The Off Topic Topic

[Ideologue]

If you ask a putative hooker if she's a cop, she has to tell you.

[Razgovory]

What I don't get is why conspiracy theorists, who seem to be the people who paste that into their facebook info, are also the very people who would believe that legal words/laws/principles would have Any effect in the dark world they imagine we all live in.

My cod-psychoanalysis is that the conspiracy theorist is trying to reclaim a sense of control and personal importance by being the one who possesses the secret knowledge that explains why the world is the way it is.  I think that legal disclaimer is rooted in the same delusion, i.e. that they have discovered the secret fact that government agents can't prosecute you if you tell them not to, that its ignorance/apathy rather than true powerlessness that's keeping people down.

You hit the nail on the head.  It's called "Magical thinking" in psychology.  People who believe in conspiracy theories often have a hard time figuring out cause and effect.  They see a world that is not to their liking and come to the conclusion it's that way because someone designed it that way.  Likewise they think the knowledge of the conspiracy is empowering.

[Admiral Yi]

Cod-psychoanalysis?

[mongers]

What I don't get is why conspiracy theorists, who seem to be the people who paste that into their facebook info, are also the very people who would believe that legal words/laws/principles would have Any effect in the dark world they imagine we all live in.

My cod-psychoanalysis is that the conspiracy theorist is trying to reclaim a sense of control and personal importance by being the one who possesses the secret knowledge that explains why the world is the way it is.  I think that legal disclaimer is rooted in the same delusion, i.e. that they have discovered the secret fact that government agents can't prosecute you if you tell them not to, that its ignorance/apathy rather than true powerlessness that's keeping people down.

You hit the nail on the head.  It's called "Magical thinking" in psychology.  People who believe in conspiracy theories often have a hard time figuring out cause and effect.  They see a world that is not to their liking and come to the conclusion it's that way because someone designed it that way.  Likewise they think the knowledge of the conspiracy is empowering.

Yes, well said, both you and Capt.M. ; I'm encountering this a lot at the moment and when I'm doing my free speech advocacy on the streets, what I find odd is the number of apparently 'mainstream' people who, unprompted, are now trotting out conspiracy mumbo-jumbo.   

[Capetan Mihali]

Cod-psychoanalysis?

Pseudo, ersatz, phony.

[Ed Anger]

What they do at Long John Silver's.

[Admiral Yi]

Pseudo, ersatz, phony.

I got that.  I was wondering about the etymology.

Anything to do with cod piece?

[Sheilbh]

Anything to do with cod piece?

Don't think so.  'Cod' was Medieval and Tudor slang for ballsack, hence codpiece.

The way Mihali used it probably comes from cant in the 17th century when it was used to mean a likely mark.  By the 19th century it was still used for someone a bit gullible and then began to mean a hoax or a parody in itself.

[Syt]

[jimmy olsen]

American copyright sucks ass

[Syt]

[jimmy olsen]

  That's great!

[Eddie Teach]

If you ask a putative hooker if she's a cop, she has to tell you.

How sure are you about that?

[jimmy olsen]

 

[Admiral Yi]

While reading a review of a history of the FBI I learned that Obama issued a signing statement with the Indefinite Detention of American Citizens Act.