Long, Pointy Shoes in Medieval Fashion • Hacker News Board

Re: Long, Pointy Shoes in Medieval Fashion

#31

Post by lallysingh » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 7:25 PM UTC

csa wrote: post #30

booleandilemma wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure flat earth is a parody right? No one actually believes that do they? It’s like the flying spaghetti monster or the church of the subgenius.

> Pretty sure flat earth is a parody right? Totally not a parody. I encourage you to go to a flat earth meeting or conference. Ask questions with the intent to listen and without judgment. Your mind will be blown. I used to think that data-driven scientific and analytic thinking was something that anyone could do if they wanted to. I no longer think that.

Rational thought is a learned skill.

Re: Long, Pointy Shoes in Medieval Fashion

#32

Post by 2038AD » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 7:37 PM UTC

booleandilemma wrote: post #18

Boulth wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting point of view. That'd explain flat earth and other oddities.

Pretty sure flat earth is a parody right? No one actually believes that do they? It’s like the flying spaghetti monster or the church of the subgenius.

I think like a lot of things it begins as parody and then newcomers are sincere

Re: Long, Pointy Shoes in Medieval Fashion

#33

Post by Fnoord » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 7:54 PM UTC

Hmm, wasn't there a James Bond where there was a stiletto-like knife hidden inside a shoe?

Also, apparently the trend of the pointy shoe came back [1]. Most recently in Mexico.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointed_shoe

Re: Long, Pointy Shoes in Medieval Fashion

#34

Post by defen » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 7:57 PM UTC

zcid wrote: post #26

booleandilemma wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure flat earth is a parody right? No one actually believes that do they? It’s like the flying spaghetti monster or the church of the subgenius.

I've always been amused by the conspiracy that flat earth is a smoke cloud put up to make all conspiracy theories look bad.

This isn't really a conspiracy, this is the "cognitive infiltration" technique advocated by Cass Sunstein. Basically, even if the government doesn't like conspiracy theories (especially ones around purported government action/inaction like 9/11 truthers, JFK assassination, etc) they can't ban it or punish people due to the First Amendment. Therefore the best approach for discrediting them is infiltrating the movements and pushing them to even more bizarre extremes, so that "normies" will not become interested in what they're peddling.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1084585

Re: Long, Pointy Shoes in Medieval Fashion

#35

Post by rolltiide » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 7:57 PM UTC

booleandilemma wrote: post #18

Boulth wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting point of view. That'd explain flat earth and other oddities.

Pretty sure flat earth is a parody right? No one actually believes that do they? It’s like the flying spaghetti monster or the church of the subgenius.

Some people believe it. Some people are trolling. Some people were trolling and realized all the power and influence they have by continuing to troll.

The primary common aspect is distrust of the word government.

There are very inquisitive and scientific people in the Flat Earth community that simply distrust particular sources, but simultaneously jump to conclusions that are opposite of that source. So they are interested in proving or disproving the same thing, but they are handicapped because they can't simply reproduce existing scientific research, they have to categorically reject that too simply because the state was involved in funding or agreeing with the research.

Eventually they do run interesting experiments that undermine their flat earth theories, but they are still trying to prove the earth is flat, instead of trying to prove the shape of the earth and accepting where-ever that leads them. This is distinct of how science is supposed to be done, but some of their experiments are clever.

Re: Long, Pointy Shoes in Medieval Fashion

#36

Post by Jill_the_Pill » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 8:11 PM UTC

pseudolus wrote: post #10

pitzips wrote: post #2

Similarly, the pointy shoes still live on in Mexico and Southern USA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_pointy_boots

The story mentions modern day successors in the form of winklepickers which were apparently a highlight of 1950's/1960's fashion [0][1]. I'm predicting a resurgence in the early 2020's until the TSA declares them a menace to airport security at which point they fall out of favour again until the early 2050's. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winklepicker [1] https://gucinari.co.uk/shoes/boots/the-history-of-winklepi…

I had read the term "winklepicker" a few times in the past, with no photo or description, and just assumed it was the snappy British equivalent of the American "clamdigger" -- a sort of short pants you'd wear collecting mollusks.

A classic example of "what you know that just ain't so."

Re: Long, Pointy Shoes in Medieval Fashion

#37

Post by aristophenes » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 8:23 PM UTC

dickeytk wrote: post #20

pitzips wrote: post #2

Similarly, the pointy shoes still live on in Mexico and Southern USA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_pointy_boots

Better example of how crazy they get: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=veQkt4tS0Tc

A highly upvoted comment from that video: "as a mexican I gotta say these mexicans don't represent all the mexicans"

Re: Long, Pointy Shoes in Medieval Fashion

#38

Post by ptrkcsk » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 8:36 PM UTC

Fnoord wrote: post #33

Hmm, wasn't there a James Bond where there was a stiletto-like knife hidden inside a shoe? Also, apparently the trend of the pointy shoe came back [1]. Most recently in Mexico. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointed_shoe

It was Rosa Klebb in From Russia with Love.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Klebb

Re: Long, Pointy Shoes in Medieval Fashion

#39

Post by darkpuma » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 8:41 PM UTC

csa wrote: post #30

booleandilemma wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure flat earth is a parody right? No one actually believes that do they? It’s like the flying spaghetti monster or the church of the subgenius.

> Pretty sure flat earth is a parody right? Totally not a parody. I encourage you to go to a flat earth meeting or conference. Ask questions with the intent to listen and without judgment. Your mind will be blown. I used to think that data-driven scientific and analytic thinking was something that anyone could do if they wanted to. I no longer think that.

> "I encourage you to go to a flat earth meeting or conference."

Selection bias. Of course the trolls wouldn't bother going to such a meeting. The proportion of true believers at a conference says nothing about the proportion of true believers in the general public.

Re: Long, Pointy Shoes in Medieval Fashion

#40

Post by lallysingh » Sat, Jun 08, 2019, 9:16 PM UTC

darkpuma wrote: post #39

csa wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Pretty sure flat earth is a parody right? Totally not a parody. I encourage you to go to a flat earth meeting or conference. Ask questions with the intent to listen and without judgment. Your mind will be blown. I used to think that data-driven scientific and analytic thinking was something that anyone could do if they wanted to. I no longer think that.

> "I encourage you to go to a flat earth meeting or conference." Selection bias. Of course the trolls wouldn't bother going to such a meeting. The proportion of true believers at a conference says nothing about the proportion of true believers in the general public.

Nobody's assuming it's a representative sample. It's a counterexample.