention, specifically, to 2 seconds out of a 90 minute movie?  Most movie quotes aren't that memorable to us until they become a meme.  One person quotes it wrong, it "sounds right" and it spreads, we all think it's right.  I sure as hell wouldn't re-watch either of those crappy movies to make sure they got the quote exactly right.  Baseball is what I'll be forced to think about in Hell.  It sounds right, good enough.

He, of course, had a different explanation.  Aliens!  Or the Matrix!  Or CERN creating micro-black holes, melding our reality with an alternate reality!  He kept mentioning "the powers that be" as if there was also some conspiracy to cover it up.  His "best evidence" was that at some awards show, Carson or someone discussed the movie quotes we would always remember and then mis-quotes one with what everyone believes is correct.

The way he set it up in his head was that he had all these examples.  These were his "evidence".  Any one piece of evidence could take a hit.  It could be dismissed and there would be no problem, you still have all the rest.  And this is a common believer tactic.  You have all this "evidence" which supports your preconceived belief system and what someone who isn't convinced has to do is prove ALL OF IT is wrong, at which point you go out and look for more.

I wasn't a jerk to him or anything.  He is my friend, albeit the looniest of friends I have.  By by the end he was saying, "This is what willful ignorance looks like to me" and he ended up abruptly leaving.  Hell, I didn't even come back with what I was thinking, "This is what moron looks like to me".

I frigging hate this.  When a mind is so steeped in belief that the person is not even willing to accept that skepticism is not an attack on them it really pisses me off.  I'm not asking that he even get half a damned brain and realize that skepticism is the rational approach to such a ludicrous claim.  Hell, I couldn't even nail down what his claim was.  He gave no mechanism by which this would happen, though he did have some "possible" explanations with no evidence that those were actually possible.  He gave no reason why the "powers that be" would be interested in randomly changing movies.  And we didn't even get to the question of, if reality were changed, why didn't it change in our memories as well?  And we only briefly touched on how our memories are inherently unreliable.  He cut me off a couple of times before I could even explain the processes and examples behind that.

These people act like they want open discussion, but they don't.  He didn't.  He was interested in only one thing, bringing someone else into his fantasy.  Since I wasn't immediately ready to hop on board the crazy train with him he got pissed off, insulted me and left.  To be fair, the insult wasn't an attack on me, it was a defense mechanism to help him keep a firm hold on the crazy shit he was spouting, but it does make me question how good a friend one of my oldest friends is given that he will gladly give me a big "fuck you" just to hold onto some ridiculous beliefs of government/alien/black hole/computer things randomly changing lines from movies in a big underwear-gnome style conspiracy.  Step one, randomly change well known movie lines.  Step two, ????  Step three, profit!
Have you ever noticed all the drug commercials on TV lately?  Why is it the side effects never include penile enlargement or super powers?
Side effects may include super powers or enlarged penis which may become permanent with continued use.  Stop taking Killatol immediately and consult your doctor if you experience penis enlargement of more than 3 inches, laser vision, superhuman strength, invulnerability, the ability to explode heads with your mind or time travel.  Killatoll is not for everyone, especially those who already have convertibles or vehicles of ridiculous size to supplement penis size.
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#2
RE: A weird conversation
TL;DR..


But just hit him anyway...
No God, No fear.
Know God, Know fear.
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#3
RE: A weird conversation
Aliens?

That's just silly.

We all know that the Zionists are behind everything.

Except milkshakes, of course.
Dying to live, living to die.
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#4
RE: A weird conversation
Quote:He, of course, had a different explanation.  Aliens!  Or the Matrix!  Or CERN creating micro-black holes, melding our reality with an alternate reality!  He kept mentioning "the powers that be" as if there was also some conspiracy to cover it up.  His "best evidence" was that at some awards show, Carson or someone discussed the movie quotes we would always remember and then mis-quotes one with what everyone believes is correct.

And you are just pissing him off now?  Sounds like you haven't really been trying.
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#5
RE: A weird conversation
Actually, this could explain why I lost a pub quiz once because of the question, "Who, in Star Wars, said 'Will someone get this walking carpet out of my way?"'

I said, "Leia'.

The answer the moron had, and accepted, was "Han."

So this wasn't a case of someone's utter stupidity when it came to all things Star Wars, but an Alien Conspiracy!

Fuck you, aliens, you owe me a $200 bar tab! Bastards!!
Dying to live, living to die.
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#6
RE: A weird conversation
I remember my first joint!
God thinks it's fun to confuse primates. Larsen's God!






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#7
RE: A weird conversation
Those damned aliens also fucked up one of my favorite movie lines.  They apparently made a "director's cut" of the movie Army of Darkness where Ash never said, "Good, bad, I'm the one with the gun."  I watched the whole movie just to see that line it it wasn't there!  Why do they hate us so???

You know, this believer mindset just has me fascinated right now.  The way he set it up in his head he had all this "evidence" to make his case.  His evidence was nothing more than a list of examples.  I could shoot down any of them and it didn't bother him.  If I shot down all of them, no problem.  He would just go look up more.  He set it up in his head to be absolutely impossible to dismiss as the nonsense it is.  I have seen this before, of course, but never so pronounced.  This was the first time I had talked to someone who didn't give a rat's ass about the particular examples.  He was perfectly willing to let go of any and all of them because he knew he could find hundreds more in an afternoon.

UFO fanatics are similar, but instead they focus on particular pieces of their "evidence".  They aren't willing to give an inch until you prove, beyond doubt, that they are wrong on that one.  Then they pretend the conversation never happened and move on to the next thing.  They obsess over whatever the flavor of the day is until it is shot down, then move on to the next.

But I've never seen it before where the believer just doesn't care about their "evidence" because it's so abundant.  If I had to guess I would say that it's because the concept is so very vague and the "evidence" so easy to find and memorize that it just didn't matter.  I shoot down your five favorites you go spend an hour on the Internet sorting through to memorize the best six you can find and your case is stronger than ever.  I really need a degree in psychology because studying this would be absolutely fascinating.

Of course, given that his beliefs have gotten wackier over the years it's very possible my friend needs a med adjustment and has been neglecting his appointments for a few years.  And I'm serious about that, he talked like a crazy person yesterday.  He was afraid to even mention it to me at first, but was bursting to do so at the same time.  He doesn't just believe this, it is a part of the alternate reality he has woven around himself.  Ah, crazy people.  What would we do without them?  Oh yeah, I would have gotten some work done.
Have you ever noticed all the drug commercials on TV lately?  Why is it the side effects never include penile enlargement or super powers?
Side effects may include super powers or enlarged penis which may become permanent with continued use.  Stop taking Killatol immediately and consult your doctor if you experience penis enlargement of more than 3 inches, laser vision, superhuman strength, invulnerability, the ability to explode heads with your mind or time travel.  Killatoll is not for everyone, especially those who already have convertibles or vehicles of ridiculous size to supplement penis size.
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