Reporting from various Facebook Groups — An area chemtrail believer decided on Wednesday to strategically “play the victim” after taking a brutal rhetorical beating by what she referred to as an “immature group of math thugs.” Mary McAlister seemed surprised that other Facebookers took issue with her incendiary share of a billboard picture that warned people of geoengineering dangers.
“These two guys kept asking me for proof,” said an indignant and self-righteous Ms. McAlister in an interview at her Rhode Island Street home. “So I said, ‘well, just look at the picture. It’s all there.’ But that wasn’t enough, so I shared many YouTube videos and a dozen links from geoengineeringwatch.org. That didn’t work, so I just started calling everyone a thug.”
According to virtual bystanders, after Ms. McAlister posted the photograph without comment, two prominent engineers who belong to a group called Math, not Bullshit, demanded data support her spin that “fact-resistant humans” don’t believe Chemtrails and that geoengineering is real. When repeatedly asked to provide factual data for her claims that “chemtrails [are] proven,” she harnessed her inner 15-year-old and said, “some people just don’t get it. Whatever.”
“It’s really frustrating trying to discuss with people who are math-adverse,” said local engineer Kevin Davis of Grass Valley. “When you ask for facts, they’ll tell you that the facts are biased. When you asked them how they are biased, they say things like ‘corporations.’ When you ask why corporations would be interested in this, they say things like, ‘Alcoa needs to get somehow rid of their aluminum. And people aren’t using fluoride toothpaste like they used to.’ That’s part of the problem. They have this narrative stuck in their heads, which is based on a conspiracy. ‘It’s real because the story tells us that,’ they’ll tell you. I’m just asking for measurements and simple physics.”
According to experts, this cultural stigma towards the scientific method is a troubling development in mainstream thought. Although very few scientists give credence to fringe theories such as chemtrail geoengineering, their growing prevalence seems to be linked to a complete failure of our public school system, and more obviously, the ability to use necessary critical thinking skills.
“It’s called a false equivalence fallacy,” said Professor of Ethics James Badwater at the Berkeley Divinity School. “Just because someone utters something doesn’t mean it has value. It has intrinsic value just because someone says it, but not all things are the same in terms of relative value. But in our social media charged culture, we often give equal weight to arguments that should be readily dismissed as irrational or specious. It’s like allowing someone to argue that gravity doesn’t exist in a mass debate. It’s just doesn’t deserve equal time in the debate.”
As for Ms. McAlister, she’s not giving up on her quest to rid the world of the Chemtrail menace.
“This is the issue of the day,” continued Ms. McAlister. “You don’t need no corp-fascist science types telling us we need ‘math’ and ‘science’ to prove anything. Just look up! Look at the dying trees. Look at all the sick people. They’re killing everything. So as long as we can all collectively look up, there’s hope we can stop this looming environmental catastrophe.”
Math not Bullshit meets every second Thursday at Sergio’s in Grass Valley, CA.
