During covid times I heard many interesting conspiracy predictions such as the value is money will fall to zero, the whole society will collapse, the vaccine will kill 99% of the population etc. None of those things have happened yet, but can you add some other predicitons to the list?
Actually, long before covid hit, there were all sorts of predictions floating around. You know, things like the 2008 recession will cause the whole economy to collapse and then we’ll go straight to Mad Max style post-apocalyptic nightmare or 9/11 was supposed to start WW3. I can’t even remember all the predictions I’ve heard over the years, but I’m sure you can help me out. Oh, just remembered that someone said that paper and metal money will disappear completely by year xyz. At the time that date was like only a few years away, but now it’s more like 10 years ago or something. Still waiting for that one to come true…
Economic doomsayers have predicted ten out of the last three recessions.
I mean, we never fixed the problems which caused 2008. Covid didn’t exactly help with anything.
I’m also constantly suprised the world goes by like we aren’t facing the biggest economic reality check ever.
To be clear: Doomsayers always say there’s a recession about to happen, and are only sometimes correct. If you always bet on doom, you’ll be wrong most of the time.
But their version of recession is a total economic collapse. Normally, it involves stuff like money becoming useless, the entire society collapsing, widespread famine, return to bartering etc.
It’s not so sexy if you predict that exporting stuff will slow down instead of stopping completely. In reality, some people will loose their job during a recession, while these predictions usually talk about everyone becoming unemployed and starving in the streets.
It’s like they don’t notice economic inequality.
A depression, or economic doom, is not evenly distributed.
Some people are already living in doom today. Some people aren’t in doom. Some people used to be in doom, but aren’t now. Some are sliding into doom; some are climbing further from doom.
It is unlikely that everyone goes to doom all at once, because some people today are much further from doom than others. Most increases in doom will affect those who had already been dipping into doom on a biweekly basis much more than they affect people who have had years of non-doom to secure themselves against doom.
A lot of people can go to doom before much effect on the least-doomed person.
I’m gonna sing the doom song now.
But who cares about the doomsayers.
Predicting total collapse by any means is easily debunked. Unless a giant meteor hits Earth, the see rises, or the crops fail hard, we will stay the course. Which is sad and unnerving, but true nonetheless.
But in those cases where doom happens they can always say “told you so”
It’s almost like we have institutions printing money.
That’s a brilliant sentence, I had to reread it to get what you were saying
It’s honestly more surprising that they didn’t predict them rather than predicting them.
Our economic system is based on bullshit theories that the rich make up to support their system, crashes are inevitable and they’re increasingly more destructive each time.
Hopefully we dump them before climate change forces us to do so.
When a prediction is wrong, that means something about the predictor’s model of the world was incorrect. If we want to think clearly about the world, we have to actually notice when predictions fail.
If a commentator predicts an economic downturn every year, but most years do not have an economic downturn, that means the commentator’s predictions were based on an incorrect model: incorrect beliefs or assumptions, bad or incomplete data, or some other source of error.
(Climate forecasts have a much better track record than economic commentators.)
Are people still camped out at Dealey Plaza in Dallas waiting for JFK to return and tell us Trump is the 18th president?
Of all the bizarre shit, this one I feel stands alone. I miss my outlook on humanity pre-2019….maybe pre-2016…
Right?! We call it “The before times” now in my circle. It’s so stark, it’s similar to how everything changed after 9/11.
Ironically, in my bubble of life/friends there are two camps, like you stated and I am in camp 2016. I always use the night the Cubs won the world series as my benchmark ;) nothing has been the same since.
“Well you see, our story starts with a Gorilla…”
Spot on
Haven’t the 5G rays made you gay yet??
I just felt it start to kick in recently.
But wasn’t the vaccine supposed to contain the gay gene? If so, what happens if you get both? Could the different gay effects cancel each other out? What if you were already gay before all of this happened? I have so many questions.
I believe it’s gay in case you get one of em, trans if you get two. If you were already gay and get both you now buy coffee and avacado toast every morning too. If you were a gay trans person and got both, the researchers blow their own minds out instead of trying to figure it out
Got it. 100% clear now. Makes perfect sense.
They made the frogs gay.
What if I became gay before 5g was invented??
I only have a 4G capable phone, and I’ve been gay a long time… since long before 5G was a thing actually :-)
Just wait for 6G. We’re in for some serious shit!
if 10% of the workforce telecommutes we can end our foreign oil dependence by 1975
- Jesus was supposed to return
- The world was supposed to end
Jesus was supposed to return before all the disciples died. All current christians conveniently forget that part
Yeah in the new testament they speak about it like it’s gonna happen any day now. They’ve been saying “any day now” for 2000 years. They’re like Toronto Maple Leafs fans waiting to win the Cup.
Are you talking about Jesus telling the disciples about seeing the Kingdom of Heaven? Peter, James, & John see the Lord be transfigured when he goes up the mountain and meets with Moses and Elijah. So, no we understand well.
Read the Bible more. Matthew 17.
No, I’m talking about Matthew 24:34. Spoiler alert, that generation has been passed away for a while now. You read the bible more lol
And before you try to twist Jesus’s words, keep in mind that god is not the author of deception, so if he got caught lying that’s a big problem for Christianity.
34Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Doesn’t this context imply “this generation” is roughly equivalent to “heaven and earth”, not literally the current generation of Homo sapiens?
32Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its branches become tender and sprout leaves, you know that summer is near. 33So also, when you see all these things, you will know that He is near,f right at the door. 34Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened. 35Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
to me what you describe seems like post-hoc rationalization. If earth has passed away who will be there to see the signs and know he’s near? To me it seems to imply that after he returns (within the human generation) h+e will pass away and that’s when the second earth (if i’m remembering revelations correctly) will be created, and even then his words (mainly his moral teachings) will still be good
some funny potential interpretations:
- he’s never going to return, so his words about when he returns will never pass away because people will always be waiting and reading them while they wait
- he won’t return until we’ve destroyed earth and abandoned it for mars/the moon/space
- he made someone from that generation immortal to give himself extra time to get back
Hah, I like the way you think. Thanks for the input. I don’t remember Revelations well enough to speak on it.
You are correct in that, that it is a controversial set of passages with 3 general interpretations.
Thanks, you should join me in reading the Bible more.
At this point I only read the bible when i’m double checking my memory on verses believers didn’t know about and/or when they try to twist verses to not be as damning for the religion as they are
There was no date given though.
I mean, we’re fast approaching the 3rd anniversary of my first Covid vaccine dose, and I’m still waiting to drop dead the way they promised.
I’m at 6 doses looking to get my 7th by the end of October. The only ones who keep seeming to drop dead are the anti vaxxers.
I wish that was true. What happened is that even vacinated people could develop long covid or if they are immune comprmised, think eldery, kids, and people going through chemotherapy and other form of therapy that reduce their immune system also get affected and at risk of dying because of the anti vaxxers. Along with the fact that they are most likely the reason for new variants.
That’s just natural selection doing its thing. I don’t think the anti-vaxxer philosophy will completely disappear, but the number of people believing in it will be cut down by various diseases such as covid. Those who survive, will probably be damaged by said diseases, so who knows how well they’ll be able to articulate their thoughts after that.
Me too. It appears that those conspiracy theorists were wrong.
The end of the world in 2012. Some say it started in 2012.
With the way all the Maya stuff was presented as mysteries of an ancient civilization, it was a real surprise for me to find out the Maya are just, like, there. If you want to know the deal with the Maya calendar you can just ask them. They’re the ones stood outside the archeological sites selling t-shirts.
Short History Of… has a good podcast on the Maya, historical and present
Yes, pretty much as all pre-columbian populations that were not wiped out by Europeans upon their arrival!
Oh dear. I was working in a fairly counterculture, hippie industry and I got so tired of hearing about the Mayan calendar and the end of the world. Like some other more obscure notions (the threat of Nibiru) it just disappeared and nobody talked about it again. I find the theory that we entered an alternate dimension after the death of Harambe more credible.
They only just sent the activation signal with wednesdays alert. Its only a matter of time before a lot of yall drop dead. Then the commies in mexico and canada are going invade. They’re already poised to do so!
We’re super vaxed up here already. Aren’t we supposed to die too? The only people who should be left are the halfwits with blood-relative parents and a weird twitch. They’re not invading anything.
As long as you didn’t get the fema activation signal on your phone you’re good!
Must… kill… Frank… Drebben.
Reminds me of the nitwits going wild about “Jade Helm”. The absolute dumbest people I knew (I was in Texas at the time) were convinced it was a military operation to attack US citizens and declare martial law.
Oh, and a few years before that they were obsessed with FEMA “death camps” and giant stacks of plastic coffins.
Well sorry to say I won’t be participating in the Canadian invasion. It’s a little bit out of my way but happy invasion my fellow Canadians
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Specific predictions are almost always going to flop. Wiser people who monitor the collapse of civilization are careful to note that it’s a process, not a discrete event. You can see the process in action all around us in the form of wildfires, market volatility, the hollowing out of schools and hospitals, flooding cities, etc.
Even wiser people will notice that catastrophe has always been a part of society. Climate change is clearly real and the cause of many different problems, but signs of the “end of the world” have actually been around since the beginning. The Roman empire collapsing was clearly one, as were both World Wars.
“Civilization” never collapsed entirely.
Unless you are faced against Gandhi 🇮🇳☢️
An individual society collapsing is effectively an “end of the world” for the people directly impacted. Climate change is going to fuck over a ton of people but a small minority won’t really be impacted. Does that mean it no longer qualifies as “end of the world” situation?
Thank you, it’s nice to see someone not being willfully obtuse.
Paperless office, late nineties.
my current and previous jobs were indeed paperless. and i’m not alone.
My office isn’t entirely paperless, because I enjoy writing on paper with a physical pen with real ink in it. Just got a new (paper) notebook yesterday.
Apart from that, you could say my office is as close to paperless as you can get. Sure, there are some old papers in the drawer, but I don’t think I’ll ever need those for anything. If I lost those in a fire, nobody would miss them.
Give me stats, stat. I bet you’re in a tiny minority
my quick googlefu shows 17% as of October 2021 as reported by AIIM. i bet a lot of those recent remote worker types are paperless since then.
A way to go, but hopefully the trend continues
Thanks! This data confirms my personal observations.
Same, now that I think of it. I haven’t used paper to do my job in years. I don’t even use the printer for personal use that often. I jot down notes on a piece of paper sometimes, if that counts.
Occasionally, like once or twice a year I need to print something on paper. The printer in the office never works though, and the reaction of my boss is usually “oh yes we should do something about that”, which nobody ever does. I usually go to a copy shop then.
Just about, I only have to print the ocassional thing for a couple of organisations that dont accept an electronic signature, I use the printer about four times a year
My kid’s school sets homework on teams but only accepts it if printed out
Mine is paperless. My last one was too. You’ll get there eventually.
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Endemic COVID. (This one is basically true.)
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Computers will make everything so efficient that workers will work fewer and fewer hours, and we will need to seriously consider what to do with all of our leisure time. (This could be true if it weren’t for employers exploiting those efficiencies.)
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Unions will disappear. (Looks like the opposite is happening, possibly based on #2.)
Don’t know about America, but in Europe labor unions are an integral part of the society. This way, employees don’t need to negotiate the wages, salaries, maternity leave, vacations and other details. The unions have much more leverage in the negotiations, because they can always threaten the employer with a strike. As different industries go through their negotiations, you’ll end up hearing about strikes every year. Some times it’s pilots, some times it’s nurses, lorry drivers or whatever. Every year there’s something like this going on when the two parties are unable to find common ground.
Why would the unions ever disappear? I just don’t get it.
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People have been predicting the end of the world for as long as there were people.
It’ll happen eventually, people are too impatient.
Christians have been waiting for the second coming literally since Jesus left. People in the new testament speak about it as if it would happen in their lifetime, and any Evangelical you meet will tell you they’re convinced it’ll happen in theirs
My family were missionaries. I didn’t believe in that BS. The main thing that I learned is that they use the concept of the mythical Jesus and sacrifice as a crutch to help them get through each day much in the same way addicts do with their drug of choice.
There’s good reason why folks who ditch that religion are so much happier.
Well if I could fool myself into believing everything will be fine in the end because ‘magic man in the sky makes it so’, I’d love to do it.
The people expecting or hoping for it in their lifetime should have read their Bibles better. I’m not religious anymore but I still remember one of the last things Jesus said was “You won’t know when I’m coming back.”
Just throw Matthew 24:36 at them.
Armageddon - the battle on the plains of mageddon - happened like 1950 years ago.
WE ARE the left-behind.
Are you talking about Tel Megiddo?
The only battle there in the last two millennia was in 1918AD. Not 70AD.
This is the most dangerous effect of religious indoctrination in my opinion - the “can’t wait for the world to end and cause Judgement Day to happen”-mindset. People in power that make decisions that affect millions or even billions of peoples lifes have a hard on for the end of the world. Eventually it can become and probably will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If people wanted to speed it up, a runaway green house effect or runaway snowball earth triggered by a nuclear winter should do it. The first one might even destroy all life on earth as long as the temperature stays above 100 °C long enough. The latter one will not eradicate all the microbes, but it would be very effective against humanity.
Bananas and bees were both supposed to be extinct by now. Yet here I am in my chair eating a banana while a bee keeps body-slamming the ceiling light directly above me.
The messaging on the “save the bees” was really poor. The honeybees are fine, but the big concern is all the thousands of species of wild bees that are at risk.
But all of that attention on honey bees has, some ecologists argue, overshadowed their native counterparts: the wild bees. They’re an incredible bunch, found in all sorts of colors and sizes, and they’re important pollinators, too — better, by some measures, than honey bees. On the whole, native bees are also at a much greater risk of extinction, in part, because of the proliferation of European honey bees.
https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2023/1/19/23552518/honey-bees-native-bees-decline
The Cavendish banana would have never gone fully extinct, it would have just become too fragile to be commercially viable, as happened to the Gros Michel in the 1950s.
As for the Cavendish, Central America was able to greatly slow the advance of Panama Disease with fire. Lots and lots of fire. It’s still taking down plantations and is still news when it crosses into another South American country.
But we have recently identified the specific gene in our cloned cultivars that makes them so vulnerable to Panama, so a cure may now be possible. But as it stands we’re still, potentially, one failed quarantine in Asia away from needing to replace the Cavendish banana.
Can we get rid of that gene in Gros Michel too?
I don’t know if the gene in the Gros Michel has been identified. Though it is likely the same one, I know there is a Gros Michel/Cavendish hybrid that is resistant to Panama Disease - so possibly not. In any case, there are efforts to bring it back.
I have heard that the banana candy flavour is based on that and have really wanted to try it ever since and I hope we can preserve it for future generations too.
Thanks. That’s exactly the type of material I’m looking for.
The idea that a monoculture can easily fail due to disease is not a conspiracy, and has and will happen.
I know, just not with nearly as much haste as often said in the past.
Cellphone would give breast and brain cancer.
Turns out that non-ionizing radiation still doesn’t ionize, and having new little radios on us is exactly as impactful as having the old little radios on us.
I remember a conspiracy theory that Sarah Palin wasn’t actually pregnant and she was covering for her teenage daughter by flying from Texas to Alaska to pretend to give birth. This was buffeted by the fact her daughter was out of school for “mono” for 9 months prior to Sarah’s birth. Everyone thought the conspiracy nuts were crazy until that daughter showed up pregnant to the photo shot of Sarah Palins new baby.
Oh, and there was the time it was going around that Epstein supplied Trump with an underage hooker and then his lawyer paid off the girl to keep quiet. Can you imagine? Epstein supplying people with underage girls? And Trumps lawyer paying them off to keep quiet? Note that when this came to light in October of 2015, both premises seemed completely absurd.
