Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!ucdavis!uop!todd
From: todd@uop.edu (Dr. Nethack)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: Omni-Americans
Message-ID: <1221@uop.edu>
Date: 7 Mar 88 19:04:43 GMT
References: <5017@uwmcsd1.UUCP> <2790@gryphon.CTS.COM>
Organization: Uop Ethernet Gateway
Lines: 67
Summary: agreed

In article <2790@gryphon.CTS.COM>, edk@gryphon.CTS.COM (Ed Kaulakis) writes:
> In article <5017@uwmcsd1.UUCP>, markh@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Mark William Hopkins) writes:
> > Read Omni instead of Scientific American.  It's much better because it has 
> > all things Futuristic in it, be they science fact or science fiction (i.e.
> > science yet-to-be-fact).

You should have added, "with no distinction between the two"

> It's a world view based on a class of bullshit detectors...

That is not a bad point. Those I know who read (and preach) Omni,
advocate the removal of your common sense.
> It has no place for democratic determinations of what is the case

Another fine point, science, or shall I say, existance, does not modify
itself due to our opinions.  How we see it may change, how it is, apart
from our looking is no different. 

(yes I know about quantum theory)- even those relationships were there
prior to our finding them.

> Omni's UFO "reportage" is, in the absence of convincing evidence, mere 
> pandering, more comparable to the supermarket tabloids than to Sci Am.
> 
> That's why I think Omni is a sort of Trojan Horse for the marching morons.

Indeed, I can't stand it's glossy national enquirer approach to the
stuff it couches in scientific terms. Are we all going to be armchair
scientific "experts" a-la-Omni?  Lets hope to God NO! 

I spend more time trying to explain to friends why an article is not
all that true, or mere speculation.  They keep thinking I am nuts, since
Omni prints what they like to believe in, then it must be true, and I
am old hat.  

But let us distiguish between epistomology, science, and belief structures.

The Omni-ites I know seem to want to beleive it, wheather it is true or
not, so long as it is what they want to believe.  This is a dangerous
trend and I have seen it spreading!

Perhaps this is not the place for *this* type of discussion, but the
circular reasoning that it involves is down right manipulative and
brain washing.  Moreover, our schools are full of such garbage techniques.

We've all heard how T.V. is geared to the 6th grade mind, and now Omni
wants us to worship the thoughts and dillusions of the same frame of
reference. (so does Dan Rather)  :-)

It is not so bad, *assuming* one is educated enough to catch all the
crap, but lately, crap is all that is fed, (in many circles of influence) 
so some have become used to eating it, and have taken to recommending it
to their friends as Gospel.  

And we wonder why American products and morale are down.. Some of us take
pride in what we do, the rest seem not to care about anything but money.

And the rest of us/life/truth/reality be damned.

(hmm, suddenly I feel a soap-box under my feet, better get down before
 I catch cold up here)

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