GenZedong

Now you insist on a universalized principle that a story can be objectively recognized as bizarre and then one is supposed to be dismissive of it or there is something wrong with their thinking. This is more shallow pretense of neutrality that doesn't exist. I repeatedly bring up MKUltra because it is a perfect example of something that can sound hard to believe, but actually happened. Sometimes things that stretch our personal sense of credibility do occur and I say "personal sense of" because that is what it is in reality most of the time, not something universal. It might be shocking for a westerner, for example, to learn about the atrocities imperial Japan did to China. But for someone who has grown up being taught about it and being surrounded by people who are connected to its consequences, it would likely be less immediately shocking, being disseminated more gradually, while also being uniquely disturbing, being more personal. This is just one example of the relativity of perceptions of information and how people come in contact with it, and it is also why I emphasize the gangster state character of the US; another example of the relativity of perception is surrounding context. It would not be strange to hear that a geographical area that tends to be very cold has gotten snowed on. It would be strange to hear that a geographical area that is never cold enough for snow has gotten twelve inches of it. Universality exists, but is not something to be taken for granted lightly, contrary to what western thought tends to have people doing.