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Remember the gullibility test

apathoid said:
I'm all about that blue pill.....as long as it's FDA certified. :p
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Hey, I got a 43 as well! Hello, fellow sheeple!

I love that a lot of these questions are so vague that either true or false could be partially "correct" depending on what context you put it in.

For example, the mortgages. Sure, banks use it to help you buy a home. So you can buy a home and pay them money to do so. As with most everything in free market economics, ideally it results in a mutually beneficial transaction. You get a home you couldn't otherwise afford, and the banks make money off the interest. I fail to see the problem with this.

I suppose that's because I'm not f**king insane.

This guy sure likes "The Matrix," doesn't he?
 
That guy is a moron. Most things he gets flat out wrong (having a baby is a patent violation). Some of the things he gets right are so obvious that you wonder how it 'tests' people at all ("My government would never lie to me.") And some of the things he gets right for the wrong reasons ("Prescription drugs approved as safe by the FDA are safe to consume on a long-term basis.")

Not to mention the parts that you require a true AND false option for - "Buying a home is one of the best financial investments you can make, and home prices will always continue to rise." That's TWO questions, not one!

Also, as turns out that the USA is not a democratic country, I proclaim myself to be chief big kahuna of the USA. You are now at war with Canada. And you can't vote me out - it isn't a democracy!
 
Mobyseven said:
That guy is a moron. Most things he gets flat out wrong (having a baby is a patent violation). Some of the things he gets right are so obvious that you wonder how it 'tests' people at all ("My government would never lie to me.") And some of the things he gets right for the wrong reasons ("Prescription drugs approved as safe by the FDA are safe to consume on a long-term basis.")

Not to mention the parts that you require a true AND false option for - "Buying a home is one of the best financial investments you can make, and home prices will always continue to rise." That's TWO questions, not one!
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The prescription drug thing was one of the many questions that are considerably more complicated than true/false. Using any drug is a complicated act that can involve a lot of potential interactions. Whether it's safe in the long term depends on a number of factors.

But in woo-woo land, everything is black/white, 0/1, true/false.

I had to select "false" for the home question because of the "and." Sure, investing in a home is generally a decent investment, at least at present. But the idea that home prices would always rise is economic nonsense, so the question becomes false. Or something.

His take on the Fed is typical conspiracy BS. No, it isn't a branch of the government in the most technical, anal sense of the word. However, the board is a government organization, and the whole entity is a semi-governmental organization.

You would think, given the general attitude of the woo-woos, that the Fed being partly private would be great... except that they seem to have an even lower opinion of banks than of governments. What-freaking-ever.
 
JonnyFive said:
The prescription drug thing was one of the many questions that are considerably more complicated than true/false. Using any drug is a complicated act that can involve a lot of potential interactions. Whether it's safe in the long term depends on a number of factors.
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As to whether all FDA approved drugs are perfectly safe for long term use though, I'm pretty confident in saying "No". Remember, he's not saying 'some' drugs, but 'all' drugs.

Universal quantifier, baby!

/me slinks back to his logic study.

JonnyFive said:
But in woo-woo land, everything is black/white, 0/1, true/false.
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Where is this "woo-woo" land you speak of? Can I get there by boat? :p

JonnyFive said:
I had to select "false" for the home question because of the "and." Sure, investing in a home is generally a decent investment, at least at present. But the idea that home prices would always rise is economic nonsense, so the question becomes false. Or something.
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/me returns from his logic study.

The second conjunct is the reason I voted false too. If one conjuct is false, then the conjuction is false.

My understanding is that owning a house is a pretty solid investment, though technically it is the LAND that is the solid investment. The physical structure depreciates from the day it is built - it is the land value that can fluctuate up or down.

JonnyFive said:
His take on the Fed is typical conspiracy BS. No, it isn't a branch of the government in the most technical, anal sense of the word. However, the board is a government organization, and the whole entity is a semi-governmental organization.

You would think, given the general attitude of the woo-woos, that the Fed being partly private would be great... except that they seem to have an even lower opinion of banks than of governments. What-freaking-ever.
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Got any FAQs on the Federal Reserve handy for Aussies like myself? :D
 
Larry Lovage said:
Incidentally, I first heard the theory about the Hiroshima bomb from that paragon of sensible, skeptical and informed scientific thinking, Isaac Asimov. The Soviet Union was due to (and did) declare war on Japan on August 15th or thereabouts, and any land war to defeat them would have given the USSR equal credit. The timing of the bombs was no coincidence. "As it turned out, everybody knew who had defeated Japan. The United States had." (rough quote from memory.) Of course, this is a debatable issue, but I ought to point out that newstarget actually acknowledges that very thing in his explanation.
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All debate about what influence the Soviet Union had on the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki ignores that doing so saved a lot of Japanese that would have died either from a)famine b)continued firebombing c)amphibious invasion or a combination of all three. The myth of Japan having already surrendered is just that a myth. The war council wanted to continue fighting even after both atomic weapons had been used. On the evening of the Nagasaki bombing Generals Anami, Umezu, and Admiral Toyoda all voted to reject the Potsdam Declaration. The Potsdam Declaration would only be accepted on August 13 four days after the Nagasaki bombing.
 
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His blatant misuse of conjunctions is what drove me up the wall as well. Especially on the home as an investment one.

But questions of subjectivity, like how the media covers the war in Iraq or if the US is the most technologically advanced country just don't belong in a test like this.

Also questions of absolutes drove me nuts. "The history taught to American children in public school is true and accurate." History is always open to interpretation so one can't honestly say it's all absolutely true but that also doesn't mean it's a pot of deliberate lies.
 
Hey, I scored a perfect 100!

Of course, I knowingly selected every answer I assumed would be the "free thinker" choice. For example, "The United States is a democracy" HAS to be answered false if one is truly a free thinker, right?

What a crock of rule 8.
 
Mobyseven said:
As to whether all FDA approved drugs are perfectly safe for long term use though, I'm pretty confident in saying "No". Remember, he's not saying 'some' drugs, but 'all' drugs.
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Oh yes, so true. Didn't even see it, but you're completely right.

Where is this "woo-woo" land you speak of? Can I get there by boat? :p
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Only by spaceship or Bigfoot ride (continenal USA only), I'm afraid.

ETA: Chipmunk is disinfo. Don't listen to chipmunk.

Got any FAQs on the Federal Reserve handy for Aussies like myself? :D
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Sure:

Wikipedia's page on the Fed

Federal Reserve official FAQs

Basically, the board running it is a government group, but the member banks are private. However, it's the board that sets the monetary policy, so the control is really with the government.

The Fed's control over the money supply isn't quite as direct as some of the woos make it seem. A lot of their policy affects the money supply through indirect impacts on the banks' (all banks, not just the member banks) ability to profitably make loans.
 
JonnyFive said:
For example, the mortgages. Sure, banks use it to help you buy a home. So you can buy a home and pay them money to do so. As with most everything in free market economics, ideally it results in a mutually beneficial transaction. You get a home you couldn't otherwise afford, and the banks make money off the interest. I fail to see the problem with this.
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There's several like that, where he's going for some emotional, "OMFG!" reaction. You mean, over the lifetime of my mortgage, I pay a heck of a lot of interest?!? Why didn't anyone tell me that!!![/moron]

And the "bug pigment and artificial fluoride" comments....gee, industry uses some weird sources for their raw materials? Shocker! And did you know, that "tasty" stuff they call honey is essentially bee vomit? Bet the "organic" types will never tell you that!!!!


yawn....
 
I'd be curious as to his figure of only 50,000 casualties from an invasion of Japan, too.

Operation Downfall was expected to result in well over a million casualties, with estimates (assuming resistance from the Japanese civilian population) of up to 4 million Americans and ten million Japanese.

Operation Neptune (invasion of Normandy) involved nine divisions.

Operation Olympic (first stage of invasion of Japan) was to involve fourteen divisions, and Operation Coronet was to involve twenty four divisions.

I don't think many people appreciate just how big the planned operations for the invasion were, including 42 aircraft carriers, amongst other things.

It's also worth pointing out that in the casualty estimates the USA produced, they had grossly underestimated the strength of Japanese forces defending the area (by a factor of three).

-Gumboot
 
A cow-orker sent me a link to this test two years ago. Here's my response to him:
The author of that test is clearly gullible himself in several areas:

* Mercury amalgam fillings are safe. The people who want to remove them are kooks and quacks. Mercury is dangerous in higher doses, but in fillings it's bound up in the amalgam, and the small amount that leaches out is trivial compared to normal exposures from naturally-occuring mercury.

* He fell for the anti-fluoride nuttiness. It doesn't matter where the fluorine atoms come from, whether they're naturally occuring or not - an atom has no memory of where it has been.

* The Fed is not in control of the money supply. Every time you borrow money from the bank or your credit card, you are increasing the money supply. A side effect of increasing the money supply is inflation. The Fed encourages or discourages the money supply to increase by adjusting the rate that it loans banks money.

* There is not a cancer cure that the "cancer industry" is suppressing in order to make money. Try telling Greg XXXXXX's wife's doctor, to his face, that he is intentionally allowing some of his patients die in order to allow the industry to make money. The Samuel Epstein quoted is a notorious kook.

* Cancer, heart disease, and diabetes have increased in the last 100 years because science-based medicine has allowed people to live long enough that they get diseases associated with old age, instead of dying from influenza at 5.

* ADHD is a real condition which can be helped by modern chemical treatments. It is not a result of sugars or food coloring, and cannot be cured with diet. You may want to read "A Liberal Hoax Turns Out to Be True" at http://www.fumento.com/adhd/adhdtnr.html, from very conservative writer Michael Fumento.

These are things I *know* *for* *sure* about. Other items on the test were not in areas I'm especially familiar with, but even where I got the "right" answer it makes me wonder, because the author got so much wrong on stuff I know.

By the way, did you know that the word "gullible" is not in the dictionary? It's really not!
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The history taught to American children in public school is true and accurate.
FALSE. American history, as taught to American schoolchildren, is more a collection of lies and distortions than actual history. From Columbus to the Vietnam War, politically correct American history consistently paints Americans in a glorious light while ignoring shocking accounts of actual historical events. Read, "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn to learn real, uncensored American history.
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But what if the history taught to your kid is from Howard Zinn? Zinn's book is probably one of the 5-10 most commonly used textbooks in the last 30 years.
 
Horatius said:
There's several like that, where he's going for some emotional, "OMFG!" reaction. You mean, over the lifetime of my mortgage, I pay a heck of a lot of interest?!? Why didn't anyone tell me that!!![/moron]
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I think it is safe to assume that any financial advice coming out of one of these sites is complete and utter BS. When you assume that everyone is an evil corporate drone serving the vengeful Moloch or a manipulated sheeple, it tends to color your thinking just a smidge.

And the "bug pigment and artificial fluoride" comments....gee, industry uses some weird sources for their raw materials? Shocker! And did you know, that "tasty" stuff they call honey is essentially bee vomit? Bet the "organic" types will never tell you that!!!!
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They totally use beetle shells as a dye?! GROSS!!

Only not. This is stupid.

gumboot said:
I'd be curious as to his figure of only 50,000 casualties from an invasion of Japan, too.
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He obtained it through a lot of long and tedious research...


In his @$$!
 
Ah, my figures I had were underinflated. I had 1 million american casulties, 2 million Japanese. (I once had to do a running debate if droping the atomic boms really saved lives in Japan. Long debate, too.)

Regardless. he is right in ONE sense. The US is not a Democracy. It is a Democratic Republic. (yes, I know, weak, but I'm glad my semantics caught it.)
 
I found the questions frustrating, needing more than the simplistic yes or no options. Got a 52.

Of course when companies offer coupons or any discount, they probably are not doing it out of the goodness of their heart, but that doesn't make it evil. They just want people to try their product, and if you like it you'll come back for more.
 
I'm still fond of Perry Logan's "World's Shortest IQ Test".

It went something like this:

True or false: The 9/11 attacks were an "inside job".

If you answered 'false', congratulations; you have normal intelligence. Go about your business.

If you answered 'true', you are almost certainly an angry white male with a mid-80s IQ. You must leave the country immediately.
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