This is pretty mind blowing. Finding even one of the lost parts of Homer's cycle would be nuts. I'm excited for the discoveries and all the gaps in our records we can fill in.
I have two main thoughts on this
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LLMs are not at this time reliable sources of factual information. The user may be getting something that was skimmed from factual information, but the output can often be incorrect since the machine can't "understand" the information it's outputting.
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This could potentially be an excellent way to do real research for people who were not provided research skills by their education. Conspiracy theorists often start off as curious but undisciplined before they fall into the identity aspects of the theories. If a machine using human-like language is able to report factual information quickly, reliably, and without judgement to those who wouldn't be able to find that info on their own, this could actually be a very useful tool.
Hamas was using the school as a human shield, I'm sure.
You're onto a very important aspect of fascist rhetoric. The lies have to be absurd. They have to be obviously wrong. They need the kind of people who are looking to belong to something greater than themselves, not people who look for evidence. Lies like these are a great filter to end up with uncritically loyal followers. Same as any cult.
Sartre wrote about the tendencies of anti-semites in 1944 who followed a similar model of "belief" to contemporary conservatives. Here's a breakdown of that essay.
I think you're making a similar mistake that I have made many times, which is to assume that others are putting more thought into their decisions and beliefs than they actually do.
Among the conservatives, there are a handful of bad actors who are aware of the grift and are deliberately lying to promote themselves and their scam enterprises. The rest of the conservatives are using the cultural practice derived from a religious and/or nationalistic upbringing to uncritically have "faith" in whatever the party line is. Regardless of intelligence, if someone is vulnerable to group dynamics like this (also existing in other cults), it is more important to conform and receive validation from the group than it is to pointlessly research whether or not the group's belief is true and risk ostracisation.
It's not really falling for conspiracies, it's more like conforming to cult beliefs. Conservatives don't really understand the things they say or why they believe what they do.
I have been reflecting recently that I was not learning the same lessons about the Holocaust as some of my classmates. I got the impression nothing like it should ever be allowed again and we should do everything we can to stop it when we see the signs. I assumed everyone got that impression but I'm realizing that was not the case.
What frustrates me is that the crypto scene didn't have to develop in this direction. While I'm not sure how to get around the electricity requirements necessary for any "coin" to exist on a large scale, the concept of a blockchain doesn't seem to me like an inherently predatory idea. The idea that coins or NFTs were investment vehicles really provided the opportunity for those with the knowledge and resources to manipulate a poorly regulated market and literal con artists to move in and be the main influence as to how everything played out. Although it's somewhat of a relief that it's widely recognized by most people as being a racket, the missed opportunity of the concept of permanent and intangible "objects" to be used for some purpose other than scamming does bum me out a bit.
Talk is cheap. Pull the plug.
This is a lie. In the late 70s and early 80s even the PLO was pushing for a two state solution and even removed "Anti-Zionism" from its official goals in the 90s. I'm not going to say everyone in Palestine has always supported one solution or another like you're saying. I'm not going to say that everyone in Israel wants to eliminate all Palestinians from Israeli territory either, although many do, especially the political powers who blocked the two state solution from the other side during that time. This simplistic reading that Palestinians are nothing more than frothing-mouthed mass-murderers is disgusting especially considering who has had power over whom in recent decades.
War is not a heroic struggle of good vs evil, it is a series of economic and political developments which have been transpiring for decades. There has been a lot of bad behavior generally which lead us to this point. Let's not offer absurd ideas in times of turmoil like this. That's not going to help any innocent Palestinian or Isreali civilians getting caught in the crossfire.
Freedom has two components: Positive Freedom and Negative Freedom. Negative Freedom is a lack of restriction from doing something, while Positive Freedom is the ability to do something. For example, I am free to go to Mars through the lens of Negative Freedom but not through the lens of Positive Freedom.
Restricting Negative Freedom can enhance Positive Freedom. If a terrorist hate group is not allowed to exist, then those who would have been their victims can be free to live their lives without having them cut short by this disallowed association. This is a pro-freedom move in the direction of greater fairness and safety in Germany.
Ohio is such a weird state. It is notorious for being an unpleasant place to live and I have met dozens of Ohioans who are very pleased to live anywhere else. That being said I disproportionatly have enjoyed the company of the Ohio refugees I've met. It has a way of exporting some cool people