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Heard a creepy conspiracy theory. (hexbear.net)

submitted 7 months ago by DisabledAceSocialist@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net

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You know sometimes you're thinking of something, not even saying it out loud, and then an ad for it pops up on your screen? There's a claim that scientists have developed mind-reading nano particles that have been put in food and water, humans consume them and then they read our thoughts and of course, this being a capitalistic society, use our thoughts to try and sell us stuff.

What do you think?

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[–] glans@hexbear.net 23 points 7 months ago (5 children)

I once saw a lecture by a psychiatrist who was talking about schizophrenia.

He used the example of a person sitting thinking "gee I'm hungry I could sure go for some pizza" when suddenly an ad for pizza pops up on TV.

The problem comes when you start inferring some kind of causality between the two. Either that your mind caused the pizza ad (because you have power, or your thoughts are being monitored), or the pizza ad was strategically being played when They knew you were hungry. Maybe as part of a larger plan.

The truth is that pizza is good, people get hungry, and if you watch TV there are ads for pizza all the time. It is highly likely things will line up sometimes and you will experience coordination.

It is too much pattern matching; everyone is susceptible to it. It is incorrect.

There is no plausible mechanism for your hypothesis. Furthermore it is unnecessary because the means of production, distribution, reproduction etc etc are all owned by a very small group who will make money off you in any case.

[–] QueerCommie@hexbear.net 2 points 7 months ago

I have definitely felt assuming causality to be problematic, but synchronicity is still interesting. I just mumble “that’s cool. God, Jung, Chaos Magick…” now.

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