Chemtrails? Seriously?

The Republican party is expanding their brief further and further into the looney demand. They’re legislating against a nonexistent phenomenon: chemtrails. They’re just condensing vapor from jet engine exhaust, people!

SB 2691, sponsored by Sen. Steve Southerland (R-Morristown), never specifically mentions the dubious claims made by conspiracy theorists about the dangers of so-called “chemtrails,” however, when speaking about the bill, Southerland directly mentioned “chemtrails.”

“If you look at a thousand planes, you won’t see one (chemtrail). But then all of a sudden you see one,” Southerland told the Tennessee Lookout. “So we’re just asking the question: Are they putting anything in the air that could be toxic?”

The “chemtrails” conspiracy theory is the belief that condensation trails or vapor trails left in the sky from aircraft flying at high altitudes are actually some form of chemical or biological agents, which are being purposely released into the atmosphere for nefarious purposes including weather modification, phycological operations, or even population control.

I’ve heard this chemtrail nonsense for as many years as I’ve been on the internet, but now 6 states are proposing legislation to stop the laws of physics which cause hot gases from cold air at low pressure. These are now entirely backed by Republican party apparatchiks, where once upon a time there were plenty of people on the looney left who would babble about chemtrails. Give ’em time, they’ll take on every science-based policy we’ve got.

The language in these bills appears to based on model legislation created and promoted by fringe conspiracy theorists, and connected to group which operates a website that claims to advocate for “shutting down pollution-generating atmospheric modification schemes”: Zero Geoengineering.

In addition to promoting conspiracy theories about “chemtrails,” the group operates a network of connected websites that promote conspiracy theories about 5G networks and WIFI, food and other products produced using genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

You know, if you’re concerned about people injecting bizarre chemicals into the environment, you’d be better off tackling fracking. That’s a real witch’s brew of toxic nastiness being injected into our water table. But of course, fracking is backed by industrialists, there’s real money there.

Demographically Entitled Idiots

I’m at a university thoroughly steeped in the idea of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and I tell you — it doesn’t do the harm the opponents claim, and it helps our students who aren’t white men. It is truly a win:win. I am not hurt by efforts to even the playing field and appreciate that we can create an environment that benefits everyone. There are, of course, some loud assholes who play the victim card — like Chris Rufo, Jerry Coyne, Bret Weinstein, Heather Heying, Steven Pinker, Jonathan Haidt, etc., all the pretentious bigots of the intellectual dark web — but honestly? They can’t demonstrate harm. They whine. At heart, they’re just entitled twits and racists who want to roll back the clock to a day when they were able to belittle and discriminate.

So I welcome this new interpretation of the acronym “DEI”: Demographically Entitled Idiots. I too oppose Demographically Entitled Idiots, and wholeheartedly support the ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

By the way, my university also embraces the indigenous culture that lived on this land before us. It doesn’t mean we abandon science, as some of the fear-mongers want to complain. It means we respect the people, their history, and their culture, and honor them in our ceremonies and our teaching. That is all and that is everything.

For all the debate bros

Here’s a hard-earned lesson from years of debating Christians and creationists, all summed up in one lovely cartoon.

“I’m not interested in proving you wrong. Just in shutting you up.”
Oglaf

The zealots don’t care about logic and reason, they just pretend to care, for the rubes. You’re not going to be able to logic your way past their arguments because they’re not founded on logic in the first place. Their goal is to put on a show for their fellow travelers, to distract you, and eventually, to acquire the power they need to silence you.

Don’t be like the heretic in the cartoon, only realizing their game when they’ve got you tied to the stake.

So that’s what AI is good for

There is this obsessed congresscreature from Missouri, Ann Wagner, who really really hates porn (she’s a Republican, as if you couldn’t guess.) She’s been crusading against sex workers for years, and her latest idea is that she wants to shut down OnlyFans, because, she claims, it enables sex trafficking. She’s full of it.

However, the one good thing she has done is that she motivated an OnlyFans performer, Cherie DeVille, to write a defense of OnlyFans’ techniques to prevent abuse of the site. You have to jump through a lot of hoops to get a site there, and they are extremely strict about preventing minors from getting access, and to prevent its use for prostitution. I was impressed at the level of scrutiny they apply to their performers to make sure there is no non-consensual imagery.

Anti-porn zealots act as if OnlyFans tries to post non-consensual sexual content. But sex workers’ experiences tell a different story. One of my friends had surgery on her labia, and when she returned from the doctor and resumed posting, OnlyFans flagged her content. OnlyFans uses AI to monitor people, and its AI identified her labia as a different woman’s vulva. The site prevented her from airing the content without uploading an ID for this supposed new individual. I struggle to imagine a non-consensual porn epidemic on OnlyFans when it’s this strict about identifying individual vulvas.

That seems redundant and excessive to me. You know they’ve got lots of human eyeballs staring at bits of human anatomy, wouldn’t having users flag surprises in their videos be sufficient, without using computers to stare, too? They’re burning bandwidth that someone has to pay for! Also, I worry about what we’re training AI to become.

Go away, Kooi Chong

We get email. We all get email. Since the dawn of time, a lot of us here at Freethoughtblogs (and also many other people) have been getting demanding messages from Kooi Chong. Here, he introduces himself.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am Kooi Eng Chong, age 28 and I am from Malaysia. In the year 2020, I had finished my Master’s Degree in History at the National University of Malaysia (UKM). Currently, I am attempting to write a book about world history and a PhD proposal about the history of the Chinese Communist rule in Tibet. Thus, here is my draft PhD proposal about the Chinese Communist rule in Tibet as stated below. Also, I had put my University exam results and my CV below. Moreover, I would like to meet you via Zoom. However, as I am working from Mondays to Fridays, I only can have a meeting with you on Saturday (9:00pm) Malaysia time. Would that be alright for you?

Looking forward to hearing from you soon

Regards

Kooi Eng Chong

That’s nice, except he keeps threatening to enclose his PhD proposal, and never does. Even if he had, I’m not interested. I don’t know why he would think I would care, and I have no idea what he wants from me, but he keeps scheduling Zoom meetings. Every few weeks, he sends us a message asking why I didn’t show up or reply and asking to arrange a meeting again. Here’s a sampling of his tedious and frequent messages.

Dear Sir/Madam,

It has been two and a half months already and I still haven’t receive a reply from you. May I know why is it taking so long? Also, may I know when can I have a Zoom meeting with you? If you can’t make it then you can contact me via my phone number: xxxx xxxx xxx. Would that be alright for you?

Regards

Kooi Eng Chong

Email: [email protected]

On Sunday, 1 October 2023 at 09:53:18 am MYT, Kooi Chong wrote:

Dear Sir/Madam,

It has been nearly four months already and I still haven’t receive a reply from you. May I know why is it taking so long? Also, may I know when can I have a Zoom meeting with you? If you can’t make it then you can contact me via my phone number: xxxx xxxxx xxx. Would that be alright for you?

Regards

Kooi Eng Chong

Email: [email protected]

On Friday, 2 June 2023 at 10:12:54 pm GMT+8, Kooi Chong wrote:

Dear Sir/Madam,

It has been a month already and I still haven’t receive a reply from you. May I know why is it taking so long? Also, may I know when can I have a Zoom meeting with you?

Looking forward to hearing from you soon

Regards

Kooi Eng Chong

Email: [email protected]

On Sunday, 23 April 2023 at 09:58:46 am GMT+8, Kooi Chong wrote:

Dear Sir/Madam,

It has been a month already and I still haven’t receive a reply from you. May I know why is it taking so long? Also, may I know when can I have a Zoom meeting with you?

Looking forward to hearing from you soon

Regards

Kooi Eng Chong

There are more, many more. I haven’t replied to any of them, nor will I — he’s very bot-like, and I have no idea what he’s trying to do. On the remote possibility that he’s a real human being, hunched over his computer in his apartment, sending out plaintive requests for human contact, scanning the internet for some hint that anyone recognizes his existence, I post this that he might discover that yes, a person has heard his cry.

And that he might learn this is the wrong fucking way to to anything.

If it is just a stupid bot, the most likely possibility, I’m letting it know that next week I’ll add a filter that’ll disintegrate all of its email before I even see it.

Bye, Kooi.