A debunker trying to fit in...

Clock

Senior Member.
As you may or may not know, I am a new member here on this website. The people that I have met are great, and I am grateful of having made their acquaintance. They have generally treated me kindly and some of the debates that we've had have been great, and very interesting.

However, this community seems to be very scientific in its debunking. I'm not sure if it's exactly what I was expecting out of the blog but I enjoyed it and I still do enjoy it.

However, I am beginning to feel left out between everybody else in the community. It is not because of poor treatment (far from it!!!) but it seems as if many of the topics that are talked about I seem to be lost upon me. This is something I believe most members of this website went through went they first arrived on this website. I want to contribute, but when I try to I feel completely lost, have no clue what the heck I'm doing, and then I get bored.

This is very weird because this never used to be an issue for me before, just something that's been happening as of late.


Has anyone ever felt like this? If so, tell me how was it and how did you deal with it. I am very interested to hear your responses.


-Clock
 
Clock, if there are topics that you feel lost on, then that may well be more the fault of the person doing the debunking (often me), than it is you.

A good debunking is meant to be easily understandable. Sometimes science is going to get more involved, if we are debunking claims that themselves use scientific terminology, or claims involving math and physics (like the V3Solar thread). But even there, communication is important.

You do fine on the less scientific topics. So maybe when you come to some topic where you think you should understand the debunking, but you don't, or it's too long and boring, then you can speak up and explain what it seems to be lacking, so that whoever wrote it can try to make it more accessible.

Is there an example that comes to mind?
 
As you may or may not know, I am a new member here on this website. The people that I have met are great, and I am grateful of having made their acquaintance. They have generally treated me kindly and some of the debates that we've had have been great, and very interesting.

However, this community seems to be very scientific in its debunking. I'm not sure if it's exactly what I was expecting out of the blog but I enjoyed it and I still do enjoy it.

However, I am beginning to feel left out between everybody else in the community. It is not because of poor treatment (far from it!!!) but it seems as if many of the topics that are talked about I seem to be lost upon me. This is something I believe most members of this website went through went they first arrived on this website. I want to contribute, but when I try to I feel completely lost, have no clue what the heck I'm doing, and then I get bored.

This is very weird because this never used to be an issue for me before, just something that's been happening as of late.


Has anyone ever felt like this? If so, tell me how was it and how did you deal with it. I am very interested to hear your responses.


-Clock
I would say I come here for answers more then to debunked . But I understand how you feel . Somethings things go over my head and some I understand . I tend to be stuck in my ways and Im also stubborn (German trait ). I love to learn . Politically I'm probably opposite of almost everyone I think ? Sometimes I feel a little abused but that's OK because I can be a little abusive myself and I don't take nothing to personal .I also have much respect for everyone here eeven those whom with I disagree with even Jay and Mikey :) . Not here to make enemies only for debate and enlightenment . Finding out the truth is what we all want .
 
I can assure you you are not alone in that feeling!!

I often have to bite my fingers to stop posting out of sheer anger at some of the drivel. My own "expertise" such as it is is limited to being an aircraft mechanic and QA engineer & various other roles in aviatino maintenance (I came to debunking via chemtrails) - I did a bit of year 1 university physics and chemistry, and some engineering papers - but I sure ain't no scientist!!

However I have found that imersion (as it were) in debunking has increased my ability to recognise bunk, decreased my tendency to burst into outraged condemnation every time I see it, and improved my skills at searching for, finding, reading and possibly even comprehending (I think) quite technical information on all sorts of topics - from the nature of antenna gain to subduction zones and the natire of the magnetosphere and lethal radiation doses in the van Allen belts!

Every day is a school day on here! :)
 
Yes, that's one of the things I like about debunking - you get to learn new things. Like now I know all about measuring the power output of solar panels. Fascinating stuff, but you probably need a certain nerdy personality to enjoy that type of thing.
 
Clock, when I started debunking misinformation about the oil spill, it had been many years since I had had my science classes. I had to do some reviewing of a lot of it and the guys here still 'lose' me at times. I have done more reading research, since the oil spill than I ever did in college and I was physics/geology major. Geology is my love, so I had kept up with a lot of it. My physics had sort of mildewed. I ended up needing almost every science class I ever took, from botany to oceanography (never really needed the astronomy--except to realize that someone was a nutter even in their field). I have read sooooooo many biology/microbiology papers dealing with the spill. I may not be able to fully understand them, but I can understand them enough to see problems, like using the wrong concentration of the dispersant.

Just ask, if you are unclear on something
 
Learning to debunk, is self education at it's best. Read up on 'Baloney Detection' from Carl Sagan and anything about skepticism by Michael Shermer. With that to go by, you'll be able to separate the wheat from the chaff as you do your own research.
 
Clock, I don't even think I have expertise in anything - I don't have a degree yet, and even then a degree is not going to make me an "expert." I mainly post in just the HAARP and other weather-related topics because that's what I know fairly well. But I read everything here. It's interesting to learn this kind of stuff, and if you dig deep into some of it, you can lose hours reading up on a topic that you otherwise knew literally nothing about. I spent an entire weekend researching the architecture of WTC and about progressive collapse/controlled demolitions after lee started talking about it (I should probably thank Lee for that, actually).
 
I think a lot of debunkers are folks that are interested in a lot things. A lot of my friends are the same way. One friend got a TiVo and she came in to find that it had recorded a program on cement. Now cement was not anything that she had thought about or considered, but she watched it and was amazed to find how interesting it was,
 
It is kind of a particular mindset. People who enjoy tinkering with things, seeing how they work, fixing them.
 
That is so true, Mick. Even as a small child, I wanted to know how things worked. Our poor TV repairman got used to me watching him and asking questions. I knew to stay out of the way. My mom once said that she asked him if I was bothering him and his reply was along the line of 'No, she is not getting in the way or whining about 'when will it be fixedddddd'."

My dad was a tinker, and a builder. I had so many building toys, it was pre Legos, so I had building blocks (sort of like plastic concrete blocks), a set to build skyscrapers, multiple sets of Lincoln logs (including ones my dad made), an erector set, and even a set that built bridges and interchanges. My mom had the art talent. I love 3D design
 
I think a lot of debunkers are folks that are interested in a lot things. A lot of my friends are the same way. One friend got a TiVo and she came in to find that it had recorded a program on cement. Now cement was not anything that she had thought about or considered, but she watched it and was amazed to find how interesting it was,

Agree, I am interested in everything under the sun from music to art to science to architecture to weather to everything that exists except math ;).

There are people who spend their free time watching TV, I spend mine learning things. All praise Al Gore for the invention of the internet, LOL!!
 
There are people who spend their free time watching TV, I spend mine learning things.

Indeed, people claim it's suspicious that I debunk for a few hours a day. Yet they don't think it's at all suspicious that people watch Soaps for a few hours a day. Or play with model trains for a few hours a day.
 
I have learned the hard way that there are some things that I can't put back together once I have taken them apart. They do have to be pretty complicated, though, like my parents mantle clock. Lol.
 
Some years ago, after the garage ripping me off for a brake job and my hubby and a friend telling me that I could do it --front brakes, I decided to tackle them. I went out and got a Chilton and a Harris manual and I read them.

My hubby needed to do his also---he had been doing his for several years (he is geophysical engineer), We started at the same time. I did need to get him to stop and help me bleed my brakes, but I was in the house and cooking dinner, before he finished---and he had to redo them the next day--he forgot and left a part out.

Of course , after that and finding and fixing the intermittent short in my car, he WANTS me to do the car repair, and electrical repair and the plumbing repair, in addition to the carpentry.
 
Clock, I came here due to chemtrails as aviation is my sole area of expertise. I do enjoy learning from others here on various subjects. Find a subject you have an affinity for a do your own research, always keeping an open mind. You will find that your skills will develop and help you in other areas of life. The ability to clearly articulate a well thought out and solid point of information is a skill few possess.
 
Clock, if there are topics that you feel lost on, then that may well be more the fault of the person doing the debunking (often me), than it is you.

A good debunking is meant to be easily understandable. Sometimes science is going to get more involved, if we are debunking claims that themselves use scientific terminology, or claims involving math and physics (like the V3Solar thread). But even there, communication is important.

You do fine on the less scientific topics. So maybe when you come to some topic where you think you should understand the debunking, but you don't, or it's too long and boring, then you can speak up and explain what it seems to be lacking, so that whoever wrote it can try to make it more accessible.

Is there an example that comes to mind?

I agree, maybe I should have been more vocal about it. A feeling of confusion usually hits me with the 9/11 PNAC thread.
 
In retrospect, I believe what started confusing me was that I was spending more time on my personal studies. I am still in high school- (and no, I am not afraid to tell everybody my experience) and I believe that the studies that were either going to 'make it or break it' were more important then learning things concerning conspiracy theories, so I took a break. When I was finished with my exam periods, I went back to debunking, and completly lost my work ethic. Debunking has made me more mature in how I look at the news or on certain tv shows that I watch, or on some of the 'evidence' provided by dear old Alex Jones.


I still get a wave of amnesia when looking at a conspiracist statement. It's like a worrying tick that gets you all worried for about 3 seconds and then you learn to calm yourself down and look up the statement. I've always felt a bit anxious when looking into the unknown, because I never know what to expect. Some other times, I look up a comment just to prove someone wrong (even though that goes against Mick's philosophy)

Mick, when I said long and boring, I was talking about me and my recent debunking ethic. Try to debunk something- poof. "I don't feel like it. Besides it's all been debunked already" I made a blog about this here: https://www.metabunk.org/entries/68...conspiracy-theories-in-the-early-21st-century
 
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