Okay, I'm Pretty Much Convinced...

a reply to: stosh64

Apparently you are not allowed to say the names of the banned members. Not here in a thread anyway. But you could... PM me and tell me there, or post the title of or link to, the relevant thread(s) so we can all see who got banned...
Somebody?
Anybody?

a reply to: ProfessorChaos

Don't feel bad about feeling pecimistic. I am beginning to believe Orwell was an optimist.

I think your observation may hold true. People online seem to be more divided and hateful than ever. I'm no different. I see crap every day that I can't help but choose a side over. I am sick of having my culture bashed continually. I'm tired of seeing my country screw the world, it's people, and us.

There is a breaking point, but, I only need to go outside and wave at my neighbors, drink some beer and listen to music to see that everything isn't quite in the toilet yet.

I am with ya on the "something big coming" bandwagon. I just no longer dread it. I look forward to it like an unpaid vacation.

I'm right there with you, buddy.

I haven't posted here in a long while, though I've been tempted to... several times.

You know when you've been lurking for the longest time, see a thread just dripping with antagonism, bitterness and sheer ignorance and it just makes you want to unleash all of you frustrations out in the post to end all posts at once? Then you realise that you'll just be adding fuel to the flames so you delete the thousand words that you spewed into the reply field.

Yeah... I have problems. But who doesn't?

You're right about this site being a good sample of society. Pretty much every single walk of life has been represented here at some point, and it's the number one reason I joined. It was a sight to behold: a safe space where every holy book, fairy tale, urban legend and horror story contained some grain of truth, however elusive.

This was a forum for exchange - and debate - but most of all, it was a free opportunity for growth.

I owe ATS so much. Members whom I may never meet in person had profound effects on my outlook on life, even those with disparate world-views.

But now... what's happened here? Every other post is an ad-hominem attack. Every other week that I dare to click that bookmark, the divide between red and blue is even more distinct.

This used to be the place for alternatives of all kinds, and we all respected each other. These days it's like a schoolyard bishfest between Stormfront vs The Upworthiest (which isn't a bad site, but some of the commenters are well... ahem...)

Is it foolish to pine for the old days? I didn't even have an account in the "old days"...

a reply to: ProfessorChaos

If you think ATS is an accurate cross section of the public at large then I have a bridge to sell you.

Every kid fit the last couplebgeneratuons are growing up thinking they are the smartest, funniest, greatest person who ever lived. The only thing that is wrong is telling someone they are wrong, except if you are telling someone they are wrong for telling someone else that they are wrong.

a reply to: yorkshirelad

Uh...for real!?! I'd have to disagree. What is wrong on ATS and always has been is people who post what you just posted- one member taking it upon himself or herself to qualify what subjects are suitable and welcome here as well as alluding to the fact that someone, say, who is devoutly religious hasn't the equal right to add what he/she believes. Would you rather something rigid and fixed like the North Korean network news? And lastly you really shouldn't be labeling one type of philosophy as stupid or dumb because it doesn't calling with mainstream science...Stephen Hawking is the epitome of the type of thinking you are talking about and I just saw something showing how just about every hypothesis he has made in the last couple decades (and had published immediately in all mediums of academia and periodical) has turned out to be bzzzzzz wrong. Look at the mess carbon dating produces in terms of data and how evolution in its entirety has been largely built around it as proof or a single hip bone at another angle with the only reliable evidence being that of observational data which tells us even bacteria which produces a new generation in minutes can go through a trillion generations yet we have never witnessed a single evolution of a new species, much less a fish turn into a hairy mudskipper into a chimp into the missing link into us. I'm not arguing evolution here but what happens here!? Are you saying in this case someone asking for a comprehensive analysis of evidence and experimental methods is an idiot? Or that you're dumb if you subscribe to evolution but NOT the missing link theory because THEY say that's what happened? Even though for missing link theory there exists no evidence to this day? Isn't following someone telling you how it is but providing Zippo proof faith-based religion to an extent, so some baseless religions are welcome here (yours) but other's religion, say Christianity, is unwelcome? I'm just blown away by people who still complain about ATS not banning certain types of people and their beliefs and can't see the value in their point of view and also that YOUR beliefs are just as absurd to some?