Do you doubt your fellow ATSers?

I'll be the first to admit it.

I doubt a lot of my fellow ATSers. I read a lot of the Survival forums and I always feel a good amount of doubt when it comes to the stories of some of the posters there.

Perhaps you too? You know the people that conveniently "raise chickens and rabbits", "forage all the time for plants and mushrooms", "have large gardens that provide more than enough for their families". I get that there are a very select amount of people that do that, but the frequency by which those people find and post on the ATS Survival forums amazes me.

Maybe for you it's not the Survival forums.

Do you think we have a lot of people here that are "role-playing" who'd they like to be rather than who they are?

Signed,

An imaginary rabbit

I doubt plenty,I've met a time traveller,god,a haarp employee and someone who keeps aliens in the garden here.Bernard Schnitzel springs to mind.

Originally posted by glen200376
I doubt plenty,I've met a time traveller,god,a haarp employee and someone who keeps aliens in the garden here.Bernard Schnitzel springs to mind.

That's a whole other category. I just consider that "fan fiction". It's one thing to amplify your life with some things you'd like to do. It's another to reinvent yourself as "Wolfy Moongoddess, Creature of Light and Love on the 5th Harmonic".

reply to post by WickettheRabbit


Honestly, I have no idea what other people on here are doing. I sure do wish though that I was super human like some say they are. As for me and my family, we are just trying to keep the bills paid, food on the table and if we can store up a few weeks of supplies in the event of a disaster we are lucky! Life is busy and tiring. I have no clue how one would make the transistion from going to just trying to keep up in today's world to all of a sudden living like it was 1885. Besides that, we have 2 acres but we are still under zoning laws as far as having livestock and chickens etc. If someone can throw out some cash to buy a farm then maybe they have a shot to live off the grid.....maybe.

reply to post by WickettheRabbit


I would be inclined to agree with you that a good portion are just blowing smoke.

But then again, I have recently become aware of the number of survivalist shows on TV, and you know how Americans like to imitate what they see on TV.

So, there just really may be that many of them. We'll never know for sure.

I tend to take people at their word, unless there is something about their postings which makes me think otherwise.

I haven't seen many posters that I think are pretending. There are a few, but honestly, I'd rather give people the benefit of the doubt until they are obviously B.S.ing.

One never knows. There are some people who grow fabulous gardens that yield more than what they need. There are people who prep. There are people who think they've seen aliens. I take it all with a grain of salt. This is, after all, the internet, and we're all anonymous.

Until somebody is proven to be a liar, I'll believe them. I think this encourages more people to come forward and post. Thinking that everybody is full of it and not being honest would really wreck the whole ATS experience for me.

I WANT TO BELIEVE....isn't that on a poster somewhere?

I doubt most people on the internet. If I am to believe the majority of posters in the political discussions then many ATS members are fairly wealthy in a time when a lot of average Americans aren't doing so well. So most people here are either better than everyone else like they keep saying, or they're mostly full of spoiled bologna.

Many people here, just as the other parts of the internet, have "been there and done that" in everything you can imagine. I know for a fact that is bull.

To be perfectly honest with you, I kind of feel like more than half of us are living on disability checks and hardly leave the house because we believe those stinkin liberals are out to get us.

Whenever I read about something I know about I see an alarming amount of people claiming to be experts yet knowing nothing. This pretty much clues me in about the topics I don't know much about. There are some really good story tellers.

I tend to think that we do have a collection of actual experts or intelligent well people with various degrees of non-bias here. The Fukashima posts are a great example.

I avoid the obvious hype and try to keep away from the many trolls.

What I like most is the spiritual posts and the humility of the people who are amongst the only people here who discuss things with any level of maturity.

The area I doubt more than any, are the ones that proclaim themselves to be of the highest enlightenment. There are a lot who are quick to parrot all of the spiritual maxims out there, and I doubt very many on here are of any sort of truly advanced mentality.

Been here just a short time and i also have seen here several types of people, so we come all around the World from every cultures and races, we have different backgrounds and life experiences. To someone something is absolute truth and to another one its total hoax. I think its makes ATS somewhat intresting place.
Also just a bit concerned of some who obviously have some mental issues and are not in the right state of mind, what surfing at ATS does to them. IMO critical view of issues serves the best, i like to see how people debunk here.

ATS reminds me a The Reader's Digest book of strange stories, amazing facts.

Not sure about role playing outside of mental issues, Aliens, Gods etc.

I dont venture into the survival forums very often, but in the few occasions I have, i found most of the respondents to be very knowledgeable.

I for example was raised in the country, way out 40 miles from any city at all, 25 miles from the closest town of more than 3K people.

My dad and grand father taught me how to hunt, trap, fish, clean and prepare just about an kind of game, how to smoke meat to preserve it etc..

Then I joined the military, and they taught me a few things I didnt know, so now I consider myself a pretty well off outdoorsmen today, capable of surviving off the bounties of the land.

Would you say the above statements are the same, as those your talking about?

Because I for one am being serious about what I am saying, i cant speak for anyone else here, but more than 15 members seem to know quite alot in my few ventures into the survival forums.

reply to post by glen200376


Ooooh- you forgot about the guy that kept coming back under different accounts claiming to have been turned into a woman by a witch! That guy was funny!

reply to post by littled16


Damn I missed him,sounds funny.
I must admit I do enjoy taking the mickey out of a troll now and again,lightens the mood from all the doom and gloom around here.

Thanks to Bernard Schnitzel, I now know how to build a time machine, out of a curtain rod.....


Des

I think it's more so about people considering themselves experts on a subject after reading a paragraph on a Wikipedia page. It's amazing how many people choose to speak on something they haven't a clue about.

reply to post by Destinyone

I know Bernie amuses you,you are usually first to expose him!
I hear he has some cracking garden ornaments.

Originally posted by jaymp
I think it's more so about people considering themselves experts on a subject after reading a paragraph on a Wikipedia page. It's amazing how many people choose to speak on something they haven't a clue about.

You mean reading a paragraph about something on wiki doesn't make someone an expert on the subject? I'm guessing that means a few sentences from some random blog or whatnot probably isn't much better then eh?
So am I to assume that over 9/10 of the internet really aren't the experts they've been claiming to be all of this time?

Originally posted by PatrickGarrow17
The area I doubt more than any, are the ones that proclaim themselves to be of the highest enlightenment. There are a lot who are quick to parrot all of the spiritual maxims out there, and I doubt very many on here are of any sort of truly advanced mentality.

I've had the exact opposite experience. I've noticed that the apparent hypocrisy confuses the hell out of materialist types. Those that can't see how the world is more than what the main consensus would have us believe. They want proof for everything and don't realise that the truth always a matter of context and not really applicable to the 'scientific method', try as they might.

The only pseudo-spiritually inclined people who I would deem bogus are the ones that get into complicated methods meditation so they can open chakra's and go into new dimensions and have esp powers etc. That stuff is painful to read and get a lot of views but has nothing to do with anything spiritual. In fact it beings to the material wold world which is the opposite. It's all about doing, and having something tangible and not about being as you are, witnessing what is really happening and having an open mind. Big difference.

I doubt my friends, acquaintances, and even my own mother. Sure I have known her for 46 years... but she might just be a really good liar....

As far as ATS goes - or any external sources, for that matter, I always keep my proverbial grain of salt handy. Even if I tend to believe what a person says, I do so with full knowledge that their perspective may be skewed, or they may be idealizing their own attributes a bit. I mean, heck, we never hear tell of that four inch fish some guy spent half a hour reeling in. Right?

Here's a thought though... people spin or stretch yarn for one of two reasons. Either to outright troll, or to be accepted. That first group? Forget them. That's what staff is for - to root them out and to make them go buh-bye. But that second group? The ones who just really want to feel accepted in the community? I've found that giving them a little patience and trying to coax them into being a bit more honest is often a GREAT way to bring some very creative and productive minds into the fold.

One thing that some of us old timers around here forget... This place can seem intimidating to the newly initiated. It's just part of the cycle that we act as their training wheels until they find their balance.

My 02 cents.

~Heff