Modern Controversial Myths and Legends

Favorite Modern Controversial Myths and Legends:

The moon landings – supposedly a recent Chinese exploration found no evidence of them . To reach the Moon, spacecraft must pass through regions of intense ionizing radiation called Van Allen radiation belts; the principle danger of the Van Allen belts is high-energy protons, which are not that difficult to shield against. Apollo navigators plotted a course through the thinnest parts of the belts and arranged for the spacecraft to pass through them quickly, limiting the exposure, but it’s claimed that NASA now believes that traveling through the belts will kill passengers of any craft with just the shielding they know how to provide. This is rebutted by claims that whole-body exposure from belt passage is roughly the same as a chest x-ray, and exposure for an entire moon trip is the same as from one to three mammograms, or half the annual exposure of residents of Denver CO.

JFK assassination – sealed Warren Commission report, in 1979, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that Kennedy was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy”

Jet stream cloud seeding and ChemTrails - chemicals deliberately sprayed into the air by jets

Bilderberger Lizard people new world order conspiracy

Global warming, climate change and human environmental impact

Christians are Christian. Well, many Christians are Christian, but in the USA, maybe half are bitter, vindictive haters, vehemently opposed to about everything Jesus is reputed to have preached for in the "Sermon on the Mount" - it's become mixed with White Supremacy and support for Trump, gun advocacy, oppression of women and the poor, and self-defeating nationalism.

Organ theft – I saw on a Steven Segal TV show a bunch of harvested organs in a beer cooler. Made sense to someone I guess

GMOs save the world - GMO foods have been consumed in American for over 15 years. Though no adverse effects have been noted this is not the same as being proven safe. It means no causal link has been established between GMO consumption and a specific disease. GMO foods are mainly found in corn, sugar, canola and soy products, and this includes many cereal products, tortilla chips and protein bars which contain GMO ingredients. It is also contested that aspartame, riboflavin, beta-carotene and glucose could be derived from GMO corn and added to many products. There is huge controversy over the issue in the U.S.A, particularly over whether foods containing GMO ingredients should be labeled or not. It is without question that the tactics used by the main producer of GMO foods and science, Monsanto, are questionable at best. There is also question over whether GMO foods are bad for the environment. GMO foods are made to be resistant to roundup/glyphosate, a weed killer produced by Monsanto. There has been a 10 fold increase in the use of roundup in the past 15 years, and Monsanto are the only company who have the seeds for roundup resistant crops. The increased use of roundup could affect crops and find its way into the food supply. This has also created hyper weeds which are resistant to roundup, and many organic and small time farmers are now struggling against these super weeds.

Vaccinations and inoculations – some believe that the shots actually make our immune systems weaker as they make us more dependent on them than ourselves. Our bodies are naturally designed to fight viruses and bacteria and to keep our bodies from doing this makes our natural immune system weaker. A human given vaccines for a variety of different diseases will result in a weakened human overall.

Abiotic oil and loss of subterranean cooling system - popularized by books such as Thomas Gold’s Deep Hot Biosphere. rapidly rising streams of compressed methane gas reach the crust from the mantle, and when they strike pockets of high temperature they condense into heavier hydrocarbons like crude oil.

WTC 911 - the collapse of the Twin Towers and 7 World Trade Center were the result of a controlled demolition rather than structural failure due to impact and fire.

Water fluoridation – fluoride, a neurotoxic chemical found in industrial waste as a byproduct of aluminum extraction, had no use until it was noticed that it dumbs down mental capabilities (as does aluminum). There is evidence to support that fluoride is not at all related to the prevention of tooth decay. Children who drink fluoride have lower IQs than those whose water is not fluoridated. Many studies have confirmed it ineffective in preventing cavities. Fluoride is absolutely toxic, should not be consumed by anyone, and there’s a clear and established link between lower IQ and fluoridation levels.

MK-Ultra - a CIA experiment in behavioral programming and engineering, from 1953 to 1973. Experiments conducted on unwitting humans and children included torture, verbal and sexual abuse, electrical and chemical shock, the effects of stress on humans, interrogation techniques, subsonic and vibrational disorientation, drugs, radiation, genetic research, brainwashing, the use of prostitutes by agents, gases and poisons. The US government has also done other chemical and biological experiments on unsuspecting members of its populace, with some instances well documented.

BigPharma: many conspiracy theories revolve around pharmaceutical companies and their in profiting by keeping people sick and dependent on their drugs (rather than actually curing their illnesses). Moreover, pharmaceutical companies are also said to invent and brand many things that are not diseases or disorders and then create the treatments to generate a steady income stream of people treating non-existent or greatly exaggerated diseases. It’s also said that many drug companies work with the government to create monopolies and raise the entry-barriers for smaller drug companies to compete, by making it tricky for smaller companies to introduce a superior products (particularly by limited issuance of approval from the FDA and other government agencies).

Deliberate Dumbing Down of Education - For decades the school systems throughout the US and other countries have dramatically declined. It seems to be in the best interest of people in power to have a population smart enough to work as a slave, but not smart enough to free themselves from bondage. Many schools focus on treating children like robots; most focus on memorization rather than creativity. Schools teach children what to think as opposed to how to think. As a result children grow up to be much more docile towards taking orders and going with the flow. People less likely to question their reality or their government are much, much more easily manipulated.

These stories result from well-merited mistrust of government, which does little or nothing to fix that problem.

a Mythorelics introduction; where we are

Is it that we are lied to, deceived, led astray or misinformed? Hardly clear, except insofar as that we greatly need to further develop our knowledge and understanding of things. Much of the information we've relied on for decision-making has proven unreliable (at best). Politics and economics may be mostly matters of opinion, with little in the way of proof available, but we like to think of math, physics, history and medicine as involving hard fact; they don't. In many of my posts, I attempt to refute some common misunderstandings of things I don't regard as matters of opinion, despite that truth has been seen by many a wise mind as, in the words of Charles Sanders Pearce, "that opinion to which all who investigate sufficiently are fated to arrive." I certainly don't know about that "fated", but do know that attention to real investigation can reveal surprising things, things which those who pay sufficient attention need find no reason to argue about. Sorry to end a sentence with a preposition, but perhaps we'd best re-think a lot of our "rules" in better light than has gone into many of our social conventions (and expectations).

For lots more important information on significant ways in which we are continuously, and harmfully, deceived, see "Debt: The first five thousand years" by David Graeber and "The Story of B" by Daniel Quinn.

In hunter-gatherer and many other non-agricultural societies, women often do laborious, repetitive tasks while men indolently laze about. On occasion the men will hunt, fight or otherwise exert themselves strenuously, maybe with utilization of cunning, imagination and/or determination, but jockeying for position within their ranks is as important as any actual outcome of these activities. A few will somewhat simultaneously both mature and become leaders, while the majority will remain more surly and petulant than is seemly. The more modern and less sexist may well find good reason to look down on this kind of “social structuring” and its attitudes, sexism and indulgence, but the truth is that the demands of the hunt and protective warfare are not infrequently quite great, and one not well rested and catered to may have greater likelihood of proving inadequate to what becomes required. That hardly seems unlikely, anyway.
Men who “put out” strenuously in competitive performances still get respect and indulgence that others, even the more responsible and courteous, too often do not - at least somewhat because they maintain a “cutting edge” that helps keep their society and culture viable and alive. This explanation is hardly meant to exculpate or excuse, but only to help us understand that which occurs, which has come to include many
Problems: the dirty dozen set to destroy us 1.Power centralization leading to insanely venal politicians, bankers and corporate CEOs helping unaccountable lending institutions irresponsibly control everything, undermining not only all quality everywhere, but even any pretense of sanity, and economic orientation towards increased wealth for the already obscenely wealthy, with legal impunity for the rich, and consequent irresponsibility, until all but .01% are debt slaves at best, and able to buy only shoddy merchandise
2. Overpopulation (especially of useless people), plus dwindling resources, including even clean air and water, coupled with increased demand and an overabundance of garbage
3. Global warming, other dangerous weather and loss of ozone and other protective atmosphere
4. Loss of biodiversity, and especially of pollinators and other flying things that eat mosquitoes
5. No meaningful future even for our younger generations, let alone subsequent ones
6. Weapons proliferation, both private and governmental, endless war and its aftermath of further ruinations
7. Radiation, from bombs, nuclear energy plants and the earth’s center, from depletion of the earth-crust cooling system of water and oil
8. Ocean death from human waste, over-fishing, acidification and rising temperature
9. Loss of effective nutrition (GMOS, processing, mono-culture, preservatives, etc)
10. Epidemic disease worsened by antibiotic resistance
11. Prevalence of political corruption, duplicity and secrecy, including our obdurate failures with hemp and solar, leading to endless revolution
12. Desperate, ill-informed, angry folk with serious debt and health issues easily making for willing suicide bombers (with some able to parachute, para-sail or use creative imagination)

Do our elections in any way help restrain mega-corps? Do we benefit from megacorp “wealth creation”? Are there “terrorists” who want to end freedom and chance for personal improvement? How many of us even mind being lied to?

Those who benefit most from governmental support for business must pay for that support, or the supposedly free marketplace ceases to function efficiently, as wealth is siphoned off from the system. The myths of corporate personhood and “trickle-down economics” are large parts of this problem; so also are our systems of lobbying and campaign finance. Poor education and propagandistic media bought and paid for by corporate oligarchs certainly don’t help.
To keep the dollar strong and reinvigorate US employment, the military-industrial complex MUST be reigned in. There can be no balanced budget with the enormous, irresponsible outlay of lives and resources, and damage to international standing and credit, our reckless, militaristic folly has brought. Why stifle standards of living at home while spending with great abandon abroad?
We all know that utilization of “alternative” resources has become necessary, yet we don’t investigate whether there are unused patents on heavy battery technology. We don’t utilize THC-free hemp and its valuable oil and fiber. We don’t seek to curtail the waste of excess packaging. Nor do we care much about mass transportation, except by air – a form we’ve now made horribly inconvenient. Our foods are no longer really nutritious, our clothing is too expensive and steeped in vanity, and our housing arrangements self-indulgent without offering much benefit to the social needs of children. We’ve become so misguided our conversation centers mostly around entertainment, indulgences and petty hatreds. We demand, but do not respect.
For freedom under democracy, responsibility to the needs of society must be accepted. True citizens cannot be as lazy and compliant as we have been. We have let others do our work for us, and they have done it to their own benefit, not ours.

Agro-fascism and societal law calcifying pyramidal patriarchal social-structuring took perhaps half of history as we know it (history involving at least place-names used contemporaneously) to coalesce, but by the time the founder of intentionally-recorded history, Herodotus, wrote, a vicious culture of forceful, regimented work-addiction was achieving domination over the human condition, forcing us inexorably towards our own destruction. The destruction of other cultures and forms of life, to foster our addiction to economically militant growth, as a way of life, inevitably leads to its own destruction, an event swiftly descending upon us.

Politically, economically and even spiritually the most pressing issues are genetic modification and global warming. GMOs are threatening our very lives, no exaggeration. They demand increasingly lethal chemicals (pesticides, fertilizers, mechanization agents), and harm pollinators, which harms us. They demand mono-culture farming, which destabilizes the whole ecosystem. And they make people stupider, which undermines democracy. Even work towards less violence is less important. Monsanto and other agribiz companies must be reigned in.
And speaking of people being made stupider, our water supply must be better protected. No fracking, and no more fluoride added to the supply. We’ve got to keep BigPharma’s chemicals out of our drinking supply too.
What we pathetically call alternative energy must become mainstream. Big money must be taken out of politics, and small businesses again given a chance. Gerrymandering must be redressed, and government made more transparent, accountable and peace oriented.
These things can be well addressed within the next four years. After the next US congressional election, perhaps hemp can be brought back, making a big dent in global warming. We’ve got a small chance now. If we don’t seize it, there’ll be no reason to expect reasonable behavior from our youth.

We've only split atoms already radioactive; although the results have been deemed desirable, the true expense has yet to be calculated, and likely high beyond measure. As our scientists don't really know what they've done, how can the theory be seen as adequate? Seems to me rather more madness than brilliance, and that we've been duped. Now other scientists are transferring genetic material without accompanying genetic sheathes, which is likely to produce even more disastrous consequences.

In a hydrogen bomb, no hydrogen atom is split; rather, two atoms of a hydrogen isotope are fused. To fuse them, atoms of plutonium or uranium isotopes are split. As Britannica says, “The radioactive fallout contaminates air, water, and soil and may continue years after the explosion; its distribution is virtually worldwide.” Some helium, with a heavier nucleus than that of hydrogen, is formed, too… An H-bomb requires an A-bomb; nuclear energy gets released (explosively) by both nuclear fusion and nuclear fission. There’s always radioactive waste - which presents much danger and no utility.
Robert Oppenheimer, who developed the A-bomb as head of the Manhattan Project, refused to support development of the H-bomb. Considering the negative consequences which resulted (largely through Sen. Jos. McCarthy), he surely had very good reason to do so. Pity more of our “geniuses” don’t have that kind of vision…
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed – and thus clamorous to be led to safety – by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” – H. L. Mencken
"When politicians have achieved office by scaring the living day lights out of the electorate, they correctly perceive an outbreak of peace as a threat to their interests. Journalists support them partly because
they celebrate power regardless of its complexion and partly because war makes better copy than peace." - George Monbiot

Without claiming this to be an idea entirely clear or coalesced, I wish to present something that has been kicking around in my head for a while. The US Senate, being already an oligarchic entity, could be made more pragmatic, and the Legislative Branch of US government perhaps made more effective by rearrangement of the elective process. Half of the Senate chosen in the traditional way, the other half could be chosen from votes of the total populace, each eligible voter allocated from one to five votes: one vote automatic to citizens over 18; one to completers of 2 years of accredited college or passing a standard test (more demanding than that for a GED), attempts limited to once every 3 years; one for total tax payments of over $3000 (or a certain % of something), another for real property ownership of over $40,000 (or a certain % of something) and one for 2 years of government service or an equivalent of community service. Representatives to the House would be chosen as normal, but allocation to states redistributed so that states of smaller populations aren’t as disproportionately represented.
To clean up our act:
1. The legal fiction of corporate "personhood" must end, now.
2. Military expenditures must be reduced, and all National Guard recalled to within national borders.
3. Political campaign finance must be reformed to lessen money's undermining of democracy.
4. Our tax laws must be simplified and made equitable, so that the rich will pay their share and others not depend so much on tax accountants.
5. Marijuana must be decriminalized and taxed, and marijuana prisoners released.
6. The Federal Reserve Bank must be fully nationalized and the government allowed to stop borrowing.
7. A jobs program instituting aspects of the CCC, WPA, VISTA and community radio must be begun.
8. As cleaning the whole water supply would now be impractical, free drinking water in glass bottles must be provided with easy access to all.
9. The educational system must be revitalized and improved to prepare our kids to compete in a world market.
10. The Supreme Court needs to reclaim some integrity - Anthony Scalia and Clarence Thomas must be removed.
11. The EPA must be truly empowered, and corporations in the 3rd World encouraged to act responsibly.
12. The USA must become a prime defender, not prime violator, of international law.

If we are to survive, our irresponsibility, and the nightmare of our national folly, must end.
Not that I expect comment – I’m sure other issues presented here are much more interesting, and they haven’t really gleaned anything…