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

a reply to: blueman12

I made a thread about vice being bias a while back, I still see it in their reporting, if anyone feels like doing the effort of posting evidence please do say as I feel vice is bias in a very sneaky way, always pushing their own agenda.

originally posted by: olaru12
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!

Yea, never question the motives.

BTW, I am writing a book to sell titled,
"contrails are made by planes", I expect it sell very, very well.

What does Mr. Marrs do for a living again?

originally posted by: Willtell
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

Well, didn't you just explain away Alex Jones!
I have personally set one foot into several rabbit holes that represent popular (and not so popular) conspiracies, and decided that was far enough. There are points at which you put your arse on the line if you proceed...thanks to the reach of the Internet (in both directions).
I'll watch the bit on Vice when I have a moment...but you have to question any effort to dismiss so-called 'conspiracy theories' across the board.

Sometimes, the Truth Is Out There!

originally posted by: JohnnyCanuck

originally posted by: Willtell
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

Well, didn't you just explain away Alex Jones!
I have personally set one foot into several rabbit holes that represent popular (and not so popular) conspiracies, and decided that was far enough. There are points at which you put your arse on the line if you proceed...thanks to the reach of the Internet (in both directions).
I'll watch the bit on Vice when I have a moment...but you have to question any effort to dismiss so-called 'conspiracy theories' across the board.

Sometimes, the Truth Is Out There!

So you have never found a theory to be untrue? I read the article and didn't see the claim that all conspiracies should be disregarded at all. It just mentioned the part about believers being deathly afraid of facts. Once they overcome the fear of facts, they can do their own research (away from the sites that only push their agenda) and find the version of truth they can believe.

I dunno, I feel the term "cult" is thrown about much too lightly these days.

Unless somebody cleans out your bank account through manipulation, and separates you from family and friends I'm doubtful the term applies.

Everything is starting to be labelled a "cult", which to me undermines the real problem of abusive cults.

One must be careful as an Internet novice, and there's some nasty people out there.
Stay in a nice environment, like ATS, if you don't have the skin of a pachyderm.

But then again I've seen YouTube movies, where people disagree on the merits of the film and call each other terrible names.

Is that then also a cult?

originally posted by: GreenGunther
a reply to: blueman12

I made a thread about vice being bias a while back, I still see it in their reporting, if anyone feels like doing the effort of posting evidence please do say as I feel vice is bias in a very sneaky way, always pushing their own agenda.

Well, Vice.com is much differn't than VICE news, Viceland (tvnetwork), or VICE on HBO. Vice is opinion articles, and they WILL be bias.

So, I wouldn't call VICE out on that. Even if some of the articles are bias, silly, or dumb. If you have information on how VICE news or VICE on HBO is bias, i'd be interested b/c I watch both. However, that is probably an entirely different thread.

a reply to: cuckooold

I quit being a vegan, because it felt like being in a cult..

Soon they'll start saying Prince was murdered on the elevator.


Taking bets that it will happen


the illuminati is murdering all the black starts...something like that.

a reply to: Substracto

Yea.. It'd be a much better site if it was articles from conspiracy theorists and wierdos, rather than mostly liberals and hipsters. But, thats just my bias opinion. I think VICE (HBO) and Vice news is good though.

Don't get me wrong though, VICE has had some interesting articles. I just think that most of the articles border between boring and semi-interesting.

All well and good except for the fact that this lady doesn't have any hard facts to back up her theories. If chemtrails aren't real then where is the proof? If Bigfoot isn't real where is the proof? If aliens aren't real where's the proof? If the ruling elite aren't reptilians then where is the proof? See what I mean? You can try to discredit something but to just say "oh that's not real" is not enough. Conspiracy theorists may not have proof that something exists, but on the other hand, you don't have proof that it DOESNT exist. No one wins here so sit down.

Believe none of what you hear. Double check all of what you see. Follow the money, and run from anyone that claims they know the truth about anything.

Living in the moment has taken on a new meaning. The world is fluid, and constantly in flux. What was fact yesterday, may be false today.

There is no truth. There is only the BS du jour.

originally posted by: Willtell
Soon they'll start saying Prince was murdered on the elevator.


Taking bets that it will happen

the illuminati is murdering all the black starts...something like that.

I'll take that bet and raise you one.

He died from the Zika virus that is now an epidemic being spread by the Minnesota State bird. The mosquito. Vaccines are being distributed free at your local drugstores and schools.

Everyone is warned to stay indoors and shelter in place until they receive the all clear alert. Also ignore any observations of purple rain. It will just be your government at work protecting you.

I discovered ATS after stumbling onto the Denver Airport thoery totally by accident on a click bait site. I had heard of conspiracies of course, I remember reading about the knights templar in the 80's, but was soon learning about the rothschilds, chemtrails, all sort of things. Even John Titor and reptilians !!!

It was the old trip down the rabbit hole. I told my wife about all the new things I learned.

Then I started looking for original source material for a lot of quotes attributed to people, and they just aren't out there. Things like mayer rothschild saying, "Give me control of a nations money supply, and I care not who makes it’s laws"

As has been said, doing your own research is key, and critical thinking and logic.

All I see is a whole lot of allegations with zero to back them up. Victimhood is the most popular theme going today and this looks to be one more variation on it. Whether or not there's any truth to the story or not doesn't really matter. What does is that the article makes CT's appear vindictive, irrational and borderline dangerous. The CT's I know are nothing like that - they are simply open to evidence others close their eyes to lest their world be turned upside down. I'll lay odds there is very little if any truth to this article at all. Just more creative fiction to enforce the official narrative.

a reply to: cj6

If chemtrails aren't real then where is the proof? If Bigfoot isn't real where is the proof? If aliens aren't real where's the proof? If the ruling elite aren't reptilians then where is the proof? See what I mean? You can try to discredit something but to just say "oh that's not real" is not enough. Conspiracy theorists may not have proof that something exists, but on the other hand, you don't have proof that it DOESNT exist.

This is exactly the sort of backwards reasoning that makes conspiracy theories look bad.

There are reasonable conspiracy theories and some that are hard to believe.

But the OP I think needs to realize that many of these conspiracies are certainly likely true like 911. The evidence is just too much there and the main evidence against it is largely emotional and psychological or worst, sinister.

If you don’t investigate, though, then you’ll certainly get burned.

On 911, I originally didn’t accept the truther angles, but through investigation couldn’t refute it.

But to refute all conspiracies is to me naïve.

For example, when the Tuskegee “conspiracy theory” came out I’m sure many didn’t believe it: that the government was using innocent black men as guinea pigs in syphilis research.

en.wikipedia.org...

The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male, also known as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study or Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment ("Tuskegee" = /tʌsˈkiːɡiː/)[1] was an infamous clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the U.S. Public Health Service studying the natural progression of untreated syphilis in rural African-American men in Alabama under the auspices of receiving free health care from the United States government.[1]

To hear that people probably said: NO the government would never do that

The government not only did it but it lead to the premature death of people who still today justify it!

originally posted by: DJW001
a reply to: cj6

If chemtrails aren't real then where is the proof? If Bigfoot isn't real where is the proof? If aliens aren't real where's the proof? If the ruling elite aren't reptilians then where is the proof? See what I mean? You can try to discredit something but to just say "oh that's not real" is not enough. Conspiracy theorists may not have proof that something exists, but on the other hand, you don't have proof that it DOESNT exist.

This is exactly the sort of backwards reasoning that makes conspiracy theories look bad.

And the posts that some pick to attack and base all conspiracy theorists off of looks equally bad.

There a at least 5 other posts that addressed this rationally but you likely will not go near them cause they wont help you generalize those that believe in some conspiracies in a bad light.

a reply to: Willtell

For example, when the Tuskegee “conspiracy theory” came out I’m sure many didn’t believe it: that the government was using innocent black men as guinea pigs in syphilis research.

Of course people believed that the Jim Crow era government was experimenting on innocent black men. They were also sterilizing black women. Do secret services finance their operations by dabbling in smuggling and counterfeiting? Of course they do. Do they spend hundreds of thousands of person-hours shadowing some nobody and playing bizarre mind games with them? There would be no payoff there, would there? Did they look the other way when an alleged ally organized a terror attack on American soil? That might depend....

a reply to: MALBOSIA

There a at least 5 other posts that addressed this rationally but you likely will not go near them cause they wont help you generalize those that believe in some conspiracies in a bad light.

Why would I criticize a post that approaches conspiracy theories rationally?

originally posted by: DJW001
a reply to: MALBOSIA

There a at least 5 other posts that addressed this rationally but you likely will not go near them cause they wont help you generalize those that believe in some conspiracies in a bad light.

Why would I criticize a post that approaches conspiracy theories rationally?

We are not approaching a conspiracy theory, we are approaching some poor girls antidotal story about conspiracy theorists are a cult.

First you come in with:

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.

Which does nothing to diferentiate one conspiracy theorist from another and then you wait for a weak post to point and say "see!"

It all comes across like you just want people to see the bad side of conspiracy theorists and you rarely if ever diferenciate between the different types of conspiracy theories or the way they are approached, which is the real topic to this thread.