'It Was Like a Cult': Leaving the World of Online Conspiracy Theories

a reply to: Misterlondon I'm sure I've thrown a few flags up already. Not at this site, just to the govt in general. Hell my search history on my computer could probably build a strong circumstantial case to an incident if they wanted. As far as the woman mentioned in the OP, she belongs to the extremist type personality. Bat # crazy beliefs are generally a common thing with those types of people, whether it be religious, or conspiracies.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
What disturbs me, therefore, about this article and this woman's escape from the clutches of the cult like monstrosity that was her circle of discussion on matters strange, is that there are people out there who are involved in CT life, who clearly have not developed these tools, or if they have, choose not to employ them.

This is something I have raised several times here in the past, and it's always met with the same absolute rejection, the same total refusal to recognize it.

We know that psychological problems exist, this is a fact.
We know that many who experience such problems have symptoms we regularly see on sites like this one.
But, somehow, we ignore this and pretend that everyone is perfectly sane. Even worse, people feed that belief and make it worse.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
The vindication that many of us felt when Snowden announced himself and his information to the press, should be a reminder to us all, that if we are to be taken seriously, rather than as kooks and nut bars, we must be rigorous, unyieldingly demanding when it comes to evidence, rigidly logical in our musings and our thought exercises. The truth, if it is out there, will not be uncovered by being as mindlessly devoted to our strange stories, as many others are to the official account of matters.

The Snowden revelations are an interesting example.
Indeed many of us believed that these things were happening, through a process of logic and rational assumption based on publicly available information, but it was the EVIDENCE which really makes it a conspiracy.

Far too often we have members of this community who forego any attempts to gather any supporting evidence for their theories, and they then use the fact that other theories have been proven to be true as some kind of proof on its own that therefore EVERYTHING they believe must also be true.

It's a failure of logic and critical thinking.

It's perfectly fine to be suspicious, to have a theory about something being the case, but there needs to be EVIDENCE to support that claim for there to be any real story.

The level of belief some members have in something they have never found any evidence for is truly concerning to me. The mental gymnastics many members here go through, rejecting science, refusing evidence they don't like, manufacturing entirely new worlds to make their theory possible, it's all quite disturbing.

a reply to: cuckooold

Some people are incredibly gullible, does that mean all conspiracies should be ignored? No it doesn't, imo anyway.

As long as the powers that be have got holes in their a****s they'll lie to us, about everything & anything.

There is a lot of crap out there, there's no denying that, but a lot of people can spot the bad eggs from the good ones, fortunately.

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Aristotle

This should be the mindset of every conspiracy theorist. Though I prefer conspiracy realist myself. There is a long list of proven conspiracies from the 20th and 21rst century alone. No CT need be ashamed to be skeptical of anything and everything. But until a theory has been proven and outed, it is still a theory. We must remember that. However, we must also remember that some theories will always remain theories, either for lack of evidence, or because no matter how much information we have, or think we have, we still don't know the truth, because it is too easy to cover some things up in a barrage of "facts", and muddy the waters.

This article reads like the author found someone he could use to confirm his own bias, so he wrote a "hit piece" from her story. This lady just went from one extreme to the other, without stopping in the middle to look where she was going.

a reply to: cuckooold

Stephanie Wittschier believed in a lot of different things throughout her life: that aliens were locked away in Area 51; that the Third Reich was alive and well, along with the Illuminati, and—last but not least—that ruling elites were using chemtrails to poison humanity.

Lol, those are the BS stories planted to dissuade ordinary seekers from looking any further than the 'cover' story. Like the tabloids at the supermarket checkout in pre internet days of yar…

Oh look, Big Foot had my baby and the Nazis are still at the north pole.

There that'll keep 'em from looking any further. Whack job conspiracists.

The chemtrail stuff is a crutch used by leaders of minorities who use fear to keep their places of influence and power over that block of humanity. They are the snakeoil salesmen who provide the classic "the devil made me do it" excuse for high crime rates, low morals, high rate of broken families and general social failures minorities experience. Those exceptional humans who break out of the mold to success in the world often fall prey to their trap set, take Prince for example, he is on the record citing crazy black speakers claiming chemtrails poison black neighborhoods with "lead" "magnese" and other toxic substances. He claims it was inspiration for some of his music even. So when hundreds of square miles of jet exhaust is seen in the expanse of the sky over a populated area, somehow it is laser targeting only the ghettos and not affecting anyone else......hard to believe smart rich successful people can fall for that stuff but it works, then they influence the dumb sheeple masses and the Sharpton's of the world stroke a cat pondering their evil genius.

I guess it comes down to who do you believe....

A respected published ATS member like Jim Marrs...

Or some "no name" anonymous member debunker wanna be....

I'll go with Mr. Marrs!

a reply to: Misterlondon

You make some interesting points, but -- in my opinion -- it doesn't even matter. The nature of a two way medium like ATS means that the feedback loop flows in both directions. We gather, collate, disseminate and discriminate too. They are checking us out and it works both ways.

Personally? I don't take anything on faith. Where's the fun in that? I question everything, but I have long since given up being militant about it. I'm in my 40's now. I remember when the world was supposed to end in 1981, 1987, 1995 and 1999. All the con-theory in the world availed itself at those flags as well.

You can argue I suppose that I don't take proper things seriously enough. It's a fair observation, I guess. The way I look at it is this: If "they" (the Horde of Eccumenical Yoddlers?) are watching, they are going to get a mouthful of my juice as well. Fair is fair. I don't worry too much that they are going to round me up and throw me in a camp, largely because there isn't any money in that, but also because there isn't any money FOR it either.

If there's one thing I can take away from my 40+ year quest for truth and reality, justice and love, --it's this:

There is a reality matrix that exists outside of all the BS, and it flows across the antennae of humanity like a tide. They don't own it either, though they love to pretend they do. And nothing, not even a nuclear bomb, is stronger than love.

So F "belief" and "faith" and all the rest of the slave-rot, and DANCE.

originally posted by: olaru12
I guess it comes down to who do you believe....

A respected published I member like Jim Marrs...

Or some "no name" anonymous member debunker wanna be....

I'll go with Mr. Marrs!


I

If they are living off of their notoriety for their involvement in the subject matter either for or against, the two are intertwined in a conflict of interest. Not likely you will ever find unbiased positive or negative information from such sources.

a reply to: Rocker2013

I know all too well, that there is a great risk for those whose minds are not strong, in descending into conspiracy. For those of us who have critical thinking capacity, as well as fortitude of mind, it is not impossible to cogitate upon matters without being damaged by the process. But for some, this simply is not the case.

When Gabby Giffords was shot in the head, and others around her killed by Jared Lee Loughner, there was a ripple of shock through this forum, mostly because it turned out that JLL was alleged to be a member here, whose handle I shall not name. His posts had never been well composed, but during the period immediately previous to the incident, his posts had taken on the appearance of utterances made by a mind in a spiral of decay, crossed wires and no logic applied in order to conclude a thought. The signs were there, but went unnoticed, or at least were not dealt with.

It is vitally important that we all keep our heads when ruminating on matters such as those discussed here, and even more important that we look out for one another, against the possibility that one amongst our number might loose touch with reason and act unwisely, or worse in such a fashion as to endanger life and limb, their own, and that of other people.

Furthermore, you hit the nail on the head with your last paragraph. As previously mentioned, one should never start with a conclusion, and find evidence to fit it. One should, instead, find evidence and conclude from what one learns from that evidence, the reality of a matter.

a reply to: TinfoilTP

Had to check their site, but I seem like you're right. While they might not be making large amounts of money off of this. Looks like a cash in. Oh well can't blame people for wanting money.

But back on the topic of her getting in to CT, without the doing any of her own research. That's just a little to absent minded for me, I know there are people like that. But just to drop down any rabbit hole without any research and taking what ever you find there as the golden truth is just reckless.

I read this on VICE too! However, extremism exists everywhere. I found it unfair that the author made conspiracy theorists to appear as cult-like nutters who wouldn't debate any strongly opposed opinions with the word "shill" or "ignored" flying around.

There are certainly a ton of those people. However, there are a lot of smart individuals who fully take into account other arguments.

Now, isn't it extreme to dismiss all conspiracy theories because there is low-educated and silly individuals that attach themselves to them? It seems like that is just another side of the same extreme coin.

It's my belief that these people are plague on rational society. They may be a respected geologist who refuses to ever consider alternative theories or someone who (without a doubt) thinks every ruling class member is a reptilian. They are people who will rarely endanger their world perception. The people who label someone as a "conspiracy theorist tin-foil nutter", or a "mainstream sheepish shill". I doubt the even realize what they are saying because they are so desperate to fit things into boxes to constantly pat their world-perception on the back.

Extremism can be found everywhere, and it is quickly becoming harder and harder to find out the truth.

a reply to: cuckooold

One way in which the Conspiracy Theory community is like a religious cult is the substitution of faith for reason. It even has a litany. If a skeptic points how unlikely a claim is, they are often met with:

So 9/11 wasn't an inside job?
So MK-ULTRA never happened?
So the Fed isn't owned by the Rothschilds?
So the Bilderbergers don't exist?...and so forth.

Ironically, this framework of accepted beliefs winds up closing the conspiracy theorists' minds. They are so full of imagined certainties that they cannot see the real machinations unfolding in the open.

First she took the red pill, then, she found a blue pill and took it anyway..

This one is easy.

The real conspiracies hide behind the junk conspiracies put out to distract people


The genuine always hides behind the real


the job of the researcher is to separate the wheat from the chaff

a reply to: cuckooold

Who benefits from people becoming depressed and believing that they have no freedom and that none of their actions mean anything since everything is controlled by an elite? Conspiracy theories that's causing people to feel this way are not actually benefiting them.

Empowerment is being able to be happy and compassionate towards others not feeling like everything is meaningless, hopeless and not feeling depressed.

a reply to: blueman12

It's Vice, you can't expect them to be neutral! One thing they do best is personal crusades..

a reply to: Substracto

Willful ignorance.

I remember a discussion here where a lot of members wished they could go back to not knowing. To go back to happy ignorance.

This lady did it! Ask her how.

For everyone else there's free kool-aid at my place from 5-7.

Any time I hear the word "cult" being tossed around, I instantly tune out.

"Cult" is one of those emotionally charged words that are used to shut down rational discourse (much like "conspiracy theorist", "truther", or comparing anyone who disagrees with you to Hitler).

I would take debunkers a little more seriously if they weren't so smug, condescending and manipulative.

If there's anything the world has taught us, it's question. We know the world is full of money-hungry soulless d*ckb@g5. Why would we take anything at face-value, especially if it comes out of a politicians mouth? Not questioning is what got us where we are now. It's just sad that people who question the way things are sometimes get labeled as 'conspiracy theorists'