Conspiracy Theories And Professional Discussion The Norm At AboveTopSecret.com

I feel lucky to have ATS. I love it and I'm here for hours almost every day. I learn, I laugh, I read, I chat here. Id be very bored without this place.

Great find!

Its nice to see some positive feedback, rather then all that non-sense that the Loughner situation raised.

Wow this makes me so happy. I'm glad to be part of such an intelligent and respectable community. At first I thought that'd maybe tptb would use the fact that Jared Loughner was a member here to possibly shut down the site or worse... Come after all of us. Thankfully they don't have a single thing on ATS!
Way to go guys

reply to post by rareredhead


Even if it is true that account belongs to him, that member has not been logged in since sept of 2010, or about.
Any one who can check a member profile would have seen the lack of any recent or current activity.

Guess it's true what they say in Hollywood, there is no such thing as bad publicity.

reply to post by yadda333


None taken. Don't worry about it. Like I said, I didn't even think about anyone from ATS reading that article. And I can understand your skepticism. Examiner.com doesn't have the greatest reputation in some circles and most of that can be blamed on the writers. But we're not all bad Not to mention the fact that this forum revolves around conspiracy theories. Everybody here is a little suspicious of 'the press' - myself included.

Well, so long as everything is normal. . .I guess I'm good with that.

This place has been my alternative news source for a few years now. What I read here, I have learned to keep to myself because people either:

A: Don't believe it
B: Think I'm nuts
C: Not interested
D: All of the above.

But when the news breaks on MNM and I'm already informed and know many more details it is such a sweet feeling.

BUT

I also had a few moments where I've shouted things to my family, like: "OMG a UFO has landed..Yeah. Really, it is in a reputable business online magazine!!!" Not my proudest moment but after the laughter died down, I vowed not to share this info until I was certain what the truth was. For the most part, this site has made me more down to earth and less trusting of sources and I think that is a good thing. I still have my gullible moments, though... But I love this place.

*group hug*

Congrats to all at ATS, the owners, admin, mods and us normal poster peeps.
Good to see ATS getting some positive publicity.

Its good to see ats get positive recognition for the great contributions and discussions on events .. Have always found it interesting even learned a few new things along the way here at ats.. And the ability to see / hear what people from around the world think about events is another good thing as it helps people understand each other better...

Originally posted by Bunken Drumbut lets not kid ourselves: there are also some widely held beliefs that stem from a poor scientific education, simple stupidity &/or mental illness

That pretty much is it in a nutshell.

The site, the owners and mods and the amazing and colourful characters make ATS what it is. Prior to ATS I rarely frequented this kind of site, sticking mainly to whatreallyhappened.com and occasionally going to InfoWars before it became such glamorous.

Incidentally I was googling some information relating to AI as I was developing a computer game (to simulate collision, AI etc) when I came across an article about a guy who believed some kind of evil computer was stalking his mind.

Well I never looked back and I have to say, I wouldn't change anything in here. To refer to the quote above, I like dealing with all those aspects of people, makes my day entertaining, amusing, frustrating, sometimes emotional but on the whole fruitful!

Good health to everyone.

reply to post by zorgon

Although I understand the reasoning behind your post -it's been said over and over that more attention means more trolls, more stupidity etc.- I believe there's another -more important- side to the story as well:

More people on these fora also means more intellect, more ideas, visions, theories, insights, facts, contemplations ... not just more garbage, lame content or gullible people. I've seen enough newer members displaying more signs of intellect than some people who've been around for years. I can only applaud that.

It would seem logical that an increase in membership brings an equal amount of fresh intellect as well. (Most) people were already alive and thinking before they signed up - I for example was reading books fifteen years before I signed up.

Also, I would assume people only join this community when they at least have a sparkle of interest in (part of) the content. Others won't stay too long. Or am I being naive?

Welcome to ATS C2C Yeah ATS is such an informative place for great debates and discussion on otherwise controversial topics, ive been on here like a year, more of a lurker though Even if you dont comment, it is an exceptional read, and some of the threads coming from our great posters here would stand up to professional writers etc.

A lot of thought, time and effort gone into every thread, and the fact it is has so many members of the public and the fact it is free information, we can clearly see an unbiased view on worldwide news. I would take ATS over any news channel, its run by the people! power to the PEOPLE!

Because as you may now, the revolution will not be televised!! Long live ATS!

Go team!

Hopefully it's the beginning of us not being viewed as nutters' hey?

Good post OP... BUT....

Is it a valid source?



JUST KIDDING

Originally posted by yadda333
reply to post by C2CExaminer

 

No offense, but this isn't so much about you as it is the ATS membership. I just find it funny how everybody in this thread is slobbering all over this article from examiner.com. Protoplasmic already pointed out how quick we are to laugh at using examiner.com as a source, yet here you all are raving over an "article" just because it praises ATS.

Just kinda funny...

Actually I pointed this out in large part because so often how the mainstream media maintains it's credibility is though telling people what they want to hear.

One network tells the right what they want to hear, another network tells the left what they want to hear.

The people on the right tell the people on the left their news source is not credible, mainly because it says what they don't want to hear, and the people on the left tell the people on the right their news source is not credible because it says what they don't want to hear.

Each becomes a danger to society at large in each other's minds because they imagine people would form no opinion at all if someone wasn't forming it and presenting it for them.

The Examiner is just one example of a few different sources that are sometimes used by members, where a certain number of members are going to normally show up and say something to the effect of "That's not a good source, they sensationalize or trivialize the news, they don't do very good research etc" which very much fits into the "It's not what I want to hear" category.

Personally I would take my news from the Devil himself, if what he was reporting could be indpendently verified as being true, but of course there are a number of people, the majority likely, who would just reject it out of hand because it was the Devil who reported it, and they would do no further research or investigation as to it's validity or purpose.

I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast.
William Tecumseh Sherman

In fact distrust of the press is nothing new, and you don't even have to be a conspiracy theorist or divided on the left or right to believe that as evidenced by Sherma's quote from the Civil War above.

However in Sherman's case since what they were reporting on was his army, he was an in ideal position to know what they often were reporting was simply rumor, because he knew the truth of it all himself, standing at the top of that enterprise as he did.

While there is a large contingent of members still very much involved in the typical left/right political discourse, many of them and their respective arguments fueled by the left/right media camps that cater to them, there is also a large group of posters who won't allow themselves to be divided along left/right lines, and question why those people who will, place so much trust and have such a reliance on the questionable media sources that fuel their arguments.

For people who have forgotten why that happens this is a classic example where as long as the press, the source, is telling you what you want to hear, you gladly accept it as credible.

So even the people who imagine they have risen above it, often have not risen above it, once a media outlet starts to tell them what they specifically want to hear.

So I think there is a valuable lesson here as most of the more progressive members, those not caught up in the left/right two sides of polarized group think, are still vulnerable to succumb when the source and article resonates within their own group think.

Personally I think anyone and everyone does a disservice to themselves by making judgements based solely on the percieved quality of the source, as opposed to really delving into the information and trying to ascertain independently whether it's valid or not by looking for real evidence one way or another.

That seldom happens when a source for a topic comes from the more scoffed at news sources, but the truth is, all they or any news source really has to do in most cases to be valid in a number of people's eyes is to just tell them what they want to hear.

Of course in a world full of deceptions where information is power and powerful corporate sources often control the ebb and flow of what is put out there, why, by whom and for what, and more importantly what isn't, it's not always so easy determining what is valid, because the truth is a person like Sherman at the top of a command structure in the know on almost everything isn't going to disclose it to the press, because a good portion of his power and success comes from being the only person who knows everything, in a process where force and violence is often deployed in it's extreme to force a new reality and conditions on people at large.

So I can't help but think of that cute scene in Men In Black I, where Tommy Lee Jones is telling a disbelieving and amazed Will Smith that the closest thing to the truth put out there is by the Tabloids like the National Inquirer and the Examiner who's headlines and articles seem so far fetched and unbelievable, because the truth is, most of us don't have access to enough Shermans to really know what the heck is going on from the people who are making it really happen and dealing with it all at the top.

So I think it pays to consider each and every source, on a case by case basis, which in some cases, likely to many cases, even a progressive group of critical minds like those that congregate on ATS aren't prepared to do that.

But since in essence I caught many people in the act of doing that in this case, where people who would normally be inclined to dismiss this particular source out of hand, where willing to consider it, mainly because they feel that they know the truth themselves in this case, that ATS is a great site.

So I wanted to point that out, because if there is one thing Proto loves to do, that's to tell everyone what they don't want to hear!

Thanks.

ATS is great. It's my preferred news source. One of the few media streams we can trust I think.

The mods do a great job keeping the trolls under control. It's a shame we have so many hoaxers muddying up some potentially very interesting info, but thats part of the fun of it all..

I do feel that in this case though, publicity is a bad thing. Although its good that these matters reach more people I just feel the quality of information is bound to suffer as a result due to increased troll activity.

oh well..

Originally posted by zorgon
Well over the last few months I have seen Main Stream media picking up stories from ATS

But this notoriety comes with a price...

More will flock to join..

Good for business... but it means more repeat topics, more trolls, etc

edit on 18-1-2011 by zorgon because: (no reason given)

Before ATS, my view of the world was very simplistic and naive. Thanks to all the information presented on this site, I have seen a different side to the real world. Hopefully with more members, we will get people who will greatly contribute such as the heavy hitters as yourself and SLAYER69.
As more people join, we will definitely experience growing pains.

Cheers...

I like the Examiner. In a way, it is not unlike ATS. One may have to sift through several rocks before stumbling across a rare gem. What makes ATS unique is that it is genuinely the finest forum on the internet. Sure, there are people from different backgrounds holding different beliefs and opposing opinion, but the discussions are more often than not very civil. In addition, those frequenting ATS seem to have better grammar and communication skills than anywhere else in cyberspace, as evidenced by the postings. That alone makes the site worth visiting.

I think that in the heart of the typical ATS reader and poster is a genuine desire to rise above the limits of what is typical in news, government, education, belief systems, etc. and to pursue and cross those boundaries that are preventing the human animal from truly growing and evolving. The bottom line is that there has always been a tiny minority of people telling the vast majority of "sheeple" (a very popular term on ATS) how they will do things and I am truly thankful that ATS members have a desire to be more than just minions of a broken and archaic system.

Sweet, Keep it up guys. I've only been here acouple of months and this site is awesome. The new is well presented the format is great and even the people are awesome. This community diserves two thumbs up

Originally posted by burntheships
“Deny Ignorance” is the motto at AboveTopSecret.com, the nation's largest internet forum dedicated to conspiracy theories and other alternative topics. ATS is home to almost 202,000 members who have generated almost 10 million posts covering 595,277 topics. Co-Owner Mark Allin was the first-hour guest on Sunday night's Coast to Coast radio program.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Funny how when the examiner is full of praise for ATS it can quickly become reputable news. However, any mention of UFO's and it can't be trusted as a source.