Let's talk about chem trails. I'm not going to bury the lead here. Chemtrails are not a real thing. It's a conspiracy

theory based on a misunderstanding of a real thing that happens called contrails. Now, I want to say

up front because it's normal for people to get upset or uncomfortable when someone else calls

false on something in which they firmly believe. And it's important to note that conspiracies do

happen. Not all conspiracy theories are hokom, despite the term having taken on a cooks and foil hats veneer over the past several decades.

The practice of calling people conspiracy theorists to discredit them can be harmful to discourse,

and it's a tried and true method of making your critics look like lunatics, especially for

those who hold political or military power. and conspiracies of all shapes and sizes

take place within politics and business and other sectors all the time. The majority of them

we will never know about, and the ones that do eventually come to light usually get a new name

because of the derogatory implications that have been attached to the word conspiracy.

So Watergate became a scandal, not a conspiracy.

That's how this naming convention tends to work.

But all that said, there are such things as facts,

in the sense that we can put them to the test, using the scientific model, and ignoring such facts, in the sense that we can put them to the test using the scientific model, and ignoring

such facts in favor of your conspiracy theory of choice is, well, it's an option. You're totally

allowed to do that, but it's an option that implies a willingness to ignore reality in favor of

comforting or personally resonant fictions.

We've established that water boils at specific temperatures at various altitudes.

You can question that, and you can even question the expertise of the so-called experts

who have conducted the tests to establish this physical reality. But if you look at

the preponderance of evidence that has accumulated regarding the boiling point of water, and choose to

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