My observation

Firstly, as the subject states, the following is not a rant but rather my observation of some of the topics that have been posted on here since I first discovered this board a few weeks ago.

About myself: recently left the military after 12 years service. For the initial 4 years I served on Polaris nuclear submarines - in a tactical capacity based in the control room. I was cleared to well above Top Secret for that job.
After that period I transferred to the Air branch and graduated and served for the remaining years as an Air Traffic Control officer therefore if anyone feels like flaming me for my comments please bear in mind that I have had far more access to privileged information and in the right environment than many have on here.

So......... do I know anything? Yes. Do cover ups happen? Yes. I was involved in one whilst on deterrent patrol. To this day I don't know the full story but that's all I'm going into.
As an air traffic guy serving on ships all over the world did I ever see anything strange? Absolutely - all the time. So often in fact I thought nothing of it. Mostly just on the screen though - only once by naked eye - that was my first experience and which got me interested in UFO's etc. but not to the extent of what I would call being nuts on the subject which is prevalent of the many posts on this board.

I truly believe there are many people like me here on ATS, sane, intelligent, reasonable and logical minded. If I see a picture of Martian terrain, try as I might I can't see an old lady watering her petunias in it. I fail to believe that an alien race would call themselves the Federation of Light! C'mon - the federation! And they speak - 'In 10 of your earth days' just as in the 50's B movie flying saucer epics - and people on here fall for it.
A guy claims he is a time traveller and clearly gives a picture of a Lego toy as proof of his time machine and still he gets pages and pages of folk asking him to prove himself!

This people is what puts me off coming on here. It really does look like, to a new visitor like me that ATS is full of sad weirdo’s, a vent for idiots, kids with little imagination and slightly deranged people with too much imagination who could look at a Pepsi can and dream up a cover up or conspiracy about it.

I'm now in a boring job and come on here to see if there are any interesting topics of which there are a few thank goodness. I personally would like a new forum called 'Away with the Fairies' where all these other posters can go and I can stay away from.

Oh well, I only have to wait until the 14th apparently until I will be embraced in love by the federation so I won't need money so I can give up my boring job.
Until then I may just as well start channelling and selling books via paypal!

You have to understand with any topic that is against the norm to discuss to begin with that you have to take the good with the bad. If we were all of the same mindset there would be little to the discussion, and we would not get very far. Sometimes it takes an idea from someone that has too much imagination for those of us who know, but are skeptical, to make the leap to something we have not considered yet. It is easy to get swept up in yourself and think that because you have seen these things first hand you have the entire picture. I know for a fact I have no damn real clue about the big picture.
Part of what convinces me of this most is the fact that I have seen UFO's many times in my life, but not a one of them was like another. And the differences were not minor.. they were major. People always think seeing is believing, but to a person in pusuit of truth, seeing only opens up more questions.
So believe me when I say that I understand where you are coming from. Seeing a UFO does not make one see Alien bases or Amusement parks in every mars photo with smooth rocks and tricks of light in the shadows.
But those creative minds are also a part of what makes this field go round.
Without the creative thinkers, we would never have any alternative "out there" theories that end up leading to a real discovery of something we just would not have normally considered. Our rational thinking is limited because we tend to only see things inside the box. As a military man I would expect you to know the values of being able to perceive things "outside the box". I know it is required for some fields of service. ')

I star and flag your post because you hit the nail on the head. While there are many good threads there are many others that wouldn't even make good Sci-Fi.

It is best to weed through them to find the ones that sound most promissing and subscibe to those.

One common thread seems to find a couple users that post reasonable posts and take a look at the forums in which they are subscribed, this helps with the weedein quite a bit, altho everyone seems to like to subscribe to some rediculous threads, myself included.

reply to post by vonspurter


I hear ya Vonspurter!

Though I agree with Nephratari that we must take the good with the bad - it seems to me that the scales are firmly tipped in favor of the bad. It's a frustrating trend that's growing here.

The part that annoys me the most is that it's often the bogus threads that get all the attention - yet a great topic will be lucky to get past a couple of pages until it's unceremoniously dropped off the front page by an influx vox pops asking what shoes aliens would prefer, Nikes or Reboks...

It's a sad state of affairs here sometimes. I was more accepting of certain phenomena and testimonials until I joined here. However a plethora of obvious hoaxes and infantile threads turned me cautious & skeptical very quickly - which I guess is a good thing!

Star & Flag Bud!

IRM

[edit on 1/10/08 by InfaRedMan]

Welcome to ATS.

I had a good chuckle at your post, and am now standing near you just to absorb the common sense you are exuding--it's the figurative breath of fresh air so often needed in these forums.

Originally posted by NephraTari
People always think seeing is believing, but to a person in pusuit of truth, seeing only opens up more questions.

NephraTari, fabulous point, truly. I couldn't agree more, and applaud this sort of pragmatism.

reply to post by NGC2736

If there was gold in every stream, there would be a lot of boat anchors that never rust.

I believes that sums it up verry well. Verry well put. Can I borrow that for my quote?

reply to post by vonspurter


One good thing is you can use your military experience in the Navy to help weed out the BS. There are many claims made that many who have never been in the military would not know is false, and we can help steer away from it.
There is good and bad, but every once in a while a really good thread or information comes through here.