Interesting in this context is completely divorced from morally good/bad. Could be any group from any area at any time in history. I’ll start with a few, followers of the cult of pythagoras, contemporary black Hebrew Israelites, antiracist skinheads and the Amish (neo-luddites in general). Don’t be racist or a prick to other people discussing.
online, stumbled upon chronic lyme community at least on 2 different forums(i believed i had lyme one time as i had encountered with a tick but wasnt bitten years before, until i realized most of them had some sort mental issue going on) because i was suffering from some unusual neurological conditions, which lyme may cause.
they believe lyme isnt curable according to them and can explain any range of symptoms, even if its not related to lyme. plus they believe it is endemic in other countries where lyme doesnt occur. and any tick species can carry it. like they believed every skin rash that may look like a bullyesys as a sign of lyme.
they also ended up harassing and issuing death threat against the ACTUAL infectious disease specialist who discovered lyme, because he was contradicting chronic lyme believers. and mostly its midwestern white women who believes this stuff. now to that end, theres a whole industry apparently furthering the delusions. now draws in all sorts of people.
Lyme doctors, naturopaths will try to prey on people by convincing them to take a lyme specific test from a well known questionable company that makes these blood tests. and then they have the LYME mds prescribe them actual Long term antibiotics, months or years on it. they believe the side effects is causing is treating the “chronic lyme” symptoms. at the same time they also take supplements “extraction from plants” as supplemental treatment, again it causes unknown side effects, so they think its treating it. they are getting constant thrush infections, from the ANTIBIOTICS. and the lyme mds, also dont take insurance, red flag here. thier family members have reported, some of them suffered some permanent neurological damage from taking antibiotics for too long, or some wierd plant supplement. and guess which politics they side with.(and this was pre trumps 1st term). very dangerous as it involves MDs preying on people, prescribing them actual meds to things they may not have. and furthering the delusions of “chronic lyme” people.
also any attempt to confront or question chronic lyme will draw thier ire.
basically health conspiracy.
Wait. Is chronic Lyme not actually a thing? There are quite a few long/chronic types of things I’m aware of that are quite real, but also still not super well understood. I assumed Lyme was in there with those. Real, but more of a side-side-effect of a disease that breaks something in weird ways for different people.
Chronic lyme is pseudoscience, its the belief that “lyme” isnt curable. but people dont attribute the neurological damage from lyme as a sequelae or the fact that there a bunch of other diseases that cause symptoms similar to lyme. so they seek out LLMD to give them confirmation biases(LLMD are unethical asf, but thier MD license arnt in danger.) by the way, chronic lyme was coined by a mom, like with other fake diseases, and they also lean into anti-vax a bit. almost any posts about lyme on any forum/video, always have someone chiming in to look into the Chronic lyme. there was an episode of monsters inside me, about lyme i think the official channel deleted the video as it was drawing unnecessary attention,
the problem is these people also seeing UNETHICL MDs who prescribe them questionable blood tests and antibiotics, which as you know if you take abx too long it can cause THRUSH infections, and neurological problems, like peripheral neuropathy. since these docs usually dont take Insurance, because eitherthey know insurance will try to investigate fraud, or whatever, they CHARGE BY THE HOUR, USUALLY hundreds.
lyme, if you leave untreated long enough it causes syndromes similar to RA, and other neurolgoical diseases, which can be long term or permanent. what the CL people believes is this is a permanent infection. also as a note they dont believe in Infectious diseases specialists too,.
Wow thanks for that follow up info. I had no idea. I also looked it up some and read a few things in it. Hard to know what is accurate or true, but yeah. It makes a lot of sense that it is the untreated infection leading to neurological damage and it’s that neuro damage that is mistaken for an ongoing infection. I can see how people would believe that.
Sad that it’s being taken advantage of too, ugh.
I remember being TERRIFIED of getting Lyme as a kid because there was this kinda perception/belief in permanent illness or severe damage and all that. Not that Lyme isn’t dangerous or deadly, but good to know it’s not some spooky forever mystery disease.
remember the scientist who discovered lyme, was stalked, harrassed and had death threats against him, he had to get private security. he was also saying theres no such thing as CHRONIC lyme. its basically a cult with an industry behind it. like someone said it likely it some other disorder, like CF or a mental component. if you dont live in lyme “country”, or unless you were near there but dint see a tick or anything, ubt a telltales bullseye rash.
It’s just chronic fatigue syndrome.
It’s chronic fatigue syndrome, which can be triggered by actual Lyme, but hangs around after whatever illness has been cleared from the body. They mistakenly think it’s still a bacteria in there. The antibiotics help their symptoms because a broad range of antibiotics act as a strong anti inflammatory in ways current NSAIDs don’t, so it feels like it makes them better. The bladder pain community I’m in deals with the same crap of people thinking they have a permanent ‘embedded infection’ and there are people who take antibiotics for years.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Long Covid is real, though. Probably some autoimmune shit going on. Women are notoriously ignored in medical studies and are more likely to have autoimmune disorders.
When no one helps you, you cling onto the first bullshit that make sense. And let me be clear on how there is absolutely no help for chronic, weird symptoms as a woman. You slowly just start to lose your mind as your life falls apart and no real doctor will offer anything but vitamin D and antidepressants. (It was endometriosis. I had undiagnosed endometriosis for 20 years no one gave a shit about).
if you try to confront them , or tell them it something else they become very hostile to you on other sites, they will legit stalk you on the site you critcized them with facts and hound you, its basically a cult so to speak. its more like psychosomatic illness or delusional parasitosis.
They have an illness destroying their life (even if it’s not the one they think it is) and they’ve found a medication that actually makes them feel better. Everyone tries to take this medication away (antibiotics) without providing anything else effective in it’s place. It’s understandable why they’re hostile.
CFS\Long Covid isn’t solely psychosomatic in the cases where an illness triggered it, that’s autoimmune.
There’s no good options for them right now outside of social support, but they certainly don’t get that in my country either. So I get why they’re absolutely hostile and just leave them be.
since they dont know what they have(so csf is not even on the table for them), they dont seek out 2nd opinions and just attribute all thier symptoms to “chronic lyme”, because its an “LYME DOCTOR” convincing them.
Knights Templar, one of the oldest secret societies that may or may not still exist.
Very historically interesting group.
They most definitely still exist today. I studied in a private Jesuit run school. We were taught survival skills in the cubs & scouts. Then we were taught defensive combat skills.
You could also enroll in fencing & marital arts, but I had other things on my mind at the time.
The Weather Underground were a leftist militant group in the US who did a bunch of bombings and riots in the 1970: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground
There’s a decent documentary about them: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0343168/
when did they chill out and start serving public apis
Fun fact. Both are started at the University of Michigan and the latter was named as an homage to the leftist group.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground_(weather_service)
I’m not typically in favor of bombing things. You know, like in general. That said, blowing up a statue, waiting for it to be rebuilt and then blowing it up again is pretty funny.
Then they blew it up a third time.
Yeah. Also AFAIK, they bombed a bunch of buildings, but only at times they knew no one would be in them, and never killed or injured anyone.
Spiritualists conducting scam stances in 1850s Boston, the Fox sisters. Their scam was done by “knocking noises” that were generated by the sisters cracking joints or even just tapping on the table or floor.
The circles they traveled in included Quakers, suffragettes, high society, and financiers. (Some of their early seances centered on stock market predictions, and made them a good deal of money.)
I just love that intersection of societies coming together to be scammed by some pretty bright women, in a really interesting time in our national history. Strict religious beliefs in a marriage with new age free thought.
I have kind of wanted to write a book centered on that time but never found a good hook.
My grandmother was an eventual product of that generation in Boston. Very equal rights for women while in a weird religious sect, Christian Science, founded by feminist Mary Baker Eddy.
Knocking with your feet to pretend there is a ghost is still an alive and well practice. I don’t have exact instances on hand but John Wolfe on YouTube has covered a lot of ghost hunting content and some people in there do it.
Today there are more technological ways to create ghostly knocking using various devices, but if the “ghost hunter”/“medium” is taken to a location they can’t prep beforehand, some of them still do basic knocking tricks.
I don’t remember the specifics since it’s been a while, but I think these are the John Wolfe videos that cover fake knocking
monkey.jpeg
Just an fyi the black Hebrew Israelites have a history of some pretty problematic beliefs and history. The Southern poverty law center (they keep track of hate groups in the U.S.) have a write up on them.
Oh I know that’s why I made the point of morally good/bad not being part of the equation. Just interesting. I saw some CRAZY videos of them in public. So, I looked into their general ideas and beliefs. They are like half the reason I made the thread.
I’ve met several people from a group of furries who were ‘themed’ around a specific cartoon from the 1980s-90s. (I’m trying to be vague here)
They had their own internet server way back in the early dialup days, and for all I know they might still exist as a group and meet up occasionally, but I don’t have any recent information.
Cowabunga?
No, but not a bad guess given what I wrote. I won’t confirm or deny any more guesses though.
I’ve met several people from a group of furries who were ‘themed’ around a specific cartoon from the 1980s-90s.
Lol, yes! That was my guess too!
Gotta be the Gadget Hackwrench bros.
I thought that was a relatively more recent (Russian?) group, but if you go digging you’ll find “Rangerphiles” more broadly. That would’ve been my guess. Within that was another subset: RAGE (Rangers Against Gadget Erotica) which I think, somewhat confidently, was a consequence of heavy Christian influence within the Ranger community with all the hangups and repression that entails. I can’t say I looked all that hard for an explanation, it was just a browser rabbit hole one night years ago, and I kind of put Christian Furries in a similar camp to LGBT Christians anyway - “I think it’s nonsense, spare me the details and mental gymnastics, but if you wanna retcon Christianity into something better - by all means please do because it’s pretty horrible on its face.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jäger_Movement was a Finnish political movement whose aim was to liberate the Grand Duchy of Finland from the Russian Empire. It grew into a trained military battalion and formed a core of the White army in the Finnish Civil War.
One of the biggest reasons why Finland has been an independent country for 109 years.
I read Gypsy Boy recently and one of the most fascinating parts was the dynamic between the Romani and Irish Travelers. I guess it’s naive to have assumed there would be comradarie since they have similar lifestyles.
My dad was part of a masonic lodge later on in life and, what I got from meeting a couple of his colleagues and talking to him about it, it really wasn’t that interesting. It’s basically a social space for older men with some connections/money and a lot of rituals (which my dad described very giddily, lol, the superficial fool). Most likely influential in some way (as any group of uhh “funny” old men with reach can be) but kinda meh… it didn’t seem like he learned anything transcendental or important from his time there.
Yeah lots of meh in that kind of thing in my experience.
The free masons originally grew as a support and trust network.
It used to be that traveling was FAR less common. Consequently, travellers were seen as suspect. One of the major exceptions was masons. They would have to relocate to big projects e.g. a castle. They would stay long enough that the lack of trust was a problem, but not long enough to properly overcome it.
End result, they started vouching for each other. A local groups would vouch for the newcomers. They would introduce them and stop them getting ripped off.
Furthermore, stonemasonry was a dangerous trade. It was easy for a mason to be killed far from home. They clubbed together to support the families of members, as well as the disabled.
Wrap this up in Christianity based traditions and you have the masonic free masons. An early cooperative support and social networking group.
No idea what your dad’s like, but I reckon we in the secular west are write off rituals way too easily. They can have lots of value - silly fun not least of all, but also community building and meaning-making.
yeah it’s also my impression. i’ve never been with the freemasons but from my impression as an outsider, it’s a very outdated structure. not sure whether they still don’t allow women in. yeah, it’s basically a socializing circle for rich folks. lots of rituals, but no deeper spirituality as far as i can tell. you can probably learn more from 6 months at a 3-person philosophy circle than from a decade at the freemasons.
Uh, it’s very interesting if you’re into allegorical reinterpretations of universal deism and some esoteric rituals. But, yeah, the dinners are pretty much the highlight.
I found Urban eXperiment to be kind of an interesting group. They’re the folks who built a hidden cinema in the Paris Catacombs.
Oh wild
In the early days of the Internet - mid-90s or so - my buddy happened upon a community of “gainers” online. They are apparently gay men into feeding each other and being obese. Also typically opposed to body hair.
Another extremely odd group to pop out of the gay community? Bug chasers.
Early internet was weird. I found a forum where gay men would write public, erotic love letters detailing their willingness to contract, or transmit HIV to each other on purpose. Like, viscerally describing giving or getting each other’s “pozzie” (HIV-positive status)
I get that kinks exist but this seems dangerous
Yikes! I think I’d rather be a gainer.
The word interesting is doing a lot of work here.
On one hand flat earthers are very interesting. Stupid the stupidest but interesting.
On the other hand it’d be better if there were no flat earthers at all for them to be interesting in the first place.
Pretty much. In terms of “harmless” interesting? Maybe hobby biking? It started as a parody of hobby horsing, which is already a hilariously cringey thing.
For the uninitiated, hobby horsing is when people run around on foot completing tiny horse agility courses, while holding a toy broomstick horse between their legs. One of these:
It’s basically what happens when horse girls don’t have horse girl money. And no, I’m not making this up:
Hobby biking started as a parody of that. They got rid of most of a BMX bike, only keeping the front wheel and handlebars. They don full BMX gear. Full helmet, hard plate pads, riding boots, etc… Then they run through BMX and mountain bike courses on foot, while pushing this wheel (or sometimes even just the front handlebars without a wheel) along in front of them.
There is also the natural offshoot, hobby moto. Where people take modified motocross bike frames, and carry them through dirtbike courses:
I don’t know what’s more funny the content of your comment or the fact that you put in such a massive effort to illustrate your point.
Either way thank you! I woke up to this and it put me in a better mood!
Well, someone has to fight the globalist agenda
I follow paranormal/UFO/ghost/Milab/conspiracy literature. I collect books by these authors and I like to follow individuals on their career trajectory though the subject matter. I’m more interested in the people and the amount and rate that they deviate from the mainstream.
I’ve noticed that their views and books tend to get more fringe and extreme the further they go on their career, which isn’t too surprising, but what surprised me more was that there was less infighting than I expected, and a surprising groupthink product where all their ideas come together.
How do you reconcile aliens and bigfoot, witches, ghosts, and automatic writing, loch Ness monster, time slips and self-mummifying monks, tulpas, poltergeists and UFOs, cattle abduction and missing persons, Jewish space lasers and fae folk, changelings and vaccine mind control? It seemed like many of these were exclusive OR concepts?
They all seem to come together under one porous, unifying theory of everything supernatural. There’s no real guidelines, the whole raft of authors are just continually “yes, and”-ing each other into this vast soupy mass of theories which, if I had to put a label on it, boils down to transdimensional demonology.
It’s like they all sort of figured out that infighting is not so profitable, and so they are practicing academic radical acceptance without any real guiding force.
That’s my take-away, anyway.
Space deniers.
They are a sub-set of flat earthers. Not all flat earthers are space deniers, but every space denier I’ve seen is a flat earther.
Some of the more prominent ones like Level Earth Observer spend innumerable hours picking apart International Space Station live footage as “fake”. Things like space rocket launches need to be picked apart to absurd degrees as well. Every camera glitch, every stutter, every little movement is hyper-analyzed and declared to be a fraud.
I find it all fascinating. Some of these deniers put forth their own lay theories, which are usually very Biblical in bent, but many of them like LEO will twist themselves into incoherent knots refusing to admit they have a viewpoint and that they are “just asking questions” despite pushing back in a very particular way to all the answers they get.
Some of them like “CC from New York, Westchester County” are just totally off the deep end, not even playing word games, just conspiratorially ranting without even internal consistency.
I’ve only ever interacted with a space denier directly once and it was as equally interesting as it was frustrating.
There’s a big flat earth/space denier overlap with other fringe ideas like young earth creationism which gets you into Kent Hovind territory. That’s interesting in its own way but also full of slime.
I once did some research on flat earthers for a project. I was trying to assemble the most consistent interpretation I could in order to play the devil’s advocate in a fun debate. It turns out that space denial is quite helpful at preserving coherent physics if you assume the Earth is flat. The Earth can be accelerating upwards to create gravity, which violates special relativity but that’s nbd at this scale. Other planets can also be flat, which makes things easy too. The sun can’t set, but there’s no way around that one.
In my experience, the most irrefutably evidence that the Earth is round is the simple stuff like astronomy. Simple things like the path the sun and stars take from two points on the globe basically ends all debate. Flat Earthers always have crackpot ideas for things you can’t easily observe yourself, but you can really catch them with proof they can see with their naked eyes.
Of course, the easiest simplest killshot on flat earth is the sun setting below the horizon. Flat earth and space deniers tend to say the sun is well, something that’s not a star, but more importantly that it stays in the sky and circles further away from a given location on earth until we can’t see it from a given location anymore while it stays overhead. To think that is to deny easily observed reality of it setting below the horizon. They just wordsalad about perspective until the conversation ends.
One aspect of flat earth/space denial that keeps me engaged is learning from the responses that educated people give to their questions. Details of space programs and astronomy that wouldn’t come up often except to answer flat earth/space denial.
Interesting that one of the more popular weather forecasting sites is named after a terrorist group
Owned by IBM now.
I’ve been using WU for probably 15 years. It’s been one of the most consistent weather sites and apps as far as decent quantity and quality of data. I had completely forgotten about the terrorist group with the same name. Now I’ll never be able to unsee it.
