Infowars host and noted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones had social media users scratching their heads after he claimed the invention of the calculator was designed to "enslave" humans.
A calculator is typically a small electronic device with a keyboard and a visual display used for making mathematical calculations. They've no doubt made lives easier for billions but according to Jones, they were designed to implement "pure centralization and control."
This is a ludicrous statement for anyone with common sense because while over-reliance on calculators can potentially foster an unwillingness or inability to perform basic arithmetic, they are valuable tools that do faciliate learning and are far and away from the insidious bogeyman Jones made them out to be.
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Jones said:
"By high school, they let us use calculators and I loved it because I got my homework done in 30 minutes in the math subject area instead of two hours."
"And now today when I try to remember math or do math, and I was never that good at it, I was bad at it, I know less than when I was 11 years old, 10 years old, and I know all of you are pretty much the same, aren't you?"
"It's all automated, it's all so simple but it's enslaving us, it is destroying us and the whole future is going to be getting away from this. It's not that technology's bad but the way it's designed and implemented is for pure centralization and control."
Why Jones decided to condemn calculators is unclear but one wonders if he is similarly angered by the modern calculator's precursor, the abacus, a calculating tool which has been used since ancient times and continues to be used by merchants, traders and clerks in different parts of the world.
Jones was swiftly mocked for his statements.
Jones' weird claim is only the latest to come out of one of the GOP's most influential mouthpieces.
No word yet on what Jones wants done about the global threat of calculators.
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