It's no longer fringe or fun.

TL;DR: The “fringe” is no longer the fringe nor is it “fun.”

First, I’m going to start off by saying this is not a site bashing thread nor am I picking on any one member and if it seems like I am, it's unintentional. I mean this in the general sense unless I specifically refer to ATS and those times I do I mean it in a nostalgic sense not a negative sense. I'm going to miss this site when it goes.

I’ve been lurking on the forums since 2010-ish maybe even before, but 2010 for sure. I wasn’t looking for anything per se, just browsing the threads. A page maybe two then I’d move on. I know other people have said that ATS has changed, over and over again. I can think of at least five threads over the years that stick out in their rants for how “things have changed here.”

It isn’t that ATS has changed, it’s that it has outlived its purpose. It's that the nature of everything changed. Around 2012-2013 there were a handful of conspiracies that started to be proven. A couple corruption things, some weird sighting things and it was laid bare.

THAT is where ATS, no not even just ATS, it all took a turn. The chase of the mystery is what gave ATS life, what gives the “fringe” life. The what if, the who, the where, the when. That dream of one day putting it all together and presenting it to the public, changing the world. It happened, and what was the result?

Nothing.

Instead, and this is anecdotal, I watched as this person or that would just deny it. Ignore it. Name call. Or my favorite, someone would mention something being deleted or hidden and someone else would demand proof. First, that’s ignorant but also a good conspiracy isn’t provable.

Sorry, but it’s not.

And then the politics came. That should have been the conspiracy everyone latched on to, but instead we’ve been played and happily. Counting this one, at least the last five presidents have been continuing the same “storyline.” And the last two have been the “lazier written” of the five. They mirror each other, it’s a distraction from something else. The “true” conspiracy has eluded the hunters because they forgot to question everything. It’s now wrong to question.

That’s why the fringe is no longer fun. There are things that can’t be questioned: events, places, even the d@mn weather. It isn’t fun anymore. It isn’t fun because the proof was given and no one cared so why keep discussing it? The time for action came and went and unlike a movie, no revolution in thought happened, no heroes were crowned; the world kept turning.

I hate to see ATS go. It’s part of my daily routine to check what’s in the New tab, but it has long since quit being a conspiracy site and become a news site. I’m not going to lie, I’ve read news stories here first and that’s great but it’s not fringe nor is it denying ignorance.

Then there are the podcasts, radio shows, and even Coast-to-Coast. Twenty minutes of commercials for five minutes of content that’s been repeated since the seventies.


It’s a joke.

It’s all a joke.

The fringe isn’t even fringe any more, it’s a commercialized hobby. Yes, I know it’s been like that way before 2010 and maybe I never noticed it as much but wow does it seem stronger now. It’s disheartening and unattractive.

Am I saying “they” are not allowed to make money off of their research? Their theories? No. But when you’re hocking fans, shirts, hot sauce...etc. Come on. Sell me a book, not a trinket.

But if you take nothing else away from this, at least take this away, people need to remember “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” -Aristotle

Try it, you might enjoy it.

a reply to: Purpapengus

It is also the community when it comes to talking about the "fringe".

After awhile here it was no longer acceptable to speak of personal experiences.

For instance, I wanted once to bring up a UFO sighting that I experienced as a child... there were 6 witnesses to it (my entire family.) We have gone through the specifics of it for years, the neighbors could confirm it, there is a newspaper report of the electrical anomaly that happened that night. (The neighborhood lost power because the electrical lines coming from town melted. All that was left was the outer insulation.. the copper boiled off and we for a few days had fun picking up the copper splatters under the lines.)

Before I could even really get into the story I was mocked, attacked, told to "prove it or I needed to get my head examined", called crazy and basically burned off the thread.

So why bother?

~shrug~

The big conspiracy is all you saying there are no more conspiracies. That’s a red flag if I’ve read one.

originally posted by: Lumenari
a reply to: Purpapengus

It is also the community when it comes to talking about the "fringe".

After awhile here it was no longer acceptable to speak of personal experiences.

For instance, I wanted once to bring up a UFO sighting that I experienced as a child... there were 6 witnesses to it (my entire family.) We have gone through the specifics of it for years, the neighbors could confirm it, there is a newspaper report of the electrical anomaly that happened that night. (The neighborhood lost power because the electrical lines coming from town melted. All that was left was the outer insulation.. the copper boiled off and we for a few days had fun picking up the copper splatters under the lines.)

Before I could even really get into the story I was mocked, attacked, told to "prove it or I needed to get my head examined", called crazy and basically burned off the thread.

So why bother?

~shrug~

Exactly. I think people have changed drastically over the years.

a reply to: Purpapengus

So what if this was just some teenager who lived in England’s blog about how he felt about different events on 9/11? Would you visit that? What if there was a little public commentary added and interaction with the guy? Would that be worth it?

That is how it began. The community is product...topics really don’t matter to be honest. But the idea of civil discussion, sharing viewpoints and opinions...that is what made it ATS. Or a rose by any other name...

a reply to: Purpapengus

It's no longer socially acceptable on social media to be fringe.

Too many have forced conformity.

Only the brave are fringe any more.

In my humble opinion.

a reply to: Purpapengus

In my opinion; this site started going down hill when everyone were discussing topics put forth BY THE MASS MEDIA. It was/is all-consuming. It's in your face no matter where you turn, including ATS. I even made a thread about it, indirectly by the way, but making sure I held collectively the membership accountable. It can be argued that is a conspiracy by itself.

ATS... it was the last refuge from that political crap. Now it has become it. I am thoroughly disappointed.

Well that the world didn't end in December 2012 was kind of a let down. Before that I could read my daily doses of doom pron. After that the doom became less and less.

What ever happened to Nibiru? That was stuff that was highly entertainable. You didn't have to believe. You could discuss that as if you were reading a good science fiction.

Now we kill ourselves. That just feels so normie.

originally posted by: TheAlleghenyGentleman
The big conspiracy is all you saying there are no more conspiracies. That’s a red flag if I’ve read one.

The real conspiracy is that there isn't one. It's grand design....

a reply to: Ahabstar

So what if this was just some teenager who lived in England’s blog about how he felt about different events on 9/11? Would you visit that? What if there was a little public commentary added and interaction with the guy? Would that be worth it

Not really sure what that has to do with anything, but maybe. Depends on what it was about.

a reply to: DBCowboy

Too many have agreed to conform. Fringe is a commercial venture now and like all commercial ventures, "safe" topics only. No more rotten dot com's,

a reply to: TheAlleghenyGentleman

The only conspiracy I see is that nothing is done in secret anymore. Somehow we've reached a point were the weird, the absurd, the nefarious can be done in public view and we say is "Huh, navy admits ufo vid is real but anyways..."

a reply to: Lumenari

Lumenari:

Before I could even really get into the story I was mocked, attacked, told to "prove it or I needed to get my head examined", called crazy and basically burned off the thread.

So why bother?

Exactly!

Purpapengus:

Instead, and this is anecdotal, I watched as this person or that would just deny it. Ignore it. Name call. Or my favorite, someone would mention something being deleted or hidden and someone else would demand proof. First, that’s ignorant but also a good conspiracy isn’t provable.

No one can believe any singular person unless they have backup "expert" agreement. No singular person can offer an opinion without having the associated "credentials."

a reply to: Purpapengus

That was the origin story of ATS. The teenager was Simon Gray...it has changed considerably since then. But Civility and Decorum was the foundation.

But it is only worth what you make of it.

Funny anecdote. The first time I can explicitly remember visiting ATS was in the early two-thousand-aughts, late at night when I was bored out of my skull and desperately trying to find a distraction.

I'm Gen-X and, as a kid in the mid to late 70's, shows like "In Search Of..." and "That's Incredible" always got my mind going... So I often found myself, in subsequent years, trying to recreate that engagement by searching for information from the various topics that such shows had first exposed me to.

On this particular grind of a night the topic I typed into Yahoo ( or Altavista or Lycos or whatever now archaic engine I was using at the time ) was "Who really killed Kennedy".

ATS was either the first hit, or close to it, and I clicked on the thread.

It was a few hours later when I realized that I'd only stayed on the Kennedy thread for a few minutes before finding the main page and delving into topics I'd never been exposed to at all and would have never bothered to read about had they not just happened onto my screen.

A few weeks later it dawned on me that I was probably hooked as I was coming to ATS by default nearly every time I sat in front of my computer.

An oceans worth of water has passed under that bridge in the years since. With the exception of a couple of periods where life got in the way I'm still here every day. I don't read nearly as many threads as I used to and much of the sense of wonder is gone because I've already at least dipped my toes in just about everything that would subjectively interest me. Still the older, more jaded modern "me" that exists today is still here seeking out that rush from happening across something entirely new - just as the younger version of me used to do.

ATS has changed, to be sure. The community has changed. Absolutely. I've changed without a doubt. But still...

The curiosity remains, ATS and places like it persist and I still have questions about just who in the Hell really shot JFK.

Formats come and go, methods of delivery and engagement evolve and change ( mostly for the worse because the profit motive eventually claims and sanitizes everything )... But the spirit behind it? That's still very much alive and always will be.

Strip away the packaging and it's still fun.

Epic and righteous rant OP. I totally concur. Somehow everything became relative or subjective and there is no more consensus reality. We agree on nothing. Zero common denominators but infinite possibilities. McKenna territory.

We're spiraling into a post-fact, anti-science, anti-human dystopian reality.

When that happens, it's time to stop looking outward and turn one's focus inward. All that matters, all that is real, is what is in your immediate environment.

Where you are matters more than ever. Who you are with matters more than ever. What you focus on matters more than ever.