[marshray]

As used here "UFO-crazy" wasn't a supposition, it was a constraint.

"UFO-crazy uncles" are known to exist. This is not an extraordinary claim. The existence of such uncles provides no evidence for or against extraterrestrial visitors or other aerial phenomena.

[keepamovin]

In context seemed more like a smear for any who don't dismiss as unremarkable. But I'm glad you took it as the narrow case, tho - do they really "exist", or might they have just been right all along? Lol

[marshray]

Being "crazy" and later turning ought to be "right" are not exclusive.

One can be right for bad reasons.

[keepamovin]

OK - this needs some good examples :)

[mrandish]

Justified, true beliefs: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/knowledge-analysis/#KnowJ...

[marshray]

People who believe in "chemtrails" are (in my un-scientific survey) pretty likely to be conspiracy enthusiasts ("cranks", "crazy", etc.).

But they're not wrong that the stuff coming out of the back of jet aircraft is changing the climate.

Small, localized weather engineering programs have long been real (cloud seeding), and planetary-scale climate engineering projects are now openly discussed by governments. E.g. https://www.epa.gov/geoengineering/about-geoengineering "Types of solar geoengineering techniques include: Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) – adding small reflective particles to the upper atmosphere (stratosphere) to reflect incoming sunlight. Sulfur dioxide (SO2), one of the types of chemicals considered for SAI, can chemically react in the stratosphere to form reflective sulfate aerosols."

[XorNot]

Except "stuff" isn't coming out of the back of aircraft: they're talking about aircraft contrails which is just condensed water vapor from wingtip turbulence.

The people who claim they're monitoring chemtrails aren't even watching aircraft which are deliberately dispensing payloads, because it just isn't that common in the first place (unless you go out and watch crop dusting, but then you can also just see the guy land, get out, and talk about it).

[shwaj]

I thought they’re primarily water vapor resulting from the combustion reaction, not from wing tip turbulence.

[hakrgrl]

Galileo's heliocentric model

Hand washing prevents illness

COVID came from a lab, not a wet market

Hunter Biden laptop was real

And then a counter example of something broadly accepted but untrue. The humoral theory and blood letting, practiced for thousands of years. This is what killed George Washington.

[marshray]

> Galileo's heliocentric model

Copernicus, but "close enough".

Yep. The planets do not, in fact, revolve around the Sun. They revolve around the solar system center of mass (barycenter). This is an error of about 0.25 degree viewed from Earth which was significant at the time.

> Hand washing prevents illness

Did the person who we credit for hand washing advocate for it because he was "crazy", or because he had a well-founded theory?

> COVID came from a lab, not a wet market

The lab-leak theory has not held up to scrutiny. It is considered refuted. Though IMO the initial backlash was excessive.

> Hunter Biden laptop was real

No one outside of politics said the laptop "wasn't real", many emails were cryptographically authenticated very early on. There was a great deal of concern by experts that a coordinated disinfo op was being played into the election. It was, though probably not with the involvement of foreign actors this time. Nothing about that laptop ended up being relevant to the Presidential candidate actually running for election.

> And then a counter example of something broadly accepted but untrue. The humoral theory and blood letting, practiced for thousands of years. This is what killed George Washington.

We're talking about examples of things a "crazy uncle" might believe that turned out to be true. These are just abandoned pre-scientific medical theories and treatments.

[jibal]

> In context seemed more like a smear

Not to anyone who is intellectually honest.

[keepamovin]

I reject the frame. Intellectual honesty remains open. Prejudging as crazy what merely differs is a lying smear.

[darepublic]

The existence of UFO crazy uncle's does from a probability sense have some bearing on whether we have any true extraterrestrial evidence.