• SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I can’t imagine being so utterly convinced you have something that you’d offer a prize you don’t intend to pay for proving it false, AND THEN NOT EVEN BOTHERING TO VERIFY IT IS WHAT YOU SAY IT IS. I imagine someone sold him the data under false pretenses, because if Mike knew it was bullshit he might not have offered the prize. If that is the case, I wish that scammer all the best.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      There’s also a chance he just grabbed some random files himself, declared they proved it, and thought that since he had no idea how to show or disprove that, no one else would be able to. The whole conspiracy mindset really leans into the “there’s no way to know for sure” aspects of reality and projects that in many areas where it doesn’t apply because general knowledge isn’t enough to figure it out.

      Though the worst part is they can do this because there’s many cases where “experts” have abused the trust that used to be put in the scientific community, such as the ones behind the tobacco industry funded smoking safety studies.