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rationalwiki.org...
Willful ignorance is the state and practice of ignoring any sensory input that appears to contradict one’s inner model of reality. At heart, it is almost certainly driven by confirmation bias.
It differs from the standard definition of “ignorance“ — which just means that one is unaware of something — in that willfully ignorant people are fully aware of facts, resources and sources, but refuse to acknowledge them. Indeed, calling someone "ignorant" shouldn’t really be a pejorative, but intentional and willful ignorance is an entirely different matter. In practice though, the word "ignorance" has often come to mean "willful ignorance", and indeed, in many non-English languages, the word based on the same stem actually carries that meaning.
It is sometimes referred to as tactical stupidity.
Depending on the nature and strength of an individual’s pre-existing beliefs, willful ignorance can manifest itself in different ways. The practice can entail completely disregarding established facts, evidence and/or reasonable opinions if they fail to meet one’s expectations. Often excuses will be made, stating that the source is unreliable, that the experiment was flawed or the opinion is too biased. More often than not this is simple circular reasoning: “I cannot agree with that source because it is untrustworthy because it disagrees with me”.
In other slightly more extreme cases, willful ignorance can involve outright refusal to read, hear or study, in any way, anything that does not conform to the person’s worldview. With regard to oneself, this can even extend to fake locked-in syndrome with complete unresponsiveness. Or with regard to others, to outright censorship of the material from others.
originally posted by: jonnywhite
Steven Greer has not credibility whatsoever. And a bunch of those names have a lot of mixed up stories which I don't feel have any credibility either. What's left is maybe a few tales which don't have easy explanations, but it does not mean aliens are visiting Earth. Evenso, I knew someone who told me he saw a ufo when growing up. Apparently it was dramatic for him. This person was in the military at one point in his life, so why should I doubt him? There're lots of people with those kinds of stories. And yet I also have a relative who claimed they saw Jesus. There're people who say they've spoken to deceased individuals. There're people.....
Stories and unprovable bits of evidence does not make it all true. Unlike these alleged truths, science and reality can prove themselves. Which side would you choose, if it meant life or death? I wonder about these things all the time, but I know who I'd trust when it counts. I'd put my money on SETI or NASA with confidence if it had any weight. Putting my money on Ufology or the "Disclosure Project" is like throwing most of it away.
Willful ignorance is the state and practice of ignoring any sensory input that appears to contradict one’s inner model of reality. At heart, it is almost certainly driven by confirmation bias.
It differs from the standard definition of “ignorance“ — which just means that one is unaware of something — in that willfully ignorant people are fully aware of facts, resources and sources, but refuse to acknowledge them. Indeed, calling someone "ignorant" shouldn’t really be a pejorative, but intentional and willful ignorance is an entirely different matter. In practice though, the word "ignorance" has often come to mean "willful ignorance", and indeed, in many non-English languages, the word based on the same stem actually carries that meaning.
It is sometimes referred to as tactical stupidity.
Depending on the nature and strength of an individual’s pre-existing beliefs, willful ignorance can manifest itself in different ways. The practice can entail completely disregarding established facts, evidence and/or reasonable opinions if they fail to meet one’s expectations. Often excuses will be made, stating that the source is unreliable, that the experiment was flawed or the opinion is too biased. More often than not this is simple circular reasoning: “I cannot agree with that source because it is untrustworthy because it disagrees with me”.
In other slightly more extreme cases, willful ignorance can involve outright refusal to read, hear or study, in any way, anything that does not conform to the person’s worldview. With regard to oneself, this can even extend to fake locked-in syndrome with complete unresponsiveness. Or with regard to others, to outright censorship of the material from others.
originally posted by: charlyv
Ex (and present) high ranking military people saying this just has to be taken seriously.
What could they possibly gain in going against those in which they served under? One, or two perhaps with $$ in mind, but certainly not this many. It's got to come to a head soon.
originally posted by: charlyv
Ex (and present) high ranking military people saying this just has to be taken seriously.
What could they possibly gain in going against those in which they served under? One, or two perhaps with $$ in mind, but certainly not this many. It's got to come to a head soon.
originally posted by: FormOfTheLord
originally posted by: charlyv
Ex (and present) high ranking military people saying this just has to be taken seriously.
What could they possibly gain in going against those in which they served under? One, or two perhaps with $$ in mind, but certainly not this many. It's got to come to a head soon.
I know right?
Why would all these military people get out on stage and camera just to lie to the people of the world.
There is a thing called an oath to uphold the constitution and calling them liars is spitting in the faces of the service they are doing.
Wassup with people these days calling them liars, or stating if they dont have some testable evidence in hand they wont believe it?
Its getting stupid and the dumbing down has gone a bit too far in my opinion.
Note to have the qualifications to actually test out some of this stuff you would need top secret clearance, which I am pretty sure none of the people who say they wont believe without testable evidence dont have at all.
originally posted by: Tangerine
originally posted by: FormOfTheLord
originally posted by: charlyv
Ex (and present) high ranking military people saying this just has to be taken seriously.
What could they possibly gain in going against those in which they served under? One, or two perhaps with $$ in mind, but certainly not this many. It's got to come to a head soon.
I know right?
Why would all these military people get out on stage and camera just to lie to the people of the world.
There is a thing called an oath to uphold the constitution and calling them liars is spitting in the faces of the service they are doing.
Wassup with people these days calling them liars, or stating if they dont have some testable evidence in hand they wont believe it?
Its getting stupid and the dumbing down has gone a bit too far in my opinion.
Note to have the qualifications to actually test out some of this stuff you would need top secret clearance, which I am pretty sure none of the people who say they wont believe without testable evidence dont have at all.
Yeah, why would Colin Powell get up in front of the UN and lie? He wouldn't, would he? Oh, he did? That's right, he did lie! Well, I guess none of the others would ever lie. Right.
I have the same respect for the members of the Church of ET that I have for the members of any other fundamentalist church: none. When they come up with some testable evidence that makes their claims fact, I'll accept it as fact. I extend an invitation to you to cite this testable evidence so that my conversion might be swift. Amen.
originally posted by: FormOfTheLord
originally posted by: Tangerine
originally posted by: FormOfTheLord
originally posted by: charlyv
Ex (and present) high ranking military people saying this just has to be taken seriously.
What could they possibly gain in going against those in which they served under? One, or two perhaps with $$ in mind, but certainly not this many. It's got to come to a head soon.
I know right?
Why would all these military people get out on stage and camera just to lie to the people of the world.
There is a thing called an oath to uphold the constitution and calling them liars is spitting in the faces of the service they are doing.
Wassup with people these days calling them liars, or stating if they dont have some testable evidence in hand they wont believe it?
Its getting stupid and the dumbing down has gone a bit too far in my opinion.
Note to have the qualifications to actually test out some of this stuff you would need top secret clearance, which I am pretty sure none of the people who say they wont believe without testable evidence dont have at all.
Yeah, why would Colin Powell get up in front of the UN and lie? He wouldn't, would he? Oh, he did? That's right, he did lie! Well, I guess none of the others would ever lie. Right.
I have the same respect for the members of the Church of ET that I have for the members of any other fundamentalist church: none. When they come up with some testable evidence that makes their claims fact, I'll accept it as fact. I extend an invitation to you to cite this testable evidence so that my conversion might be swift. Amen.
DUDE WTF are you going on about?
Did you even watch the videos?
You sound ignorant to what is being stated in the videos and have no interest in what they are saying.
Watch the videos before you go on some off topic rant about testable evidence you have no ability to even begin to test.
Do you have the skills to test the evidence by working with top secret military projects? NO
So do us all a favor watch the videos and talk about the content in them or go educate yourself so you can actually test the evidence your ranting about in every post you make.
originally posted by: Tangerine
originally posted by: FormOfTheLord
originally posted by: Tangerine
originally posted by: FormOfTheLord
originally posted by: charlyv
Ex (and present) high ranking military people saying this just has to be taken seriously.
What could they possibly gain in going against those in which they served under? One, or two perhaps with $$ in mind, but certainly not this many. It's got to come to a head soon.
I know right?
Why would all these military people get out on stage and camera just to lie to the people of the world.
There is a thing called an oath to uphold the constitution and calling them liars is spitting in the faces of the service they are doing.
Wassup with people these days calling them liars, or stating if they dont have some testable evidence in hand they wont believe it?
Its getting stupid and the dumbing down has gone a bit too far in my opinion.
Note to have the qualifications to actually test out some of this stuff you would need top secret clearance, which I am pretty sure none of the people who say they wont believe without testable evidence dont have at all.
Yeah, why would Colin Powell get up in front of the UN and lie? He wouldn't, would he? Oh, he did? That's right, he did lie! Well, I guess none of the others would ever lie. Right.
I have the same respect for the members of the Church of ET that I have for the members of any other fundamentalist church: none. When they come up with some testable evidence that makes their claims fact, I'll accept it as fact. I extend an invitation to you to cite this testable evidence so that my conversion might be swift. Amen.
DUDE WTF are you going on about?
Did you even watch the videos?
You sound ignorant to what is being stated in the videos and have no interest in what they are saying.
Watch the videos before you go on some off topic rant about testable evidence you have no ability to even begin to test.
Do you have the skills to test the evidence by working with top secret military projects? NO
So do us all a favor watch the videos and talk about the content in them or go educate yourself so you can actually test the evidence your ranting about in every post you make.
I watched the videos. Do you really think that just because something is stated it's fact? I am interested enough in what they are saying to ask you to present the testable evidence .
The content in the videos is limited to claims. Claims are not facts.
When you can not present requested testable evidence, you call names. I'm not sure if you're aware of it, but that actually lessens your argument not strengthens it.
It appears that you want to believe what these people are saying much like some people want to believe preachers. Let me ask you this: what harm comes from demanding testable evidence? If you're sure they have it, they can certainly produce it. Or is it more likely that, deep down, you don't believe they have any testable evidence and you just want us to join the cult?
originally posted by: Tangerine
Yeah, why would Colin Powell get up in front of the UN and lie? He wouldn't, would he? Oh, he did? That's right, he did lie! Well, I guess none of the others would ever lie. Right.
originally posted by: Kandinsky
There's no rational reason why a POTUS would be faced with evidence of 'aliens' and decide that 'nobody must know.
originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: FormOfTheLord
I'm going to skip watching 7 hours of videos because I'm aware of the stories and backgrounds of the participants. The stories, when taken altogether, don't have enough coherence to be truthful. There's no rational reason why a POTUS would be faced with evidence of 'aliens' and decide that 'nobody must know.' Neither would it makes sense that arch-enemies like the Soviets, China, Korea, Vietnamese etc would keep the secret.
Reverse-engineering is a fantasy unless the technology has parallel origins and only minimally advanced. For example, nobody at Sandia Labs in the 1950s could reverse-engineer an android phone. How could they reverse-engineer an alien technology and then manufacture them? Unless, of course, they crashed and had a paper blueprint that could somehow be deciphered? If so, what might be the Rosetta Stone that would help them bridge the gap between two unrelated languages?
How would they 'interview' an alien? Would they waterboard it to cooperate enough to learn its ABCs? Would it use telepathy? If so, how would the secret Intel guys communicate back?
There was a 'cover-up' and authorities wanted the reports to go away. Hynek expressed regret that he'd been so quick to explain away reports. However, trying to play down reports of UFO sightings doesn't take us all the way to 'four races' of aliens visiting and secret space navies. Some of the speakers have long since made the leap all the way to 'aliens' and their opinions frequently are massaged by guys like Greer with his mystical ability to be 'briefing' the world's most powerful Intelligence leaders.
Some are more naive in their source material like those associated with Edgar Mitchell and Noetics - good people. Hellyer is likely one of those who has trusted the opinions of well-known people without quite doing his due diligence. I'd lay bets that greer dazzled him with BS and turned his head. "Hold that thought Paul, I've got Vladimir Putin waiting. Seems he has a problem in the Baltics and wants my advice...."
The Congressional-type hearings were a dog and pony show and a reasonable fund-raiser to keep the wolf from the door for Basset etc.
IMAO of course
"I'm going to skip watching 7 hours of videos because I'm aware of the stories and backgrounds of the participants. & The stories, when taken altogether, don't have enough coherence to be truthful."