Skeptic Project

I want to add that anything you debunk, be sure to source it, because this thread will be organized and turned into an article, and all those who submitted relevant content will be credited.

Zeitgeist 3 definitely has much better production value and it seems fairly obvious to me that a lot of work was put into creating it, the same can't be said for the first two films.

The first real cheesy moment is when Fresco explains his childhood, but ends it by saying "This shit's got to go" while making a dramatic turn.

[ Part 1 - Human Nature ]

This part of the film starts off quite well, but then we come to a Dr. Gabor Maté who claims nothing, especially not ADHD or schizophrenia are genetic. This is simply untrue. It's common scientific knowledge that genetics do play a part in diseases like schizophrenia. In fact if you have a parent with schizophrenia, you have a greater increased risk. If one identical twin has schizophrenia there's more than a 40% chance that the other twin will also[1].

It isn't hard to see where the film is going with this. Granted, Peter Joseph and others have claimed they do not support tabula rasa, that is the theory that humans are born blank slates and only environment creates their personality. I could believe that, if they didn't put people in their movies who say exactly that. Dr. Maté said paint blank that "... the truth is the opposite, nothing is genetically programmed," but of course he goes on to contract himself by saying that a "small amount" of them are created by genetics. So, which is it?

I'm not saying that environment does not have an effect on the development of personality, in fact it has a huge influence, but the idea that genetics play no part at all is completely false.

Maté goes on to list nearly every category of disease and how genetics don't play a part, even though he says that they create predispositions, which is a contradiction.

The film goes on to talk about studies and so forth, and I'm really sure why Peter Joseph trusts doctors or studies, because after all that's just "credentialism."

The film can't seem to figure out whether or not genetics play a part in human development or whether or not said genes are only "activated" when bad things happen to children. On the one hand it says genetics don't matter, on the other it says they do but only if certain circumstances exist.

Again, because I know I'm going to be called out on this, I'm not saying environment doesn't play a huge role in human development, in fact it plays the biggest role of all, but that doesn't mean that non-violent societies will never produce violent people.

Maté goes on to tell us nothing is addictive at all because not everyone who eats food becomes a food addict, and not everyone who drinks wine becomes an alcoholic. If I shoot up with some heroin today and eat a pizza, I guess the chance of me becoming addicted to heroin is about the same as becoming addicted to pizza, after all it's the same thing apparently. But wait, it isn't the substance, it's the person and their susceptibility to becoming addicted according to Maté, but trust me, genetics have nothing at all to do with that either.

Did you know, according to Dr. Maté, if you don't pick up your kid when it cries, even if it does this all the time, they will grow up to believe the world doesn't give a damn?

Even if we believe everything in this part of the film to be true, I can't help but wonder how we go about changing all 7 billion people to fit this paradigm. Even if one abusive person lives within RBE, the entire thing gets screwed over because they are constantly "activating" bad genes in people, especially if they have any children; lest we forget if anything bad happens to a child, according to the film, the game is up and the cake is ruined.

Another doctor goes on to tell us that certain societies such as the Amish have no violence, and some have no records of homicides at all. While it's true that murder is very rare, rape and molestation do happen more often than people realize within these societies[2].

The idea you can reform everyone is also silly, consider Johann Unterweger who was a serial killer in Austria who was released from prison after 16 years as a shining example of reform. Shortly after he was released he began killing again[3]. The point of this isn't to say that he was born a serial killer, the point I'm making is that what is to be done if we can't reform everyone? As I mentioned above it only would take one abusive person to began to pollute RBE fairly quickly, if even society could get that far.

[ Part 2 - Social Pathology ]

According to Dr. John McMurtry-how interesting nothing but doctors so far from someone who hates credentialism-John Locke invented property, because apparently that concept didn't exist at all before then. For that to even be true, we'd have to forget the word "property" alone was first attested in French 500 years before Locke was born[4], or that both the Greeks and Romans alone had complex laws involving property[5].

According to McMurtry people only began going without with the introduction of money, thus implying people alive during and before the era of bartering always had what they needed.

[ Welcome to the machine ]

In comes Michael Ruppert, a conspiracy theorist who believes in primarily 9/11 trutherism, CIA drug conspiracies, and that the economy is going to explode very soon, because apparently we're already out of oil: http://www.collapsenet.com/.</p>

He also makes tons of bad predictions:

http://conspiracyscience.com/articles/predictions/search/?author=Michael+Ruppert

We've talked about Planned Obsolescence on the site before, I imagine we need to include at least some commentary about that here.

After tons about capitalism and why it's bad, we get back into the same Federal Reserve mumbo jumbo that was originally brought on by Peter Joseph's Ron Paul-fan origins. He already explained in the film why capitalism itself is unjust, is it relevant that the fractional reserve banking system has problems? Not at all, because then we imply that with a metal backed currency then the problems he listed previously aren't as important.

Peter Joseph really does lack charisma, his tone induces eye-rolling and is beyond condescending.

--

At this point I'm halfway through the film, and I have to take a break, it's so fucking dry.

Anybody able to give me a safe place to download this from?

TL;DR version:

Its boring and it sucks.

2 hours and 41 minutes?!?!? Sweet Jesus, there are people out there who are actually paying to have Merola's idiocy crammed down their maw for 2 hours and 41 minutes?!!!?

Z3 is better than Z1 in terms of gathering of masses (not that it will happen though). Loads and loads of rubbish, from genetics to misconceptions about Adam Smith and again Merola uses the same strategy: state your own belief and 60 seconds later refer to your belief and call it fact.

Nothing new, nothing shocking and Fresco is an annoying, bitter dude - so what if he is 150 years old, where are the results if he's been at it since 1929! All he has to show is graphic design and ramblings which is sad because that part I was most interested in.

^I know, it was here too but Roxette said "I've already started watching it" and Eric said "I'm halfway through the film, and I have to take a break" making it sound like they found it on Youtube or something.

lol, I don't get why he can't show the stupid movie anyways? It's not a big deal because of the leak and I'm sure he'd get some hits on it. VTV is fat and poor

I spotted a few download links to the movie if anyone wants them ?

i wont put them up on this site though, so will need to PM me for them.

for the mp4 recode of the movie doesnt look to be in any of the links in that google search you simply did.

Its just hella smaller and therefore quicker to download . instead of gbs in size its 330mb

Not sure man, if he doesnt want it out yet and I put the links up, first thing they will do is delete them, also not sure how legal it is without his consent. So whoever put them up might be breaching his license.

Yeah I guess if hes really that clever. Ask yourself if you truly think he is .

They've already deleted all the other leaked videos that came up on youtube.

heres a blog reviewing the movie:
http://thezeitgeistmovements.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/zeitgeist-moving-forward-review/</p>

Not looking too hot for them in this one.

yeah, I noticed that too. But still, it's a good review. I love how at the end, Z3 bypasses over what happens in the interim between their collapse and the new society. He also does an awesome job of addressing charity, TZM's contempt for it, and their passing out DVDs somehow being 'helpful' while claiming that the movies aren't the movement.