ATS intentionally subverted by members supporting political/Trump/Clinton/etc threads?!

a reply to: soficrow

As far as I'm concerned you're #1 in my book. Don't fall prey to this BS....I have spent, on and off, almost as much time here as you have and I truly understand your frustration....our frustration.


In fact, quite a few years ago I started a conspiracy thread, one that decried the diminishing set of critical thinking skills that was being displayed (not solely) here. My frustration at the time was in some people's threads that embraced ultra-hyperbole and received accolades like crazy, and other threads that were extremely thought provoking and well researched that received nothing but inflammatory drivel and negativity.


In retrospect, I think where my REAL frustration lied was in watching a 'place' that I felt was a safe haven from outside stupidity and ignorance turn into what I was trying to escape from....that didn't sit well with me at the time and still doesn't. But, try and tell someone who is making a killing from clickbait that they need to rein in that bait for the idealism of the greater good and well, I'm sure I don't need to tell you what the response would be.

a reply to: alphabetaone

...I think where my REAL frustration lied was in watching a 'place' that I felt was a safe haven from outside stupidity and ignorance turn into what I was trying to escape from....that didn't sit well with me at the time and still doesn't.

Me too. Reality effing sucks, doesn't it?

Fact is though, ATS is a business. I suspect that sometimes, just surviving is an issue. (Never mind thriving.) I assume and hope ATS has a lot more revenue streams than clickbait. Even so, seems there have been a lot of cutbacks over the past years, following that big growth period and push to capture the populist market.

Fortunately, pendulums swing. Guess we just have to wait. And hope. One day, critical thinking will become trendy again. Actually, I'd settle for ordinary run-of-the-mill thinking. Anything but "memes."