We've all heard Reagan's 'Trust, but verify'; there is a corollary to that as well. Doubt, but verify.
"Research shows that eyewitness testimony is among the least reliable forms of evidence and is maximally susceptible to bias."
This is very true and I did not realize it until I had been the victim of a crime. Several years ago, I was walking down the street downtown SF with a friend at lunch. The next thing I knew I was staring at the sky. Guy had body slammed me to the ground. It turned out he did it in front of a cop so he was arrested and he pled guilty so it didn't go to court, but several days later, even though the guy sat there in handcuffs glaring at me, I realized that if I had to pick him out of a lineup, I am not sure I would have been able to do it. That experience made me skeptical of the so called gold star eye witnesses.
Thank you, Arn! I took a detour from your current piece on the Middle East to read this (linked) & once again, you hit all the nails - Sept d’un Coup!
Important stuff here. Great wisdom shared, with your usual generosity of spirit & perspicacity. Needed armor and sword as we navigate forth, hoping to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves.
I want to remark on one paragraph concerning the mirages we so easily become mired in unawares, so certain are we of our rightness .
I had my own eyes quite forcefully opened to all this with the Maui fires and their — I found myself uniquely equipped to navigate the various narratives, being intimate with that part of the island & all of the the various disparate elements of the story and know enough as well
about fires & weather (historic & current — also able to ask the right questions & fact check). I also
read all the mundane & not so mundane prior history & reports, geography, etc....all of which which just wasn’t provocative enough or too deep, for those who desired a particular conspiracy, to dive deeper than necessary to confirm whatever their respective biases & bents happen to be (and so forming their connected dots & rabbit trails too) The conclusions, therefore, were steeped in ignorance and easily pointed them to certain conspiracies.
But I noticed there was also clear evidence of contrivance (! ). For example, narratives purveyed and undeniable evidence of photo manipulation such as greyed out videos & photos (but with certain objects color drenched (!). [Miles Mathis is correct about the photo-shopping, although he’s woefully ignorant in his other assertions & speculations & he allows those to predicate his wrong conclusions.)
People were relying on “trusted” alt, “inside” & even local (“real story”) sources, the ensuing confusion on the ground, unreliable & sloppy news reporting, and the long-endemic corruption of Maui’s local officials.
If what happened was a conspiracy, it was a conspiracy of dunces and ne’er-do-wells.
The shocking part to me was how previously assumed rational alt writers — influencers — so easily suspended skepticism & logic to promote elaborate nonfacts and misdirection. I had to conclude many were willing players, purveyors of fiction in order to discredit. It was then that I realized ”...the conspiracy of conspiracies.”
For it was in the machinated narratives that followed the fire where the real conspiracy is to be found. Although I don’t know why yet, I am certain of my conclusion. The false contrived bits of sweets carefully placed to be found by lost children and lead them right to the witches candy house.
“Say that you are having a real conspiracy, or a real hidden agenda, and you know that a few elements of it are publicly discoverable. Weak points in your overall scheme, so you will. Impossible to 100% hide or camouflage.
…So, what to do? Have some tinfoil hat nutcases start writing about it online. Write books. Talk about greys and aliens, and other such claims. The more outlandish, the better. And, importantly, mixed into it those few elements you could not 100% conceal yourself.”
… I would add in the case of Maui: talk about wealthy DS oligarchs, hidden agendas, “secret” advanced warfare technology …and unique factors — a remote and VERY idiosyncratic place.
It’s so easy to exloit o populace who is set upon by so much already. Ripe we are ! — suspicious and now inured to normal & natural narratives after so many lies and so much foul play. But we’re lazy, too, and so susceptible to whatever plays on our new-found skepticism. These days, in our appetite for the sensational, we will skip over the pedestrian fare in the smorgasbord set before us, and reach only for the exotic fare.
*They* can run circles around us, I’m afraid. Simple, honest folks seldom have the bandwidth to apprehend the wily and complex machinations of the evil we’re up against. We “truth-seekers”, not living in the world of guile nor having any liking for it, though we know it is *their* world, we have a very hard time recognizing guile when we see it. We fail to see how deep it goes & how easily we are beguiled by & so controlled by these complexly controlled narratives.
We must guard against our own trust in men, I found, to my frustration and dismay. We must be wise as serpents and yet gentle as doves.
You help so much by telling us the how and the why of hijacked narratives, as succinctly as any I’ve seen. This is of utmost importance to understand (and “reporters” should include substack writers, etc & online info gurus. )
Sather’s list is thus invaluable, too, for honing our BS detectors. That plus all the other armaments provided here & in pt 8 (presumptively — will be reading that one next, then finishing the one that rerouted me here!)
Your wise and thorough writing and great integrity are so very appreciated!
Very informative! I had not considered Apophenia and Pareidolia when describing a similar phenomenon I call Perceptual Trans-identification. Two or three of my substack articles on this:
We've all heard Reagan's 'Trust, but verify'; there is a corollary to that as well. Doubt, but verify.
"Research shows that eyewitness testimony is among the least reliable forms of evidence and is maximally susceptible to bias."
This is very true and I did not realize it until I had been the victim of a crime. Several years ago, I was walking down the street downtown SF with a friend at lunch. The next thing I knew I was staring at the sky. Guy had body slammed me to the ground. It turned out he did it in front of a cop so he was arrested and he pled guilty so it didn't go to court, but several days later, even though the guy sat there in handcuffs glaring at me, I realized that if I had to pick him out of a lineup, I am not sure I would have been able to do it. That experience made me skeptical of the so called gold star eye witnesses.
The absolute necessity of crital, detached thinking.
Thank you, Arn! I took a detour from your current piece on the Middle East to read this (linked) & once again, you hit all the nails - Sept d’un Coup!
Important stuff here. Great wisdom shared, with your usual generosity of spirit & perspicacity. Needed armor and sword as we navigate forth, hoping to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves.
I want to remark on one paragraph concerning the mirages we so easily become mired in unawares, so certain are we of our rightness .
I had my own eyes quite forcefully opened to all this with the Maui fires and their — I found myself uniquely equipped to navigate the various narratives, being intimate with that part of the island & all of the the various disparate elements of the story and know enough as well
about fires & weather (historic & current — also able to ask the right questions & fact check). I also
read all the mundane & not so mundane prior history & reports, geography, etc....all of which which just wasn’t provocative enough or too deep, for those who desired a particular conspiracy, to dive deeper than necessary to confirm whatever their respective biases & bents happen to be (and so forming their connected dots & rabbit trails too) The conclusions, therefore, were steeped in ignorance and easily pointed them to certain conspiracies.
But I noticed there was also clear evidence of contrivance (! ). For example, narratives purveyed and undeniable evidence of photo manipulation such as greyed out videos & photos (but with certain objects color drenched (!). [Miles Mathis is correct about the photo-shopping, although he’s woefully ignorant in his other assertions & speculations & he allows those to predicate his wrong conclusions.)
People were relying on “trusted” alt, “inside” & even local (“real story”) sources, the ensuing confusion on the ground, unreliable & sloppy news reporting, and the long-endemic corruption of Maui’s local officials.
If what happened was a conspiracy, it was a conspiracy of dunces and ne’er-do-wells.
The shocking part to me was how previously assumed rational alt writers — influencers — so easily suspended skepticism & logic to promote elaborate nonfacts and misdirection. I had to conclude many were willing players, purveyors of fiction in order to discredit. It was then that I realized ”...the conspiracy of conspiracies.”
For it was in the machinated narratives that followed the fire where the real conspiracy is to be found. Although I don’t know why yet, I am certain of my conclusion. The false contrived bits of sweets carefully placed to be found by lost children and lead them right to the witches candy house.
“Say that you are having a real conspiracy, or a real hidden agenda, and you know that a few elements of it are publicly discoverable. Weak points in your overall scheme, so you will. Impossible to 100% hide or camouflage.
…So, what to do? Have some tinfoil hat nutcases start writing about it online. Write books. Talk about greys and aliens, and other such claims. The more outlandish, the better. And, importantly, mixed into it those few elements you could not 100% conceal yourself.”
… I would add in the case of Maui: talk about wealthy DS oligarchs, hidden agendas, “secret” advanced warfare technology …and unique factors — a remote and VERY idiosyncratic place.
It’s so easy to exloit o populace who is set upon by so much already. Ripe we are ! — suspicious and now inured to normal & natural narratives after so many lies and so much foul play. But we’re lazy, too, and so susceptible to whatever plays on our new-found skepticism. These days, in our appetite for the sensational, we will skip over the pedestrian fare in the smorgasbord set before us, and reach only for the exotic fare.
*They* can run circles around us, I’m afraid. Simple, honest folks seldom have the bandwidth to apprehend the wily and complex machinations of the evil we’re up against. We “truth-seekers”, not living in the world of guile nor having any liking for it, though we know it is *their* world, we have a very hard time recognizing guile when we see it. We fail to see how deep it goes & how easily we are beguiled by & so controlled by these complexly controlled narratives.
We must guard against our own trust in men, I found, to my frustration and dismay. We must be wise as serpents and yet gentle as doves.
You help so much by telling us the how and the why of hijacked narratives, as succinctly as any I’ve seen. This is of utmost importance to understand (and “reporters” should include substack writers, etc & online info gurus. )
Sather’s list is thus invaluable, too, for honing our BS detectors. That plus all the other armaments provided here & in pt 8 (presumptively — will be reading that one next, then finishing the one that rerouted me here!)
Your wise and thorough writing and great integrity are so very appreciated!
~D
Very informative! I had not considered Apophenia and Pareidolia when describing a similar phenomenon I call Perceptual Trans-identification. Two or three of my substack articles on this:
https://peterwebster.substack.com/p/cornflake
https://peterwebster.substack.com/p/un-elephant-ca-trompe-enormement