"What's with the anger on ATS?"

I did not read all the post in this thread so this may have already be said. It all most looks like there is an effect to take ATS down from the inside out. Check out the one making the problems and see how long they have been here. Not long in most cases.

Originally posted by ProtoplasmicTraveler
The politics of divide and conquer have been given a new boost recently by sensationalized media reports, and a number of new ATS members who often push inflammatory articles, by using similar inflammatory tactics of their own.

Much of it seems to center around religion, and forming blanket judgments on inflammatory and highly biased sources.

If as a poster you fail to succumb to peer pressure, well then let the flames begin.

I have had more personal attacks made against me in the last few days, than the last two years, often by people angry that their biased sources are being debunked.

They just keep pretending they haven’t been and then resort to attempts to emotionally dominate and insult to make an unpleasant posting environment.

I do suspect some of the posters doing this are working together behind the scenes to do this, and I do plan on filing a formal complaint detailing those posts and activities and who I believe those members to be once I have finished my research on it.

Long and short of it, ATS is ceasing to be a conspiracy board and becoming a divide and conquer political and religious and lifestyle discussion board, where people pursuing conspiracy angles and higher truths are now being ridiculed and attempts are being made to ‘shout’ them down.

The media is driving it in the public right now, and a handful of posters are driving it on ATS.

Even the Bully Pulpit Forum is becoming a venue for personal attacks.

I have hit the alert key more times in the last few days than in my previous two years of membership.

The posting environment is becoming an unfriendly one to say the least.


[edit on 16/8/10 by ProtoplasmicTraveler]

I agree pretty much with Proto here. I see it mostly as a concerted effort by a group of posters for what ever reasons to incite and divide

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Hello SkepticOverlord...

Interesting turn of events.

Your observations would have made an awesome social project in High School.

I believe you are right about the media inducing a perpetual state of anger or hysteria to some levels. Not your words mind you, but that was the jest I got.

Although, I must admit, I've become a little parano.. er enlightened since visiting ATS. Just the fact that I categorized myself in with the rest of the herd of sheep shows I've become at least "aware" of my standing in the scheme of things.

Thank you for providing a medium to allow me to discover that!

I think people are angry at the world. Its not the nice world we grew up in where you could play in your front yard for hours on end. Today, kids/adults can participate in semi realistic war games like 'Call of Duty'. Don't get me wrong. I'm the first to admit it, there was nothing like blowing the head off your co-worker in a LAN game of Doom back in the day...

I've seen people. Actual humans ripped to shred's in the comments pages of youtube. That 'You done goofed' video comes to mind. Poor kid.

I think intellect has a lot to do with anger management. I wanted to read that book, 'Very nice ways to say very bad things', just for kicks mind you... But would probably learn more from 'How to talk to anyone, anytime, anywhere'.

ATS attracts the full spectrum of intelligent people I think. Some have matured, some have not.

Unfortunately, I also think anger is contagious. I think you will see it spread from sites like you tube, (where it seems like you can put whatever the hell you want on it... except spam) to this site.

You can only minimize it by moderating the threads, and you moderators all do a great job btw, and users maturing. Almost like world peace. A nice concept, but it won't happen soon.

I think some people live in a world of anger. Street kids in gangs, No father, No mother, No siblings, No xbox, debt, taxes... Lots of reasons to be angry in this world.

I think you have to find peace, it doesn't find you.

Anyway, your site content is leaps & bounds above what I've witnessed elsewhere. You have fair rules and are probably just noticing the 1%'ers...

Phew, that turned out to be quite the ramble... sorry. Hope I didn't babble...

Peace!

Nice approach SO I liked the part about spoon-fed anger....

perhaps this is just the time of year people decide to watch "network" again?

"but first you've got to get angry! I'm a human being god dammit! MY LIFE HAS VALUE!!"



-B.M

P.S) awesome movie, highly recommend it to ATSers..

I think it's logical to blame this douchebag:



his followers are brainwashed and are truly dividing this country. There's even a large amount of them on this web site.


Either way, good thread.

reply to post by SeventhSeal


"Speak without fear"
"Question with boldness"

and watch me as i sell a product while neither speaking without fear nor questioning with boldness...

I place Glenn Beck somewhere inbetween a dog chasing his own tail and a monkey throwing poo at his own audience.

reply to post by Esoteric Teacher


You know, that's actually the most interesting thing by or about Glen Beck that I've seen or heard in years.

Be careful you might actually tempt folks to watch him!

That monkey analogy would get me to watch.

[edit on 8/17/10 by Hefficide]

Among every other point you've all come up with, I think it might create a large impact crater in the problem if chivalry was sort of reborn. I mean, with chivalry people/knights/warriors/etc would show the utmost respect even for their most hated foes.

I figure - if respect was to make a huge come back (not saying that everybody in the world has lost respect for others) we could maybe see a bit of an improvement. I understand that debating topics and such can easily turn into heated arguments and some people tend to "specialize" in getting under people's skin. It is much easier said than done when trying to be more respectful, especially when the attacks hit home base, but it's not impossible.

Not sure if this idea helps, but so far there are a bunch of other great ideas on here.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I would imagine as with most things the answer is that someone else is the problem. My what fools we mortals be.

Wow! There’s been a lot said (typed)! Oddly enough, every one of ProtoplasmicTraveler’s posts reflect my thinking on this matter too (it’s odd because a single poster is consistently speaking my mind – in this thread, anyway - and I don’t know the poster – or if I do, I don’t know it – or …nevermind). I could restate everything in my own words, but that would make for a very long post

Nevertheless, I believe (in my very limited experience here) that it is a problem; it does reflect general social sentiment; it is a product of fear and propaganda; it is often calculated; and it may jeopardize ATS’s reputation and objective.

A couple of suggestions (they’re free, so they may or may not be worth tossing around):

Consider a new forum where threads that have gone from initial good discussion to socialist commie retard freak name-calling are moved. Mods can post a general warning to the thread that if discussion doesn’t get back on track, the thread will be relocated. If it’s moved, subsequent posts on these threads are not listed in the “recent posts” section. Sucks for the OP, but in all likelihood, the OP probably deserted the thread already, anyway. This takes the culprit(s) out of the spotlight, which defeats his/she purpose, etc. Maybe a flag option to suggest moving would help, too.

Create a negative star (a black hole?), frown face, whatever for INDIVIDUAL POSTS ONLY, which are NOT reflected on the poster’s profile. The rating is about and applied STRICTLY to the post (not the poster) and is used ONLY as an alert for the kind of personal attacks and rhetoric we’re trying to avoid. I understand the potential problem of ‘negative points’ being used to attack a specific poster, or used simply because someone doesn’t agree, so maybe Mods can review ratings and remove those that aren’t valid. It could be seen as a ‘visible’ alert button.

Something like this might “modify” the poster’s MO to be a bit more civil, and it might allow those opposed to this kind of childish behavior an outlet and means of expression without posting themselves. (I know numerous times my initial reaction is to call a poster down for being cruel, ugly or hateful to another member, but I back down, not wanting to “feed the troll,” or keep the BS going.)

Maybe promoting the alert button more would help, also. Personally, I haven’t used it, though I don’t know why – yeah, I do know why. I’ve never heard it discussed anywhere but in this thread. For all I knew no one used it, then here comes newbie, slamming away on the alert button – proving I am the whiney cry-baby I was accused of being (because I don’t think it’s funny to pretend we’re shooting presidents). You know what I mean, I hope.

I understand the opposition to changing anything, too, but as several posters stated – this isn't an opinion-forcing forum; it’s a factual, intellectual form. And the problems may or may not be a phase. My family and friends use facebook, and about 4-6 months ago it started getting weird. It got to the point I couldn’t stand to log on anymore. I started losing respect for people I’ve known for years because of the (political) garbage they would post, with the assumption that all their “friends” agreed with them and their “core values.” It’s like this ugly, alter-person came out on FB, someone I didn’t know, or care to know, so yeah, every environment is subject to this kind of deterioration. If it continues and/or escalates, and goes unaddressed, the atmosphere here could certainly deteriorate as well.

Good thing I didn’t restate ProtoplasmicTraveler’s posts, huh?

I once knew this guy Marcus, really good sense of humor.
Every once in awhile, he had a lil rant he would use for timing purposes.
As I see it, It applies here to well. You may or may not be able to see it
the same way. Went somp'in like this,

" OK! JUST HANG ON ONE SECOND! You know, I'm starting to see a pattern develop here. It's obvious that with all these ethnic slurs and racial tension. That somebody's gonna get their ass kicked. The
only thing I have to say to that is, I hope it isn't me. Now I've taken the
heat, for just about everyone of you guys, at one time or another.
So tonight if somebody has to go down, that sure as hell isn't going to be me".

Now here's a line I wrote for Mr. Dangerfield that he never got to use.

"Did I tell ya my neighborhood was tough? Yeah it was, my neighbor was so tough, the ice cream man, played the theme to Rocky".

The moral is that even though things get tough quite often. As far as I know life is niether easy or fair. John Wayne said "It's even tougher if you're stupid". lol

I wouldn't change a thing about life, because I don't know enough about it and what it is works.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord



Apologies for posting before reading the entire thread but some of what I have read as irked me slightly. For my 2 cents...

There seem to be a handful of posters who are very good at winding people up and although they seem to possess strong views on just about every subject, I don't think that matters to them. They speak down to and belittle others, use inflammatory words, shout and swear and display anger because others don't recognise their higher authority and agree with them.

It appears to be a sport or, even worse, deliberate sabotage and it truly disrupts any real attempt at information exchange and discussion of ideas.

They should not be confused with those individuals who are truly mired in their dogmas and prejudices and are (maybe unwittingly) exposing themselves to the enlightening influences of ATS. Just mention that "All (insert national, ethnic or racial group here) hate us or want to kill us" in a thread and ATS'ers stack up with an honest attempt to show you the error of your ways. They might not change the person's mind but then again, they might.

So rather than trying to reinvent the ATS wheel, I suggest that

- the Alert button gets used immediately that any individual is unhappy with the tone of any poster

- the administrators apply behavior modification techniques depending on the seriousness of the complaint. There's plenty other forums for abusive people to practice their skills in so don't worry that they'll be left out.

I barely arrived to ATS, and I am surprised to see a lot of attacks in my threads. People do not read the threads in order to make their minds up, and be able to debate, but they make a personal attack and do not touch on the subjects.

Where is the civility and decorum?


I have resorted to put people on ignore on the second crude remark, but that doesn't provide healthy debate and free flow of ideas, which are the important part of a healthy forum.

Moderators need to be present and do their job. I have not seen one in my threads, ever.

reply to post by Wide Vision 2010

Moderators need to be present and do their job. I have not seen one in my threads, ever.

Let's not overreact

'Ever?'

You've been a member for 3 weeks and written two threads (one if discount your intro thread). Such a small snapshot isn't enough to draw such strong conclusions.



[edit on 17-8-2010 by Kandinsky]

The internet, and message boards are a reflection of society. At least, what society is feeling, though maybe afraid to say it in the 'real world'. I think Tyler Durden summed it up best.

Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars.

Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy # we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives.

We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

reply to post by Wide Vision 2010

Moderators need to be present and do their job. I have not seen one in my threads, ever.

How can you claim you've NEVER seen a Mod on the boards/your own threads when your first ever ATS reply came from one?

See for yourself.

[edit on 17-8-2010 by Rising Against]

Come on folks,
Where is the hate and anger coming from?
Really wanna know?

The media? No.

Politicians? No.

World events? No.

Religion? No.

These things don't come to ATS.

The members do.

The members are bringing the hate and anger with them and are using ATS as an outlet for their own issues.

A fair number of them are posters in this thread decrying the same behavior they demonstrate.

Too many people who come here with an axe to grind and personal issues that are not appropriate. Then these same people turn around and point fingers at the rest.

Deny ignorance?
Sounds good but it might be a good time to deny hypocrisy.

Yeah,
I know I ticked a few of you off.
Truth usually does.





[edit on 17-8-2010 by badgerprints]

I'll tell you one thing that really gets me is that members are getting TOTALLY away with slandering other members ..........and the mods aren't NOT doing anything about. it.. ..

but.. hey lets keep up the good work .. GRRRRRRRRRRRR

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


The tactics used create an outcry be it through anger or a simple defense.
When people use words like nazi, hate ect. at people who don't agree with them, it creates an outcry.

Their trick is to imply that disagreeing with them equates to extremism.
If that doesn't work, they imply a lack of mental competence such as "fear" or "lack of understanding".

Their words are sneaky and tricky. They attempt to shut down any who disagree with them through demeaning the poster.
These people are the instigaters who have weak arguments resorting to these old tactics.

I'm proud to see many haven't been silenced.

Originally posted by Rising Against
reply to post by Wide Vision 2010

 

Moderators need to be present and do their job. I have not seen one in my threads, ever.

How can you claim you've NEVER seen a Mod on the boards/your own threads when your first ever ATS reply came from one?

See for yourself.

survey says...

read your own threads. there are only 2 of them. and yes, there are ATSers who reference what they can about a member before replying to their posts!

surprise!


edit to add:
this is a compliment and a tribute to those ATSers who look into claims made by ATSers. Yes, there are ATSers who do look at ATSers profiles, and posts before replying hastely.

[edit on 17-8-2010 by Esoteric Teacher]