• NEW! LOWEST RATES EVER -- SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE VERY BEST PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! Welcome to The Paracast+, eight years young! For a low subscription fee, you can download the ad-free version of The Paracast and the exclusive, member-only, After The Paracast bonus podcast, featuring color commentary, exclusive interviews, the continuation of interviews that began on the main episode of The Paracast. We also offer lifetime memberships! Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! You can sign up right here!

    Subscribe to The Paracast Newsletter!

Chris commenting "Get a life" disappointing.

Forums New posts

Free episodes:

R

rory

Paranormal Novice
Although I'm relatively new on the forums here I've been listening to this show for a very long time.

Now, I enjoy listening to the show. I enjoy the hosts, I enjoy the guests, even the once that are a bit less than credible.

I was listening to the Paracast the other day and I heard Chris say how forum members spending days calling the Smithsonian, and doing research into the Crystal Skulls needed to "get a life."

Now I'm not taking this out of context as far as I know. Chris and Gene were discussing the long running Crystal Skull topic on the forum and then this comment came along.

I'm not trying to flame here, but trying to understand.

The Paracast has, as long as I've been listening, been very supportive of people doing proper research, really digging into the topics. But now suddenly this "get a life " comment gets thrown out there toward people looking into the matter and spending "days" on researching it?

I'm just asking... "Why?"
 
Because some people are like a puppy dog with a bone. They hang onto throw away lines like "get a life" or I felt the energy when I walked into the room and beat it to death. They just won't let it go. Show no quarter. What do you mean you 'felt" it. How dare you. SCIENCE says you can't just "feel" it it has to be a nureal network or it's not real. I called so and so at the Smithstoinian or I once talked to a man who knew a man and I called and the stats say you can't possibly be right. So, see? I have debunked you and everything you will ever stand for. Blah, blah, blah, blah,...

Those kinds of debunkers (not honest skeptics) need to get a life. :p
 
It's Chris O'Brien.

He's a swell dude, if it bothers you: Deal with it. You aren't going to get a nicer co-host.


And this: "I'm not trying to flame here, but trying to understand. "

That is what I say when I'm about to troll someone hard.

Actually, it is what most trolls say when they do what they do - it is all very scientific now:

According to Hardaker, a troll is an individual "who constructs the identity of sincerely wishing to be part of the group in question, including professing or conveying pseudo-sincere intentions, but whose real intention(s) is/are to cause disruption and/or to trigger or exacerbate conflict for the purposes of their own amusement.”
Click to expand...
 
tyder001 said:
Because some people are like a puppy dog with a bone. They hang onto throw away lines like "get a life" or I felt the energy when I walked into the room and beat it to death. They just won't let it go. Show no quarter. What do you mean you 'felt" it. How dare you. SCIENCE says you can't just "feel" it it has to be a nureal network or it's not real. I called so and so at the Smithstoinian or I once talked to a man who knew a man and I called and the stats say you can't possibly be right. So, see? I have debunked you and everything you will ever stand for. Blah, blah, blah, blah,...

Those kinds of debunkers (not honest skeptics) need to get a life. :p
Click to expand...
Spot on, Steve!!!:)
 
Anaximander said:
It's Chris O'Brien.

He's a swell dude, if it bothers you: Deal with it. You aren't going to get a nicer co-host.
Click to expand...


Oh, the majority of the time he is pretty laid back and cool. I'm not arguing against that.

Anaximander said:
And this: "I'm not trying to flame here, but trying to understand. "

That is what I say when I'm about to troll someone hard.

Actually, it is what most trolls say when they do what they do - it is all very scientific now:
Click to expand...

What you do and what I do are two very different things with similar wording then. I'm not trying to flame anyone. I just don't understand how a researcher can put down others trying to do research by saying they need to "get a life." I also don't understand why Chris would say that considering it seems to be very out of character for him.
 
I think that comment and other disparaging comments toward forum members made on air could be interpreted to mean, "Get a new podcast to listen to." and "Get a new forum." This is why I have asked questions like, "What kind of forum members do you guys want?" While armchair researchers have often been berated, apparently those interested in writing letters and making phone calls to verify claims made on the show aren't well received either. It seems like there are mixed signals being sent. It is ironic that the Crystal Skull thread was referenced on air numerous times in glowing terms for its length and the level of interest displayed in it, but would that have been the case sans skeptics?

I'm back to feeling like the only acceptable response to things like, "I saw a goddess!" is "Cool! What was she wearing?"
 
Yes of course. "Your level of participation is too great!" is always a wonderful message to send. It's hard to imagine how that fits into the new Paranet Plus business model though but what do I know?
 
You know, I'm a big fan of the show, and Chris seems like a great guy, and I really don't have an opinion one way or the other about crystal skulls, but I think the original poster makes a perfectly fair point, and I thought the same exact thing when listening to the show.

Not exactly a huge deal. But I think it's a legit point and just calling it "trolling" is unfair.
 
I think Chris was just saying how do people get the time to research so indepth like Chris used this sentence do people have day job were do some get the time? I don't think he meant get a life in a negative way? Chris to me was just amused, by the length of the thread, and the amount of posts posted by some people.

Look the only way you can influence beliefs and ideas about the paranormal and other weird esoteric stuff is by writing books and by going out and doing public speaking appearances discussing your belief and ideas to a willing audience. Paranormal forums by its very nature will only influence the thinking of a handful of people like the crystal skull thread has paragraphs of interesting and enlightening information, but how many people now remember the content of that thread?
 
Kieran said:
I think Chris was just saying how do people get the time to research so indepth like Chris used this sentence do people have day job were do some get the time? I don't think he meant get a life in a negative way? Chris to me was just amused, by the length of the thread, and the amount of posts posted by some people.

Look the only way you can influence beliefs and ideas about the paranormal and other weird esoteric stuff is by writing books and by going out and doing public speaking appearances discussing your belief and ideas to a willing audience. Paranormal forums by its very nature will only influence the thinking of a handful of people like the crystal skull thread has paragraphs of interesting and enlightening information, but how many people now remember the content of that thread?
Click to expand...

I think we just got a lesson about the influence of a single listener checking the references of one of those public speakers. What do you think?
 
trainedobserver said:
I think we just got a lesson about the influence of a single listener checking the references of one of those public speakers. What do you think?
Click to expand...

I honestly don't believe most listeners would bother going to the trouble of investigating a UFO researchers educational background. Lance obviously done this hoping his hunch was right seems he was right.

It turns out that it was Lance that smelled a rat, well doesn't surprise me one bit it was him. He has always had a non-believer attitude to everything paranormal, so when you have that type of attitude you'll be more rigorous in your research naturally. Lance has also more than just a passing interest in this subject, no matter what he says.

Now, I do have to respect the fact Lance was the only person to find this out, can't take that away from him. So my compliments to Lance for doing this field a service.

If Philip has no degrees how did he get the teaching job? Do they know?

Should he be teaching American Kids without having the credentials to educate?

The Hudson Valleys UFO flap took place so his lying about his education doesn't take anything away from those sightings, in my opinion.
 
Kieran said:
I honestly don't believe most listeners would bother going to the trouble of investigating a UFO researchers educational background. Lance obviously done this hoping his hunch was right seems he was right.

It turns out that it was Lance that smelled a rat, well doesn't surprise me one bit it was him. He has always had a non-believer attitude to everything paranormal, so when you have that type of attitude you'll be more rigorous in your research naturally. Lance has also more than just a passing interest in this subject, no matter what he says.

Now, I do have to respect the fact Lance was the only person to find this out, can't take that away from him. So my compliments to Lance for doing this field a service.

If Philip has no degrees how did he get the teaching job? Do they know?

Should he be teaching American Kids without having the credentials to educate?

The Hudson Valleys UFO flap took place so his lying about his education doesn't take anything away from those sightings, in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Fake degrees are more common than a lot of people realize. Seldom do people actually bother to check if they are real or not. Same thing goes for lying about stuff on a resume. Only occasionally will a potential employer actually check to see if the claims are true.

And I don't know what high school is like now, haven't attended in a very long time, nor what it's like outside of the states. But when I went to school teacher's mostly just had you read text books and then quizzed you about what you read. If you're good with reading/writing and a decent con man it doesn't seem to me that it would be enormously difficult to pull it off convincingly enough.
 
Wickerman1972 said:
Fake degrees are more common than a lot of people realize. Seldom do people actually bother to check if they are real or not. Same thing goes for lying about stuff on a resume. Only occasionally will a potential employer actually check to see if the claims are true.

And I don't know what high school is like now, haven't attended in a very long time, nor what it's like outside of the states. But when I went to school teacher's mostly just had you read text books and then quizzed you about what you read. If you're good with reading/writing and a decent con man it doesn't seem to me that it would be enormously difficult to pull it off convincingly enough.
Click to expand...

I work at a university and on occasion I get calls from verification companies looking to find out if someone has a degree. It just shocks me that so many people lie about degrees thinking that no one will look it up.
 
Angel of Ioren said:
I work at a university and on occasion I get calls from verification companies looking to find out if someone has a degree. It just shocks me that so many people lie about degrees thinking that no one will look it up.
Click to expand...

Well, a lot of the time nobody does check into it. For the record my experience with college (Brief though it was. Like a dolt, I dropped out) was dramatically different from high school. College was much more intensive, the instructors a hell of a lot more motivated, etc. It wasn't just, "Read this. Test tomorrow" like it was in high school. There's no way I could fake being a professor at a university but I'm reasonably confident I could walk into a high school class and do it convincingly enough to fool at least a few people.
 
Wickerman1972 said:
Well, a lot of the time nobody does check into it. For the record my experience with college (Brief though it was. Like a dolt, I dropped out) was dramatically different from high school. College was much more intensive, the instructors a hell of a lot more motivated, etc. It wasn't just, "Read this. Test tomorrow" like it was in high school. There's no way I could fake being a professor at a university but I'm reasonably confident I could walk into a high school class and do it convincingly enough to fool at least a few people.
Click to expand...
It really depends on the teacher as well. I had some great high school teachers, and i had some terrible ones.
My wife is an elementary school teacher. She is good at what she does.
 
Wickerman1972 said:
Fake degrees are more common than a lot of people realize. Seldom do people actually bother to check if they are real or not. Same thing goes for lying about stuff on a resume. Only occasionally will a potential employer actually check to see if the claims are true.

And I don't know what high school is like now, haven't attended in a very long time, nor what it's like outside of the states. But when I went to school teacher's mostly just had you read text books and then quizzed you about what you read. If you're good with reading/writing and a decent con man it doesn't seem to me that it would be enormously difficult to pull it off convincingly enough.
Click to expand...

It's not that difficult really to achieve a degree i believe everyone unless your completely thick can successfully gain some type of degree in the course studied.

Students over here have achieved normal Bachelors degrees and higher with a low passing rating of 40 percent, but job options, for those students would be are really limited with that kind of passing rating.

HR might not check up on you, but that would be the employers fault not the person asking for the job. But most employers nowadays because of the the economic crisis (limited job opportunities) do check up education and work experience. The check up on education might not happen and be less frequent with the job requirement doesn't require that person to have a degree because its a low skilled job. If your looking for high skilled job it best not to lie just be truthful.

I think Philip lied to impress that is what seems to me at this time? MIT is one of the top places to study the sciences in the states, but unfortunately for Phil he went too big and got caught out. I have no sympathy for Philip, but he wasn't a bad paranormal researcher, but this revelation is not good for ufology and its certainly not good news for his friends in this field.
 
Back
Top