ATS In Decline?

Just adding my voice to the complaints about the path that this site has been following. This past March marked a solid decade for my official presence on ATS. There had been a few years of lurking, but true to my tinfoil hat, initially I didn't go for an account because I thought it was more important to retain my anonymity. Those were the days of real-time postings by John Lear, and about Project Serpo. Lotta weirdness going on, but a lot of discourse as well. Respect for one's fellows, even in disagreement.

That's changed. Simply stated, there is far too much trolling and hate-mongering going on, especially from the self-styled Right Wing where discussion would seem to have been replaced by the hurling of the feces. In addition, I am truly disappointed to see some of the Mods joining in with truly intemperate postings. As the current American leadership is being called out for lowering the standards of civil behavior on the global and national stages, it's being mirrored here at ATS. Now, that might be deliberate, but I should think that there are enough conservative echo chambers out there that the Three Amigos don't feel the need to compromise the integrity of the site to entertain a new business plan.

But somebody IS asleep at the switch.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

Funny how you say respect, then point to the right wing.
Rose colored glasses Maybe?
Pot meet kettle?

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

You just did what you say you dont like.

I love you guys on ATS but im just watching you all fight and its not pretty. Its not funny. You are ALL the problem.


So ive largly stopped posting.

Besides i have a lovely girlfriend to talk physics and conspiracies with..

The real conspiracy now is you guys used to renember politics is just pro wrestling.. now you are divided and conqured.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

Its a natural cycle for all things. I am sure it has occurred before and will again. I haven't been around as long as you but I am sure if you think about it that you will remember during the "glory" years that there was just as much discord and feces throwing as now, just that the topics we all hold dear are not quite as predominant now.

Politics is at the forefront these days and when we disagree, we tend to take it more personal than other topics, as politics can actually change our lives as opposed to a Grey or some unknown element that may or may not exist. I don't see one side be it right or left being the lead in trolling or feces throwing, instead I see both sides equal in the spewing of discord and ugliness.

It will settle down with time, I have already noticed over the past couple weeks a return to more of the "normal" topics discussed on ATS and fully expect it come full circle just as it as in the past. I enjoy reading old threads on ATS that I missed and have seen some very heated and even angry outburst from some and believe it to be a natural part of a diverse community of people but in the end we are all just that, a Community who depend on each other for information, humor, and yes, a place that we can all debate topics that keeps us together.

No disagreement should ever drive us away from each other because our skepticism and our differences is what brought us all here in the first place, so hang in there, and hang in here, as there are still great contributions here on ATS and I have found I do not have to agree with everyone in order to find entertainment and knowledge.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

Funny how you say respect, then point to the right wing.
Rose colored glasses Maybe?
Pot meet kettle?

I was also going to use the word "funny" as how the OP views the political situation in the US.

Funny also in how socialists all want the US to embrace their systems that can never seem to quite hold their own on the world stage. We, in the US may be failing in several ways, but we're standing at the back of that line for the West and when we go, the world will be in the worst shape that it has ever been in. Nobody will have your back.

originally posted by: Reverbs
a reply to: JohnnyCanuck
You just did what you say you dont like.

It is my observation that the extent of the invective from the right has ramped way up to the level of insults and abuse. It is a statement, and not an insult. Difference of opinion is fine, insults are not.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck
So you are fine with the left wing propaganda? Gotcha

Nothing is permanent, everything is in flux, and the past is another country where they do things differently.

The secret is to make best use of what you've got now - because one day, these will be 'the good old days'.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

You misunderstand..

Watch yoyr thread will be a new place to fight since you chose a team.. a tribe.. so now you fight again like kids.

I should put you all in time out.

In fact if i was the site owner...

I think there are far to many political posts.

Make the political post something that you need to opt into rather than having so many of the post clogging the recent 100.

If you want to make a political post find another site.

Same thing about racial posts.

Lets get this site back to what got so many people to come here in the first place

originally posted by: Reverbs
a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

You misunderstand...

Then I have not expressed my self properly. I am not referring to opinion, I am referring to tone. By all means, disagree, but I am responding to an ugliness that is new and aggressive. It will bring down the site.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

Everyone that is against me is the same team, right?

What's happening in America is that everyone is coming to be sick of liberal identity politics, PC, etc.

I know first hand that people whom dont even normally pay any attention to politics, aren't at all into left or right viewpoints, these SJW's factions and such get their attention with their bizarre hate mongering & social engineering psyop's, and the reaction is universal: recoil.

And the more and more everyone notices the more and more they speak out against it. I know a very intelligent man, borderline genius, he was a live long Democrat and he's even totally cut ties with liberalism over the BS the Democrat platform has turn to full bore no exceptions.

Me, all the people very close to me, intelligent independent libertarian types if at all political, same thing all tuned in now and 100% against SJW Supremacy.

We see it in here, even with liberal democrat mods speaking out. We see the same trend all across every sector of society now, even politicos / journalists turning against them, although Hollyweird they're still currently a lost cause.

But go ahead and blame everyone but the source of societal meltdown, and argue it that the whole site is just "right wing" HQ, like the SJW's around here do about daily.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Yes this thread you did citing an article by a racist that hates white people certainly has a civil tone.

Perhaps you ought to look in the mirror before criticizing others.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

I made mention of something similar in a thread just a few hours ago. I originally found ATS back in 05 and like you, lurked and hid in the shadows for many years. I may have made an account back then but I hadn't posted prior to 2010 so I have seen the same people come and go and some like Marduk come and go yet again lol.

I think that the trolling you're noticing is a symptom of the current state of politics in the West, particularly the U.S. where we have become sharply partisan on both sides and the middle ground seems to have disappeared entirely. It's turned into a George W. Bush mindset of "you're either with us or against us" and that goes for the left and the right. Any minor dispute becomes a challenge and even if you and another random poster were to agree on 90% of your politics, one party or the other will pick up on a minor point and drive it home as if you're running piloting classes for Al Quaeda.

My liberal friends think I'm a right wing maniac because I served in the military and own and collect firearms. My friends on the right think I'm a commie pinko snowflake propping up Antifa because I don't care if 2 dudes shack up together and get married while dressed like Disney Princesses.

The reality is that I just want my gay friends to be able to get married and protect their marijuana plants with the AK 47 or AR 15 platform of their choice.

But back to the original point... big differences I have noticed are the politicization of science. Because I have an anthropology degree In automatically a liberal shill towing the party line and part of the massive interdisciplinary and multinational conspiracy perpetrated by a whole slew of people with agendas that don't even cross the minds of the average tin foil hatter. And then to further the insult to injury with the complete and utterly dismal, willful ignorance towards science in general but specifically anything that appears as a challenge to religious faith, we have a marked decline in due diligence.

The vast majority of people seem to comment in threads based solely on the OP's thread title or a snippet of quoted material mixed in with their own OpEd. Few and far between are the people who actually do their own fact checking and instead they tend to run wild with highly speculative pejoratives. It's something I just can't understand. Hell, about 5 hours ago o was accused of being a paid puppet of Skeptic Overlord because I used facts from the OP's own citation to show that their Premise was entirely fabricated to fit an agenda driven narrative. This my friend from the Great White North, is the new face of ATS. IT Mkes me long for the days of john Lear and his own brand of bat s# crazy haha. At least he put some thought and imagination into his threads and replies!

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

Simply stated, there is far too much trolling and hate-mongering going on, especially from the self-styled Right Wing where discussion would seem to have been replaced by the hurling of the feces.

And there it is! To be specific, the self-styled Left Wing hurling of the feces...

...I should think that there are enough conservative echo chambers out there...

Right alongside its inevitable counterpart the liberal echo chamber.

Just the inclination to separate folks into left/right or Republican/Democrat or liberal/conservative, etc., is the first clue that one is necessarily stuck in that same damn paradigm... just the other side of the coin.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

It isn't just ATS. There is a gloominess nationally. I'm 67 and have never seen such gloominess. For the first time in our history, the fight has gone out of us. We are ruled by a minority.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

Well, that didn't take too long did it?

I'm surprised there weren't more posts trying to delegitimize your point.

I agree with you 100%. And I am no left winger...

originally posted by: JohnnyCanuck
...but I am responding to an ugliness that is new and aggressive. It will bring down the site.

Hope you are wrong but can't help but see the ugliness myself. We sure have been divided and the other side demonised. We've been through many elections but this seems different.

meh, i think it's been as bad or as good as it's ever been.
like you i lurked for a bit, if memory serves me right, i found out about this site around 2010 and signed up around the end of 2012, and really the type of fighting and trash talk you see, has to some extent always been there, it was probably just focused on subject matters you weren't invested in.
if you were active around the time of that whole Mayan prophecy nonsense you probably remember how it got.

As for the political conversations we are seeing today, well yes, it's hard to say there isn't a certain amount of vitriol going around, coming form both ends of the political spectrum though not just the side any person disagrees with.
it got dirty and the blame is to be spread pretty equally, even though most people would never admit to it.
Why is it this way? i have my own little opinion, and that's the fact that at some point, politicians stopped being...politicians, now they are more like social media personalities, trash talking each other.
when you have a politician calling people deplorables, or calling people using frog memes neo nazis
when you have a politician calling people low energy, or fat cows
what do you honestly expect the discourse will be online?
they lead by example, and this is the example that has been set by both candidates.

a reply to: JohnnyCanuck

You realized that you just made an OP that is doing exactly what you're complaining about? You've basically stated that you wish ATS was a Left Wing Echo Chamber.........

Members have been complaining about how ATS has changed since just a few months after ATS came into existence.....

As for staff members that participate in discussions, we're members first, staff second. That's always been a condition of the volunteer FREE work that we do here:

Moderators Are People Too. (and they have opinions)

If we (staff) were not allowed to participate in discussions anymore after becoming staff, none of us would be here. We do have one golden rule that we follow though: we are not allowed to moderate in threads (or our own threads) that we participate in.

If you're no longer happy being here at ATS, there is a solution: click on the Log Off button and go to a different online discussion board that makes you happy. There is no ball and chain keeping you here at ATS.