ATS the Garden of the Mind

Recently I've been thinking about our collective online home on ATS and how we unlock human potential. People flourish under freedom, where they can act and think for themselves. To put it in terms of systems analysis any machine functions more efficiently when each part is using it's maximum potential. The United States has invented roughly 50% of all the technology and gadgetry in use today because we have the freedom to think, to speak and to act in accord with ourselves. Liberty is the facilitator of human development.

Where does ATS fit in? Well-developed rational thinking, honed by debate and constant feeding of new information - that's what happens here. Most sites have a bias to their very premise while ATS is a neutral platform for news and open debate. This is healthy and so very necessary but sadly it's become a rarity.

People who don't engage in critical discussions will ignore important events. We all have friends like that don't we? It's too much for them to think about and they throw their intellects up in despair. They stop reading books and will often avoid discussing anything in depth. I think most people are here because truth is important to them. Learning to debate and getting new information helps us all to modify our views to conform with reality.

We are here to share and inform, to speak and to listen.
We are here to grow.
This is why I like to think of ATS as the Garden of the Mind.

To those who have informed me, debated me, made me laugh, befriended me - you are too numerous to thank individually. I am grateful to you all and to be a part of this amazing community.
Thank you all.
We are so much more than an acronym.
Long may we grow.

Not your typical rant but a rant nonetheless.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

Definitely worth headbanging to!

a reply to: Asktheanimals

Yup!!

And we need to get back to this mentality and abandon Trumpisms in our discussions...


Make ATS Great again!!…

No wait...


S&F

We are here to share and inform, to speak and to listen.
We are here to grow.

It's a struggle but without that I would be long gone.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

Agreed.
It is a source of amazement to me, that because of this site I am more informed then my co-workers, who praise PBS and NPR for their 'unbiased' reporting.

I often invite friends to view this site. I argue it is true neutral, as the left suggests it is right leaning, and the right suggests it is left leaning.

Most friends tell me they are uncomfortable with what they see. Which shows how many are unwilling to have their beliefs challenged.
I can say I have never had a friend tell me they have joined. I cannot promise a friend has never joined.

Ultimately, from my long time here as an observer, and then member. I could not ask for a better place to challenge ideas, question our individual beliefs, and make us grow as individuals.

I joined this website on Christmas eve, I told my girlfriend (now wife) it was a Christmas present to myself. Still one of the top presents I've ever received.

ETA: It has pulled me away from reading new novels in a day. That is a downside. . .

a reply to: Asktheanimals

After joining this wonderful site known as ATS has allowed me to see things differently that is what I was brought up to think was real. I thank ATS and all contributors for giving different points of view along with sources in all matters ranging from Taboo subjects to politics. I have learned so much from being a member here.

Great thread and thank you for making this. GOD SPEED

This is a solid post, but doesn’t belong in rants. It is more like a chat among friends.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

Most friends tell me they are uncomfortable with what they see. Which shows how many are unwilling to have their beliefs challenged.

If you aren’t uncomfortable, you aren’t growing.

I lean left and if ATS was a mostly left wing site, I probably wouldn’t post that much. I hate echo chambers. Which is why I value ATS over sites like reddit.

Really, where’s the fun in arguing with someone who agrees with you?

Honestly, while the subject matter on ATS might often be outside the box.

The people on here, especially in recent years, are no different to who they are on facebook, youtube, etc.

Just like in all aspects of life. Many don't want free thinking, open discussion. They want echo chambers.
They want definite black and whites. They just want to be right. They want their agenda to be the only agenda.
They just want to pointlessly argue with people.

If I had a dollar for every post where instead of addressing points someone replies back with a psychological profile they decided to imagine up for the person they are responding to instead...... I'd have a nice tidy sum.

Sadly like everywhere else it applies to the vast majority of ATS user base.
95% of people aren't as open minded as you might think. They're not here to learn or discuss. They're here to force their views on you. Like they do on every site they're on.

While I respect your viewpoint. ATS is not special. It's like any other site.
Far from a "Garden of the Mind" especially when it's become flooded with the American politics garbage in recent years that is plaguing everything on the internet now.

Heck I could go to TMZ's website or even the comment section on my tech tips and gaming videos channel on youtube and probably see many of the same discussions we see on ATS on them these days.

Do a video on installing a new GPU and drivers. Someone in the comments will be writing about Trump or Clinton......

Now if you made this post in the first few years ATS existed. I'd probably would of whole heartedly agree.

But sadly it's just some other generic news and discussion site focused on American politics now with the odd UFO and paranormal event thrown in.

Not ATS's fault I suppose. Just seems that this is what always happens when things get popular and mainstream.
But yeah, tend to have to dig a bit harder these days to find the truly mind stimulating and thought changing stuff these days.

Don't get me wrong. I still enjoy coming here. But you just have to look at the front page and what the most popular threads are to see "Garden of the Mind" is a a bit of a stretch for what it has become.

If ATS is a "Garden of the Mind", well then so is facebook, reddit, 4chan, and much much more.

a reply to: Metallicus

it is a rant. there is off topic deletions and people who dont contribute by writing and there are too much politics.

a reply to: Asktheanimals


Ummm...good analogy...just remember that like any good garden...you have to spread a ton of poop in the form of fertilizer...

Wade through the fertile crap layer...realizing the crap layer is also intrinsic to forming good perspective and opinion...


I said poop...

Ha...ha...







YouSir

A rant becomes an Epistel , and Facebook becomes the garden of the mind. yeah ATS is such a wunderfull place.
Now Stop taking Winston and listen to the voice of freedom coming from the telescreen.

Not ATS's fault I suppose. Just seems that this is what always happens when things get popular and mainstream. But yeah, tend to have to dig a bit harder these days to find the truly mind stimulating and thought changing stuff these days.

... well I think that anything mainstream leads to superficial communication. ATS went for the masses. If it was that edgy it would also embrace the non mainstream. Basically ATS is MSM with a twist... infotainment. It doesn't go that deep , isn't that edgy as it used to be. Most threads an endless trumpadumpalong. Great posters left.

Now censorship by bigtech... still waiting for ATS threads that go beyond AJ... Instead I see threads like 'hey guys a i made a yt channel' , instead of questioning that YT might not be the best bussinesspartner to start with. Or why CT is being attacked by the media. And than this rant Socialmedia the 'garden of mind' (nothing against OP good post!). so seems to me that ATS is just mainstream and a lot of trump..

a reply to: Asktheanimals

It wasn´t the United States that invented all that, it was the people living there.

And some of your top scientist were former nazis or descendants of them. You´re military / government is -to the current day- stealing technology from other countries and they give a #.

Germany included.

Just saying.

a reply to: verschickter

One could rightly credit the humanist tradition born of the enlightenment thinkers of Europe for most of the creativity and inventiveness of the Western Nations. Germany was the world leader pre-WW2 for many decades. I don't blame the US for stealing their best and brightest. Russia did the same.

originally posted by: Asktheanimals
Recently I've been thinking about our collective online home on ATS and how we unlock human potential. People flourish under freedom, where they can act and think for themselves. To put it in terms of systems analysis any machine functions more efficiently when each part is using it's maximum potential. The United States has invented roughly 50% of all the technology and gadgetry in use today because we have the freedom to think, to speak and to act in accord with ourselves. Liberty is the facilitator of human development.

Where does ATS fit in? Well-developed rational thinking, honed by debate and constant feeding of new information - that's what happens here. Most sites have a bias to their very premise while ATS is a neutral platform for news and open debate. This is healthy and so very necessary but sadly it's become a rarity.

People who don't engage in critical discussions will ignore important events. We all have friends like that don't we? It's too much for them to think about and they throw their intellects up in despair. They stop reading books and will often avoid discussing anything in depth. I think most people are here because truth is important to them. Learning to debate and getting new information helps us all to modify our views to conform with reality.

We are here to share and inform, to speak and to listen.
We are here to grow.
This is why I like to think of ATS as the Garden of the Mind.

To those who have informed me, debated me, made me laugh, befriended me - you are too numerous to thank individually. I am grateful to you all and to be a part of this amazing community.
Thank you all.
We are so much more than an acronym.
Long may we grow.

Not your typical rant but a rant nonetheless.

Keep in mind that every garden has its share of rotten vegetables too!
I've been censored (a lot) here, because I don't conform to Romano-Masonic law. (Tee-Hee!)

a reply to: Asktheanimals

Garden of the mind, where half the threads Ive posted have been deleted.

Awesome OP.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

If ATS is the Garden of the Mind, then that makes me the fertilizer.