Confessions of a "Paid Shill"

Well said sir. I enjoyed reading your post, and the links in your signature. Providing references seems to be a lost art nowadays. I'm glad that someone still does

Be well.

reply to post by Xcalibur254


All those things you mentioned can or cannot be proved, just like YOU can't prove you are or are not a paid shill!
Frankly I have never heard of you and could care less, quit stealing Oxygen from the rest of us PLEASE!
Get back in the shed you tool

P.S. I apologize for being rude please forgive me, I have not yet had my Coco Puffs and watched My Little Pony

reply to post by Xcalibur254


Star, flag and a spot on my friends list. That was good.

I remember reading some of what you had to say in the past and you never came across to me as a paid shill. Just someone using common sense.

I understand your frustration. Some people here just can't listen to reason and they jump on the first bandwagon that comes along posting things that have very little basis in reality. You can almost hear them spin what others have said before simply for the sake of trying to sound like they know what they're talking about. All the threads about Joe Arpaio come to mind.

Thank you for taking the time to post that, it was an excellent read.

If you get rid of wild theories that have a mundane explanation, ATS will cease to be.

Be careful what you wish for.

Well said sir - S&F for you. There are many of us on this site who are called a wide variety of names for believing in more benign explanations for things. A great example is the alien visitation threads. While I think most of us "shills and debunkers" believe that there must be life out there somewhere, we are stupid or ignorant or arrogant if we don't believe every single unexplained light in the sky or blip on a radar is alien.

In my opinion, it is simply more logical to believe these videos are things like aircraft navigation lights or chinese lanterns (which I have been tempted to film and post since I launch them sometimes and they behave exactly like the many videos I see - but I don't want to be banned for hoaxing). I mean, seriously - what is more likely, a misidentified aircraft light or an alien ship that has somehow travelled thousands of light years to visit our insignificant little rock?

I approach ats the same way mate.
I just don't really get involved in these discussions.
Good thread!

reply to post by Xcalibur254

This is another thing we of this site are guilty of. As an example of this let's go with a thread from last month. I'm talking about the thread that claimed we would be invaded by aliens from the Sun this month. The data to support this claims? Artifacts whose legitimacy was in question and a triangle on the Sun caused by pareidolia. The data didn't support the conclusion but this thread became immensely popular. This isn't an isolated incidence either. At least once a week we get a very popular thread that's based on little more than a person's beliefs.

Basically what you say in your OP is that you are a skeptic and that you feel that others should be skeptical too. I am in 100% agreement! People around here act like "skeptic" is a bad word, but the skeptical approach is a healthy one when you're dealing with subjects such as those on ATS.

Most people around here misunderstand what being a skeptic is, a skeptic is neither a believer or non-believer (and this could be in reference to discussion about aliens, God, the 9-11 conspiracy, etc.), but rather is an open-minded person who is willing to believe, but wants to see significant evidence before deciding which way to lean.

The vast majority of people on ATS are not "skeptics" but "cynics", a cynic is a person who rabidly believes a position and refuses to budge from that position no matter how overwhelming the evidence to the contrary is. A cynic can easily be recognized by their propensity to appeal to emotions rather than logic and by their favored tactic of resorting immediately to personal attacks when confronted about the shaky, unrealistic footing of their position. Calling someone a disinfo agent for example, that's a classic personal attack by a cynic. Cynics have nearly destroyed ATS because their emotional outbursts and personal attacks prevent any meaningful discussion and debate from taking place.

The skeptics are the ones that make ATS have purpose, and many of them are just giving up rather than subject themselves to the misery of the cynics.

Originally posted by tallcool1
what is more likely, a misidentified aircraft light or an alien ship that has somehow travelled thousands of light years to visit our insignificant little rock?

A breathtakingly limited characterization of the UFO phenomenon. How irritating when UFOs are so blithely and condescendingly dismissed by someone who clearly hasn't made the effort to dig into the voluminous evidence indicating a very real and as yet unexplained phenomenon. Is it willful ignorance, a love of the staus quo, brainwashing, "it can't be so, so it isn't" thinking, or another paid shill?

my biggest problem on this site is the people who actively seek out every single thread on a matter to bash it. Like people like Outkast searcher and various other Ron Paul trolls/shills. It's bizarre behaviour if someone hunts out every thread on a specific topics they don't like and do their best to just bash the discussion, rather than actually offer an alternative. They offer nothing to the discussion and it is so completely obvious that they just have one agenda and i think people like that should be banned, they are not just an average person getting involved in a topic they disagree with, they hunt down all topics on the matter and just do nothing but troll, it's really sad to see on ATS because i thought this site was better than that

Originally posted by Elbereth

Originally posted by tallcool1
what is more likely, a misidentified aircraft light or an alien ship that has somehow travelled thousands of light years to visit our insignificant little rock?

A breathtakingly limited characterization of the UFO phenomenon. How irritating when UFOs are so blithely and condescendingly dismissed by someone who clearly hasn't made the effort to dig into the voluminous evidence indicating a very real and as yet unexplained phenomenon. Is it willful ignorance, a love of the staus quo, brainwashing, "it can't be so, so it isn't" thinking, or another paid shill?

edit on 26-4-2012 by Elbereth because: (no reason given)

No, it's just rational thinking. For example, if we toss out the random light videos and pictures and just focus more on the videos and pictures of the mysterious aircraft that sometimes come about, I would assume I was looking at a top secret military aircraft as opposed to an extraterrestrial. In my opinion, it is just more logical to assume something more mundane than something on the other end of the belief spectrum. A great example is the U2 spyplane that "did not exist"...until the Soviets shot down Francis Gary Powers.
en.wikipedia.org...

The US is most likely currently flying human made and engineered aircraft that are far more advanced than we are aware of and we likely won't know about for decades - just like the U2 and the SR-71 and the stealth fighter and bomber, etc.

I myself have seen a UFO. This was back around the mid 90's. It was a glowing orb-like craft and it moved unlike any aircraft that I am aware of and it actually made me somewhat anxious at the time as it was the middle of the night and I was alone. When I later talked to my father about it, he told me about when him and my uncle were teenagers and they saw the exact same thing (only their "sighting" was a different color and during the daytime). Now I suppose I could just go with the most out there explanation and believe it was "alien", but I think it is more logical to assume that I may have misidentified something more mundane or perhaps saw a secret military aircraft.

But you just go ahead with your very intelligent name calling response. You sure did convince me with that well thought reply.

Originally posted by tallcool1

No, it's just rational thinking. For example, if we toss out the random light videos and pictures and just focus more on the videos and pictures of the mysterious aircraft that sometimes come about, I would assume I was looking at a top secret military aircraft as opposed to an extraterrestrial. In my opinion, it is just more logical to assume something more mundane than something on the other end of the belief spectrum.

The US is most likely currently flying human made and engineered aircraft that are far more advanced than we are aware of and we likely won't know about for decades - just like the U2 and the SR-71 and the stealth fighter and bomber, etc.

Beginning on or about the Nazi Bell project, assuming that technology didn't come to an inglorious and improbable halt, to extrapolate to free energy, anti-gravity aeronautics is a much simpler discussion to support than to a version that denies technological momentum.

Originally posted by tallcool1
I myself have seen a UFO. This was back around the mid 90's. It was a glowing orb-like craft and it moved unlike any aircraft that I am aware of and it actually made me somewhat anxious at the time as it was the middle of the night and I was alone.

UFOs bore me.

They're like the carnival used to be. Run over here, see this amazing thing, run over there, see that amazing thing. and back and forth all wide eyed and drooling. Pretty soon, we took to walking down the middle and glancing over...just checking. Then we quit going to the carnival altogether.

Aliens who are playing "peek-a-boo" with their presence and technology, I don't go much less pay to watch that stupid side show anymore. If they got something to do or say, have at it. Until then, General Hospital is on.

Originally posted by Elbereth

Originally posted by tallcool1
what is more likely, a misidentified aircraft light or an alien ship that has somehow travelled thousands of light years to visit our insignificant little rock?

A breathtakingly limited characterization of the UFO phenomenon.

The only problem is, that to a certain extent, he actually does have a genuine point.

Mind you, before you begin foaming at the mouth at me as well, understand that it is also worthwhile to examine his assumptions. The most important of said assumptions, is that an extraterrestrial craft has to travel thousands of light years the old fashioned way, purely according to our conventional understanding of spacial travel. Even according to our own conventional thinking, such an idea is largely obsolete at this point; theoretical physics is full of ways in which a smart or ancient ET race would be able to overcome the light speed and straight distance questions.

As such, he does have a point; but again, only according to, and within the context of, his specific assumptions. So we don't need to attack him; we can just suggest that he possibly needs to update his thinking. His thinking is perfectly sound according to what he does know; it just isn't sound according to what he doesn't.

I thought this thread contained "confessions" from a "paid shill?" What has been "confessed?" Where has anyone admitted to being a "paid shill?"

It's more like a rant from a resident ATS skeptic.

reply to post by Xcalibur254


Shoot, I was hoping you were going to tell us where we too could sign up to be a "paid shill". Times are tough, I could use the extra money.

Originally posted by jaguarsky
reply to post by Xcalibur254

 

Shoot, I was hoping you were going to tell us where we too could sign up to be a "paid shill". Times are tough, I could use the extra money.

HAHAHAHA!

Originally posted by Xcalibur254
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

In a more serious note? Heck.. If we didn't have the people with the wild theories and far out concepts to chew on, this would be more a science and boring academic site. If we didn't have people like you with your factual and well grounded approach to topics, ATS might begin looking downright Heavenly in appearance.. . That wouldn't be a good thing, of course.

See I'm not saying we should get rid of the wild theories. What I'm saying is that we should realize these theories are merely speculatory. Instead what I see are people fully believing these wild theories that have little more supporting them than coincidence. Once belief comes into play discussion gets shut down and it just becomes an argument between believers and non-believers. I'm also not saying this should become and academic or scientific site. In fact what I'd like to see are more threads presented that simply can't be explained by science in any way.

Just a little surprised you didn't put 'paid' in it's own little set of quote marks, there will be quite a few on here that think you really a making a confession as to being paid due to their own sense of a moral high ground. You know a lot of them won't actually read your OP.

reply to post by Xcalibur254


I do appreciate the delicate balance between those who love wild explanations and those who choose to explore the more mundane. That is the dynamic that makes us both curious and yet grounded. ATS is a good medium for this. Many interesting/unusual things occur or are discovered that don't make mainstream news and don't have proven explanation...and here we can explore that.

However, I do also believe there are truly "paid shills" or possibly just bored trolls at best. Instead of providing the "down to earth" side to things, they generally deny anything out of the norm usually accompanied by a mundane explanation that seems even more far fetched than someone's exotic theory. They are easy to spot, of course. Without being too specific, sometimes the first tactic is for them to say, "that's already been debunked", without providing any source for that claim. Upon being asked for sources, they reply, "do your own research" or link to some site that debunks without any feasible explanation or evidence. When further challenged on that, they then offhandedly start to attack ones intelligence. All in all, nothing is added to the discussion except for frustration. So, therefore, either some really do have an agenda or there are many who love to feel somehow important and think it is their moral responsibility to make sure that we see the universe to be as mundane as possible.

Originally posted by VoidHawk
When peope ignore comments but attack a poster personaly eg: "You cant spell big words" its pretty damned obvious what their game is.

Are you a shill? I dont know but THEY DO EXIST HERE ON THIS SITE.

I have to admit it's sometimes very hard for me to hold my tongue when I see 3 or 4 or 5 fatally flawed misspellings in one paragraph. Even I have misspelled things at times, but usually it's a typo for me and not a misspelling. I just hate to see the language butchered here, and it really makes me wonder what happened to the educational system, which of course has it's own conspiracy theories attached. I don't necessarily think that pointing out a person's inability to spell correctly is necessarily shillish, it just doesn't necessarily make any points outside of a spelling test.
Aside from that, yes, Antony Sutton was right, the educational system has been messed with big time and that is why little Johnny or Big John can't read.

reply to post by empireoflizards

do appreciate the delicate balance between those who love wild explanations and those who choose to explore the more mundane.

I totally surprised my two sisters recently on a visit when I put my hand over my sister's Buddha, which had many crystals around it, and commented on how I could feel the energy coming from it. One believes in crystals and the other doesn't. But neither of them knew that I have sensitive chakras in my hands. Can I prove it on here? Probably not. Will people who don't feel these things believe me? Maybe not. Does it make any ordinary observations I may make here less credible? Maybe to some. To someone who is immersed in mundane experiences, they will never appreciate the awareness of energy fields not validated by the scientific community, and the scientific community itself is immersed almost entirely in materialistic viewpoints and methodologies.
This is not to say that I believe in every wild explanation of things either. I just know that the mundane one is not always right.

reply to post by Xcalibur254


there are people who think inside the box and there are those who think outsied of the box...


all is well either way for said peoples..


although each group will have thier own reality so you/we have a choice


let me just say that life is much more amazing then what we have been told by mainstream society, schools, media, etc..


i know for a fact we are not alone...

i know for a fact we are spiritual beings having a Human experience and that we do not die, ever.

i know for a fact that there is a Source/Creator and we are ALL a part of him/her




so ya'll can believe what you want

just saying

also peoples writings on the internet have an affect on consciousness, words are powerful....so be responsible, please...

thank you