For nearly a week I have been covering rather extensively the political uprising that is occurring throughout the Middle East and North Africa. With a particular focus on one nation, Tunisia, where there has been an unofficial revolution that has seen 3 presidents in 24 starting January 14th as the people finally rose up against the tyrant Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who has been oppressing the people of Tunisia for 23 years.

Finally the people have risen up in an attempt at taking back their country and replacing tyranny with freedom. In protest against unemployment, food inflation, corruption, freedom of speech, and poor living conditions. The protests were sparked when a vendor of fruits and vegetables set himself ablaze in protest against the government when police confiscated the produce in his cart because he lacked the proper permits.

Since then there have been protests and severe tensions in Jordan, Egypt, Algeria, and now Libya due to the same conditions but inspired by the Tunisians whom they are proud to stand in solidarity with. Yet with all of this occurring in a very critical part of our world what has been the response from AboveTopSecret members? Now remember this is the place where people love to tell others to ‘wake up’ and call for ‘revolt/revolution against tyranny’ but it simply amazes me that when an oppressed people do actually wake up and revolt ATS is mum.

I was expecting to log into ATS today, since I never logged in yesterday, to have the headlines of Tunisia either being the most popular subject or one of the most popular but to my surprise it was nowhere. Sure there was a thread or two on the subject with about 5-10 replies but what is 5-10 replies on a site where one of the most espoused ideas is to ‘wake up’ and/or ‘revolt’?

Well this has led me to conclude that ATS, well it’s a bastion of hypocrites. No, not all of you, but so many here love to preach the words of revolution except when their ideas are actually being implemented those who are implementing it are being utterly ignored. So many here beginning to just reek of hypocrisy, 90% of you don’t want to ever get rid of tyranny or tyrants it appears. I can’t exactly understand why but maybe it’s just because you want to talk a big game but never back up those hollow words.

Who am I to call you a hypocrite? I am the person making about 5 threads on this subject since it came to my knowledge. I am the person who is doing research into this to learn as much as possible. I am the person who is showing my support to the Tunisians and standing in solidarity with them by wearing their flag on my avatar. So what have you done to show your support for Tunisians?

Yeah there was one thread that became big on the subject of this revolution but you know why? Because it had the words ‘Wikileaks revolution’ in the title and that is the only reason why it ever gained anything more than 25 replies. Face it, hypocrisy runs rampant on ATS. There is no true wish to depose tyrants or support freedom, it’s just your hollow words which mean absolutely nothing. I’m glad to know exactly who things work around here.

Will I regret making this thread? I doubt it unless ATS can prove it's not a den of hypocrites.

I'm glad to see Zine go and I hope the people of Tunisia can form a stable and lasting government that guarantees basic freedoms. Unfortunately, unless one of your threads is titled "Ancient Alien Lizard People Occupy Presidential Palace in Tunisia" you're not going to stir much interest here. Best wishes, I'd like to see some positive change all across the Mediterranean basin.

So, rather than promoting another Tunisia thread, you'd rather point fingers twoards ATS????

If there is a subject that is not getting enough attention, perhaps you should draw attention to it, and not divert more of it away.

Are you upset that your "Tunisia's taste of internet freedom" post has not gotten more replies/interest?

Or, is there more going on in Tunisia that you have yet to post about?

Your Tunisia internet freedom thread is only three days old, and you have yet to post more about this
" unofficial revolution that has seen 3 presidents in 24 starting January 14th"

Now, pointing it out, I don't know what you mean by 3 presidents in 24 starting the 14th..... was this an unfinished thought? Did you jump to judging ATS so quickly that you forgot grammar and normal sentence structure?

Many people on this site will not appreciate being called hipocrites, so perhaps your line of reasoning is not the best to get you ideas and messages out to our community.

Edit to Add: I was struggling to find out what you meant about 3 in 24, and i realize that you meant 24 hours, yet I wasn't sure if you meant years or months or what........ But still wondering where your Tunisia Revolt post is.....

I get where you're coming from Misoir. Not sure I'd call hypocrisy, but there is a trend that seems to be percolating at this moment. I've been guilty of not seeing or posting in the more globally oriented threads lately myself...having been distracted by our own political madness and hot topics since returning after a brief hiatus.

To be honest, I haven't been seeing the Tunisia threads at all on the front page of recently posted. I've noticed that most threads get buried faster and faster these days and it takes a real effort to seek out something you may have caught a glimpse of later. It's getting more and more frustrating.

As a pattern, I have also noticed that threads relating to geopolitics are on the decline as far as interest, save the occasional "North Korea Goes Wild" or "Ahmadinejad Calls So-and-So A Name" threads.

More and more, people don't seem to focus on or talk about what the mainstream media doesn't tell them to focus on, and I guess ATS top topics reflect this. How sad is that? Again, I'm not sure it's hypocrisy per se...maybe just more that we're having trouble focusing. As I said, I myself have been guilty of this lately and I know better and have more diverse interests yet still fall into the trap. A person only has so many hours to focus here, so some important things suffer as a result.

Along the same lines, tangentially related, it's been making me pretty cranky here to see things like one-line bickering not being addressed and threads with titles like "OMG you HAVE to READ this NOW!" being allowed to clutter up the front page, and duplicate threads being allowed to fester because to me they to me are chaff blocking me from finding and getting to the really important issues, They make it harder for me to get to find what I want and get to where I want to be. Not an excuse. Just a contributing factor to my frustration with this increasing information overload.

Just my thoughts...nothing more.

I've read and kept my attention on all of your well-thought out threads about Tunisia and the Middle East. I too found it strange that it wasn't getting more replies as it should be. I don't know whether to blame ATS for their lack of contribution and attention to your threads or to blame the continuous non-stop attention ATSers' have about Jared Loughner at the attention which is the flavor of the week, it seems.


I didn't like this particular thread coming from you but ATS does need a whipping. Not one thread about Tunisia got enough attention as they should have. Guess the Middle East doesn't matter unless it's has something to do with Israel and Palestine.

Of course it's hypocrisy!!

Don't you remember the whole Wikileaks shut down my business thread that generated a wealth of posts from people claiming that this freedom and uprising was affecting their bottom line (Which was a lie too as it didn't affect regular transactions).

This place is all bark and the only bite is when someone who is making sense and calling fools fools gets removed from the populous because it's 'medication time' with some more tall tales of fancy to sedate the angsty membership with their solipsist role in the movie that no-one watches.

-m0r

Unless a news/politics topic is currently hot on radio/blogs, major media, and the e-mail mailing lists, you won't see much discussion about it on ATS. Many people will disagree with me about this, but with a few exceptions it's been the pattern I have noticed since becoming a member.

I do not find the situation that big of a deal for Americans. I guess that is why no one cares. It does not directly affect them.

Of course it is all bark and no bite (well, with a deadly exception or two or three).

This is the internet, ninety nine percent of us here posting, are just that, posters.

Maybe the topic doesn't interest people, it sure doesn't make posters hypocrits because they are not posting in a thread.

I don't post in all threads, does that mean I do not care about the topics in the threads I do not post in?

I sat this thread itself is hypoctical. If the topic is important to the OP, then keep posting on this topic.

But I won't wear your (op) hypocrit label just because I haven't posted in certain threads. Does not even make sense.

Originally posted by m0r1arty
Of course it's hypocrisy!!

Don't you remember the whole Wikileaks shut down my business thread that generated a wealth of posts from people claiming that this freedom and uprising was affecting their bottom line (Which was a lie too as it didn't affect regular transactions).

This place is all bark and the only bite is when someone who is making sense and calling fools fools gets removed from the populous because it's 'medication time' with some more tall tales of fancy to sedate the angsty membership with their solipsist role in the movie that no-one watches.

-m0r

Originally posted by hotbakedtater
I don't post in all threads, does that mean I do not care about the topics in the threads I do not post in?

Great sanity check here too.

A lot of times people flag and/or star a thread without ever saying a word...might not have the time right then or might just have nothing to add that hasn't been said.

I have been reading/star/flagging your threads, and because of those threads I have been following the situation. I am reserving judgment and certainly speculation until the dust has settled on this. Thank you for bringing it to my attention, although I have to say this finger-pointing thread smacks of a fragile ego that did not get enough "atta-boys", and is now throwing a minor fit; which is annoying, but (for what it is worth now) here is your validation. Keep up the good work in your research, and bringing such things to the for front. I will try to bump the topic more.

I think what's happening in Tunisia and the Arab world is amazing.. I've posted on threads about it and I'm keeping a very interested eye on what is happening. What I'm finding fascinating is that often ignored countries are starting to 'show the way' - uprisings in Arab countries, South American countries recognising Palestine as a Nation, etc. I love it.

It does seem to me at times that many on ATS show very little interest in what's going on outside US, which is a real shame. We're all in this together, folks.

You have to check your emotion at the door. (But, who am I to talk? )
The situation is this, I believe.
There are just WAY too many subjects that are worth discussing, and daylight is limited. These developments in Tunisia are huge, but so is the coming Iran war, Afghanistan, the collapsing economy, and a host of other topics that are closer to home for most of us here.
Everybody will be affected by ALL of these events, in some way, and many are just trying to sort through the daily assault on their freedom, health, livelihood, and sensibilities if nothing else.
I think many are in a subtle form of shock, but that is my opinion. No sources.