The Gullibility Paradox

Back in 1974, I was looking for a way to improve the weak ignition of my Yamaha 250. I was tempted by an ad that ran every month in Cycle magazine, for a product called Cycle See/Dee. It was around the time that the new capacitor discharge ignitions were replacing the conventional points and coil ignitions, and I guess that to me "See/Dee" meant the same as "C.D.". I ordered it and installed it on the bike. I was a little surprised at how it connected into the circuit, basically replacing a two wire into one connector. I did some testing and found no change at all in my ignition performance. Then I got suspicious of the See/Dee versus CD moniker. I decided to take it apart and after chipping away the Bakelite insulator, I found no electronic or electrical components inside. It was nothing but three terminals connected together by ordinary wire inside the insulator.

I felt like I had been duped, and rather than ask for my money back, I sent a letter to Cycle telling them what I had found. My letter was never printed. But I never saw another ad for Cycle See/Dee again. Maybe it was a coincidence? And on later reflection, I wonder if I had even been fair in my testing, and if I was really justified in my letter to Cycle magazine. I tend to have a lot of self doubts due to the numerous mistakes I have made in the course of my life, which I seem to have a hard time forgetting. But at the time, I was pretty sure of myself. And I hate thinking that I'm gullible.

Gullibility is a factor in propaganda, one might say the most important factor. Because not only do gullible people eat up the propaganda directed to them, but they will act on it, and they will only increase their ardour if the enemy attempts to reason with them.

So I went on the Internet looking for some way to detect the amount of gullibility in a particular person. What I found was that most gullibility tests seemed to be designed in particular to fish for gullible people, in order to push some dubious product, service or propaganda at them. And so I came up with the "Gullibility Paradox". Stated simply, a person trying to test their gullibility, is already gullible. And, the less gullible you feel, the more you are.

http://www.naturalnews.com/gullibility.html

Notice in the link above, one of the questions will tell you it is true there is an almost infinite supply available of clean hydrogen fuel, which is actually false if you look it up. (Hydrocarbon is the word they were searching for) And that the sponsoring web site has a video touting a perpetual motion machine.