A lot of what passes as "the truth about the world" and "conspiracy theories" on conspiracy-sites is actually masked left-wing and right-wing ideology and indoctrination. Im glad you found the mind-strength to question it and see through it. Another one who has awoken from false awakening.

Thats not to say that there are no conspiracies, just to point out that not everything that presents itself as a legitimate "conspiracy theory" or "truth" is agenda-less. People can be so naive.

Originally posted by Alxandro
You don't have to buy into everything Jones has to say, but ignoring it could be more dangerous in the long run.
The way I see it, people should always, expect the worst but hope for the best.

I am beginning to seriously disagree with that ideology. Expect the worst. Why? What good does that really bring?

Originally posted by Skyfloating
A lot of what passes as "the truth about the world" and "conspiracy theories" on conspiracy-sites is actually masked left-wing and right-wing ideology and indoctrination. Im glad you found the mind-strength to question it and see through it. Another one who has awoken from false awakening.

Thats not to say that there are no conspiracies, just to point out that not everything that presents itself as a legitimate "conspiracy theory" or "truth" is agenda-less. People can be so naive.

Yes indeed. Naive it is. Naive it was.

I'm glad I saw through it.

Originally posted by dadgad

Originally posted by Alxandro
You don't have to buy into everything Jones has to say, but ignoring it could be more dangerous in the long run.
The way I see it, people should always, expect the worst but hope for the best.

I am beginning to seriously disagree with that ideology. Expect the worst. Why? What good does that really bring?

dadgad I have to agree, negative thinking is best tossed out like spoiled food. I'm more prone to liking the philosophy: "expect nothing, and you may be pleasantly surprised". even then, its more a philosophical thought than an acceptable standard. every worker wants the paycheck on payday

I've never listened to Alex Jones extensively, but yes, there is definitely an agenda that comes with doom and gloom: you have to constantly supply your audience with it.

The only problem is.......Alex Jones is right, you should be scared about the prospect of an Orwellian USA. Things get more surreal every day. Everyone see HR 2411, the proposed "Reduce America's Debt Now Act of 2011"?

HR 2411 states that every worker in America should be able to voluntarily have a portion of his/her wages automatically withheld and sent directly to the Treasury Department for the purposes of paying down the federal debt.

I can only imagine what they have in store for the future........but yeah, the constant doom and gloom makes it hard to focus on trivialities of life that used to be fun, *if* you let it.

I agree with your main thesis though, there is groupthink indoctrination wherever you go, even in the supposed alternative media where no one is a sheep - - well, no one is an unawakened sheep, anyway. I've noticed ATS has a bit of a high school feel to it at times, kinda lame (looking at you, new flag policy thread).

Unfortunately this is something I too fell for. It was not until this week that I even fully recognized what had happened to me. Back in 2009 I joined ATS and began exploring the conspiracy world, admittedly I was a devout Democratic Socialist but by the end of 2010 I was a Libertarian Conservative. There is no single thing I can point to that explains how or why that happened. For me it was not about Alex Jones as I visited site only on occasion, it was perhaps the hours upon hours spent here on ATS reading these near apocalyptic threads and posts, everything just seemed so dire.

Everyone in a position of power was immediately corrupt, traitors, trying to brainwash you and control you, attempting to form a one world government, and anyone who disagreed with that was an outright sheep who needed to be woken up. There was a threat at all times, each week it was though the big ‘battle’ was right around the corner with people saying crazy things about revolution, fighting back, etc… so it almost becomes like another state of mind, one detached from complex thought and more attached to immediate reaction based upon irrational fear and anger.

Now I am not saying Libertarians, etc… are brainwashed, absolutely not. They adhere to that ideology for their own unique reason, assuming they do not endlessly consume worthless exaggerated garbage. It came to the point where I thought anything and everything government even thought of doing, let alone actually doing, was designed to further enslave us, take away our rights, and set us on the road to authoritarianism. Basically almost everything the government did was designed for our detriment.

What finally woke me up was that I just sat back, allowed the whole rush of fear/anger pass by me, as I allowed myself to critically analyze this whole debt ceiling debate issue. Before the answer was clear, do not yield for any reason the ones saying we will default are traitors just playing the fear card. But after actually really thinking for me without the haze of emotion clouding my judgment the real answer became clear to me, I was duped.

When it dawned on me that I was duped then suddenly questions began springing up which before were thought of as sheep-like, it was as if a great curtain was lifted in my head and I began to not see everything as ‘us versus them’. Not everything had to be ideologically rigid, not everyone was lying and out to get you, basically what I thought was wrong before I now did not see as being that wrong, if not possibly right.

These men who peddle this crap grab hold of your mind in such a way it is worse than anything the supposed ‘powers that be’ have done. I was watching Glenn Beck, Judge Napolitano, Stossel, and occasionally Alex Jones and believed basically everything they said. Just as it was in 2009 when I was a Socialist it was ‘this person is completely right or completely wrong’ and that is how I treated these men. Since I thought they were right they had to be completely right thus those who opposed must be completely wrong.

Not anymore, that period is over for me. I will not bend at the knee to emotionally driven rhetoric which feasts upon your ignorance, fear, and anger, that is exploitation and in this case, for political ends. That just seems awful to me, in no way would I want to exploit others so why exploit me? They are smart men and know exactly what they are doing. The ones talking about conspiracies with emotional dribble are just peddlers of their particular ideology. Conspiracy theories, many but not most, as I seem them now are driven by ideologues for specific ends, regardless of the means, and no longer will I subscribe and be fooled by their propaganda.

Note: I did not become a Socialist again, rather I would have to consider myself somewhere between Liberal Conservative and Pragmatist.

I think for myself and I'm going to.
Some of what Alex talks about INFORMS me.
Some of what he talks about - some of his conclusions - tick me off.
Because he often informs me, I do listen to him.

But I remain a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. I don't see that changing because my house is pretty much built on rock.

I'm not a Christian but I find some of their teachings very good.
I guess a cherry picker lives in my house built on rock.

Secret societies are satanic defy the illuminati Christianity and conservatism is the answer but not republicanism Communism is evil but so is capitalism and though New world order is evil so is the constitution in it's own ways republicanism is FAKE conservatism we need to restore republicanism to it's conservative roots and not just pretend to like bush and ron Paul but sincerely restore it .

While there is certainly too much paranoia on this site and others, the facts still show the following:

- The twin towers and building 7 were brought down by internal mechanisms (thermite is clearly seen)
- Fukushima is releasing radioactive particles everywhere
- The dollar is headed for collapse

That's already plenty of doom & gloom. You don't need the kooky stuff to rightly feel like the world and/or freedom is ending soon.

I don't personally like AJ.

But, I am glad that he is out there doing what he is doing. The problem starts when you buy into someone's ideology, instead of forming your own. AJ brings up a lot of topics that otherwise wouldn't reach so many people, so I applaud him for that. I'm sure AJ is responsible for "waking up" hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people. I just hope those people look for the truth themselves, and don't rely on AJ to spoon feed them everything they think they need to know.

People like AJ are a resource, use them wisely though. Don't rely on them to form your opinions for you, use them to show you subjects that you otherwise wouldn't have been exposed to. Then do your own research, form your own opinions, and go from there.

One of the big issues I have with Jones, is he fails to bring up anything with regards to Israel. He's married to a Jewish woman, and because of this he refuses to accept anything that doesn't cast Israel in a positive light.

There is also the fact that he claims to be a Christian. Not that I have anything against people who are religious, but I know his Christian ideology is going to slant anything he has to say.

Just like everyone in the "media" business, he is nowhere near being impartial, fair, balanced, or anything else like that. He wants to sell his brand, and what he is doing works. Take what good information he does present, and then ignore the rest of the brainwashing tactics.

I'm glad you have gone further on your path, hopefully you can keep traveling in the right direction