Can people remove the phrase " Tin Foil Hat" from their vocabulary?

[DjLoTi]

I don't know what it means... some girl on fox news made it up in her book... can we stop using this phrase? It's really ridiculous. Why don't you explain what you mean in *your* words instead of somebody else's.

[Anne]

I don't think anyone on FoxNews made it up. It's a joke about alien abductees who have had to resort to wearing special hats to prevent the aliens from locating them through the brain implants allegedly inserted in their heads.

Unforunately, a lot of people on this forum and in the world in general use the term "tin foil hatter" to describe anyone who questions mainstream ideas and views.

[DjLoTi]

Unforunately, a lot of people on this forum and in the world in general use the term "tin foil hatter" to describe anyone who questions mainstream ideas and views.

Can I ask who made it up?

My first guess is the MSM

Am I correct? Or did some writer make it popular? Anybody know?

[angelatc]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Foil_Hat

[DjLoTi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Foil_Hat

It doesn't tell me how the phrase became a term with people on the planet

When was this phrase created? The 60's? The 50's? 1200BC?
Who started using it? It doesn't tell me

Do you have an answer to my question? Wiki doesn't.

[angelatc]

It goes back at least to the sixties - i remember it as a kid.

[Brandybuck]

It doesn't matter who made it up, I still think it's funny. There really are people nutty enough to think that aliens are beaming messages into their heads, and that if they wear tin foil hats it will stop it.

Wacky people and their wacky ideas need to be made fun of. You can't correct their delusions, but you can embarass them enough so they go away.

A lot of conspiracy theorists need this ridicule as well. Even though a few of them don't believe in UFOs, their blathering only hurts the Ron Paul campaign. Their tinfoil hats are on too tight. They are beyond reason. They ask "questions" about 9/11, but refuse to listen to answers from engineers and scientists.

Then they discover that they're not alone, that some guy over there has a theory that the Jews are behind everything. And the conspiracy widens. But no, it's not just the Jews, but the Illuminati! And they're putting flouride in our drinking water to pollute the purity of our bodily essences! They're the ones that toppled the WTC towers! Bush is really a Jew because he's circumcized! But even that wackiness isn't good enough for them! They discover David Ickes and suddenly realize that reptilian space aliens assassinated Kennedy, that Oswald was merely a patsy genetically grown from an oyster. Nothing is to absurd for them to believe.

There are 9/11 Truthers who sincerely believe in fairies, orgone generators and perpetual motion machines. Really! Stuff like this is too silly to make up: <http://educate-yourself.org/ct/>.

Give them a several thousand word incoherent rant, with self referential links, and they'll believe it to be the gospel truth. Give them a peer reviewed paper with hundreds of verifiable citations disproving their claims, and to them it's just more proof that the conspiracy is bigger than they originally thought.

These people need to be ridiculed off Ron Paul's stage!

[DjLoTi]

It seems like a simple argument phrase for a complex ideas and concepts. I wouldn't be surprised if this was part of some propaganda back in the 30's ... even before the war...

maybe 50's... either way... it's an old and dead argument. Why make it a simple phrase to isolate any idea which conflicts the ordinary? I completely disagree with it and will *never* call anyone or suggest anyone is that 'lable'. ugh.

[Anne]

Wacky people and their wacky ideas need to be made fun of. You can't correct their delusions, but you can embarass them enough so they go away.



Why? Giving more attention to things like this just makes them stronger. If you are so convinced these "wacky" people need to go away, then you should just ignore them instead of wasting your precious time making fun of them.

Maybe it's people like you who need to be made fun of?

[DjLoTi]

I say this argument is old and should just stop it's own controversy.

It's a derogatory name.

*edit* sorry Anne I didn't mean to cut you off, I agree with your entire first statement. :) haha it's trueee

As for the other poster, I didn't read your entire reply, but you had many adverse statements in your reply that went beyond topic discussion.

[DjLoTi]

I just want to delete this topic. Can I delete this topic?