ABC says conspiracy web sites are contributing to mental health issues

Originally posted by Yoda411
reply to post by angel of lightangelo

 

The reason this argument continued on for days is because you never fully grasped my point of view. Instead, you never read the article, ignored my evidence, and ignored the facts of the article - dismissing them as "not facts".

Read it twice. Not one fact. That is why people are saying this story had no facts.

For anyone wishing to continue this discussion, and has been seeking factual evidence to support the claim that "conspiracy web sites are contributing to mental health issues", I will re-post this best possible evidence which has been ignorantly overlooked by my opposition.

I looked at those as well. Still not any facts. Sorry but you should really give up. Between laughing at you and laughing at private U2U's about you, I can not get anything done here today. I am goind to invite anyone who knows what "rebuked" actually means to try and help our friend out and stand beside him in this to help explain what the hell has him thinking there are any facts in it.

In my oppinion they should commend sites were people who are suffering with menal ilnesses like depression and people who are convinced of their peonal experiences, can freely share their thoughts and worries. The mainstream worlld cruley s'n-word's at these people adding to them feeling more emotionally vulnerable and sadly often alienated.
Why is it wrong for these people to have found somewhere where they can get everything they feel inside of ftheir chest. I would say they are left feeling more linke 'i'm not the only one' than 'i'm even crazier than before i joined'. This is my honest oppinion, but who am i but a mere observer.

reply to post by Iblis Smiley


Debating you and angel is similar to debating a brick wall. You are not actually seeking truth, you are looking for factual evidence in which you and I both know does not exist. You are arguing that I cannot "prove with facts" my opinion. However, in the same scrutiny you cannot "prove with facts" that ATS does not cause mental health issues.

I have given my evidence for my side of the argument which includes an individual experiencing paranoia after recently frequenting ATS, as well as the "Truman Show Delusion" proposed by two psychologists whom specifically are studying the effect of falsely accepted YouTube videos for credible sources of information.

If you are actually attempting in debating this subject further, rather than blatantly attacking my individual opinion as ignorant, I would like to invite you to provide evidence that ATS does not and cannot promote paranoia and delusion.

reply to post by Yoda411



I dont think it is ATS. The person will be the same invividual online as offline. Online they are able to express their thoughts and see other sides to their argument (other peoples perspective) and listen to other peoples experiences. Whetherthey are on ATS or not, thy will still have their worries and fears. Is it not better to share your fears and worries with other ATS members than it to whirl around in your mind and talk to average joe or Mainstream forum who doesn't care about your crazy ideas

reply to post by MCoG1980


The thing is there is a lot of false information on here that is purported to fact. If a person is delusional or prone to delusions these claims could then have an effect on the way these delusions manifest.

And to everybody looking for "facts" can you please elucidate as to what you will accept as facts? I ask because there is very little in psychology that is 100% fact. We have a lot of theories with support, but one can rarely say that something is absolutely true. The best kind of study we'd ever get in relation to the topic of this article would be a correlational study and that wouldn't prove any kind of causation. One can not really isolate studying conspiracy theories in a lab environment and then measure a person's mental stability before and after. However, we do have observational data, which is one kind of data psychologists look at when developing theories and just from my experiences here I have observed people who suffer from delusions that are based off of what they've read on this site, and this includes my own personal experience.

Originally posted by MCoG1980
I dont think it is ATS. The person will be the same invividual online as offline.

While I will agree mental delusions and paranoia can manifest themselves in an individual despite use of the Internet, it is my belief that they can be further perpetuated and increased by reading conspiracy theories.

If you are generally paranoid and you read from what appears to be a credible source that you are going to die in 2012, my personal opinion is that the paranoid individual would become increasingly paranoid.

This isn't a new attack, this is the same old attack that the MSM has launched against free speech. Remember that right after the OKC bombing that the White House and the MSM tried to blame "talk radio" for creating a climate that invited violence? They had to recant on that after McVeigh was arrested.

So what we are seeing now is an attack on "talk web" and who will the MSM focus on? Any sites that encourage discussion of the topics that they refuse to cover.

Isn't it interesting that the MSM brags about their First Amendment mandate to serve the public, inform, defend, etc. but they will deny the same rights for religion, individuals, websites, and even competing media like Drudge.

Kind of reminds me of the former Soviet Union in which rights were selective and some were more equal than others.

This post is possibly the best example I can show which supports the hypothesis that; ATS can contribute to mental health issues.

A boy named Jeff Weise contributed to the following threads under the user name "Weise":

"The White Owl" - Link

1.) It was an Owl, sitting in plain site in the brush near the road, I saw him/her clearly, and to boot it was White. A White Owl in the middle of the day sitting next to the road.

I didn't think too much about it till about two months later, I asked my grandmother about it.

They were sitting in the casino playing their favourite game when my grandmothers friend (same one who had witnessed the Owl), fell the to the ground. She had had a heart attack, long story short she didn't make it. Period.

I always heard seeing an Owl during daytime was an Omen of some sort, since Owls are a night bird, but doing some research on the net I didn't find out what exactly they are an omen for, but rather, that they have always (for the most part) been associated with evil forces.

The first comment left on his thread was by "superdude" and is follows:

Well you did try to commit suicide as I read it. Sounds like you're pretty much screwed

"School Scare" - Link (6th post down)

They pegged me as a possible school shooter earlier this year, or wait, that was last month.

Apparently someone was supposed to shoot up the school on 4/20, and there was alot of buzz around me, and for good reasons I guess.

I wear combat boots (with my pant legs tucked into them), wear a trench coat, and at the last basketball game my friend Mac, (who happens to wear a black trench coat like mine), did a "Sieg Heil" during the national anthem (for shock value), so they had us pegged as "Trench Coat Mafia." My "friend" Rose even said that I fit the profile of a school shooter that she saw on 60 minutes. They also pinned it on me because 4/20 happens to be Adolf Hitlers birthday, and I seem to be the only one who promotes National Socialist beliefs (not the stereotypical "White Power" bs you hear racists shouting, either). So it's not hard to label a school shooter.

I happen to be "not so popular," Gothic (in the sense that I wear nothing but black, spike my hair in "devil" horns, and listen to music like Cradle of Filth and KoRn), and happen to be an emotionally disturbed person, if you could call me that. So it's really no problem slapping a label on someone because they fit the stereotype. And no, I wasn't the one who did the threat. On "Game day" (4/20) the Feds were all around the place, watching, cop cars on nearly every corner around the school and a few large unmarked black vans sitting around, I bet they were on standby. So they WERE prepared for something to happen.

(PS,
I'm not a white supremecist, can't even spell it, I'm a Native American, Ojibwa, living on the Redlake Indian Reservation in Minnesota, and lets not have this turn into a hardcore political discussion about my political ideals, ok? )

[Edited on 13-5-2004 by Weise]

And ultimately the sad consequences...


Wikipedia - Jeff Weise

Jeffrey James Weise (August 8, 1988 – March 21, 2005) was a high school student from Red Lake, Minnesota, United States, who murdered nine people and injured 15 others in a shooting spree on March 21, 2005. The victims were his grandfather and grandfather's girlfriend at his home, five students, an unarmed security guard and a teacher, and himself, at Red Lake High School.

He left many postings across the Internet on websites such as nazi.org, offering public insight into his thoughts and the hardships in his life that led to his depression and fascination with dark imagery in the months and years prior to the shooting.

This is conclusive evidence linking ATS as a negative influence on Jeff Weise's mental health issues.




[edit on 12/17/08 by Yoda411]

Originally posted by Yoda411
reply to post by Iblis Smiley

 

Debating you and angel is similar to debating a brick wall. You are not actually seeking truth, you are looking for factual evidence in which you and I both know does not exist.

LOL. Oh, now I see. It was my problem for expecting facts on the news. I should no longer expect that?

Originally posted by Yoda411
If you are actually attempting in debating this subject further, rather than blatantly attacking my individual opinion as ignorant, I would like to invite you to provide evidence that ATS does not and cannot promote paranoia and delusion.

The premise needs the proof. Prove it does. All you have proven so far is that paranoia does indeed exist and thanks to the internet age, we can see it better from here. How does that prove sites like ATS have anything to do with that? I already provided evidence of a paranoid schizophrenic who knew cameras were all over the place just to watch him back in the '70s. Now, can you prove conspiracy sites contribute?

reply to post by Yoda411


Once again I have to give credit where it's due. You nailed that one Yoda.

That officially provided a solidified argument.

Originally posted by angel of lightangelo

Originally posted by Yoda411
reply to post by Iblis Smiley

 

Debating you and angel is similar to debating a brick wall. You are not actually seeking truth, you are looking for factual evidence in which you and I both know does not exist.

LOL. Oh, now I see. It was my problem for expecting facts on the news. I should no longer expect that?

Yes, silly that. I thought the news should be factual as well. I also thought that since Yoda said I could quote him on that, that there would be some. I cannot believe my stupidity. Expecting a news report to have facts in it. Thanks yoda for pointing out how stupid that was.

Originally posted by Yoda411
This post is possibly the best example I can show which supports the hypothesis that; ATS can contribute to mental health issues.

A boy named Jeff Weise contributed to the following threads under the user name "Weise":

Yes because before conspiracy sites we did not have suicides, paranoid delusions, or clinical depression did we? Can you show how a conspiracy site contributed to the mental illness. I will admit that the people that taunted him on the web may have helped hasten things but he was still sick all on his own. That was nothing but electronic bullying and is found anywhere there is a forum that people can type in - even ABC.com.

Originally posted by angel of lightangelo
I will admit that the people that taunted him on the web may have helped hasten things but he was still sick all on his own.

Therefor, conspiracy web sites contributed to his mental health issue.

Thank you.

reply to post by angel of lightangelo


Shall I rub the underside of your testicles like yoda's lil fiend does for him with each 'amazing' post?

This jumped out at me instantly...

Wikipedia:
Weise expressed frustration with being forced back to the Red Lake region and was considered an outsider by many there. Troublesome behavior eventually led the school to put him in a home schooling program in 2004. He was apparently taking medication for depression and was seeing a therapist. He attempted suicide in 2004, describing his experience in a post made on the website Above Top Secret: "I had went through a lot of things in my life that had driven me to a darker path than most choose to take. I split the flesh on my wrist with a box opener, painting the floor of my bedroom with blood I shouldn't have spilt. After sitting there for what seemed like hours (which apparently was only minutes), I had the revelation that this was not the path. It was my decision to seek medical treatment, as on the other hand I could have chose to sit there until enough blood drained from my downward lascerations on my wrists to die."

and the fact that he was on marijuana can cause schitzophrenia.

There have been documenatries, court cases about depression drugs such as paxil, zoloft and prozac causing violence and suicide. I think i will post such a thread soon if not already posted. If you watch the documentary they had thoughts of killing being on these drugs. Isnt it amazing that nearly all the school shooters were on depression meds. This happened to my friend as soon as they put him on depression drugs he was suicidal and violent and had thoughts of killing. We immediately made him seek alternative therapy and he no longer has them thoughts and is doing very well.

The fact that he frequented those sites and this one does not make what he did conclusive.

poundpuplegacy.org...

uniteforlife.wordpress.com...

www.baumhedlundlaw.com...

www.wrongplanet.net...


[edit on 17-12-2008 by meadowfairy]

Originally posted by meadowfairy
and the fact that he was on marijuana can cause schitzophrenia.

PLEASE!

Not only is that such a twist of the truth, save it for another discussion entirely.

Originally posted by blowfishdl

Originally posted by meadowfairy
and the fact that he was on marijuana can cause schitzophrenia.

PLEASE!

Not only is that such a twist of the truth, save it for another discussion entirely.

Not only does everyone know its linked to skitzophrenia its not a secret anymore. If you look at those other links where prescription meds cause suicide and violence plus taking marijuana you have a heavy cocktail there.

Either way i have no problems with hemp seeds they are healthy for you and contain omegas3, 6 & 9

[edit on 17-12-2008 by meadowfairy]

reply to post by meadowfairy


Seriously, save that for another thread. Whether he was schizophrenic or not, or whether you really truly believe Marijuana can trigger this, it is unrelated to the conclusion that is made.

Originally posted by Yoda411

Originally posted by angel of lightangelo
I will admit that the people that taunted him on the web may have helped hasten things but he was still sick all on his own.

Therefor, conspiracy web sites contributed to his mental health issue.

Thank you.

Walking down the street and seeing someone "look at you funny" can contribute to a mental health issue.

Blaming others for one's mental state is shifting the responsibility, IMO