True or False? Manipulation through ATS! :D

It has been bought to my attention that there are truth & lies abound here on ATS... just by browsing these forums you can see that they are filled with Truth/Propoganda & Lies... but to what do we believe?

It seems to me that we are going in circles... we used to watch and believe the Media through the TV & radio but now many of us/you are bringing the Lies/Propoganda & Truth to ATS! The problem still remains when we have to decipher the Truth from the Lies and make our own minds up...

We have people saying 'This is the Truth' and then we have others refutting that truth... some of us are bringing the news straight from the horses mouth... some of us are bringing the news from the internet (which now has the newspapers on it)... some of us are bringing specualation... some of us are bringing the outright lies to the table... this is a form of Manipulation... trying to turn other members minds away from the Truth/Lies... some of you know who you are... others do not...

Isn't this the same as watching TV & those commercials and then going out the next day to buy what we saw in the commercial?

Another form of Mind Control?

What to believe or not?

How many of you have actually changed something after reading about it here on ATS? Manipulation?

I, myself am guilty of being Manipulated from this site earlier when i read the Thread about Green Light bulbs & the amount of Mercury which is apparently used... i immediately got my bulbs (which i havn't used yet) and i put them on top of my cupboard out of site only to come back to the thread later to read a post which said something along the lines of 'there really isn't that much Mercury in these bulbs and that we are putting a whole lot more Mercury into the atmosphere from our power plants etc etc etc..... so as you can see... Manipulation or Mind Control is also very apparent here on ATS!

True or False?

Is there a conspiracy here on ATS? An Agenda?

We must decide for ourselves... just like we used to do with the TV & those commercials!

BTW I had wrote something else before this one but as i went to post it, a box came up saying that there was already a thread entitled 'True or False' (which is what the title was) and i lost all my text which really did do me in after typing it all!!! This post is not what that other post was about



[edit on 6-9-2009 by TruthxIsxInxThexMist]

mercury is bad for you, so you were not manipulated; you simply acted according to the new knowledge. However, the one who said we release mercury in huge quantities was ALSO correct, letting us know that even if you replace your light bulbs, you will STILL be susceptible to mercury poisoning by other sources.

so I did not see any manipulation going on in the light bulb thread. It was stating facts, and whatever you decided was you acting according to the facts. However it is true that there is some level of propaganda spreaded in here; and not necessarily at purpose.

If you get your information from the mass media, then you will probably not think too much of the information given to you, regardless if it is true or not. However, in sites like this one, people come and dissect the information- in other words prove if it is truth or lies.

Basically, if propaganda is dumped in here then it will obviously be dissected and destroyed; it happens all the time.

I don't think you should worry that ATS will become another propaganda machine as long as people continue investigating and debating the information given to us in this site.

Anything that has a impact on your opinion is manipulation. it manipulates your opinion. to say something is not manipulation is to say something is not.

My opinions have DEFINITELY been manipulated since joining ATS. They have been altered by new information, by others forcing me to think deeper, and by "aggressive" debate. This is not to say, however, that I believe people are here with the malevolent intention to manipulate. It just is the way it should be.

As far as people posting things that they know are lies, I hope they are few and far between, I do know that if the mods could prove they are doing this, they'd be gone.

Ahh, what to think, what to think, it really is an active process, isn't it?

Something to think about. . .

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Joseph Goebbels

“Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.”
Adolf Hitler

“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.”
Avram Noam Chomsky

“The goal of modern propaganda is no longer to transform opinion but to arouse an active and mythical belief”
Jacques Ellul

“Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.”
Eric Hoffer

Is it possible to over reason?

Think about belief as a line; You get the official story at one end and from that, various degrees acceptance right across to disbelief then into the end where the story just becomes completely detached from the original so as to be a whole other story.

All the way across that spectrum are various groups all defending thier own little piece of the "line of belief", often overlapping from start to finish. I think the truth lies in those overlapping points, where at least agreement can be made.

I don't think people are manipulated, I think they believe what they want to believe, and they come to sites like these with a certain expectation, to find people standing at the same point in the line as themselves. It's only through their own ability to reason that dictates whether they move up or down line.

[edit on 6-9-2009 by quackers]

It is the choice of the people pal

Im losing faith in ATS. When i came here it was cool. For a fan of sci-fi it was a perfect match. Now it really isnt anything more than another board about how much obama sucks and crap like that. Not to mention the amazing new ads every week which probably means a corporate tie-in. So ATS may be selling our threads to others. Now manipulation through ATS, yeah probably it seems that there is a group of people in america bent on confusing the mass by misleading and out-right lying to them. I plan on leaving the site soon. its just so lame. If i wanted to hear fox news' opinion ill turn on fox news. If i wanted to hear about strange lights in the sky heres where id go. Not anymore. If you state an opinion that differs from the elites on this site such as atheists or undecided voters who didnt like bush and really hate obama for no reason, you will get attacked like a jew getting attacked by nazis (sorry but true). I don't know what happened here but its disappointing. Instead of discussing issues some people just bash and brand probably the problem at the town hall meetings. Just angry people yeling instead of talking. Well i have no respect for people who can state an opinion but will not listen to others.

GOOD BYE ATS may you continue to burn in flames and completely sell out.

Here's a bit of ATS conspiracy for you! If you look at some of the Avatars of folks here on ATS a good number of which look like they have been created by the same person! They share the same compositional quality's and a similar color scheme also style. But does this prove CIA/NSA aka Monkey Turd involvement? I don't know! But the owners seem to push a similar line and take turns at playing good cop bad cop! But check it out for yourself.

reply to post by SchefSalad


Most of us have felt like that at some time or another, for different reasons, giving an opinion, then having someone disagree with it, is just them giving their opinion, some of the problem is some people fall for it and respond or retaliate.

I have an ongoing issue right now, similar to what the OP is talking about, concerning a supposed protest in London, thing is it stinks of being a set up, because the language used is not coming from someone who should know the way things run here in this country, instead they use language seemingly based on the USA, long story and Ill get to the bottom of it.

Anyhow you said when you joined it was cool, you should have been here 4 years ago when it was unbeatable, the owners have tried to calm things down, but all they got where complaints, so it is left mostly to us the members to decide what should get the attention it deserves, still people fall for it day after day, you cant stop opinion, just accept others opinions as you have said, and give your own as strongly as you can.

To have an opinion, you have to be strong and firm with it, like UFO's for instance, day in day out people complain because the skeptics do or say this, and the skeptics complain because the believers say and do that.

I personally am 100% believer, because of things I have seen, nobody can change that, they can call me mistaken or a liar all they like, changes nothing, I was there, I saw and experienced what I did, and they didn't, not my fault.

So IMO that's the way this site works, give an opinion, accept an opinion, it's how you respond that makes the differences, stick to your guns.

As for Propaganda and manipulation, of course there is, again it depends on where it comes from, trolls like to instil fear, people find what they believe are the greatest UFO video's the world has seen, and conspiracy theorists see problems under every single rock they turn over, and love or hate Obama, IMO there is a definite campaign based on many lies to get rid of him, I also believe there is a deliberate attempt to try and build civil unrest in the USA, some wanting a revolution, a lot has been said that points towards racism on a grand scale, my opinion is, do they really Love America? or do they hate so much, they don't care about America or it's people, just their own little piece of it.

You have to know your own mind and draw your own lines, I find I read something and give an opinion, or share what I have learnt from knowledge I have gained, I make no excuses for the way I do it, most of my posts are long, that's only because I like to be as thorough as I can, I find those not interested don't get to far down the posts so scroll past, at first I thought it was because I was being ignored, but it wasn't it was just to much concentration for some, I don't expect stars, or flags, I do it to share my opinion, take it or leave it that's what it is.

Usually though I can see through most of it, when I first came here I was convinced we were all gonna die within weeks, it got me several times, now I like to double check, and then double check that information, then wait and see.

My wife tells me if my life was turned into a book, nobody would ever read it, because it would be too damn long, but she is 20 years my junior almost, what does she know

What you are feeling is information overload with a side order of unreality.

The Left & Right bashing is the old order that wants everything to remain the same so they can stick with the reality that they are right and the other person is wrong.

When you could tell that the media was misinterpreting the news you felt better because you felt ahead of the game. Now with the Internet you have alternative sources, personal sources and once removed sources (a friend of a friend of my brother's girlfriend's cousin). You now have to self-filter, research & TRUST. It is a strain for the first two but a Migraine for the third.

As for the avatars, as you grow your ATS friends and worthwhile adversaries, you too can get a custom made avatar at cost.

Keep the faith and hold your ground on the rock of your beliefs. learn that just jumping in blind is not good but keeping back because of fear and paranoia is not good either. Though fear and paranoia can be a good thing.

Originally posted by TruthxIsxInxThexMist
It has been bought to my attention that there are truth & lies abound here on ATS... just by browsing these forums you can see that they are filled with Truth/Propoganda & Lies... but to what do we believe?

There is no truth other than the one that lies within one's self ...

All the rest is just information.

azzllin:
Great post man. Way more heartfelt then mine.

reply to post by newworld


Good points!!

I suppose it is up to us to dissect and ultimately decide what it True and what is False but when you get misinformation from sources it is sometimes hard to dissect... don't forget that there are many sources on the net feeding us false information (many sites) not just here on ATS!

reply to post by Iamonlyhuman


You are right and i did say 'it's not all the posts, just some' and there are a lot of Threads here which do bring a lot of surprises and the 'wow' factor but still, there are also false prophets at work here...

reply to post by mikerussellus


Thanks for the post... i especially like this one:

“Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.”
Eric Hoffer

Originally posted by TruthxIsxInxThexMist
It has been bought to my attention that there are truth & lies abound here on ATS... just by browsing these forums you can see that they are filled with Truth/Propoganda & Lies... but to what do we believe?

As posted elsewhere and in a somewhat relevant thread...

Welcome to the rabbit hole.

None of what you hear and only half what you see.

Research, Realize and Then make your own mind up.

Educate yourself, with regards those events and/or situations taking place in your everyday life, Come to Your own conclusions. Base Your end-result opinions, stance, etc. upon the same.

... 'lest you fall prey to those Many .orgs and/or .govs (media, first and foremost) who would like to steer your mind along a more guided path - Theirs.

$.02

just sayin'...

Think for Yourself.

If there's but one thing I've learned here, Sifting through the sediment occasionally finds a nugget or three ... in the meantime, alternative considerations abound.

YMMV, though.

reply to post by azzllin


Great post and i've starred you on it... well said

I have also read the other replies so don't think i ignored you... they were all good.....

Basically i just have to decipher the truth and leave the lies behind... it's down to me just like in the real World!

theres no manipulation about the lighttubs man,its some kinda strange effect from the mercury and gasses inside,it makes your eyes water,and alot more worse stuff,throw them aside.
LED seems to be most awesome but theyr light also seems to be bad on your eyes
i guess its back to good old lighttubs
and about manipulation,sure but were smart enought not to be easily fooled and trusted,we listen to all opinions and search for ourselfs,plus its full of older members that we can trust

[edit on 7-9-2009 by Stillalive]

reply to post by Stillalive


Hmmm.... I suppose i should have bought forward a stronger case for the "manipulation" but i suppose i'm just giving a basic idea of what happens on these sites!!

Of course, the 'Obama' hate campaign is large on this site... that's who i should have bought up in my original post