a cautionary tale

I have a true story of people seeing conspiracy everywhere --

In our local town there is a moratorium on building while there is a new zoning law being set up for the sizes of the houses compared to the size of the building lots - and as you can imagine, it has been a heated topic. A few weeks ago people saw SUV's pull up to the local police station and saw people in camouflage taking weapons out of the vehicle and bringing them into the police station -- so, of course, everyone thinks it is to keep control of these heated meetings. People were screaming and protesting at the next meeting about this -- wanting to know why there were armed military guards and attack dogs in the basement of the building. I still don't know where the idea that there were attack dogs came from.

What it really was -- a local man had died from burns incurred from a bomb blast or car bomb in Iraq and it was the men who came to be an honor guard for him and since they were staying in a local hotel they thought it would be better to store the guns at the police station.

So this is just to point out to people that they shouldn't automatically jump to conclusions and overreact to things without checking out the facts.

jm

Well, that was certainly a breath of fresh air.

I had half expected a statement on "Little Susy Rottencrotch" or something.


All kidding aside, I agree with you, not everything is a conspiracy, and not everyone is "in on it".

X

That is an interesting story. Its funny how people will jump to the wrong conclusions given the right set of circumstances. Sort of like where the saying "Jumping at the shadows" comes from.

Good story. Glad to see something thats not what we expect sometimes. But it's good also to know that so many of us are on guard. And watching out for the first sign of trouble.
Much appreciation to you for bringing something to the board that shines a light on the good.

I believe the moral of this story is to be less apathetic, not to jump to conclusions. This of course, was also said about the Lansing Incident which occured here at ATS a few weeks ago. The situation here was grave and many were fearful while others were enraged.

It's an excelent reality check, I think. Don't trust your eyes, don't trust your heart. Trust your mind, trust your logic.

This is aspecially important here at ATS, considering the topics discussed. We must remember not to make assumptions, but make an educated guess after we have reviewed all the information at hand. Of course, Occams Razor is of use here as well.

JM, a 21st century fable and a true story all in one.

It's true we tend to jump to conclusions. I blame the media for a lot of this.

It's too bad we live in a world where we feel the need to look for conspiracies and the darker side.
It also reminds me of my former work site. Poeple would get a whiff or a story, a fraction of the truth and RUN with it. The rumors that were started!!!

Great story and an even better point has been made. I think that we jump to our own paranoid conclusions more often than not. Not pointing any fingers here, as I myself have done the same on more than one occassion.

I was discussing something with a friend the other day. Is it not strange that N Americans (US citizens and most Canadians) tend to be more conspiracy minded than most others? The US and Canada hold only a fraction of the world's population yet the vast majority of those who visit this site and follow conspiracy theories tend to be N American. This trend is also fairly new historically speaking, as many of the conspiracies began sometime between the 40s and the 60s while exploding during the 70s. Maybe this paranoia is a cultural phenomenon that's mostly restricted to N America. I know that ATS has a number of international members, but from what I've seen Americans and Canadians are the sizeable majority. Maybe it's something in the water... or maybe we're just that bored

Originally posted by veritas93
Great story and an even better point has been made. I think that we jump to our own paranoid conclusions more often than not. Not pointing any fingers here, as I myself have done the same on more than one occassion.

Oh I know, I have done it also -- that is why i try to remember not to do that now without checking things out as much as I can before making that jump

Originally posted by veritas93
I was discussing something with a friend the other day. Is it not strange that N Americans (US citizens and most Canadians) tend to be more conspiracy minded than most others? The US and Canada hold only a fraction of the world's population yet the vast majority of those who visit this site and follow conspiracy theories tend to be N American. This trend is also fairly new historically speaking, as many of the conspiracies began sometime between the 40s and the 60s while exploding during the 70s. Maybe this paranoia is a cultural phenomenon that's mostly restricted to N America. I know that ATS has a number of international members, but from what I've seen Americans and Canadians are the sizeable majority. Maybe it's something in the water... or maybe we're just that bored

Maybe it's the flouride But I think you may be right with it possibly being a cultural phenomenon -- or maybe we just have felt free enough to voice our opinions and concerns without fear of reprisals.

But I do think we are all here to learn - to read things that may make us think a bit more - and to question things. I just wanted to point out that we should be sure not to jump to conclusions without investigating things a bit.

jm

[edit on 20-11-2004 by justme1640]