"It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words..."

[mjr]

This is probably the craziest conspiracy theory I've heard in a while.

http://govtslaves.info/real-reason-w....PPrqTq9S.sfju

TL;DR explanation:

The government is doing away with cursive so that we (eventually) won't be able to read hand-written documents (i.e. Constitution, Declaration of Independence).

I stumbled across this the other day when I was looking for different left-handed handwriting styles to try.

[Pixelated]

Good grief ... Where do people come up with this stuff?!?

We don't use Roman numerals anymore but even I can read them (up to a point, anyway). Even if cursive writing is no longer taught, that doesn't mean people will ultimately not be able to read it (besides ... aren't there non-cursive versions of those documents ... e.g. in textbooks and so on?) ... ?

[mjr]

aren't there non-cursive versions of those documents ... e.g. in textbooks and so on?) ... ?

Indeed there are. But I think if you asked one of those conspiracy theorists, you'd probably get one of a couple of different answers that basically amounts to this:

-- when people can't read cursive, they can't match up the non-cursive version with the cursive one, and therefore the government can change the non-cursive ones easily (and insert other Orwellian tactics here...).

That's my guess as to what their thinking would be.

Conspiracy theorists aren't really known for using Occam's Razor, for the most part.

[Pixelated]

You're right about that. I belong to a group on Facebook that basically discusses (read: laughs at) a huge variety of conspiracy theories, and man, some of the ones they produce for the group's entertainment are just ...

Admittedly one of the ones I'm fondest of isn't even a theory: it's a group shot of maybe 20 to 30 world leaders and it's titled "Illuminati photo shoot." Okay, so these shadowy control freaks are getting together -- in broad daylight, I might add -- to have a group photo taken. Got it.

[mjr]

Admittedly one of the ones I'm fondest of isn't even a theory: it's a group shot of maybe 20 to 30 world leaders and it's titled "Illuminati photo shoot." Okay, so these shadowy control freaks are getting together -- in broad daylight, I might add -- to have a group photo taken. Got it.

And what happens when you mention that? Some sort of strange cognitive dissonance amongst the "illuminati believers"?

[s_stabeler]

You're right about that. I belong to a group on Facebook that basically discusses (read: laughs at) a huge variety of conspiracy theories, and man, some of the ones they produce for the group's entertainment are just ...

Admittedly one of the ones I'm fondest of isn't even a theory: it's a group shot of maybe 20 to 30 world leaders and it's titled "Illuminati photo shoot." Okay, so these shadowy control freaks are getting together -- in broad daylight, I might add -- to have a group photo taken. Got it.

It's fairly common for Illuminati believers to believe that meetings aren't secret in the sense of people not knowing these individuals are meeting, but it's not known they are meetings of the Illuminati. In short, the photo shoot was of the "cover" group, not the Illuminati as such.

[EricKei]

Pff. Don't be silly. As long as the Superbowl exists, knowledge of how Roman Numerals work will persist

[HYHYBT]

Handwriting styles have changed since the 18th Century anyway. We don't write "s" to look like "f," for example. If you go back far enough, you have to learn "English as it was then" to understand things clearly.

And people who can't write that way can still make out the words if they try; even if they couldn't, they could use a website or something showing which letters are which. (Call it a character reference.)

[mjr]

Yes, but you see, when "the government" (or the Illuminati, or whoever) destroys the hand-written documents...it won't matter.