This post is a good summary of your own normalcy bias, the admission that the CIA and military intelligence can not only influence elections, but do, and now have altered our very own election process is a big event to process.TL;DR, Mike probably isn't crazy, per se.
Thinking about this a little more. Waiting for it to warm up a little outside... I've been thinking about the nature of the poll question and the question I compared it to, "have aliens from outer space visited Earth?"
Why be so confident in an answer without due cause? I just googled how many people believe aliens have visited Earth, and it looks to be about 7%. Are they crazy?
I think it's similar to the question, did we actually go to the moon? A similar portion of the population, 5%, strongly believe the moon landing was faked. So, are they crazy?
Here's another question in contrast of the poll question: Is the world flat? 1) likely, 2) not likely, 3) I don't know? Well, it's an absurd question, it's not just not likely, the correct answer is, "no, you ****ing nutter". It's an absurd claim, for which we have have no due cause to believe. The Earth is not flat. So yeah, I kinda think those people are crazy.
Does it matter if someone believes extraordinary things without due cause? I think it depends how absurd is the claim, and the due cause to believe it. In other words, the strength of evidence and rationale people apply to believe it.
Most people believe in something paranormal, for example. God/religion, is an example of that. I think religious belief is human nature. But that's not without due cause, per se, to believe in that. It's instinctive for most humans. One has to override the instinct for religion not to believe it. Belief in God is not an example of failing to think critically. It's believing in the default. But, it shows that belief is a tricky thing.
What about "is the world flat?" Is there something wrong with that thinking? I'd say yes. People who believe it fail to think critically. It's belief without due cause. I think those people probably believe all kinds of nutty things.
So what about people who believe there was a raid in Germany, given a bold claim and at best, weak evidence? I think people can have a capacity for critical thinking, but don't apply it to things they want to believe. Especially if they have a lot of trust in the people claiming it. I'd say I'm not confident enough to say they would be like the flat earth nutters, who would also believe all kinds of nutty things. However, I suspect the Venn diagram might show some overlap.
To say they're incapable of critical thinking or logical reasoning, we'd need to see a pattern of believe in extraordinary things without due cause, to have confidence they believe it just because they're nuts.
One thing I can conclude about this topic, is that Mike doesn't always apply sound logic. For example, he kept pushing the point that if I believe intelligence orgs have the capability/technology to fix elections, I should believe that they did. However, this is faulty logic because having the capacity does give due cause to believing it was likely to have happened. We'd need something else to rationally believe it was likely. Not everything that is possible, happens.
The following is more for others following along than to @jamil, let’s look at the soundness of IM’s logic and some facts and let folks decide for themselves if this is similar to the question of aliens have visited earth.
It is an unassailable fact TPTB so despised Trump from the beginning of his campaign in 2015 that the FBI falsified FISA court warrants to surveil his campaign. This demonstrates the levels TPTB were willing to go before he was elected. Then look an all the extraordinary things they have done since to take out Trump. Extraordinary is and has been the norm concerning TPTB and attempts to take down Trump.
Is there anyone that does not believe that in this tech world we live in today, where everything from our governments and top corporations critical data can be stolen or manipulated, that the CIA and military intelligence does not have the ability to hack and do as they please to internet connected voting software? This has been exposed by several whistleblowers. At one time it was called hammer and scorecard.
We saw vote counting anomalies with our own eyes on our television screens and computers that are inexplicable. We were initially told the voting equipment was not internet connected, but later proof it was emerged. One of the top software designers /developers for the software the FBI and SEC use to find financial fraud, found fraud in the vote tallies. The very organizations that used the developer and his tools attacked him and the tools as frauds.
Is it any surprise that the very voting machines and software we citizens rely on is produced by companies with ties to very corrupt sources of money and power? Including foreign governments and organizations hostile to the US? There have been several sources that saw US election data routed through overseas servers and just this week election software code was found to be corrupt and even had the Ukrainian anthem in it.
Then when citizens try to secure the election process TPTB fight security protocols with all their might. The US elections are about the least secure major country elections in the world. This lack of security provides cover for the hacking manipulation of votes. The overall chaos of the election aftermath and everyone running around and even the low level fraud exposed all provided cover for the big steal.
Finally there were two generals that came out as whistleblowers on TPTB that were the ones that said there was a raid in Germany between intelligence assets in the field over server data. Many believe this data was the elusive Kraken. These generals have no apparent motive, that I can see, to do this other than to serve the country and live up to their oath. If they did have one by all appearances it failed miserably they have been relegated to obscurity and literally scrubbed from the internet.
In the preceding paragraphs we have the motive, the means, the outcome and we have whistleblowers that attest that it occurred, I believe it likely by this preponderance of evidence that there was a raid and fight over election data in Europe between intelligence factions and that TPTB won and it was covered up.
Is any if this new to any of you? Is this compelling to you? Are there questions? I find this topic fascinating and would enjoy fleshing it out rather than bury this or turn it into discussions of extraterrestrials…