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A comment on "Scholars Will Call It Nonsense": The Structure of von Däniken's Argument (1987). Parent comment

Re:"Scholars Will Call It Nonsense": The Structure of von Dä... by colechristensen on Sunday January 11, 2026 @04:14PM (#46580148)
>It's a hobby. Mostly harmless.

A whole bunch of current disinformation comes from people having fun with misinformation and dumb people believing it until the idea makes a life of its own.

It's not harmless at all. A lot of explicitly nefarious people use this technique to engineer the population so they can be controlled.

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Re:"Scholars Will Call It Nonsense": The Structure of von Dä... by cratermoon on Sunday January 11, 2026 @05:54PM (#46581322)
Poe's Law applies.
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Re:"Scholars Will Call It Nonsense": The Structure of von Dä... by Geee on Sunday January 11, 2026 @07:09PM (#46581991)
Are you talking about religion?
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Re:"Scholars Will Call It Nonsense": The Structure of von Dä... by protocolture on Monday January 12, 2026 @12:10AM (#46584329)
Yes. Ancient Aliens, Flerf nonsense, Tartarian nonsense. All religions.
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Re:"Scholars Will Call It Nonsense": The Structure of von Dä... by colechristensen on Monday January 12, 2026 @11:30AM (#46590712)
Not particularly.

Flat earth, anti-vax, alt-right -- a significant influencer in these things and others were early trolls ... being trolls.

The fun of keeping a straight face while you say ridiculous things isn't so fun when you see everyone in the presidential administration doing it. People who didn't get the original joke took the bait and ran with it.

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Re:"Scholars Will Call It Nonsense": The Structure of von Dä... by tgv on Monday January 12, 2026 @03:55AM (#46585812)
I agree. Von Däniken instilled a lot of bad ideas in people's minds. People like to complain about religion, but at least that brings some ethos. Von Däniken's ideas did nothing except create a rift with science.
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Re:"Scholars Will Call It Nonsense": The Structure of von Dä... by ZebraOtoko on Monday January 12, 2026 @08:18AM (#46588076)
>People like to complain about religion, but at least that brings some ethos.

It does? In America at least, the dominant religion seems to be teaching a really terrible and harmful ethos. I don't see how Von Däniken's ideas could possibly be worse.

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