• boolean_sledgehammer@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    The really depressing thing about this, and many other “unexplained” aerial phenomena, is that it demonstrates how many people just never fucking look up at the sky.

  • NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Meanwhile, the government: “That’s fucking stupid. We don’t poison you with the air, that would be inefficient. We have to breathe that, too. We just poison the water and the soil, and if you’re a target we will just pick you up off of the street like a stray cat, we’ve always been very up front about that.”

  • kamen@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    This thing is real, they’re spreading dihydrogen monoxide vapours everywhere. Moreover every single dead person has the same thing in their body. Coincidence? I think /s

  • blady_blah@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I had my conspiracy theory ex brother in law explain that chem trails were things Biden added to jets to fight global warming… My response was “shit, I wish that was true!”

    Somehow that wasn’t the answer he was expecting.

  • hansolo@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    “It’s chemicals!”

    “It’s spider webs of chemicals!”

    “It’s microchips!”

    “It’s sun blocking special metallic smoke!”

    “It’s cancer seeds!”

    • My Mom, an expert on chemtrails
      • hansolo@lemm.ee
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        3 days ago

        Well, and “it causes cancer” is as well. But not like… It’s raining down cancer on you. More like jet fuel contains known carcinogens.

        It’s more the direct effects. According to my mom, the chemtrails should have…I don’t know, but done whatever it was supposed to be doing by now. A 30+ year timeline for something causing cancer? So less bad than smoking? That’s the metric?

        • Doolbs@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          I know people who believe all the BS about the chemtrails, and I have started telling them that yes, those are chemtrails.

          And, like a good person I tell that it is Dihydrogen Monoxide.

          Then we go from there.

    • Deme@sopuli.xyz
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      3 days ago

      The fourth one of those is unfortunately an almost plausible theory. Plenty of people are seriously advocating for studies into Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) in order to mitigate climate change so that the almighty free market would have more time to fix the problem without any need for systemic change.

      But that wouldn’t be visible to the naked eye :D

      Funnily enough, contrails like all other clouds composed of ice crystals actually warm the planet up by letting shortwave radiation from the sun through while reflecting longwave (infrared), effectively trapping heat. Thcker and lower clouds are more effective at reflecting shortwave radiation.

      • hansolo@lemm.ee
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        3 days ago

        Yes, but the conspiracy theory version is that it’s a scam to further the scam that is climate change. It doesn’t make any sense.

        • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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          2 days ago

          doesn’t make any sense.

          My theory?

          The real conspiracy: It always goes back to the desires of capital.

          Why is it always that climate change is a huge con job and it’s all a secret control plan that we…need to stop burning and breathing known carcinogens?

          Oh, because the evil shadow government orgs like the EPA and OSHA want to take all our good ol’ jobs (tey derk er jurbz!) with their “regulations” and “standards” and “penalties for pollution” right?

          And they’re trying to make America “less great” by no longer being a mass-polluting post-war economic powerhouse! Think of the lost profits! Think of the widespread misery and poverty wrought by a secret New World Order of…(Paper flip) corporate regulation! What’s next? Unions?!

          Yes, chem trails are ultimately a path to such horrors as a less wealthy C-suite and not putting clean air on the commodities exchange market. (gasp)

          …And all these conspiracies are seeded and peddled by the very sources that told people to take veterinary dewormers or inject sanitizer to cure a virus, have brought us the highest unemployment rates seen in a century, dismantled and fired safety regulation and watchdog agencies (deh DERK-A-DURRBS!), are trying to bring back child labor and company towns, and conveniently rail against taxation which they dodge anyway.

          • hansolo@lemm.ee
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            2 days ago

            Sure, but I think the cultural component of Agent Orange had a lot to do with it as well. That’s why it’s always sprayed by planes.

    • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Dude on my Facebook posted a Pic of some repurposed 747 with a bunch of tubes in the cabin with a caption about the chemtrail stuff taking up space. Like, motherfucker, if it takes that much space, how is every passenger jet doing it??

      • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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        2 days ago

        Those diagrams and pictures are a disinformation campaign. They show a system that obviously can’t function, so you dismiss the theory out of hand.

        But the reality is that they mix the mind control chemicals directly into regular jet fuel. The pilots don’t even know they are involved.

        /s

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Understanding is cemented in one’s original source of information about the world. Shaping a pre-existing understand requires not just accuracy but volume, because you’re not competing against faulty logic. You’re competing against accumulated memories.

      If someone is deep into the conspiracy theory rabbit hole, what is shaping their opinion is the consistent repetition of orthodoxy over time. Similarly, if someone is highly educated in a particular scientific field, their opinion is shaped by the persistent need to reaffirm fundamental truths in order to succeed and progress. We are not computers. We are not creatures of pure logic. We are the accumulation of our prior experiences and exposures.

      You should not be surprised if an individual - when confronted with a narrow band of contrary information - does not immediately jettison all their prior information. Because ask yourself - would you? I mean, if a single guy showed up with a stack of papers insisting he’s proved without a shadow of a doubt that chemtrails are real and the entire professional weather reporting community is lying to you, is there anything they could show you that you wouldn’t greet with skepticism proportional to your exposure to professional weather science?

      Because, if the answer is “No”, then why would you expect someone immersed in hundreds of hours of conspiracy theory podcasts and think pieces and social media conversations to behave any differently?

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Because even if chemtrails were a thing they’re logistically impractical. There are multiple unlikely leaps of logic

        There are multiple steps of logic here

        • can aircraft spray chemicals? Sure, we have ag planes and fire fighting planes. In Vietnamese War we sprayed defoliant
        • is there a mind control chemical that can be sprayed?
        • if there was, could someone benefit from widespread dispersion?
        • can you spread it through jet engine exhaust within it destroying it?
        • is it possible to include with regularly scheduled air service without passengers or crew noticing?
        • how many people would have to be in on the conspiracy and what are the chances of keeping it secret so long?

        So the current examples of spraying from plane do so all at once through special equipment. You’d notice plus can’t really be widespread. It’s extremely unlikely a chemical could be mixed into jet fuel, survive the combustion process, and be spread with enough concentration to be useful. There’s no way such a large program would go unnoticed, could possibly be kept secret. Most importantly, for what purpose? If someone were trying to mind control the whole country what does it benefit to dose a random person in a field with no special skill or access and where there’s no one around to control them?

    • Michael@slrpnk.net
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      3 days ago

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sea-Spray

      From the page:

      Between 1949 and 1969, open-air tests of biological agents were conducted 239 times.

      239 open-air tests of biological agents in a 20 year period. Remind me again why people have no reason to be paranoid? This wasn’t that long ago.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethical_human_experimentation_in_the_United_States

      These aren’t conspiracy theories.

      Is there something real behind these people’s paranoia and suspicion? Do our government, military, and our corporations inspire trust?

        • Michael@slrpnk.net
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          2 days ago

          Of course, a true conspiracy unfolds because the masses are unaware. The masses are gaslit if they start catching on.

          But in the absence of compelling evidence, it’s pointless to wildly speculate about from my perspective.

            • Michael@slrpnk.net
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              20 hours ago

              If I was there, if I was involved in law enforcement, if I had access to the crime scene and raw footage and evidence, I might be able to speculate. Armchair speculation is insufficient for me.

              There are plenty of events that raise legitimate questions and concerns - like suspicious, high profile deaths that are immediately ruled as suicide. Everybody is free to hold their own positions and perspectives as far as I am concerned. Question on, sate your concern and curiosity, you’ll get no arguments against that from me.

  • GooberEar@lemmy.wtf
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    3 days ago

    This reminds me of the time when I was a kid and me and several of my family members went racing out into the front yard to watch the plane that was doing all kinds of aerial acrobatics over our neighbors’s field dropping whatever chemical or fertilizer was in their tanks that day so we were all basically coated in it by the time they were done and we went back inside. Except I wasn’t a kid when it happened, I was a fully informed adult who should have known better and then a few days later we found out it was some kind of potentially dangerous fungicide. But on the plus side I now have 3 penises.

  • vortic@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I got back in touch with a friend of mine who who graduated in the same class as me with a B.S. in Physics. When they learned that I’m an atmospheric scientist, their first question was “What’s the deal with Chem trails?”

    Point being, conspiracy theories also infect the educated sometimes.

  • Thorry84@feddit.nl
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    3 days ago

    On the other hand, we have seen exhaust being very efficient in distributing chemicals with adverse health effects across the planet. Leaded gasoline was a huge oopsie that still has adverse health effects today.

    • Eheran@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Does it still cause harm? Or are people “just” still harmed by the exposure back then?

      • Thorry84@feddit.nl
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        3 days ago

        I think it has gotten a lot better in the past 10 years, but there are still a lot of places where there is too much lead in the environment. It doesn’t degrade at all, so unless it’s dealt with it just stays there. Given we’ve only gotten rid of leaded gasoline less then 3 decades ago, the effects are still very much there.

      • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        General aviation still uses leaded gas almost exclusively. It’s really hard to qualify replacements though the FAA, and airports don’t want to carry multiple fuel types.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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      3 days ago

      Uhhhhhmmmm akshually there are increased cancer rates near airports because, it turns out, setting jet fuel on fire and shoving it out of an engine to go fast leads to some of those chemicals settling into the land around concentrated flight paths.

      This is the unfortunate kernel of truth that sets the dummies tilting at conspiracy theories instead advocating for environmental regulation.

      • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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        2 days ago

        That, and they put the mind control chemicals directly into the jet fuel. The pilots don’t even know they are complicit, just the government and the oil companies.

        /s

  • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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    3 days ago

    I literally put it together in highschool when someone mentioned it to me after learning about how clouds form from nuclei.

  • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    When I read /r/teachers and all the trouble they’re having teaching the next generation, this is the sort of thing I imagine is coming. A couple of years ago, GenZ was saying, in essence, “We just need to wait for all the ‘boomers’ to die off, then everything will be better.” No. No, that will just make things worse. GenX leftists are the only ones holding the line, and Millennial teachers are about to give up and walk away, seriously. It’s pretty fuckin’ bad, and it’s clear it’s going to get worse, looking at how many kids are coming up through the school system who can barely read and write and have practically zero attention span or motivation.