Reminder that there used to be a $1,000,000 prize available for anyone who could display any sort of supernatural powers that remained unclaimed for 20 years. The challenge rules required that both parties agree upon the test setup, and several people actually tried to claim it and all failed. It astounds me that anyone still believes in this nonsense and that it seems to be becoming even more popular to believe in literal magic and other supernatural idiocy.
People Twitter
People tweeting stuff. We allow tweets from anyone.
RULES:
- Mark NSFW content.
- No doxxing people.
- Must be a pic of the tweet or similar. No direct links to the tweet.
- No bullying or international politcs
- Be excellent to each other.
- Provide an archived link to the tweet (or similar) being shown if it's a major figure or a politician.
Everyone should read about James Randi he was a brilliant skeptic.
And he did special effects for Alice Cooper!
Also friend of Penn and Teller. Just a great guy all around.
There was that guy who could make almost anyone forget almost anything, he won the prize many times. :D
I am at the point where if anyone, ever, for any reason, asks me what my astrological sign is, I stop communicating with them.
They always turn out to be irresponsible, narcissistic idiots every time.
An exception would be if this interaction is taking place completely within the confines of an actually defined fantasy world like a video game or ttrpg.
But real life? People who actually believe there is, or could potentially be anything to astrology?
Dangerous morons.
I looked for the video and came across a reddit thread about it. Here are two really funny comments:
I think its rather silly to say the least especially since curses require a certain amount of anger and hatred that im sure next to nobody feels to this person.
Oh yeah that's why it didn't work
Magic requires willpower and intention to use properly. I doubt any of these randos on the internet actually possessed the genuine desire or emotional investment to actually curse a random guy on the internet who had heretofore never interacted with them
Anyone who actually understood this likely didnt rise to the bait.
No true witch!
So, they're saying that the magic is real, but I can't just go to a crazy old crone's potions shop and purchase a curse on someone because that's not how it works? Well, that's disappointing.
Edit: "no true witch" = hilarious
The witch subculture is on the same level as kids who start channeling their chi to kamehameha a bully
That's not true, the kids will figure out they're cosplaying eventually.
This is just a high effort version of "...Then may God strike me dead!" but targeting a spiritual minority instead if the hegemonic national religion. Shouldn't the amount of un-smited politicians indicate that there is no God?
it's a risky thing to do,
the vast majority of cases, you'll be right. but no one will care.
however, in the unlikely event where you suffer a immediate tragedy, like trip and break your nose, stroke, bird shits on you. you might start a new religion
Yeah, I got taken in like this for a while.
I grew up religious and one time prayed for a friend who was going to go though a couple of surgeries and would have to eat through a straw for a few months. I prayed that I could take some of the pain for him if needed. Turned out that I had a small accident and got my first stitches the next day and my friend was able to avoid additional months of recovery because the surgeon was able to do both operations at once. I took that as a sign that my prayer had worked and believed more strongly in God. For a while until I realized that coincidences can happen and that believing in God is pretty stupid.
Shouldn't the amount of any un-smited politicians prove any spiritual group that claims to have the ability to harm people wrong? I mean why are witches so mad that they can't hurt a random guy?
I wouldn't ever do this because as soon as anything went wrong in my life I'd never be able to shake the question that it was super natural. I'm extremely skeptical and don't believe in any supernatural things, but I have a fear of developing superstitions. Also when I get really stressed about my life and feel like it is particularly unfair I start to feel like there is some sort of external source of my problems and it's malevolent. So, doing something like this would be a recipe for problems for me lol.
is skeptical and doesn't believe in the supernatural
has a fear of developing superstition
Sounds to me like you've been cursed, mate.
I have a fear of developing superstitions
Ngl that sounds like a good horror-comedy
You spot fake witches because they believe in magic instead of Magick. Being a witch is a spiritual practice, if curses actually worked the world would be very different (and way, way more fucked than it currently is)
I like the "headology," or the idea that what people believe is what is real.
“So people see you coming in the hat and the cloak and they know you’re a witch and that’s why your magic works?” said Esk.
“That’s right,” said Granny. “It’s called headology.” She tapped her silver hair, which was drawn into a tight bun that could crack rocks.
“But it’s not real!” Esk protested. “That’s not magic, it’s—it’s—”
“Listen,” said Granny, “If you give someone a bottle of red jollop for their wind it may work, right, but if you want it to work for sure then you let their mind make it work for them. Tell ’em it’s moonbeams bottled in fairy wine or something. Mumble over it a bit. It’s the same with cursing.”
-- Equal Rites, Terry Pratchett
Do it again, but with the magical powers of theism instead of witchcraft.
Pfft. They have had that covered for centuries.
"The Lord works in mysterious ways..."
When I used to be New Age I believed that not believing in magic gave you a resistance to it because Quantum...
Accepting the truth that magic ain't real was tough
Nothing fails like prayer. Or magic, which is just a different flavor of prayer and vice versa.
I mean I'd say I don't believe in witchcraft but I wouldn't take on this challenge, so I guess I do believe in witchcraft
Mark Twain said he didn't believe in ghosts, but they scare the hell out of him.
"I'm not superstitious, but I am a little stitious."
This reminds me of some work drama...
My coworker was cursed by our ~~b~~witch of an 'assistant manager' for turning her down, and the next day his mom had hot oil splash up her whole arm and it looked bad.
Not supersticious but he was and he was terrified. It was horrible to watch.
i don't believe in witchcraft but I'm not bold enough to challenge people to hex me. not because it might work, but because i might just be unlucky enough that something completely irrelevant would happen to me and that would forever convince them they were right and i was wrong and i would never live that down.
it might even happen while I'm uploading the update to say that everything's fine. something would fall on my head or some shit, I can't take that risk.
This man is a true servant of The Emperor, the touch of Chaos must be resisted at all costs.
I'm loosely pagan on a spiritual level and I vibe a lot with druidism and many of the things that witches do, but as much as I enjoy the culture, I never fail to cringe over the collective hubris of self-proclaimed witches. It's always the edgiest 30-45 year old women who wear House of 1000 Corpses t-shirts and extreme amounts of eye shadow, who post "Proud Bitch" memes on social media and exude an undeserved air of confidence because they believe so deeply their spells are real.
While I admit that Wicca is quite beautiful and largely misunderstood, the things most witches/hexers are practicing only date back a few decades. They're not speaking the ancient magicks or communing with old gods. I can't speak much on the divine feminine because I'm not informed enough on that subject, but for the other half of their belief system they have taken the rather ambiguous depiction of Cernunnos and turned him into a sexy, big-dicked goat man, and have fabricated their own lore to explain the workings of something that is in reality unfathomably old and lost to man, with no surviving origin story and little to no oral tradition.
We can certainly make some educated guesses, but the bulk of that information died with the druids.