Missing the good old ATS days? Suggestion to get back to them...

As always, Mods, please move if you find somewhere more appropriate for this one.

How many of you miss the "Good old days" when ATS was the go-to place to discuss conspiracies, spooks, sasquatches and aliens? I know I do. I always had this habit of, first thing in the morning getting to work, firing up ATS and browsing some good alternative, out-there threads for a few minutes.

These days, however, it seems that there's more American politics than the content that first drew me to the site in the first place. It seems that what used to be a safe haven for the esoteric and "out-there" has now become, as that one forum sub-group is called, a political mud-pit.

Where I used to have ATS open on my confuser the whole day, I now only check in every other day due to the political nonsense.

Who would like to see ATS return to its roots and become a tinfoil hat-wearing, chemtrail-fearing, ghost-busting, illuminati-exposing person's favorite hang-out again?

I'm not sure about the logistics of it all, but would it be at all possible to "banish" the political madness from ATS, possibly to another website entirely? Or at the very least, create a "live" tab that would filter out all the politics? I doubt that I'm alone in wishing for less politics on this site.

SO, for all of you who are keen to see this happen, please pipe up and reply here. Let's Speak to the ATS Overlords and see if we can get our goofy spooks-and-spaceships corner of the internet back!

a reply to: Havoc40k

I came here for Bigfoot, and UFOs/USOs, and fairies. Ghosts, goblins, werewolves (love the legends of werewolves/shapeshifters [perhaps I should do a thread on it]), and a good Halloween costume thread.

Along the way I discovered that politics have more complex conspiracies, than most of what we discuss.

We all saw the shift to politics, once ATS chose to call itself an alternative news site (no longer- Alt news is bad now).

Conspiracies in politics is very worthy for the website. But I hope the membership remembers about the other topics that threads can be made on.

As always, I look forward to your next non political OP.

a reply to: Havoc40k

The most active members prefer partisan political conversations above all the other topics. You can look at ATS from this month in 2013 (five years ago!) and see political threads beginning to pop up more. The Mud Pit had been created which shows that hostile political discourse (bickering and triggering each other) was becoming more popular on ATS even then.

You and I have been here for ten years each. For half of those ten ATS has been increasingly dominated by politics. For anyone fresh who joined post-2013, politics and The Mud Pit is all they've known. Many of them will only be on ATS for the sport of political mud slinging.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
Many of them will only be on ATS for the sport of political mud slinging.

For it's there we counteract The Great Leftist Loony Crimes Againtst Nature. C'mon Kandy, you know that.

From my perspective is when ats fell to partisan politics.

Yes I fully believe that politics have conspiracies but I find it's almost impossible to discuss them while we have a dichotomy forced on us. If we try to delve into an issue it splits down the middle with the sides already determined. I believe as long as we allow the site to follow this path no true knowledge will come of any political arguments here as we can predict with some accuracy which side will take the defensive or offensive stance. Each side will automatically trumpet their beliefs above others and find little fault in themselves, this is the destruction of dissenting thought and is a pariah to a site such as this.


I also came to this site to discuss conspiracies, conspiracies of many topics. I often log in and wish we had a button that would just block out the political bickering. I realize of course that that is in itself a fail on my part because there's a chance that I might miss something I'd truly find interesting.

But maybe just on first login and get my fill of some good old fashioned conspiracy theory first, then look.

a reply to: Kandinsky

What I find funny about it all, is that yes politics has always played a part of ATS, but it’s done a complete 180 degree turn...

“Back then” it was all about taking our guns (still sorta happening), FEMA camps, marks on your letterbox, false flags and the like.

Now?

Well, crickets.

I guess when a Democrat is president again, these things will be back.

a reply to: Havoc40k

But ...

Now, is someone else's " good old days " ...

( time traveller thing ... it is ATS )

DP ...

Meanwhile ... back in 2130 ...

Yet , even in the beginning the most abundant threads were political in nature
I remember the good "JFK Assassination" , WW3 , Bush political threads probably outnumbered both Obama and Trump , 911 was an inside job , you name it...
Oh , and the Martian and Lunar buildings and artifacts in which they turned political due to alleged NASA cover-up
Conspiracy is the name
Unraveling is the game
Be it the crash at Roswell or the Kavanaugh "conspiracy"

Why do folks remember something as they want to remember ?

a reply to: The GUT

As apposed to the righty loonies?

Birthers anyone?

What this all boils down to is sore losers battling against sore winners.

Have you noticed the over confidence from the right on ATS lately? The midterms are all but locked up.

If I recall, the same over confidence was abundant during the last election.

I’m sure you remember it well, as most righties ragged on the left for it constantly.

Just a bit baffled that you don’t learn from (very) recent history.

a reply to: Havoc40k

My problem is I always use my tablet when going to ATS but I can't write quality threads because the left third is always blocked. I also can't give stars and flags anymore which is annoying to me.
The political content is mainstream you can see that I see that. I don't mind not being mainstream, but for the woo topics people lurk too much and don't contribute.

originally posted by: Seiko
From my perspective is when ats fell to partisan politics.

Yes I fully believe that politics have conspiracies but I find it's almost impossible to discuss them while we have a dichotomy forced on us. If we try to delve into an issue it splits down the middle with the sides already determined. I believe as long as we allow the site to follow this path no true knowledge will come of any political arguments here as we can predict with some accuracy which side will take the defensive or offensive stance. Each side will automatically trumpet their beliefs above others and find little fault in themselves, this is the destruction of dissenting thought and is a pariah to a site such as this.


I also came to this site to discuss conspiracies, conspiracies of many topics. I often log in and wish we had a button that would just block out the political bickering. I realize of course that that is in itself a fail on my part because there's a chance that I might miss something I'd truly find interesting.

But maybe just on first login and get my fill of some good old fashioned conspiracy theory first, then look.

The dichotomy is false as I assume most of us know. It is frustrating to make the arguments for a side when there is agreement, disagreement, and apathy.
But every voice should be heard. And needs to be heard. Even in apathy. As only then is when we as a country can understand what is in our interest.

a reply to: Peeple

. . . people lurk too much and don't contribute.

That's it.

a reply to: randomtangentsrme

As I said, I realize blocking out political partisanship could cause me to miss something, nor would I ever advocate doing so. If you were to look at my history here on ats you would see that I have always stood against censorship.

Censorship or the silencing of opinions is something I am vehemently against. But I was supporting in a wishful thinking way a process of segregation. But with that said, even if I had a way to not see the political bickering with the push of a button whilst I read other topics that interested me first...I would still go look at the political forums following that.

They are as stated previously in this very thread a part of the site, and will always be. I just want less picking a side and more digging deeper. I just feel that we are stunted, our investigations stalled, as we allow ourselves, me included, to be sidetracked in a paradigm of their construction.

a reply to: Havoc40k

I blame Obama. That's about the time ATS changed. We believe in UFOs, ghosts and Illumintati but we couldn't believe all that BS.

The mud pit needs to be retired. Nothing has wrecked this website half as much as the stinking mud pit.

It encouraged hostile aggressive large scale trolling, which spread like poison.

And now ats is just an alt right echo chamber where trump fans come to feel good about themselves and mock libruhls. We even see moderators indulging in this behavior.

And the message it sends is that nobody else is welcome here.

Someone bring back ATS.

Someone bring back ATS Chat.



Emotional Bois Two Thousand Eighteen.

originally posted by: Seiko
a reply to: randomtangentsrme

As I said, I realize blocking out political partisanship could cause me to miss something, nor would I ever advocate doing so. If you were to look at my history here on ats you would see that I have always stood against censorship.

Censorship or the silencing of opinions is something I am vehemently against. But I was supporting in a wishful thinking way a process of segregation. But with that said, even if I had a way to not see the political bickering with the push of a button whilst I read other topics that interested me first...I would still go look at the political forums following that.

They are as stated previously in this very thread a part of the site, and will always be. I just want less picking a side and more digging deeper. I just feel that we are stunted, our investigations stalled, as we allow ourselves, me included, to be sidetracked in a paradigm of their construction.

To me the simple answer is not to pick a side, but to (as you suggest) dig deeper. Media is allowed to have a slant these days. For us as conspiracy theorists, can we not agree to access the source material?

Can we all give a pledge to not let the media be our voice?

originally posted by: Painterz
The mud pit needs to be retired....

Hahaha....you wish. No man, we're having too much fun throwing mud on democrats and liberals and making them cry.

a reply to: Lysergic

What’s that? Bring back Mutter?