Want to Protect the Conspiracy Theorist Community? Start (Loudly) Denying Ignorance and Lunacy.

I've contemplated creating this thread several times... and in the aftermath of the Paris attacks I think now is finally the time to post it.

The CT community, presumably a group which every member of ATS considers themselves a part of (or else why would you be here?), is sure a diverse group of folks. We've got UFO enthusiasts, NWO watchdogs, secret government program whistleblowers and researchers, chemtrail believers and debunkers, government malfeasance accusers, war on terror supporters and war on terror despisers... we got it all and all of it has got us, if you will. The one constant is that nobody here is into every topic, but chances are, if there's even one single CT topic that you have an interest in, you can educate yourself about it on ATS. The most beautiful part of that education is often found in sharing what you've learned, especially with somebody who isn't at all into the whole conspiracy stuff. A lot of us live for that moment when we show a loved one or friend an awesome ATS thread and watch as they gain intensity, reading through it, only to bubble over with excited questions or deeply pondered concerns regarding the shared topic. Guess what? Everytime that happens, we've just welcomed a brand new individual into the fold of "Conspiracy Enthusiasts." They may still retain many of their prior prejudices and knee-jerk negativity towards "Conspiracy nuts," at least for the first few readings of topics... but eventually that tiny seedling of speculative goodness will grow, and other seedling will take root as that new member of our shared interest community starts to delve into some of the other solid gold topics that our community has built its foundation upon. Before long, VOILA! an open mind has been nurtured and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge has begun.

...except for those times when there's a topic that has gone off the rails of logic and reality and has degraded into embarrassing drivel. Such has been the case the past few years in regards to both terror attacks and high media profile mass shooting incidents. I guarantee you this, if you show a person unfamiliar with the real grist of the CT mill a CT topic that revolves around the concept of "Sandy Hook victims were all actors", "The Charlie Paris shooting was staged with actors," "There were no planes on 9/11," etc., you've just CEMENTED the ideology of "Conspiracy nuts" in that person's head. The damage done by those type of ridiculous fringe wild accusations impacts every single person in our community in the most negative way possible: guilt by association and guilt by silence equaling acceptance. In much the same way as attending a rally where the speakers are Klansmen or deciding to have a circle of friends that includes gang members will get you labeled as a racist or a gangbanger by all elements of society, being complicit in the earnest discussion and consideration of the plainly asinine will do the entirety of our community zero favors.

Ultimately I believe many of us like to consider ourselves scientists, certainly scientists in the purest sense of the word because science is all about discovery and organization of knowledge. One thing any scientist will tell you is that not everything warrants testing or experimentation because you first have to ask the question you seek to answer, then you formulate a hypothesis based on what is known. THIS is where many of these fringe theories falter the most. It is one thing to formulate a question "Is it possible that these victims were just actors?" and then present a hypothesis whereby you attempt to gather the foundation for an answer to that question... it is quite another thing to bypass the question and hypothesis entirely and post "Those were absolutely actors and if you disagree with me you're obviously brainwashed by TPTB. Baaaa! Baaaaa!" This tactic is not only offputting to potential new CT explorers, it also reinforces the prevailing attitude among many that we're all nutcases... In other words, unless we as CONSPIRACY THEORISTS are willing to point at the grotesquely ridiculous and impossibly asinine and say "No! That fringe is not representative of our overall open minds and willingness to consider the improbable while digging deeper." Well, we all are left standing around looking like asses and every negative, insulting barb the mainstream casts at us looks to be well placed in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Remember, the Open mind and never ending curiosity of every single Conspiracy Theorist on ATS and elsewhere DOES NOT mean that we have to blindly accept, consider, or even tolerate every hypothesis or theory that is thrown in front of us. Sometimes it is very prudent and warranted to look upon a claim with the same level of disdain and spite as most of us would view, say, known propaganda eminating from an agenda-driven government source or a multinational corporation's ass-covering claims of product safety in the wake of a number of illnesses brought about by said product.

/rant

9/11 has an entire dedicated forum for discussion of the event, and has for years. As for SH? The site tried, several times, to allow open discussion on the topic but it always devolved into armchair detectives posting the personal contact information about the victims families or people who were on site.

It got so bad that the Sandy Hook police actually issued a plea for Internet people to stop harrassing the families of the victims.

Imagine that your child just got murdered in cold blood and your phone kept ringing off of the hook with strangers insisting that you were an actor and that your dead child never really existed? Think that might eat at your heart and soul a bit?