Trouble in tinfoil-land? The "Paranormals" and the "Politicals."

I've been noticing something on ATS...there seems to be a division of sorts growing. Not necessarily an antagonistic division, but a division nonetheless.

It seems to me ATS is divided into two camps. I call them tentatively the "Paranormals" and the "Politicals." The Paranormals are interested in aliens, UFOs, cryptids, shape-shifters, reptoids, science stuff, new tech, astronomical events, ancient civilizations, etc. Meanwhile, the Politicals are interested in, well, politics. And economics. More "hard-hitting" stuff, social issues, financial crisis, you know. The stuff your dad used to harumph and rattle the newspaper over. You can search the politcal/social/econ threads far and wide and narry a mention of little green men or little brown dwarves.

Now of course there is a lot of overlap, and you can certainly point to people that defy all categorization. But I sense this division becoming sharper and more apparant here. I think it is because of the poltical and economic situation. More people are looking for alternative answers and they are coming here. But that doesn't mean these people are going to believe in UFOs or Atlantas. My instinct is the Politcals are growing in number and general presence on ATS while the Paranormals are shrinking, but I could be wrong.

I'd like to hear people's ideas about this. Am I off-base in looking at the board this way? Is this division growing? Is it even a problem at all? Does it reflect anything in the wider world? How can the board reconcile this division, or should it even try? How will this affect ATSs "image"? Do you see yourself in one or the other of the two camps? (I'm definiately a Political I don't even think I've ever clicked on a UFO thread lol but I respect those people as ATS members, most certainly, even if I think they are a little "woo woo" most of the time.)

Well I originally came here looking for interesting strange things to read while I was bored but upon arriving I noticed how off base so many people were in regards to politics or law issues that I felt it was my duty to help save part of society by correcting so many of the glaring flaws.

As you can see by most posts that still come out my work has been in vain but i'm dedicated and hopefully one day we will see the political effacy rise to much higher standards.

What you see happens here alot. The topics will change like the weather, just wait for the next political season to flare up. lol.

You are not crazy, just read and post as you have been. If you see the divisions don't get caught up in it and you will be fine. Rember there are internet troll groups on here, both pro, and anti isreal,ect.

i feel the division is more related to the us and them syndrome.

most are here with a set cause, and every cause has their set opponents.
so those people live to fight eachothers. yet they cant exist without eachothers.

and then theres the rest of us


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

I for one, love the overlap. Hearing different opinions on different topics getting destroyed by sound logic. It's beautiful.

It's because we all carry different experiences within our minds therefore our outputs will sway throughout the buffer zone. It brings a little clarity to a topic as well. Some will believe in Ghosts, some will not. I think we need an array of people to truthfully state their opinions on the subject at hand if we are ever to draw unbiased conclusions for ourselves.

Also it's a good way to sift out the loonies

Perhaps it is just a reflection of the times, as politics and the economy are hot topics right now so more people will draw to those subjects while when the world is moving along at a steady mellow pace and nothing major is going on people will focus more on the metaphysical issues....


Just my thoughts.

Personally I am up for both, and don't think they can be separated.

I think there's something crawling around in the world today - hoping in and out of people like Agent Smith in the Matrix. People that aren't awake are dangerous.

Which is why I am paying attention to political problems and social unrest and economics.

I personally prefer the paranormal topics.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

I have a wide variety of interests. However I believe if a thread is about a certain subject, the majority of comments should stay focused on that topic. I believe the moderators do a good job of keeping most threads on the subject.

It does seem a bit strange using logic and economics and astronomy in some threads and then jumping into a paranormal discussion and ufo's or lucid dreaming in another.

I find the threading on ATS to be one of the worst I have ever used.
It is really hard to read responses to my comments.
It is hard to follow the linear comments. I have a choice to start reading either at my last comment or at the last comment of the entire thread.
How about ATS go to a USENET style threading forum. It would increase the traffic and comments.

Now about the political comment people.
Some of these people say they were invited to ATS from a conservative political forum.
They aren't actually interested in paranormal discussion and you never see them comment there.

I have no idea why they are on ATS trying to convince us taxes, Obama and the Democrats are evil. They should be on Digg doing that.

It's a big playground.

Lot's of toys to play with...

My guess is the one thing the membership shares is its enjoyment of the topic chaos.... Otherwise, they wouldn't be here.

The Great Divide

Long ago, back when the dollar was worth fifty cents, there was such a hue and cry over political comments encroaching upon and working their way into traditional ATS fare that a separate board was created for that: Politics.AboveTopSecret.com, or PTS, also known as AbovePolitics.com.

Support for that move was mixed, plenty of politics remained on ATS proper and despite several efforts to cleanly divide the two, it never really happened. At that time there was also a separate board for lighter, more "off topic" discussion that was quite popular in its own right called BelowTopSecret.com, or BTS.

Eventually, it became clear that separate boards brought their own headaches, and ATS was ultimately reunified into the grand behemoth we now have today. Some relics remain, such as the "p-troll" or political trolling warning, which is awarded for attempting to drag politics into non-political topics (e.g., "Astronomers discover new planet" => "That must be where Bush/Obama came from" et al), as well as a general recognition in our community that there are different and distinct areas of interest.

Digital Melting Pot

On that score, I don't think it breaks down into a dichotomy, but a somewhat more multipolar culture. In additional to "Paranormals" and "Politicals", I would add "Conspiracy Theorists", "Theologists", "Scientists", "Survivalists", "Military Technologists", "Sociologists", "Activists", "UFOlogists" (that area of study isn't necessarily "paranormal", per se) and people who just like to socialize and have a good time, which we could, for fun, call "Socialites". Quite a few members would qualify for several of these ("Generalists") and I'm sure I've missed other areas of interest that may qualify as distinct subsections of our wide-ranging community.

As for "Politicals" growing in number and "Paranormals" shrinking, there may be an overall trend, but in my experience it tends to be more of an oscillation. We usually see more politics in the summer months (the "Summer Silly Season") and surrounding (mostly U.S.) elections, and less during "off seasons". Likewise, we tend to see interest in "paranormal" topics wax and wane as well, along with surges and lulls (or lulz) in the ever-popular (and ever-infamous) perpetual barrage of five-second YouTube "UFO" videos.

What I find more interesting is while some members come for the politics and stay for the politics, there are quite a few cases of people coming for the political debate and eventually gravitating away from that and into the other areas of interest in the forums. An example would be people who are passionate about Climate Change starting off debating the politics, tiring of the perpetual sturm und drang in the political forums and winding up in Fragile Earth, discussing the more technical aspects of Climate Change theory (which, of course, has its own brand of sturm und drang).

There are other similar pathways, including the opposite of the example I gave (i.e., from non-political forums to political forums) and many members (including myself) tend to migrate around as our interests change. What's cool is that we can.

Body Politic

Ironically, I was sounding the alarm about politics encroaching on ATS way back in 2004 (around the time of the bitter U.S. presidential elections, not-so-coincidentally enough). Since then I've become less concerned about that and more fascinated by the way member interests change over time.

While our own perceptions of ATS can become narrow (i.e., we see ATS through the prism of a few forums), it's actually a very big place with a lot of different things going on.

For fun, I suggest a little "ATS tourism". Look around on the Forums page and try something new. Granted, some forums are red hot and others seem almost glacial by comparison, but those different paces themselves represent different modes of discussion. Some people prefer slower-moving, more focused forums and enjoy them precisely for that reason.

Anyway, long story short, ATS is a big place. If it ever starts getting stale, try something new. If it ever stops being fun, take a break and try something else, whether other discussion boards or just unplugging from the Internet for a while. I've burnt out on ATS and done that many times over the years, but I always find myself coming back.

Others may not come back, of course, but for those of us who do, it's nice to know that ATS is here for us.

The Elenin threads keep me coming back, those are always entertaining Seriously though I look at all types of threads, UFOs, Politics, Astronomy, Technology, Ancient Civs etc. About the only things I don't pay much attention to are the Paranormal/Religious/Metaphysics threads, as those are a little too kooky for me.

reply to post by Partygirl


well, I fist signed up so I could deal with some of hte fuzzy silliness I saw in the cryptozoology and ancient civilization sections. I still pull a lot there, as well as in the O&C sections.

I also enjoy the hell out of some politics.

Maybe I'm a bridge between worlds. WoooOOoooOOooo.

Aliens, UFOs, cryptids, shape-shifters, reptoids, science stuff, new tech,
astronomical events, ancient civilizations, etc. all hide the true nature
of our environment.

Politics, economics and news and other such are doing the same.
See its all one mass of people set inaction to avoid the downfall of the super
powers who remain nameless and set the whole operation into motion.

I tend to visit the politics on this board. I also use the philosophy board a lot mostly because I'm concerned a lot about what's going on. I used to visit the paranormal boards on here quite a bit but I got tired of all the charlatans, and the people posting weird stories that couldn't possibly be true. I personally think the mods should do a better job at watching over hoaxes in the other boards. I stopped using the aliens and ufo board after I saw one user claim that he was an alien from another dimension and that he "knew all the answers" to our civilization. I'd like a somewhat more serious board to discuss the paranormal now because I do ghost-hunting with some friends of mine. But yeah. I try to avoid the crazies. I think if you try to cross politics and the paranormal you get David Ike, and, I think if you want that you should go to GLP, but keep that stuff away from here.