Where's the conspiracy?

Trump. Who the F### cares? This site has gone to sh##t.

Two-three-maybe four years ago ATS reached its zenith. It was all about conspiracy:

Aliens and UFOS
9/11 conspiracies
Posse Comitatus
General Conspiracies
The Gray Area
Secret Societies
The NWO
Area 51 and other Facilities
Military Projects
Weaponry
Education and media
Social Issues and Civil Unrest
Deepwater Disaster
RATS
Dissecting Disinformation
Conspiracy Theorists
ATS Skunk Works
Geo-Engineering and Chemtrails
Japan
History

And a lot more!

Where's the contributors?

Now: It is all about politics. 80 percent of all threads are politically oriented (number drawn from thin air, but pretty darn close. Would love to give you a more exact number, though).

I'm sure I won't be missed, but I don't understand why I'm hanging around anymore. Passive member, sure I am. But man, I miss the good 'ol days where both absurd and serious conspiracies were shared. Unafraid of the preposterous label "fake news", where individual members posted great threads grounded on research done by themselves. Where there was open and free discussion about anything and everything, including politics. Not ONLY politics.

This community lack the very thing it was founded upon. The very thing that attracted us, and made us sign up! Where's the content we crave? Where's the people creating the content we loved reading about? Are they all talking about Trump?!

Trump says: Make America great again!

I say: Make ATS what it was meant to be!

Only 80%? I reckon it's higher. Most of the rest are aircraft or general conversation.

How flat is the earth?

Disinformation agents.

Partisan trolling has taken a new level (at least on ATS standards).

It typically dies down once the TV stops plastering political BS, but the divisive rhetoric we see on ATS really blows my mind.

I never believed in the concept of paid shills or whatnot, but after witnessing the deterioration of content I've opened my mind up to the possibility.

ATS needs its own forum for partisan trolling, it (imo) has been dominating other topics without competition.

originally posted by: Lysergic
How flat is the earth?

Try to post a UFO video.

You will be destroyed.

Photoshop has changed everything.

Can't believe anything you see and only a quarter of what you hear.

a reply to: ksiezyc

You might be right.

I guess you can't call something "The Golden Age" until it's done and over with. I mean, it's always been politically oriented in election years. But now it's entirely about politics. That is not why I joined up and wanted to contribute.

This site had an appeal; and it was about escaping "reality". Not become enveloped by it. And I am saddened when this is what it's become. The appeal crossed boundaries, countries, nations, continents. Now it's all about the politics of the US of A.

Amen,

I recognize the problem but cannot offer a solution. This site runs mostly on ads, the political threads get a lot of clicks..

I do my best to flag and star as well as post a thank you(my way of bumping) to those threads that remind me of why I came here in the first place.

My personal pet peeve is people coming into off topic(BTS) threads about TV shows or movies, and posting jibes at politicians, when I specifically go there to avoid it.


Respectfully,
~meathead

a reply to: Droogie

I was going to say that I agree with you and although, essentially, I really do agree with you.... looking at the threads I've created don't really make me part of the solution. Now, I haven't made too many political ones really... but I do have some conspiracies and unexplained things that pop into my mind that at times I want to create a thread about that I just don't have enough time to dedicate.

Also, just like in real life.... some people on here are just nasty. I've seen people gently toss out an idea about an admittedly highly unlikely conspiracy or strange event and they just get absolutely assaulted (on a personal level many times) so that is in the back of my mind too. It's not that I really care what people I don't know think about me.... it's that I know myself and I know that I will have the urge to respond to as many replies as possible in a thread I create and when so many of those replies are nasty.... you know what I'm saying.

The only olive branch I can offer you is this thread I made (back in July.... can't believe it was that long ago).

Lesser known Mysteries

I would also encourage you to be part of the solution... which of course is easy for me to say because as I mentioned, I haven't contributed enough to the true "essence" of ATS (as I understand it to be).

originally posted by: whyamIhere

originally posted by: Lysergic
How flat is the earth?

Try to post a UFO video.

You will be destroyed.

Photoshop has changed everything.

Can't believe anything you see and only a quarter of what you hear.

Same thing with anything 9/11 related.

But post a YouTube video of some right/left wing trolling BS, people flock to it.

UFO stuff was what brought me to ATS. As I've grown older I've just lost the passion if you will. That stuff is shut down right out of the gate for the most part.

originally posted by: eluryh22
a reply to: DroogieAlso, just like in real life.... some people on here are just nasty. I've seen people gently toss out an idea about an admittedly highly unlikely conspiracy or strange event and they just get absolutely assaulted

True. ATS has become a hostile environment for the people it was meant to protect and serve. Not because of the admins and owners, but, ironically, because of the membership itself. This was not the way it was a few years ago.

It's perfectly OK to disagree, but it's an entirely different matter to tear another person apart because they believe something you don't. And that's a problem to be dealt with. Hopefully this doesn't have anything to do with the content shared/ or not shared on this site. But I feel it deters certain people that has something valuable to share from actually sharing something interesting and new.

By the way, just look at the threads shared since this was posted. It's all about FBI, CIA, hackers, Hillary, Obama, DNC, Trump.....

ATS still has everything you've mentioned about aliens, ghosts, etc.
I just haven't seen any great ones lately...but I look forward to them when they do appear.

As for all the politics lately...I blame the Russians.

a reply to: IAMTAT

ATS still has everything you've mentioned about aliens, ghosts, etc.

Dude, I mentioned a whole lot more than that. Nonetheless, we're far from where we were a few years ago. It's become more and more politically oriented. That's fine if that's your thing, but it's gone so far that the owners might think about changing the name of this site.

And there you go... as for the last sentence of your post: It's all about politics. It's not particularly interesting, not because it's not important, but because we're inundated from all other media. And it's becoming redundant. It's not needed on ATS, in my opinion.

a reply to: Droogie

For my part...when I first joined, something like 6 years ago...I started many great threads on some of the topics you've mentioned.

I don't know if you remember...but the attacks and cynicism were just as brutal as they are on political threads today.
Calls of "pics or it didn't happen" were common.
Open-mindedness was just as scarce.
Insults were common as well.
Sources for paranormal articles were savaged even more than they are for political news now.

In different forums...the subjects are different...the members are different...but the attitudes are all the same.
There are, of course, exceptions...but these are less common these days.

Perhaps the pendulum will swing back one day.

I know it's not going to let up anytime soon, said so prior to the election. Most non political threads end up having partisan discussion. It's hard to get away from. There's something wrong when you feel like you're forced into picking a partisan side to even comment.

This seems to happen ever 4 years. I remember the Bush days , Obama days , now the Trump days. I have to admit it is a bit worse (possibly) than those past 2 , but still within status quo here on ATS.
For now , enjoy. Do not let it rule your life , though . I almost did this go around.
"This too shall pass"

a reply to: IAMTAT
Being around ATS , in one form or another since near the start, I have to 100% agree with you . (this time)
I remember when the Face on Mars threads were posted in the Breaking News Forum

a reply to: Droogie
Be the change you wish to see. Create threads. The problem is the same as with the reasons to not vote third party.

Did I just go political on a thread complaining about constant politics? I guess so

a reply to: ksiezyc

Why does ats remove threads?

REAL conspiracies are deleted from ATS!

Believe it!

a reply to: IAMTAT

That is true, I have no problem agreeing with that. But am I wrong when I say; there was more of a balance back then? That there were somewhat of an equilibrium between those sorts of comments, compared with serious thought-out replies? Can't say for certain, but that's how it feels anyway.

Perhaps the pendulum will swing back one day.

Hope you're right, I really do!