this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2024
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Not The Onion

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[–] partial_accumen 99 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

"We’re going to put our full trust in science that can’t be questioned?"

You can absolutely question science, Aaron. Doing science is the act of questioning science. However, you actually have to follow the scientific method to do it, and so far Aaron, you're not.

If you ever want to get out of the practice of bullshit and into the practice of science, you'd be quite welcome, but its got to be science with rigor and reproducible results. Until then, you're just talking, not scientifically questioning.

[–] isles 9 points 8 months ago

reproducible results

I dunno, seems kind of optional

[–] FuglyDuck 77 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

One wonders... is it the CTE's or was he always just dumb?

[–] givesomefucks 58 points 8 months ago (1 children)

99.999% of the time to be a NFL starter you've been the best player in the field at least at your position up till you were drafted into the NFL.

It's just how the numbers work out, exceptions are noteworthy because they're exceptional.

It doesn't make you dumb, but because education and football are so intertwined, if you don't care about education no one is going to try and make you.

Then if you keep your mouth shut in public till you sign a big contract, no one knows how dumb you are and it feels like it comes out of nowhere

I forget his name, but a recent NFL player legitimately believes he's part solar powered reptilian and that's why he's a pro athlete

[–] jeffw 38 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Had to Google it but: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Watkins

Notable that he’s acknowledged his mental health and addiction struggles since making the flat earth and lizard person comments.

[–] givesomefucks 19 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Looks like it was right around when he got out of the NFL.

That's kind of my point, an athlete of that level can say/do anything and as long as they keep playing football everyone goes along with it

With Rodgers trying to transition to podcasts before retiring from the NFL, he may never get that moment of clarity where he's not surrounded by yes men. Especially since saying insane shit on podcasts is probably the most attention he's gotten not connected to football

For the entirety of Aaron Rodgers' life, people are going to be telling him he's amazing, and that fucks with everyone's head. You can't only get positive feedback and wind up well adjusted.

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[–] themeatbridge 19 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

He's always had agents and publicists filtering what he says publicly. I think this is just unfiltered Rodgers.

[–] GrymEdm 50 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Only if time travel is somehow involved. Here's a National Library of Medicine article/book review on the history of HIV/AIDS.

"The earliest identified isolate of HIV-1 comes from an unknown male in Kinshasa, Congo, in 1959. The first identified patient with HIV infection and AIDS was a Scandinavian man in the 1960s, who had visited west-central Africa. Then came sporadic cases among gay men in the United States and among Haitians in the 1970s, leading to the global explosion in the '80s and '90s and the literal decimation of peoples in several tropical countries."

I'd say don't source the history of diseases from NFL players, but those who would take my advice seriously probably don't need it.

[–] givesomefucks 26 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

That's still not when it first showed up, that's when they first identified it.

The first case was likely 1920, maybe even the tail end of the 1800s.

And back then, people just died from all sorts of shit and modern medicine was practically non-existent in the area. Even when it spread to more developed countries, it took a while to put the pieces together because it wasn't like aids directly kills. The aids just made all types of shit more likely to happen and kill you. That's why it felt like it spread so fast all over the planet. It was already there and people had it, they just weren't symptomatic yet and wouldn't be for months/years.

I mean, look at the nightmare syphilis was for centuries. If AIDS had spread a century earlier no one would have known what the fuck was going on. It was bad, but it could have been so much worse.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

Sure would have been nice if people like Ronald Reagan and Marianne Williamson hadn't pushed people to rely on faith healing

[–] jeffw 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I legit appreciate the history lesson but you don’t have to debunk posts on nottheonion haha

[–] GrymEdm 14 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

You're probably right :) I have this compulsion where I always want to know WHY something is wrong, so when I hear something like this I run off to look it up.

[–] XeroxCool 12 points 8 months ago

Nah, keep debunking. Just because we know the claim isn't true doesn't mean we know what is. For this one, we can't invert the statement to find the truth. "The government didn't create AIDS in the 1980s" is incredibly vague so I enjoyed your summary

[–] Tolstoshev 49 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Who cares what he thinks? He’s famous for mastering the art of spiral throwing a ball, which is a skill perfected by cavemen using spears to hunt with. He is no smarter or more educated than those cavemen were. In fact way less so due to the brain damage.

[–] isles 9 points 8 months ago

No kidding, will news outlets stop giving platforms to people famous for unrelated reasons?

spoilerNo, clicks are a perverse incentive.

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[–] TheDannysaur 43 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Alright... Nuance time. Everyone please stick with me.

I don't like Rodgers, but this is kind of a dumb headline. THIS IS NOT A DEFENSE OF RODGERS. I think what he's saying is that the "pandemic response" was the thing manufactured, not the virus itself. I think people are misreading it, because I don't think I really see how he's saying they manufactured the virus. THIS IS NOT A DEFENSE OF RODGERS. Like the government gave all this money and tried to make people reliant on the government to save them, which has been his whole position with COVID.

It's still flatly wrong. But borderline purposeful misreadings like this only embolden Rodgers and others, because it's inaccurate, and people are attacking something he didn't say. And this gives him more of a platform because people are talking about it again.

If you're going to criticize someone, it's important to be accurate and understand what they're saying, so you can appropriately shut them the fuck up with the right facts.

One more time, THIS IS NOT A DEFENSE OF RODGERS.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The blueprint, the game plan, was made in the '80s. Create a pandemic with a virus that's going wild.

But that was the game plan back then. Create an environment where only one thing works.

He literally said they "created a pandemic" and "created an environment" where they could profit. This conspiracy has been around for decades and was a prominent feature of KGB misinformation. It even has a name. Like others on the right, he's blatantly parroting Russian-rooted bullshit.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

A pandemic isn't a virus. It a designation of the effect a virus is having or how it is spreading... He might be saying they took a situation, and blew it out of proportion for political purposes. My position is that the easy way to know a politician is twisting something for thier own gain is to note when they open thier mouths. But that doesn't rule out that what they are saying might just happen to be true either.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I see what you're saying. They "seized an opportunity" versus creating/unleashing it. But to say they created it with the intent to profit--it all seems to suggest control/foreknowledge. I have a hard time believing he's saying, "Fauci sure lucked out twice, didn't he?" But your point is still valid. I just don't buy it.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt 4 points 8 months ago

I don’t know much about the specific case. But with the sheer number of people trying to take advantage of any specific thing, someone will end up looking like they had control/foreknowledge... That said, I only agree that Aaron's words were twisted to say they created the virus. The guy still seems like a nut job, but who knows, I never met him.

[–] jeffw 24 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Y'know, I went back to reread it and I think you're right.

For the record, if this were a serious community, I'd probably delete the post over this. Just saying, I won't be mad if mods decide it disqualifies the article since the headline might be misleading.

[–] TheDannysaur 5 points 8 months ago

I think it's a great example of how media outlets can seed certain ideas. If you read the headline then the context, then it's like yeah I see how he said that. But I'm not sure you arrive there if you read the quote then the headline.

I'm about as liberal as they come, but holy shit the amount that this is done in politics is insane. It drives me nuts. Republicans often have so much wrong with their platform (in my opinion) that we don't need to just make shit up about them.

A particularly good example that stood out to me was Trump's "Muslim Ban". Do I think it was profile-y in its application? Yes. But if you looked at the detail, the justification used was vague "national security". Why couldn't we just attack how bullshit that was? But no, media had to run with exclusively the Muslim Ban line and it was so easy to deflect for Republicans. All they had to say was "this isn't about race stop being racist". But because of that, no one asked the better questions, like saying "you say this is specifically about national security... How is this immigration program specifically being exploited in ways that harm us?" Were we blocking work visas from those countries? Because I can tell you refugee status is a fuck of a lot harder and has more screening than work visas.

There were just so many glaring issues, but we decide to side step into an alternative reality.

None of this frustration is pointed at you by the way, it's awesome that you just said hey I think I got this one wrong. That's an admirable quality on forums these days. I just hate the media apparatus.

[–] Anticorp 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Why are you defending Rodgers?

[–] TheDannysaur 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Because he's so smart and good at throwing the oval ball that his opinions must be true and relevant and he deserves the platform to spread his views.

[–] Everythingispenguins 6 points 8 months ago (5 children)

Sorry but you are clearly misinformed, a football is not an oval. It is a prolate sphere. Clearly you know nothing about football so you are completely unqualified to have any opinions at all. /s

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago

I hate how polarized everything is that this level of emphasis that you are not taking a certain side is required to criticize an argument made against that side. Bad, misleading arguments are bad, should always be ok to point it out.

[–] Ultragigagigantic 25 points 8 months ago

QAaron.

He must have had to much time on his hands while injured last year

[–] Everythingispenguins 25 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Okay so how crazy of shit can come out of his mouth before his career is affected?? Yeah I know the answer... But shit, Kaepernick says some very true but uncomfortable things and gets the boot. Rogers spouts insanity and is handed another ball.

[–] batmaniam 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I mean... I don't know if you're an NFL fan or not but his stock isntly exactly high right now lol. He played like three snaps all season last season, is old for the game (for anyone not named "Tom Brady" anyway), and is wayyyy to much of a liability (and just to damn weird even if the crap he spouts WASNT dangerous) to do any kind of announcing or commenting.

Hes crap in the locker room, having barley talked to Zach Wilson, the kid he left to play his whole season on a doomed team (I guess Zach does owe him a bit though, I really disliked the kid now I give him some respect for stepping aside then stepping up best he could). His career won't be affected because random crap like this IS his career now. The jets have a contract, but there is no way Rodgers plays any meaningful football anymore.

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[–] Snapz 22 points 8 months ago

A...B...C! Easy as C...T...E..!!

[–] captainlezbian 20 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Aids the disease is natural. The aids epidemic was made by the us government by refusing to follow best practices for an epidemic when it was killing undesirable citizens.

[–] T00l_shed 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Didn't just affect the US though.

[–] captainlezbian 16 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (5 children)

Yes, but it killed more Americans than the viet cong so maybe our government should’ve acknowledged it as a problem before several years of it decimating our population

Also we were the first country to have an outbreak and we’re the medical research powerhouse of the industrial world, especially in the 1980s. But instead of that our president told his surgeon general not to acknowledge it. When asked about the disease killing homosexuals Ronald Reagan laughed.

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[–] CoCo_Goldstein 20 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If the US created it in the 1980s, how did a guy in the Congo catch it in 1959?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_early_HIV/AIDS_cases

[–] HighElfMage 13 points 8 months ago (3 children)

The US government also did time travel so that Obama could kill Kennedy.

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[–] Sam_Bass 20 points 8 months ago

Concussions are serious problems

[–] linearchaos 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

We couldn't possibly have landed on the moon The technology was far past us.

By the way we had access to biotechnology That's still 50 years out from being invented.

I love conspiracy theories...

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[–] Phegan 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I say that Aaron Rodgers is an idiot

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[–] RagingSnarkasm 14 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Rodgers should just shut up and dribble.

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[–] son_named_bort 14 points 8 months ago

Ya done messed up A. A. Ron!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The US certainly fucked up the handling of it but not even close to creating it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That's because some folks think you can pray it away..

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

Even more sinister, they let it willingly spread because it disproportionally affected the Gayz.

[–] peg 10 points 8 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Anyone who gives any weight to the verbal vomit of a professional sports celebrity is already on the losing side in the war against Not Being A Fucking Moron.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

That's crack, aaron. You're thinking of crack.

[–] derf82 4 points 8 months ago

Given his other stances, I’m surprised he isn’t claiming the anti-vaxx theory that it came from the polio vaccine.

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