Fear Mongering, News, Predictions, Citation, and Credibility.

In all honesty, there is an abundance of fear mongering that goes on here. I have been a member here for almost 5 years and have seen probably 2 or 3 thousand prophesies of doom posted here of which exactly zero have come true. The problem is that there are so many people trying to 'get points' or be the most popular poster, or whatever. These people would appear to me to have no life and wish to engage others in their own misery. I read here daily and take everything with a grain of salt. Some of the political threads are entertaining and sometimes informative; however the doom prophesies have yet to realize any credibility.

Let me ask you a question. After seeing literally thousands of these and NONE coming true, how long before you just start taking them at entertainment value? It has been my experience that a VAST majority of posters here use reference sources such as Wikipedia. I find that hilarious; might as well just use Joe the Ragman's blog. News Flash....just because you are on ATS and not someplace accredited in any way does not mean that using second rate and ridiculous citation is acceptable. If you want people to take you seriously or have any credibility, then reference material in an appropriate manner. Just because your neighbor's dog told you something does not make it so. What amazes me even more is the amount of people that actually believe this stuff. There is a whole lot of people here that lack any sort of formal education as is completely evident by the citations they use. Try using Wikipedia as a reference on a college paper sometime and watch how fast you get failed.

This site has so much hypocrisy it is sometime mind boggling. I have seen on too many occasions a person on one thread bashing God and in their next thread they are using some Russian prophet as a citation. Think about how funny that must look to someone with the capacity for logical thought.

This is a good site for entertainment, and could possibly have been a good site for information sharing; unfortunately, there is an abundance of people that ruin any credibility that could ever come about because of their ignorance. The longer people cite Wikipedia, blogs, Russian prophets, their neighbor's pet, or any other ridiculous reference, the more the rest of the world will laugh at this site. I have watched over the last 5 years this site transform from a truly unique place in which people could share information into a site for 'entertainment purposes only'. Still yet, there are a few here that do make an honest attempt to share information in a responsible manner; unfortunately, they are a very small minority.

If this site is to ever have any credibility, the people in charge must come to the realization that by using a point system, or rating based on contribution only promotes people with no life to search for unsubstantiated, incredible, ridiculous information to share in order to boost their 'rating' because somehow they think it makes themselves important. Personally, I place little credibility in anyone that has an extreme amount of points, rating, or contribution level or whatever the measuring standard is this month/year.

Now that I have told you how I feel, please feel free to blaze away.

You are, I feel, 100% correct. The flag system is immensely flawed; promoting an inordinate amount of spam in order to "rank up". Day-after-day there are the same people posting thread-after-thread with little substance, rehashed threads, and purposely biased tantrums that have only one purpose -- garnering an angsty following.

Political slapfests are the obvious example.

reply to post by DarrylGalasso


In all honesty, there is an abundance of anti-fear mongering that goes on here. I have been a member here for almost a year and have seen probably 2 or 3 thousand threads just like this one arguing against prophesies of doom.

"Fear Mongering" is a very tired and outdated term, I really wish someone would come up with a new one - at least it would make threads like this more inventive. Perhaps the (what you call) fear mongering is due to the FACT that there is more and more evidence of gloominess in the news each and every day? I believe what you see as fear mongering is just plain and simply frustration.

Do you wish to see people commenting only happy thoughts? When does a prophesy become fear mongering? If it prophesies any bad things to come, is it automatically fear mongering?

Originally posted by DarrylGalasso
In all honesty, there is an abundance of fear mongering that goes on here. I have been a member here for almost 5 years and have seen probably 2 or 3 thousand prophesies of doom posted here of which exactly zero have come true. The problem is that there are so many people trying to 'get points' or be the most popular poster, or whatever. These people would appear to me to have no life and wish to engage others in their own misery. I read here daily and take everything with a grain of salt. Some of the political threads are entertaining and sometimes informative; however the doom prophesies have yet to realize any credibility.

Your observation about the number of 'doom' posts here is spot on. But rather than suffer the antagonist, I prefer to take each one as if it were a genuine attempt to share what was believed to be critical information.

There is so much lost in the written message and... times when we have the choice of taking something in a negative or positive light, it just seems to me that there is nothing lost in offering the latter.

There is really no where else on the web where you can find the variety of ideas and the liberty to express them.

Best



[edit on 25-10-2009 by redoubt]

reply to post by DarrylGalasso
Also, I have to add that I do agree with you about the flags, stars, etc.. except that how else would the ATS website be able to compile what's important enough to it's readers to put up top (on the front page)? You can't spend flags or stars, so I personally don't even think about them when posting although I do think some might. Why else would I post what I posted above?

It's become very popular to rant against the big, bad "fear mongering" in threads now. I could potentially say (although I really don't think it's the case here) that THIS thread was composed to gain starts and flags - because you're not really adding anything of substance to our knowledge.

The goal here is to be able to decipher what is "real" and what is not "real" - NOT what is fear mongering and what is not fear mongering.

Edit to add: I fell that ATS users do not use the flag and star system for what it's intended for. Stars are supposed to be used for posts that contribute something new to the thread but in almost all cases now, they are used to denote that the star-giver agrees with them, therefore, it has become solely popularity based. I give this thread as an example. Your view that fear mongering is rampant is a very popular idea - look at how the stars are distributed within your thread so far.

DarrylGalasso – 2 flags, 4 stars – popular opinion
Oscitate – 2 stars – popular opinion
Iamonlyhuman – 0 stars – not the popular opinion
Redoubt – 2 star – popular opinion
Iamonlyhuman – 0 stars – not the popular opinion

Now, know that I don't care one little bit that I haven't gotten any stars because like I said before, it really doesn't mean anything in the first place. I could care less if I was popular on ATS or not.





[edit on 25/10/2009 by Iamonlyhuman]

ATS does not need credibility.

The nature of this site is to explore alternative subjects, including conspiracy theories and frankly topics that would likely never be seen on more "credible" sites.

What should make ATS unique is that here your mission is to deny ignorance, therefore if you have issues with a particular subject then you should post them in that topic, if you can disprove a theory, or offer a more compelling opposite argument or opinion then by all means do that.

Nothing on ATS should be taken at face value without exploring the subject.

If you find yourself frustrated with the content here then perhaps you have missed the point, or came to the wrong site.

Occasionally something very interesting happens here, don't miss out on it.

It can be both informative and quite entertaining.

Don't just read the opening post and move on.... Share your thoughts and/or information on the subject, and read others.

Mods, this was made for me. So give me a little slack.

You have to look at the beast you speak of. Doom. Doom is a beast, people may not admit it, but doom is a part of all of us. Look back thousands of years. Prophecy of doom is a human condition. Look into your own heart and tell me you do not fear something catastrophic. Death for example. But fear of doom can be beaten. By examining it, tearing it apart bit by bit, examining it.

I cannot believe it, this will be the third time in as many days that I have posted this. Modern day science fiction, will be looked on in the future as we look on Shakespeare.

From Dune-Frank Herbert; You know, the works that Hollywood have perverted into a Religion.

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain.

Admit it, doom draws people to it. Maybe because we fear the very thing that we are living. Slavery, monotony, no meaning to our lives. Now with the direction this government is taking us, EMPIRE & ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT, or do you think this is one of the Doom conspiracies?




The beast "DOOM" came forth, And with a laugh said, I; am the EATER OF WORLDS


As for me, what is my handle?


THE ENDISNIGHE, NUFF SAID


tried to fix bb code screw up
[edit on 10/25/2009 by endisnighe]

[edit on 10/25/2009 by endisnighe]

reply to post by DarrylGalasso


Mmm, sure there sometimes is a silly amount of gloom and doom, but there also seems to be an abundant lack of grasp as to the workings of causality ...

Namely that I think you'll find that the star/flag system is rather a tiny reason and marginal cause as to the perceived problem you are referring to.

The main reason is that this is a conspiracy site and as such, members tend to take random bits of information and combine them to predict the worse of possible outcomes. Kinda what you did in your OP ... taking an issue and oversimplifying it to a single cause. But it is the nature of the beast and its contributors.

We have these "peaks" of doomsday predictions in threads that come in cycles a couple of times a year, you've been here long enough to observe that. Most of us look at these threads with a meh attitude and a little eye roll, but not too much ... cause one of these days ... well, you know ... something is bound to happen.

As far as credibility, ATS has plenty, some of our more ... shall we say "imaginative" members, not so much. But they do make the site fun and believe it or not they teach us a lot. Perhaps not about the subjects they discuss, but about the human psyche.

Let it be ...

The flag system means nothing to me. Some of the threads that get the most stars, flags and replies are absolute rubbish, entertaining but rubbish.

My area of interest is in the economy, weapons, military and aviation.
All the other is mostly fluff.

But the fluff does keep me entertained.

I've been visiting several other sites lately and they all pale in comparison to ATS.

I do agree with you and sometimes wish the threads were more factual but it does make for a good laugh sometimes. Other times I get really frustrated with the ignorance of some posters.

ATS feels like family and my real life family is strange too so I think I'll keep on enjoying ATS.

It is obvious that you like it also as you are still here.

Originally posted by Iamonlyhuman
reply to post by DarrylGalasso

It's become very popular to rant against the big, bad "fear mongering" in threads now. I could potentially say (although I really don't think it's the case here) that THIS thread was composed to gain starts and flags - because you're not really adding anything of substance to our knowledge.

[edit on 25/10/2009 by Iamonlyhuman]

Personally I have never been concerned with stars and flags. If you look at my history you would probably find that in my whole time here I have started maybe 5 threads (an average of about one a year) and responded to perhaps 75 (an average of about 15 a year or about once a month). However, I read here every single day. Typically, I only respond when I have something of value to add.

As for the words fear mongering, it is a descriptive group of words much like hate crimes, cool beans or any other phrase you wish to use. I didn't coin the phrase, just as I didn't coin the phrase 'have a nice day' but I still use that too. I am not here to invent a new phrase, the existing phrases and words in our language will suffice for me. If you like we can call it panic manipulation or anything you choose, but that really changes nothing now does it?

You are quite correct in that I am not addressing anything of substance after all credibility has no substance.

And I do still enjoy this site and am not disputing that fact.

The point I am trying to make is this.

If we as people whom feel that our government and the governments of the world are: corrupt, dishonest, possibly evil, and not serving the best interest of the people they represent; how are we going to get any influential people who can help further our cause, on our side to risk their own reputations publicly by using citations such as Wikipedia, the neighbors cat, an alien (told me), or other ridiculous citations as references? Anyone with any credibility would not champion a cause such as that due to the fact that their reputation will be ruined because of it. If we expect to be taken seriously, then we must present ourselves as responsible, credible, and intelligent. Otherwise, we are just a collective joke to the very people we are trying to wake up.

Have you ever met a person that tells fantastic tales? I have and I do not place much stock in anything he tells me. That's kind of how we are starting to be viewed by the people we are trying to educate in the world. In order for anyone to be educated they must first place credibility in the 'teacher'. It is difficult for us as a group of people to have any credibility in the 'student's' eye under the current conditions.

If we are just here to entertain ourselves, then this is perfect; if we wish to educate the population in order to bring about real change, then this is possibly the worst scenario imaginable.

That is the basic point I am trying to make with this thread and it is my fault for not outlining that more precisely in my OP.

Thanks for the response, I always enjoy reading what you post, hence the fact you are listed as one of 5 or 6 people I have made friends in 5 years

[edit on 10/25/2009 by DarrylGalasso]

reply to post by DarrylGalasso



Thats why i do not bother with date threads, etc....

I made a thread about banning them, but i can see the board want threads with most replies etc.... so they scrapped that thread quickly.

I agree with you on the basis of most of these threads though, and i just stick to news and science threads mostly.

Originally posted by DarrylGalasso
If we as people whom feel that our government and the governments of the world are: corrupt, dishonest, possibly evil, and not serving the best interest of the people they represent; how are we going to get any influential people who can help further our cause, on our side to risk their own reputations publicly by using citations such as Wikipedia, the neighbors cat, an alien (told me), or other ridiculous citations as references?

I'm sure that people who display avatars like this will invite influential people who can help further the cause.





Seriously, you are taking things here a bit too seriously.

"Fear mongering" is the new "tinfoil hat" expression.

This is a conspiracy site. We who post here believe there is news behind the news, and that there is a agenda being played out. Anyone who have actually followed this site for a few years are much more aware of world events and better informed than someone who has not. I dont see people being afraid on a day to day basis. I see them wanting to know whats going on and trying to figure it out.

You dont get the truth from the mass media today, thats painfully apparent. So you come here to discuss what really happened. Its perfectly natural.

Just ignore the scary threads if you wish. I read them without feeling scared and I think a lot of people are capable of doing the same. Its just information. We are perfectly capable of taking part of information without believing every word as the truth.

reply to post by Walkswithfish


lol what does my avatar have to do with this? If you like I will change it to a picture of George Washington, do you think that will make my words more credible? Do you think if I had an avatar of Thomas Jefferson and then referenced Joe Schmuckatelli's blog that I would have gained credibility? Is this just an attempt to discredit the message by pointing out that I chose a humorous avatar? Your avatar looks quite professional, does that automatically give you some sort of credibility or do you have to earn that with the substance of your words? Hasn't the government done this for years? Put a professional looking figure or picture up and then provide obviously flawed information. Wait a minute that has been working, perhaps you are on to something here.

I've been a lurker here since the late 90's, and it is fact that there is a sick demented obsession with putting forth frightening predictions that have no basis and never becomes reality. These worthless predictions only serve as unnecessary worry and stress to many readers whom have not been exposed to the likes of all the *prophets* and *fortune-tellers* here for a long time. After such a length of time, you will discover it.

[edit on 25-10-2009 by pplrnuts]

Yawn...

more in-fighting on ATS.

reply to post by DarrylGalasso


I agree with you. Fear mongering is fear mongering for its own sake. It is the result of over-extrapolation of information to suit one's outlook. For example the constant prediction of Bank failures is an attempt to influence people's behavior so as to cause a run on banks thus fulfilling one's own predictions (self fulfilling prophecy). This is not to say that banks aren't under threat, but the fear mongering is designed to elicit action on the part of the reader to fulfill the prediction. But hopefully the end is in sight. We are told that between now and Oct 28th the US will collapse. Now on the 29th when nothing has happened, we can all ignore these predictions once and for all.

Originally posted by Ameneter
reply to post by DarrylGalasso

 

I agree with you. Fear mongering is fear mongering for its own sake. It is the result of over-extrapolation of information to suit one's outlook. For example the constant prediction of Bank failures is an attempt to influence people's behavior so as to cause a run on banks thus fulfilling one's own predictions (self fulfilling prophecy). This is not to say that banks aren't under threat, but the fear mongering is designed to elicit action on the part of the reader to fulfill the prediction.

First, you are assuming a certain intent of the poster, and one that is malicious. I do not think that most here have that intent.

Second, would you prefer then that the subject of a potential threat of bank failure be banned from or even frowned upon being discussed? I hope you would not as that limits the amount of potential information available to us and I know you don't want that, now do you?

Originally posted by DarrylGalasso
Personally I have never been concerned with stars and flags.

I know you're not and I wasn't suggesting that. I was just saying that any thread could potentially be assumed as doing that.

As for the words fear mongering, it is a descriptive group of words much like hate crimes, cool beans or any other phrase you wish to use. I didn't coin the phrase, just as I didn't coin the phrase 'have a nice day' but I still use that too. I am not here to invent a new phrase, the existing phrases and words in our language will suffice for me. If you like we can call it panic manipulation or anything you choose, but that really changes nothing now does it?

Yeah, I know, I just hate the phrase "fear mongering" - it denotes a certain malicious intent on the part of the person you're applying it to and I don't believe most people on ATS have that intent. I try very hard not to use the phrase for that reason.

You are quite correct in that I am not addressing anything of substance after all credibility has no substance.

Again, I'm not dis'ing you personally, it was an example.

Anyone with any credibility would not champion a cause such as that due to the fact that their reputation will be ruined because of it. If we expect to be taken seriously, then we must present ourselves as responsible, credible, and intelligent. Otherwise, we are just a collective joke to the very people we are trying to wake up.

I agree entirely, but we must not censor ourselves either, because that would then be playing into the hands of the very people who have coined the phrases "conspiracy theorist, tin foil hatter, teabaggers, fear mongering, etc...", now wouldn't it? Who do you think coined those terms? I don't know for sure but I would bet a hundred bucks that it was TPTB or their mouthpieces.


Oh, and by the way, I LOVE you avatar... Brocoabama!!!

[edit on 25/10/2009 by Iamonlyhuman]

You saying that not one single prediction has came true is false. There have been a few earthquake predictions that did come to pass as said they would. However, that's not the point, the point is to raise awareness and understand that not only are alot of these predictions possible, but are highly likely to happen in the near future. Just be prepared. That's all.