18 minutes ago, Hummin said:

A little detail worth mentioning is that families used to live together on farms and out in the districts far more than they do today. People had fewer needs, lived more simply, and often shared both the burdens and the benefits of everyday life. Today, many work in one place and have family in another, while rent has become almost impossible to manage on a single salary. At the same time, we seem to have developed extreme expectations about how we should live, what we think we need, and what is actually beneficial or necessary for everyone. Maybe the future is, in some ways, a return to the past, with more people living together again and a better balance between what we want and what we truly need.

A more collective way of living does not fit neatly with the capitalist ideal of maximum individual consumption, mobility, and self-contained households. Capitalism works well when more people live separately, buy separately, borrow separately, commute separately, and consume more as individuals. In that sense, shared living, shared resources, and lower material expectations can look more socialistic, or at least more community-oriented, than market-oriented.

There are about 6% fewer farms in the US today than there was in 2000. That's about 130K fewer.

There are about 135M households in the US.

Capitalism in the US is the weakest it's been in my lifetime.

Government intervention favors the large, multi-nationals over the mom-and-pop shops every time.

1 hour ago, Hummin said:

You do not think people suffered from stress and chronic illnesses before? Christ sake they didn't live as long either.

When I was young, 60 years was old physically, and many didn't live many years after retirement

Life expectancy and quality of life are not the same thing… though the former is definitely going to take a hit, given how cancer is through the roof, namely in young people. The medical community is "baffled", of course.

9 minutes ago, rattlesnake said:

Life expectancy and quality of life are not the same thing… though the former is definitely going to take a hit, given how cancer is through the roof, namely in young people. The medical community is "baffled", of course.

And why do you think it the root of cancer ? Lifestyle issues and diet, or vaccines ? Both ?

Truth is people eat something called food, many sit all day, do not drink clean water, and what else ? Feed their brains with unhealthy content,

1 minute ago, Hummin said:

And why do you think it the root of cancer ? Lifestyle issues and diet, or vaccines ? Both ?

Truth is people eat something called food, many sit all day, do not drink clean water, and what else ? Feed their brains with unhealthy content,

There's no denying that… hence my mentioning chronic illness in response to Stiddle's post. Sedentary lifestyles, stress, lack of sleep, chronic dehydration and excessive consumption of pharmaceutical products (particularly the ones in injectable form and especially those which were forced on the world population in 2021-2022) are to blame, in my view.

6 hours ago, kwilco said:

On 4/19/2025 at 8:12 AM, impulse said:

Why so many conspiracy theorists and what to do about them

 

Mark your calendar and look again in 6 months, because so many of them are actually spoiler alerts.

 

So, what were the spoiler alerts?

Seriously? There are so many of them.

I'm old enough to remember when "Cigarettes aren't good for you" was a conspiracy theory, "debunked" by a lot of industry funded studies.

13 minutes ago, impulse said:

Seriously? There are so many of them.

I'm old enough to remember when "Cigarettes aren't good for you" was a conspiracy theory, "debunked" by a lot of industry funded studies.

One of the recent ones:

Always though conspiracy theories were current and coming attractions, especially over the last few years.

3 hours ago, impulse said:

Seriously? There are so many of them.

I'm old enough to remember when "Cigarettes aren't good for you" was a conspiracy theory, "debunked" by a lot of industry funded studies.

You said wait for 6 months for spoiler alerts – I don't know what you mean or what they are.... are you implying that the conspiracies would have been debinked by then - it was a year ago.

2 hours ago, Tall Guy 38 said:

Always though conspiracy theories were current and coming attractions, especially over the last few years.

Evolution and vaccines have been subject to CT-ers since the mid 19th century.

7 hours ago, Stiddle Mump said:

What!? Have more debt.

FGS! Before "debt", which is as old as the hills, most people lived in a feudal agrarian system with an average life expectancy of below 40 years – we only got away from this in the 20th century.

Remember all the food we ate in the Stone Age, mediaeval age and up to the 20th century was totally free from fertilisers and additives, and yet you were still likely to be dead by 40 and unable to move from where you lived.

11 hours ago, Hummin said:

And why do you think it the root of cancer ? Lifestyle issues and diet, or vaccines ? Both ?

Radio waves.

12 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

There are about 6% fewer farms in the US today than there was in 2000. That's about 130K fewer.

There are about 135M households in the US.

Capitalism in the US is the weakest it's been in my lifetime.

Government intervention favors the large, multi-nationals over the mom-and-pop shops every time.

Big government results in poorer outcomes. The regulatory state is not reducing our daily expenses. The push for green energy has raised costs for consumers. CARB regulations have made cars more expensive and less reliable. Additionally, an increase in population due to mass immigration has outpaced the growth of available housing. Overall, nothing the government does seems to make our lives more affordable.

11 hours ago, impulse said:

Seriously? There are so many of them.

I'm old enough to remember when "Cigarettes aren't good for you" was a conspiracy theory, "debunked" by a lot of industry funded studies.

You must be a lot older than me. I remember my folks laughing when they put the warnings on cigarettes. Everyone knew smoking was bad for you.

""Coffin nails" became slang for cigarettes in the 1880s due to smoking's deadly risks."

58 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

You must be a lot older than me. I remember my folks laughing when they put the warnings on cigarettes. Everyone knew smoking was bad for you.

""Coffin nails" became slang for cigarettes in the 1880s due to smoking's deadly risks."

That's kinda the point. Everyone knew there was something amiss, but doctors were still advertising cigarettes when I was a kid. Because the MSM and Big Business were lying to us in the name of increased profits, more power and mo' money.

Like they continue to do...

I'll bet those wingnuts back in the 1880's were ridiculed, too. For going against the science that proved smoking was fine. They even had one company that made their ciggie filters out of asbestos...

2 hours ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

A video went 'rival' recently as the young folk say showing an average joe with an average working class job in the mid 70's in Sydney buying a house with his wife and kids. Simply not possible now to do that in those circumstances no matter how much you refrain from smashed avocado toast and coffee. I concur that some young spend a lot on that type of thing and it adds to their saving woes but I also see why they give up and indulge a bit when the hope of buying falters. Point is we had it easier no doubt.

You claim it's not possible, but the numbers do not bear that out.

In 1975 Australia, the interest rate was almost twice what it is today, but 1990 it was almost three times, yes? How does that affect home prices?

I can't speak to Australia, but in the 1970s, a working-class job in the US was grunting it out on the floor of a factory. I do not remember it being that easy.

22 minutes ago, impulse said:

That's kinda the point. Everyone knew there was something amiss, but doctors were still advertising cigarettes when I was a kid. Because the MSM and Big Business were lying to us in the name of increased profits, more power and mo' money.

Like they continue to do...

I'll bet those wingnuts back in the 1880's were ridiculed, too. For going against the science that proved smoking was fine. They even had one company that made their ciggie filters out of asbestos...

And movie stars are still advertising booze, which is responsible for ruining more lives than cigarettes ever thought about. So what?

It is worth noting that virtually everyone in the MSM and big business smoked back then.

7 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

You claim it's not possible, but the numbers do not bear that out.

In 1975 Australia, the interest rate was almost twice what it is today, but 1990 it was almost three times, yes? How does that affect home prices?

I can't speak to Australia, but in the 1970s, a working-class job in the US was grunting it out on the floor of a factory. I do not remember it being that easy.

So lets compare 1976 to 2026 using our AI friends.

Average wage: 1976 $6,000 - $8,000 2026 $60,000 to $90,000 10 to 11 times bigger

Property prices: 1976 $30,000 to $40,0000 2026: $1,400,000 to $1,700,000 35 to 55 times bigger

Interest rates are an offsetting factor but I would argue aren't necessarily a highly significant factor if you can pay off fairly promptly back in 1976. In 1976 they were 10 per cent compared to 4 per cent now.

3 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

So lets compare 1976 to 2026 using our AI friends.

Average wage: 1976 $6,000 - $8,000 2026 $60,000 to $90,000 10 to 11 times bigger

Property prices: 1976 $30,000 to $40,0000 2026: $1,400,000 to $1,700,000 35 to 55 times bigger

Interest rates are an offsetting factor but I would argue aren't necessarily a highly significant factor if you can pay off fairly promptly back in 1976. In 1976 they were 10 per cent compared to 4 per cent now.

Your average home at 1.4 to 1.7M looks way high, I think it's around 1.1M, yes?

And the average home in Australia is almost twice as big as it was in 1976, yes?

And just the interest makes the payment twice as much.

Average wage in 1976 6,000 to 10,000

Average wage in 2026 6,000 to 106,000

2 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

You must be a lot older than me. I remember my folks laughing when they put the warnings on cigarettes. Everyone knew smoking was bad for you.

""Coffin nails" became slang for cigarettes in the 1880s due to smoking's deadly risks."

It was not the cough that carried him off. It was the coffin they carried him off in.

4 hours ago, Effective altruism said:

Radio waves.

I have climbed radio and TV towers, worked on both fixed and floating oil rigs, flown in helicopters and planes thousands of times, and in the army I was also exposed to radar. So I would not be shocked if one day I developed cancer, but so far, so good. My point is that we are exposed to many different kinds of radiation and waves throughout life, both natural and human-made. Some exposures can increase risk, but it depends on type, dose, intensity, distance, and duration. That is exactly why it is too simplistic to just claim that “radio waves cause cancer”, even I like simplicity,

Time will show what we are doing to ourselves in the long term, but we will not be here to see it ;-)

I still think one of the worst things we do to ourselves, me included, is sit too much, move too little, and keep feeding negativity.

When you stop moving, your whole body pays for it, your intestines, muscles, joints, circulation, and even your mind. Then on top of that, many of us sit and overthink all kinds of crazy stuff instead of getting up and using the body the way it was made to be used.

That is not good for anybody.

1 hour ago, Yellowtail said:

Your average home at 1.4 to 1.7M looks way high, I think it's around 1.1M, yes?

And the average home in Australia is almost twice as big as it was in 1976, yes?

And just the interest makes the payment twice as much.

Average wage in 1976 6,000 to 10,000

Average wage in 2026 6,000 to 106,000

This was for Sydney so prices accurate. Some houses may be bigger now - say 30 per cent bigger it seems though many more recently are smaller - but a key point is house and land in total bigger back then by say 30 per cent - so many subdivisions since then. As I said interest is relevant but paid off quicker back in the day making the difference much less than the full rate.

Conclusion: however you look at it much cheaper back then to buy a house in Sydney for the average Joe. An interesting point too is to compare cost of coffee to a younger person now to the cost of beer to the young person in 1976 when drinking was much more common but that's something else.

Can deny this one is a good one

54 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

This was for Sydney so prices accurate. Some houses may be bigger now - say 30 per cent bigger it seems though many more recently are smaller - but a key point is house and land in total bigger back then by say 30 per cent - so many subdivisions since then. As I said interest is relevant but paid off quicker back in the day making the difference much less than the full rate.

Conclusion: however you look at it much cheaper back then to buy a house in Sydney for the average Joe. An interesting point too is to compare cost of coffee to a younger person now to the cost of beer to the young person in 1976 when drinking was much more common but that's something else.

So not you've gone from Australia to just Sydney.

Average homes in Australia are almost twice as big now, as they were in 1976

Interest rates were twice what they are now.

Wages are more than ten times what they were .

10 X 2 X 2 = 40

The percentage of people that owns there home is only slightly less now, than what it was in 1976.

Artemis II is a hoax… obviously???

Of course it is. Artemis II—tracked in real time, watched globally, involving thousands of engineers across multiple countries—is clearly fake…

…because someone on the internit thinks it “looks a bit off.”

Let’s just admire the scale of this alleged genius-level conspiracy for a moment:

NASA fakes a mission,

Europe happily joins in (hundreds of companies, thousands of staff),  - independent astronomers track the spacecraft anyway (also in on it, apparently), and not one credible insider leaks anything… ever.

 

But no need to worry—some bloke with a YouTube channel has cracked it.

We’ve even had the 40-minute comms blackout behind the Moon.
Exactly what physics predicts……But no, clearly NASA just thought: “Let’s pretend to lose signal for realism. That’ll fool them.”

Then there’s the distance record—beyond what Apollo 13 achieved—tracked independently.

Also fake, presumably.
Because… reasons.

And the photos of the Moon’s far side? Places you literally cannot see from Earth?

Easy. Must be a secret film set no one has ever found in 50+ years.
Hidden somewhere between Area 51 and Narnia.

Best of all, the mission had real-time technical issues—minor faults, system hiccups, even a dodgy toilet.

Because when you’re staging the most elaborate hoax in human history…
you definitely include plumbing problems for authenticity.

And those viral “gotcha” clips with wires?

AI-generated rubbish. Already exposed.

But of course, now the conspiracy includes AI detection tools too. Why not? At this point you may as well throw in the Tooth Fairy and Bigfoot for backup.

 

And here’s where it gets even better…

This “hoax” supposedly started back in 1969 with the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.

Which means:

Many of the original “conspirators” are now dead.
(Impressive long-term silence from beyond the grave.)

Many of the current engineers and mission staff weren’t even born when this all supposedly began.  - So how exactly were they recruited? - Do they get a secret email at university?
“Congratulations on your engineering degree—welcome to the 60-year-old global lie. Please never tell anyone.” Or …better still, there’s a hidden initiation ceremony somewhere? A handshake? A vow? We knew the Masons had a hand (shake) in it…. Because somehow, across generations, countries, languages, and political systems…
everyone stays perfectly in sync, perfectly silent, forever.

 

What this really comes down to is brutally simple:

“It doesn’t look right to me.” That’s it. That’s the level of analysis. No physics. No engineering. No independently verified tracking data. - Just vibes.

So we’re left with two options:

 

A global, decades-spanning conspiracy involving tens of thousands of scientists, engineers, agencies, and observers… all perfectly coordinated, across generations… including people not even born when it started.

Or…

a handful of people on the internet don’t understand what they’re looking at.

 

Tough call, I know

14 minutes ago, kwilco said:

Artemis II is a hoax… obviously???

Of course it is. Artemis II—tracked in real time, watched globally, involving thousands of engineers across multiple countries—is clearly fake…

…because someone on the internit thinks it “looks a bit off.”

Let’s just admire the scale of this alleged genius-level conspiracy for a moment:

NASA fakes a mission,

Europe happily joins in (hundreds of companies, thousands of staff),  - independent astronomers track the spacecraft anyway (also in on it, apparently), and not one credible insider leaks anything… ever.

 

But no need to worry—some bloke with a YouTube channel has cracked it.

We’ve even had the 40-minute comms blackout behind the Moon.
Exactly what physics predicts……But no, clearly NASA just thought: “Let’s pretend to lose signal for realism. That’ll fool them.”

Then there’s the distance record—beyond what Apollo 13 achieved—tracked independently.

Also fake, presumably.
Because… reasons.

And the photos of the Moon’s far side? Places you literally cannot see from Earth?

Easy. Must be a secret film set no one has ever found in 50+ years.
Hidden somewhere between Area 51 and Narnia.

Best of all, the mission had real-time technical issues—minor faults, system hiccups, even a dodgy toilet.

Because when you’re staging the most elaborate hoax in human history…
you definitely include plumbing problems for authenticity.

And those viral “gotcha” clips with wires?

AI-generated rubbish. Already exposed.

But of course, now the conspiracy includes AI detection tools too. Why not? At this point you may as well throw in the Tooth Fairy and Bigfoot for backup.

 

And here’s where it gets even better…

This “hoax” supposedly started back in 1969 with the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.

Which means:

Many of the original “conspirators” are now dead.
(Impressive long-term silence from beyond the grave.)

Many of the current engineers and mission staff weren’t even born when this all supposedly began.  - So how exactly were they recruited? - Do they get a secret email at university?
“Congratulations on your engineering degree—welcome to the 60-year-old global lie. Please never tell anyone.” Or …better still, there’s a hidden initiation ceremony somewhere? A handshake? A vow? We knew the Masons had a hand (shake) in it…. Because somehow, across generations, countries, languages, and political systems…
everyone stays perfectly in sync, perfectly silent, forever.

 

What this really comes down to is brutally simple:

“It doesn’t look right to me.” That’s it. That’s the level of analysis. No physics. No engineering. No independently verified tracking data. - Just vibes.

So we’re left with two options:

 

A global, decades-spanning conspiracy involving tens of thousands of scientists, engineers, agencies, and observers… all perfectly coordinated, across generations… including people not even born when it started.

Or…

a handful of people on the internet don’t understand what they’re looking at.

 

Tough call, I know

No one, not even Elvis, has been to the moon.

Not saying a rocket didn't do a journey somewhere. But as for having humans on board!! They re just having a laugh at the sheepoes expense. Everyone's laughing at them.

Was this the last throw of the dice for a dying empire? Trying to show off. Jokers unite.

2 minutes ago, Stiddle Mump said:

No one, not even Elvis, has been to the moon.

Not saying a rocket didn't do a journey somewhere. But as for having humans on board!! They re just having a laugh at the sheepoes expense. Everyone's laughing at them.

Was this the last throw of the dice for a dying empire? Trying to show off. Jokers unite.

How many years left do you have you think ?

Maybe still time to be convinced you are wrong ;-)

1 hour ago, Hummin said:

Can deny this one is a good one

No ice wall… I say it's fake.

4 minutes ago, Hummin said:

How many years left do you have you think ?

Maybe still time to be convinced you are wrong ;-)

Wrong about what?

Atom bombs that never were.

Vaccines being 'safe n effective'.

9/11 an inside job.

The London bombing deception.

Covid hoax.

Moonwalkers.

Reckon I'm right on all counts.

36 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

So not you've gone from Australia to just Sydney.

Average homes in Australia are almost twice as big now, as they were in 1976

Interest rates were twice what they are now.

Wages are more than ten times what they were .

10 X 2 X 2 = 40

The percentage of people that owns there home is only slightly less now, than what it was in 1976.

You seem to put weight on houses being doubly as large which simply isn't true. Even if they were it is not a factor in affordability unless the buyer is to share ownership somehow. But the fact is they are not doubly as large and the size of land is significantly smaller.

If you lived it you would know it was a lot easier - I was a kid in '76 but I started buying in the early nineties.

Sydney is the biggest city and seems a reasonable guide but lets see for Australian capital cities.

1976 to 2026 Housing: While wages have increased roughly 10-fold house prices in capital cities have risen over 30-fold, with many exceeding $1 million to over $850,000 median. I think those figures are a bit low but still there it is.

16 minutes ago, Stiddle Mump said:

No one, not even Elvis, has been to the moon.

Not saying a rocket didn't do a journey somewhere. But as for having humans on board!! They re just having a laugh at the sheepoes expense. Everyone's laughing at them.

Was this the last throw of the dice for a dying empire? Trying to show off. Jokers unite.

And if the Greens have control after the next election, the US will have to get all their spooks, intelligence agents, lobbyists and airmen OUT of the UK