On the thin line between "debunking" and loss of respect

Let me tell you about my background:

I am almost 60 years old now.
I have a university degree.
I currently work in the technical field.
So I always got paid for using my brain in an analytical, creative and constructive way.

I also have a wide experience in the field of the paranormal and spiritual field, since I was ten years old.

When I was twelve I was fairly good in controlling people from a distance and in telekinesis also up to twenty metres away. Of course that was child's play, fitting to my age at that time. Later, during university time I saw 3 three UFO's during daytime, together with a friend. I even viewed one in my telescope for a while.

I kept studying and training these things. Study without practice is nothing, especially in the field of the occult. Most information in this field is NOT a recipe, it is more like a direction.

After mastering a small piece of the puzzle I always did checks to be sure I was not fooling myself.

I trained other people in the same stuff, and always told them to practise and check the results.

I never in my life needed a psychologist or a psychiater
.
Neither had I ever a prescription for drugs to control or ease my mind in any way.

None of my friends, family or associates ever suggested to me to visit a shrink.


Now to the core of my RANT.

ATS is supposed to be some sort of OPEN MINDED discussion forum, a conspiracy forum.

A lot of subjects in such forum can not be proven.
Like UFO's, the "U" stands for unidentified.

Nowadays basements seem to be filled with young persons that want to make their mark. They make fake UFO sightings. Others make fake corn circles. Others make fake clips about their levitation powers or telekinesis abilities. Just to make their mark on the holy "Internet".

Here on ATS, I do believe there were some genuine reports about some strange things that people perceived.

Then the debunking starts. Some debunkers look genuine to me, like Phage. He is always to the point and well informed. Thanks phage for that and as such a real contribution. Good thing is there are more like him.
But there are a lot of posters, that like hyaena's join in for the kill. This is not nice.

I know that in this day and age every photo and every video can be faked by an intelligent young being.

Proving that it could have been done with parlour tricks is not the same as proving that it was done with such parlour tricks.

It is just saying that OP is a liar, or a stupid idiot and that the provider of his information is a cheater. It is an insult.

None of you know me personally, and I know none of you.
So if someone post something personally, an experience, why should I want to call that person a liar or delusional.

I have seen al kind of makeshift psychiatric diagnosis, all very concerned of course, as a reaction to a personal statement.

Even if these posters were psychiatrists, they should go back to their roots and study. A normal psychiatrist would never make a judgement on so little information.

I would like to close with the following statements:

If the subject of the thread does not resonate with you, don't react.
People that had great idea's stood on the shoulders of people that had great idea's earlier. I never heard the same thing about great debunkers.

Please do me a favour and be nice and have a nice life.

reply to post by Pokoia

Even though I am one of those so called debunkers myself, i have to agree that there are quite a few that seems to debunk just to debunk even if they have no valid reason to do. I personally only do this if i can clearly see that something has either been faked or some natural phenomena or similar being misidentified as a UFO/alien spacecraft.

And I will continue to debunk such stories if i have enough information/knowledge to do so.

Originally posted by juleol
reply to post by Pokoia

 

Even though I am one of those so called debunkers myself, i have to agree that there are quite a few that seems to debunk just to debunk even if they have no valid reason to do. I personally only do this if i can clearly see that something has either been faked or some natural phenomena or similar being misidentified as a UFO/alien spacecraft.

And I will continue to debunk such stories if i have enough information/knowledge to do so.

edit on 1-4-2012 by juleol because: (no reason given)

That's the spirit.
there is nothing wrong with a good debunking effort, just be aware that proving it could have been faked is not the same as proving it has been faked.