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The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

businessinsider.com

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Re: The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

#31

Post by ptha »

onewaystreet wrote: post #8

The US government did all sorts of crazy tests on people in the 50s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra

Another awful example being the Tuskegee Syphilis experiments which went as late as 1972: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_syphilis_experiment

Re: The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

#32

Post by MichaelGG »

dr_zoidberg wrote: post #30
halviti wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're curious about the chemtrail crowd, I'd recommend the "documentary" 'what in the world are they spraying' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf0khstYDLA It's one of the many conspiracy type videos out there, and I don't endorse the content in any way.. I just find this stuff fascinating

What I always found "fascinating" about conspiracy theories is how educated, smart people can be convinced by some of them. It's just something that I can't understand.

What seems to happen is that you come across a compelling set of evidence. The evidence is faked, or skewed heavily, but it might be hard to know this. And, as presented, the cases are usually pretty good. If you're unable to immediately dispute them, it isn't totally irrational to think they might be real.

This is the reason I don't watch documentaries on modern "issues". The story presented is all very manipulated and you're certain to get an incorrect set of evidence.

What is boggling is how smart people _stay_ convinced by conspiracies, after contradictions are pointed out. But changing your mind is a hard thing to do, so perhaps it's not that surprising?

Re: The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

#34

Post by geomark »

dr_zoidberg wrote: post #30
halviti wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're curious about the chemtrail crowd, I'd recommend the "documentary" 'what in the world are they spraying' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf0khstYDLA It's one of the many conspiracy type videos out there, and I don't endorse the content in any way.. I just find this stuff fascinating

What I always found "fascinating" about conspiracy theories is how educated, smart people can be convinced by some of them. It's just something that I can't understand.

Well, after many conspiracy theories turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg of truly heinous government actions it's not hard to understand why previously skeptical people now think twice about immediately dismissing crackpot ideas.

Re: The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

#35

Post by LiweiZ »

dr_zoidberg wrote: post #30
halviti wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're curious about the chemtrail crowd, I'd recommend the "documentary" 'what in the world are they spraying' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf0khstYDLA It's one of the many conspiracy type videos out there, and I don't endorse the content in any way.. I just find this stuff fascinating

What I always found "fascinating" about conspiracy theories is how educated, smart people can be convinced by some of them. It's just something that I can't understand.

Sometimes the more you know, the more possibilities could be out there. We are not in a 100% transparent world. A single signal could mean a lot that one is not able to see. So based on some signals we could observe, there come related explanations. We could label a category with different tags. Conspiracy theory is one of them. Though I do believe that conspiracy theories weigh people's motivations more, which is not quite fit to most of mainstream perspectives. Hopefully, I won't get downvoted too much with this comment;p

[edit] typo

Re: The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

#36

Post by batou »

geomark wrote: post #34
dr_zoidberg wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I always found "fascinating" about conspiracy theories is how educated, smart people can be convinced by some of them. It's just something that I can't understand.

Well, after many conspiracy theories turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg of truly heinous government actions it's not hard to understand why previously skeptical people now think twice about immediately dismissing crackpot ideas.

Some of us have also worked, through ignorance I will add, for heinous government contractors and sat with people having discussions on how best to kill lots of people efficiently without a thought as to any ethical consequences of their actions.

I was out of there like a shot.

Re: The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

#37

Post by nmrm2 »

pdkl95 wrote: post #23
onewaystreet wrote: post #8

The US government did all sorts of crazy tests on people in the 50s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra

Not just MKUltra - there is a long history of what I would describe as "shockingly unethical" experimentation in the US. The US Government (usually military) is probably the most common actor and/or funder, but they are not the only responsible parties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethical_human_experimentatio... This is why a lot of people (myself included) take a hard-line position of any kind of testing involvi…

If the IRB regime had existed in the 40's, I doubt it would've have stopped this and other experimentation.

IRBs are effective at checking back everyday scientists. I somehow doubt an IRB panel would be need to be consulted by someone powerful enough to have the authority to load a crapton of bacteria onto a boat and spray it into SF.

Re: The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

#38

Post by brillenfux »

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #28
Shivetya wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would hope NO state would do such a thing in the current time. We are well past the point in civilization to accept this type of action from any state or organization.

Pre 2001 a lot of people would claim that we are also against torture, extrajudicial kidnapping, secret trials, locking people up without trial, mass surveillance, and unprovoked wars. Things change. Just as between WWII and the cold war people likely claimed "we'll never let stuff like what the Nazi's did happen again!" then the country(s) feel threatened and the gloves come off.

When was this "in between" you speak of? The cold war pretty much started with WWII.

Re: The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

#39

Post by contingencies »

That's not all: they raised a Nazi flag in SF city hall, too! See John Gutmann's photograph The News Photographer (1935), where he takes the micky out of the subject photojournalist for missing the real story. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/465559680200258166/

Note that I've read the reasoning behind the event was apparently the visit of a German navy crew and 'protocol' (the US and Germany were not yet at war) rather than the weak line discussed at that URL. Still, a little known fact.

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