Outrageous assertions

[evilC]

Forgive me for being slow on the uptake, but I've only just heard of the book The Pink Swastika, which actually asserts that homosexuality was responsible for both Fascism and the Holocaust!

So... what are your 'pet' books or ideas that seem absolutely insane to you, yet actually get as far as publication or some kind of credence?

[Wyatt Earp]

Outrageous assertions

Chariots of the Gods? is an obvious one.

[Guest]

Outrageous assertions

The Holy Blood & The Holy Grail is another obvious one.

And any Creationist book usually contains enough outrageous assertions per page to boil the readers' blood several times over.

[ursus arctos]

Outrageous assertions

Sarah Palin's talking points.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Outrageous assertions

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is yet another obvious one.

Any Nostradamus book -- I'm still waiting for one of his followers to make a prediction in advance of something happening.

Also, The Monuments of Mars deserves particular mention. Its premise seems to be based on a lo-res NASA satellite image, which shows an object that looks a bit like a face.

[Spearmint Rhino]

Outrageous assertions

[Ginger Yellow]

Outrageous assertions

The Bible Code and its derivatives
The Secret
Anything by Deepak Chopra
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville

[Bored Of Education]

Outrageous assertions

Forgive me for being slow on the uptake, but I've only just heard of the book The Pink Swastika, which actually asserts that homosexuality was responsible for both Fascism and the Holocaust!

Do you know what, I have always been suspicious of those homosexuals and never quite been able to put my finger on it until now

[Spearmint Rhino]

Outrageous assertions

Bored Of Discipline wrote:

Forgive me for being slow on the uptake, but I've only just heard of the book The Pink Swastika, which actually asserts that homosexuality was responsible for both Fascism and the Holocaust!

Do you know what, I have always been suspicious of those homosexuals and never quite been able to put my finger on it until now

Never mind that. I have always been suspicious of those Nazis and never quite been able to put my finger on it until now.

[San Bernardhinault]

Outrageous assertions

On the von Danicken line, there's the wonderfully insane "Pyramid Power" that claims pyramids focus cosmic energy and you can keep a razor blade sharp if you story it inside a pyramid 1/3 of the way up.

[Mitch]

Outrageous assertions

Heh, spooky coincidence. The blokes I share an office with were discussing the magic knife-sharpening pyramid earlier.

With the consensus being: "...well it sounds daft, but it does work apparently...".

When I asked how exactly, I was told with a straight-face that the pyramid makes the knife go back in time to when it was last sharp.

Even by bullshit standards, that's poor.

[Wyatt Earp]

Outrageous assertions

Christ, there inarf some stupid twats.

[evilC]

Outrageous assertions

Maybe you should tell them that they should get inside a pyramid, so they go back to a time when they were last... Oh, never mind.

Just stab them - multiple times - with said knife and ask them if they felt the blade going in. If they didn't, then it works.

[beak]

Outrageous assertions

my favourites of late have been savitri devi and the nazi ufo nutters.

savitri devi:

She became enamoured with Hinduism and Nazism, trying to synthesise the two, and proclaiming Adolf Hitler an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu.

nazi ufos:

In 1978 Miguel Serrano, a Chilean diplomat and Nazi sympathizer, published The Golden Band, in which he claimed that Adolf Hitler was an avatar of Vishnu and was then communing with Hyperborean gods in an underground Antarctic base. Serrano predicted that Hitler would lead a fleet of UFOs from the base to establish the Fourth Reich.[17]

if this lot was proved 100% truth, i'd probably have to become a nazi.

[Guest]

Outrageous assertions

Mitch wrote:

Heh, spooky coincidence. The blokes I share an office with were discussing the magic knife-sharpening pyramid earlier.

With the consensus being: "...well it sounds daft, but it does work apparently...".

When I asked how exactly, I was told with a straight-face that the pyramid makes the knife go back in time to when it was last sharp.

Even by bullshit standards, that's poor.

They may have been pulling your leg, since that's a Terry Pratchett quote. (From Pyramids, astonishingly).

[Eggchaser]

Outrageous assertions

Which is a great book.

[Guest]

Outrageous assertions

Much better than anything he's written lately, certainly.

[The Purple Cow]

Outrageous assertions

"When I asked how exactly, I was told with a straight-face that the pyramid makes the knife go back in time to when it was last sharp."

I had a similar debate in a pub about ten years ago. I was told that the pyramid realines the crystal structure of the metal at the edge of the blade. By focussing cosmic energy, or some such.

[ursus arctos]

Outrageous assertions

That was the one I was told.

Of course, if you leave your blades on the bloody pyramid, rather than, y'know, using them, they do tend to keep their edge a bit longer.

[Mitch]

Outrageous assertions

They may have been pulling your leg, since that's a Terry Pratchett quote. (From Pyramids, astonishingly).

Aw, bollocks; the chap concerned is a massive Terry Pratchett fan.

Outsmarted by a creationist. Again.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Outrageous assertions

La Lanterne Rouge wrote:

On the von Danicken line, there's the wonderfully insane "Pyramid Power" that claims pyramids focus cosmic energy and you can keep a razor blade sharp if you story it inside a pyramid 1/3 of the way up.

When I was a nipper, I had one of those 'mysteries of the unexplained' books. It said exactly the same thing. So I made a cardboard pyramid and a little cube to go inside, like it said. Then I put a piece of apple on top of the podium, becuase 'things decay less quickly' in pyramids.'

Did it? Did it fuck. No wonder I've been a cynic from an early age.

[Guest]

Outrageous assertions

Mitch wrote:

They may have been pulling your leg, since that's a Terry Pratchett quote. (From Pyramids, astonishingly).

Aw, bollocks; the chap concerned is a massive Terry Pratchett fan.

Outsmarted by a creationist. Again.

He's a Pratchett fan and a creationist? Unusual combo.

[Guest]

Outrageous assertions

[San Bernardhinault]

Outrageous assertions

Stumpy Pepys wrote:

La Lanterne Rouge wrote:

On the von Danicken line, there's the wonderfully insane "Pyramid Power" that claims pyramids focus cosmic energy and you can keep a razor blade sharp if you story it inside a pyramid 1/3 of the way up.

When I was a nipper, I had one of those 'mysteries of the unexplained' books. It said exactly the same thing. So I made a cardboard pyramid and a little cube to go inside, like it said. Then I put a piece of apple on top of the podium, becuase 'things decay less quickly' in pyramids.'

Did it? Did it fuck. No wonder I've been a cynic from an early age.

Just because you built your pyramid wrong! It has to have the right dimensions and proportions, you know? That's why the late-era Egyptian pyramids didn't bring help from the aliens. They built their pyramids wrong. You made the same mistakes as the middle kingdom, you fool.

[Guest]

Outrageous assertions

The Bible ,(sorry spearmint didn't see your picture below.)