Originally posted by Enigma Publius
We do not carry ourselves in a manner conducive to helping anyone come around to our line of thought. (that being that we are not told thhe truth--the whole truth, and there are many things that should be questioned)

I remember when name calling and cursing were not allowd on ATS. When someone would get into trouble for substituting one different letter in a curse word so that it would pass the filters. Remember when calling people names just because they they are still ignorant to the idea that we are routinely lied to? I do. I remember when this site stood for truth and denying ignorance. I miss that. Why on earth would anyone listen to what we are saying here when it is not uncommon to see things like:

"i can't belive you are so stupid.
second line"

or

"people who still think that way deserve to die"

and so on and so on. Imagine you are curious and starting to question MSM, so you look into seriously investigating the claims made on TV and look some things up for yourself. You hear about this website forum that is sopposed to be a serious forum where these things can be discussed intelligently. And you look at the headlines here and they read something similar to this:

"Religion must die!"
"Bush a reptillian? Here's proof!"
"It's time to revolt America"
"Never underestimate the stupidity of the masses"

those are just a few examples of real headlines and articles on here. Now look, can you imagine your uptight relative or friend who is a smart person but otherwise naive to the amount of deception they receive daily, can you imagine that person seeing this kind of garbage and actually taking us seriously? Can anyone tell me one way that this kind of conduct helps our cause? Now, who can tell me ways it HURTS our cause? Who can tell me a few ways that we are HELPING the secrecy agenda with this behavior? If we don't take ourselves seriously, then those who have not yet been woke up will not either. We look like a bunch of unstable potty mouths.

I swear a lot. I am extremely vulgar when i am around my friends. But i do not bring that here, because even though it should not, it does give the impression that one is shallow and uncouth, and dare i say it STUPID. How serious would we take someone in power if when asked about a new bill he simply said, "It sucks, anyone who would vote on this bill deserves whateer they get, i mean, it's so dumb."

That is what some of you sound like. We need to stop this trend. Part of denying ignorance is helping other people take the wool from over their eyes. We seem to have given up on that. Now it seems that we just like to call them names "sheeple" and such more than we want to help them. We are that snobby kid who thinks he is better than everyone else.

Also, not everyone reads conspiracy sites and alternative news, or even deep research into well known areas, such as the existance of water on the moon. I use this as an example because it is recent and i saw a lot of the conduct i talked about there.

no, it was not a secret that water existed on the moon in small amounts.

no, NASA was not "hiding" it's existance.
BUT

no, it was not COMMON KNOWLEDGE, quit saying things like "it's been well known"
9 out of 10 people had no idea that the moon had any water. AT LEAST 9 out of 10. This is not a scientific poll, i just read the many articles that poped up on the internet. ALMOST every article contained a headline like "Confirmed:there is water on the moon" or "Moon not as dry as we have always thought"
these headlines were on MAJOR sites, so if this was big news to these "learned" individuals, then that can accurately be compared to the general public and our awareness of the presence of water on the moon. I Saw zero articles that said this:
"BIG WHOOP: India tells us what everyone already knew"

so please please stop acting like this is no big deal, you and I may have read some of those articles in the years past that hinted at water, but we are a very small portion folks, NOT EVERYONE RESEARCHES THIS STUFF BELIEVE IT OR NOT
The presence of water on the moon (however small) radically changed the way 95% of people thought of our solar system overnight! Almost everyone believed the moon to be completely bone dry, and India of all places, a poor country with an infant space program, changed this view. My question is this: Why didn't NASA make this as big a deal as India when they discovered this years ago? It certainly is good news for India's space program, the media attention they have gained, i bet they will not have any problems increasing their budget next year, so why did NASA treat this as a non-issue? Why was it NEWS to 9 out of 10 folks? Wouldn't they want the attention and the increse in funds for such a discovery?
who knows? This thread isn't about solving this issue, it's simply meant to show just how snobby we have become here. I personally know 3 people who discoved ATS BECAUSE of this discovery of water on the moon by India. These folks thought that NASA had not been forthcoming in this at all, and they wanted to find out what else NASA might have "played with" (not hidden, or lied, but changed in a way that hides it in plain view) and it lead them to ATS. Imagine their disappointment when they look into the main article to see most of you here telling other readers that you knew this for years, it was old new, no big deal, quit being so excited. One of these friends outright told me that he believed some of you must work for NASA or some other agency who wants to make this a non-issue.
Now i don't know about all of that, but it was very dissapointing to see our reaction here:
"move along folks nothing to see here, but look at this mars cricket, now there's something to be amazed at!"
POint is: BABY STEPS.
becoming awakened is a slow and delicate process that must be done in baby steps. All of the conduct and examples i have provided here would hinder anyone trying to make those first steps.
I'll get off my soap box now, this has just been bothering me REALLY BAD lately.
publius

Originally posted by D.E.M.

I mean, we have the star and flag options, and that is a lovely way to drive attention to something, but lets be honest here: most of the stuff that gets to the front page is pure and utter tripe. It gets there because it is sufficiently ludicrous that for some reason it attracts the crazy members like a moths to a fire and they star and flag the hell out of it.

I would very much like to see something along the lines of an "Anti-flag" option to counteract the flags, so that things like "Born into the bloodlines and went rogue" don't stay on the front page for days. Just something so the users can counter the attention such threads get and re-direct it to more important topics.

- Slow to learn or understand; obtuse.
- Tending to make poor decisions or careless mistakes.
- Marked by a lack of intelligence or care; foolish or careless: a stupid mistake.
- Dazed, stunned, or stupefied.
- Pointless; worthless: a stupid job.

I swear a lot. I am extremely vulgar when i am around my friends. But i do not bring that here, because even though it should not, it does give the impression that one is shallow and uncouth, and dare i say it STUPID. How serious would we take someone in power if when asked about a new bill he simply said, "It sucks, anyone who would vote on this bill deserves whateer they get, i mean, it's so dumb."

That is what some of you sound like. We need to stop this trend. Part of denying ignorance is helping other people take the wool from over their eyes. We seem to have given up on that. Now it seems that we just like to call them names "sheeple" and such more than we want to help them. We are that snobby kid who thinks he is better than everyone else.

Originally posted by xizd1
All you can do is state your opinions, views or facts. People will believe or not, you can't do much about it, but you can ignore them. Stop reading their posts.
I have never had my opinion changed through debate. I can perhaps see the other point of view more clearly. I think most people are the same. It's going to take more than words. My advice is don't feed the trolls.

Originally posted by NIGHTRID3R

All I got to say its not every member here on ATS that acts like that.

This being said it is also a right to say what you believe in a civilized way. So saying its a little far fetched or it doesnt make sense is fine but I agree with the name calling. It shouldnt be tolerated. But pointing out fact I think is fine.

I dont think everyone here is nasty and rude... some are do ... and its everyones right anyways to say what they feel and think but in a civilized way I insist on that ....

Originally posted by Inkrinhuminge
One day I became frustrated with the "popular posts"(most flagged recently), and the recent posts on ATS. There was nothing I considered worthy, and so I searched and visited other conspiracy websites. I encountered such poor site layout, bad conduct, foolish articles and appalling language, that I found myself back on ATS again in 10 minutes.

Being the best at (or having the best of) something though should not be used as a reason for lack of self improvement. You raise some good points Enigma, and think we should all improve ourselves through honest self-analysis, reflection and change/action. We should all speak with love and honesty, tempered with consideration, even when we do not receive it.... and EVEN when it is not reciprocated.

Ink.