9/23/22: THE DECLINE EFFECT – THE DIVERSE IN REVERSE W/ DAVID OATES

We like to pretend that our experiments define the truth for us. But that’s often not the case. Just because an idea is true doesn’t mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn’t mean it’s true. When the experiments are done, we still have to choose what to believe

Surprising and exciting scientific findings capture our attention and captivate the press. But what if, at some point after a finding has been soundly established, it starts to disappear?

Anyone whoundefineds taken a course in the history or philosophy of science knows that there are times when events of history and or scientific claims lose their truthiness over time.

This has been called undefinedThe Decline Effect.undefined It is based on an article that appeared in the New Yorker called undefinedThe Truth Wears Off.undefined

There has always been the tendency of scientific claims to receive decreasing support over time. The term was coined by the parapsychologist J. B. Rhine in the 1930s to describe the apparent drop-off in extrasensory perception of psychic subjects tested by Rhine for extended periods.

The decline effect is really a undefineddecline of illusion, meaning that we should be reminded of how difficult it is to prove anything. We have been told that science is settled, we have been told that our destruction from a Climate crisis is inevitable and yet we are still here.

The more dramatic the researcherundefineds claim, the more likely he may be to get published and to obtain funding for more research. Other researchers jump on the bandwagon, doing follow-up studies that—because of the unconscious bias in favor of the initial claim—often corroborate it. Only gradually does counterevidence emerge, showing that the initial correlation stemmed not from causation but coincidence.

We have been told many times for at least 30 years that we are doomed to become like Venus -and overcome by CO2. However, to avoid any decline effect there are now efforts without proof that anomalous weather patterns are proof of Global warming. The goal posts are always moved and the truthiness of something like Global warming should be meeting its nadir.

But of course, it hasnundefinedt because just like Nuclear war -we are now being told that everything is winnable if we just believe the science,

Nuclear war has always been a deterrent to war, because of mutually assured destruction but now mutually assured destruction has met its decline effect as Russia and the United States are continuing their brinkmanship and hinting that any limited nuclear exchange can be winnable and survivable.

Science is never pure, never complete and it is most definitely seasoned by cultural context and moral values of the times.

It is a radical thought that there could be some sort of collective consciousness thatundefineds habituating and affecting how we define truths. There may be some peculiar way about the nature of reality that somehow gets into the ether. That perhaps it is what is deep down inside all of us rules out all things in the end and so concerns change as the unconscious mind changes.

The notion that the laws of reality are unchangeable is an assumption. It’s a reasonable assumption but we donundefinedt know it for a fact. And there have been physicists who have even speculated that perhaps the rules change as time – goes on.

We are going to find new realities, and how the unconscious mind changes individual reality. It is the voice of the unconscious mind that is rarely heard, but hides deep down inside all of us. It is constantly trying to find a way to get out as it is suppressed with conscious awakening.

What is most troubling is that thinking this way creates doubt. By this logic, you can never actually know anything for sure.

Because reality could change based on the observer’s position, habits, biases, and information.

Take for example - the use of aspirin. When you were young you would take an aspirin for a headache, or you would take the orange-flavored children’s aspirin and because you were told that it was enough you did not question its effectiveness.

But over time you realize that you donundefinedt think aspirin can do the job. There has been this new study or new finding that people now need something stronger. So you start to part ways with aspirin, thinking that it just isnundefinedt effective enough to kill your headache.

But the truth is that in most cases it is still effective in reducing pain. Some research shows itundefineds effective at reducing migraine pain. Specifically, when you experience a migraine headache, your body is overproducing a compound called prostaglandin. Prostaglandin is a hormone that helps send pain signals to the brain.

Even though aspirin circulates throughout the entire body after you swallow it, the drug acts only at sites where prostaglandin is being actively produced. When the production of prostaglandin is impaired, the pain signals sensed by the brain stop. No more pain signals, no more headache.

In addition, aspirin’s role as a platelet inhibitor, or anti-platelet drug, can also help with migraine. Aspirin reduces the ability of platelets to aggregate or stick together,

In migraine, platelets aggregate, causing them to release serotonin into your bloodstream. This eventually leads to the vascular actions and other effects of migraine.

But letundefineds suppose you went to the doctor and complained of migraine and he said to you- Just take two Anacin and call me in the morning undefined you would say that he doesnundefinedt care about your pain.

Because now your migraine medicine has to have a cool name or it has to have a narcotic in it to make it more truthy.

You see undefined the science doesnundefinedt always seem comfortable.

Excedrin, which is the number 5 most used aspirin on the block got smart with their marketing. As Excedrin was working to reestablish its business in the pain relief category. , Excedrin had to rely on its specialist status – for headaches, not just any kind of pain relief – to differentiate itself and persuade consumers to switch from a general product or purchase Excedrin.

The result was various products all with the same ingredients but marketed for certain types of pain.

There was Excedrin Migraine relief, Excedrin Tension Headache, and Excedrin Extra Strength.

All with the same ingredients but marketed to show that it works for simple headaches and pains.

So does this make aspirin any more or less effective undefined no, but the perception of it being specialized and scientifically targeted makes it more appealing.

Here is another example of how knowledge falls into decline because of lack of discernement.

During the 1980s, the owner of the restaurant franchise, A&W, launched a new 1/3 pound burger to compete with McDonald’s 1/4 pound burger or ‘Quarter Pounder.’ A&W launched a ‘Third is the Word‘ campaign to advertise their new Third Pounder.

It didn’t sell, even though it offered more meat for the same price as McDonald’s 1/4 pound burger,

The A&W Third Pounder never sold like the company thought it would even though they advertised it heavily on TV and radio. So, they hired a market research firm to try to figure out why the burger was failing.

The firm conducted a focus group and found that around half of the people surveyed thought that the A&W 1/3 pound burger was smaller than McDonald’s 1/4 pounder! “Why should we pay the same amount for a third of a pound of meat as we do for a quarter-pound of meat?” they said.

The customers were simply reacting to the size of the denominator. Three is smaller than four so a 1/4 pound burger must be larger. They failed to recognize that the magnitude of a fraction depends on the relationship between its numerator and denominator.

A&W knew that they couldn’t solve the problem by teaching the public how to understand fractions. So, they changed the name of the Third Pounder to The Papa Burger. It is now their biggest-selling burger to date.

This is important to know when you consider that there are so-called science experts out there and political experts out there undefined willing to tell you that your choices are wrong even though what they are doing is psychologically counterintuitive.

You just have to think to yourself, wait a second, is it really that simple? There may be something spooky in the universe or it may be that the scientific process is, in some sense, undermined by all the things we donundefinedt even know we donundefinedt know about.

From “flatten the curve” to “the new normal” to “the great reset”, it’s not been hard to spot the messaging going on since the start of the “pandemic”. And that distinct lack of disguise has carried over into other topics, too.

The sudden over-use of the phrase “domestic terrorism” is certainly catching on as liberal zombies lacking constitutional knowledge are backing the idea of oppression because they donundefinedt agree with people with ideas that are different from their own politically.

The notion that a political leader, or anyone for that matter, is entirely bad or good, is puerile. The same consideration can be given to nation-states, political systems or even models of world order. The character of a human being, a nation or a system of global governance is better judged by their or its totality of actions.

Whatever we consider being the source of “good” and “evil,” it exists in all of us at either ends of a spectrum. Some people exhibit extreme levels of psychopathy, which can lead them to commit acts that are judged to be “evil.”

Even Hitler had a penchant for painting beautiful roses.

The psychopath that you do not know. That quite unassuming nebbish or old maid that you least suspect going about their day, entertaining those dark thoughts about what they want to do to people they don’t agree with.

He or she can be anyone. The person who walks their dog every day, the mailman, the neighbor that smiles and says hello. Isn’t it always that guy? You know that guy who they find has his mother in the freezer and a house full of cats, some of them dead.

You always hear on the news, people who say, “he was always friendly, he never bothered anyone, it is such a shock that these things happen in the neighborhood.”

I don’t know if anyone remembers that old Twilight Zone episode called “Button Button.”

It is about a couple that is struggling to make rent, they are looking for a break and then a knock comes to the door.

They open it and there is a black box with a huge red button on it and a note that says Mr. Steward will come to visit. Then, just as the note said, a smartly dressed stranger who introduces himself as Mr. Steward comes to their door.

He explains to the woman in the house that he has a key to the box and explains that if they press the button, then two things will happen; they will receive $200,000 in cash, but, consequently, someone “whom they don’t know” will die.

After the stranger leaves, the man and the woman wonder whether Steward’s proposal is genuine, and they debate whether to press the button. The woman rationalizes that they could make good use of the money and that the one who dies might be an old Chinese peasant or a person with cancer. The man hypothesizes that pressing the button could cause the death of an innocent baby. They open the box and discover it to be empty, with no mechanism that the button could for whatever purpose activate.

After arguing over what to do the woman pushes the button.

The next day, Mr. Steward returns and takes back the box, giving the shocked couple a briefcase with the $200,000. The woman asks what we should do with the money, to which Steward remarks that they should spend it. The woman also asks what will happen to the box and Steward replies that the button will be “reprogrammed” and offered to someone else with the same terms and conditions. Just before leaving, Steward focuses on woman and ominously states, “I can assure you it will be offered to someone whom you don’t know”.

When faced with the pressures we are in today, there are some people that are at their witundefineds end. All around us we are seeing nightmares play out every day and with these nightmares, there are people all around us that are using these times as an excuse to be monsters.

I am beginning to notice behaviors in people, especially on social media that spit in the face of morality.

The other night I did a show about my favorite B Movies and there was one that I didnundefinedt mention that did scare me when I was young. It was an Exorcist rip-off called undefinedBeyond the Door.undefined

Now even though this movie is a low-budget devil movie it has an especially eerie moment n the beginning of the feature:

It opens with a narrative in the beginning. The voice is a British man who says:

“Ladies and gentlemen: May I ask for your attention just for a minute soon you’ll be caught up in the events taking place on the screen and then you will forget about me well almost anyway.undefined

You see, I must confess to a certain feeling of propriety towards the story that’s about to begin because you’re modest though it may sound I play an extremely important part in proceedings in fact without me there really wouldn’t be any story at all, of course, you won’t actually see me unfortunately in recent centuries that have gone out of fashion there was a time when I’m always being painted or Impersonated in one way or another and as you know I’ve always been given the best lines, however like all of us I’d have to learn to adapt to what is absurdly called a rational age and I’ve done so by well shall we say by going underground and no doubt some of you will be rationalists the skeptics will say like the little girl in this picture that what you can’t see can’t exist.

Well my friends you go on thinking that as long as you care because sooner or later one way or another you’ll discover your mistake.

Anyway now I’ll leave you alone in the dark and let my little story take over enjoy yourself but don’t forget that the stranger sitting on the seat next to you could be me.” As you watch, you realize that the man speaking to the audience is the devil and that you never know who you come in contact with on a day-to-day basis.

You see, the decline effect also applies to matters of the soul. People are now too cool to stand up for morality, or God. Some will tell you that they know exactly what the devil does-they know exactly what God wants.

But then, they somehow find a way to insert some hateful judgment on someone undefined thinking that this is what real religion is supposed to be. It is how my truth is practiced.

But it leaves the all-loving and inviting Christian looking like a psychopathic hypocrite.

As Jesus can appear to be a beggar looking for bread – The devil has a way of disguising himself inside a person and here is where you get the basis for many of those horror movies where people are the cruelest to their fellow man.

In the book, Inside the Criminal Mind and The Myth of the Out of Character Crime criminologist Dr. Stanton E. Same now conceptualizes and gives credence to the specific traits and behaviors of the ‘criminal mind’.

He not only illustrates the thinking processes involved in law-breaking and antisocial behavior but also however unintentionally instructs the more normally oriented of us of the self-entitlement one can and should be wary of.

It all begins somewhere, and when we see radical hatred being spread all over because of identity politics, racial discrimination, and the fear of being infected with some sort of disease we begin to see something worse that a viral pandemic—we start to see a pandemic of lack of morality.

We must all take into consideration our behaviors and how we react to people who we have differences with.

It is important to look at how historical and current cultural and political landscapes have, and do still, feed the criminal mind.

How we are all experiencing that undefinedDecline Effectundefined are we all just rationalizing that some things are truer than others- or that the truth has now changed to fit the spirit of the times?

Look at the decline effect, when it comes to our children and how we expose them every day to deviant behavior and political grooming from teachers and other trusted adults.

If we speak out against it undefined we are insensitive to the needs of the protective class. The question is what is it they need exactly when a drag queen shows up to read a story at the local library?

Children are now taught about masturbation at school aged 3-6. And parents are being told these lessons are compulsory.

Not “grooming”. Not “sexualizing children”. Not “insanely creepy & inappropriate”. Compulsory.

Call it a conspiracy all you want, there is a very dark, heavy agenda at play,

So is the gender confusion indoctrination…And the virus, fear, indoctrination, &

a misplaced sense of responsibility. And the climate fear indoctrination, manipulation & guilt-bashing.

Also the ‘need’ for a ‘convenient’ cashless society indoctrination…

And the ‘fear to stand against the norm, and the science du jour because the herd will leap on you like an angry pack of pre-programmed hyenas & you’ll deserve everything that’s coming to you’ indoctrination.

It’s all coming into schools for a reason. it is all wrapped up in your daily dose of propaganda.

More & more. It’s not even covert or insidious anymore.

They have teachers regurgitating government fear-porn to children because ‘it’s just what’s on the curriculum.’ They do it to adults too undefinedciting science, logic, diversity, and a whole bunch of other meaningless gobble de goop.

Have we ever been more mindlessly obedient & afraid to question authority? And if so, where did we learn that?

I often wonder what it will take for this to end to reverse the situation.