Watch me get downvoted to hell

We don't live on a globe.

That's what every flat earther used to think.

here, read the article being discussed and be ashamed for being a flat earther.

https://old.reddit.com/r/philosophy/comments/96qf75/philosopher_neil_van_leeuwen_explains_how/e4807cp/

Be ashamed? Lol. I feel sorry for people who think I should be ashamed. Not going to read that crap

but others will

I'm not a flat earther, but yep, you were right, you got downvoted heavily.

I love that you are downvoted because we, uh, don't actually live on a globe.

It's a bit flattened. Fatter at the equator, due to differential effects of gravity and centrifugal force. I think the math works it out to be around a 26 mile difference.

Yea toats

Those are called astroturfers, they're here to disrupt meaningful conversation

They have enough accounts to make the votes look like what they want them to look like and they shape the narrative of threads to the best of their ability

I don't think regular users are using alternate accounts or bots to shape the narrative.

It appears the mods may though, one was caught forgetting to log out of his account in mod mail (meaning he likely has two mod accounts).

Dronepuppet (former mod) was caught using alts to shape discussion in contest mode threads as well.

It's easy to accuse people of astroturfing, it's another thing to have any actual proof that it's happening. Everyone who disagrees with the Trumpian viewpoint is considered a shill by the Trump-sycophants here. When you've convinced yourself that anyone who has a different opinion than you is getting paid to do it you can remove yourself from having to critically think about alternate perspectives.

The biggest question you have to ask is who the fuck would even waste money on astroturfing this sub? What does this sub do that has any effect on reality? If there is a 'deep state'

The biggest question you have to ask is who the fuck would even waste money on astroturfing this sub? What does this sub do that has any effect on reality? If there is a 'deep state' why would they be worried about a bunch of shitposters on reddit?

To shape opinion and try to control the narrative. Human consciousness is like a hive mind, and what you say online does matter. Each post is a drop in the ocean, but it matters. If it didn't, why would organizations like ShareBlue (previously Correct the Record) exist?

Well said. There is a literal information war going on, and it's important to recognize that our intelligence services, or political parties, multinational corporations (sometimes through PR forms), and other countries are trying to influence public opinion via many vectors. Given the number of users on Reddit and this sub, shilling here could be a wise investment for anyone peddling disinfo.

sure keep thinking you're important

Haha that's the spirit! You sound like an absolute charm.

yea I'm pretty fun at parties

Who are these people? What is their incentive? This sub definitely seems rigged. Have any talented conspiracy theorists tried to show who is providing an incentive for astroturfers?

disrupt discussion around what the powers that be don't want us talking about

they're there to ridicule ideas most of the time, even some who are very well documented, ex. Don't mention Hillary in anything else than an outstanding women and imply they're a crime family and utterly corrupt and they come to her rescue

some of them will show up upon certain subjects when keywords are used etc

tl;dr: divide and conquer, if we're fighting, we're not having meaningful discusson

problem is, we're on the internet, and you can make however many accounts you desire and these people have tools to help them, so the game is a bit unbalanced in that sense

oh, anti-vaxx posts are essentially magnets lol

I'm not sure if you responded to my questions

Who are these people?

spooks, and some hired minions probably

What is their incentive?

they get paid to ridicule ideas they're told to, shape narratives in discussions, silence dissenters, etc

Why are they paid to do that? the powers that be don't want us to know certain things

I was hoping for something a bit more specific. I get the general idea and it seems valid and plausible. I was hoping to get more specific info though.

I have seen posts about them in the last months but alas no link on hand

It's pretty hard to quantify, it's all about noticing the patterns, they're present on 8ch on the qresearch board even lol

That makes sense. I'll have to look into it more.

ShareBlue

I agree entirely. I've only recently started actively posting instead of lurking. I'm sick of people actively trying to hamper civil discussion. We all seek the truth and must be more civil. "be the change you want to see in the world". I want people to be more open minded and have better discussions on topics they disagree on, so I'll try my hardest to foster those discussions.

I think a lot of people have grown to be very defensive over their beliefs. Discussing conspiracies with people outside of our community is often like talking to a brick wall and often ends in being called delusional or an idiot. They then become more aggressive and confrontational over time whenever anyone questions their ideas, even if they're reasonable questions. I constantly see people flipping out or attacking a comment that's merely digging deeper into the topic at hand. Squash your ego, people. If your theory has holes in it maybe it's not sound? I feel like it's also important to remember that you can entertain two opposing ideas at the same time. I constantly read on topics that are honestly quite questionable to me, but I'm cognizant of that and take it with a grain of salt. I'm just here to learn.

I've found one of the best ways to exercise this on here is to just hit that "cancel" button liberally.

Remember, you're not just conversing with people. You're building an archive of discussion about these topics.

I use years old reddit threads for all kinds of things. Tech threads for fixing IT problems. When I'm researching a specific CT, I'll read through years old threads.

All the useless comments really irk me, because they're just annoying to read through.

If your post objectively deserves to be downvoted, hit the cancel button and save yourself the trouble.

I have canceled no less than 30 long comments in the past because I realized it wasn't worth it anyway. I realize by the end that they probably don't care and are definitely not trying to discuss it. I've honestly never been one to get caught up in arguing on here. I only recently started commenting after having quite a few pleasant discussions with people that were overwhelmingly civil. I just wish more people would show some empathy and try to understand each other.

I like to dissect their argument to its crux which is usually a false assumption, and argue that. Not for the debate with a stranger, but for the readers who follow.

I bet that's satisfying. I never viewed it that way. Those are the sort of comments I end up canceling because I know it will be wasted on whatever person I'm replying to. I think your method is honestly much better now that you put it that way; we shouldn't let people spout obvious logical fallacies without correcting their poor reasoning. Some people may actually believe it, and then they'll just spread it more. Do they usually rage at you? There's a lot of that here.

They do rage, sometimes. I find that most of them are not willing to carry out any sort of actual debate more than a comment or two. They are mostly interested in setting public tone and then move somewhere else.

Sometimes I find someone willing to have an actual debate and they settle down after a couple hot comments, but it's rare.

I don't see why I shouldn't try and have a reasonable discussion on here. Who benefits from me lurking just to let someone who doesn't give a fuck post all day. I don't get it

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

I still think the flat earth stuff was pushed to once again lump all conspiracy theories in with loonies, the same as how the MSM has worked hard over the last 2 years to make all conspiracy theories "dangerous" and to only listen to their truth.

dope user name bro. Legit we are in a spiritual war.

Check out this brother who took DMT and saw the Dome Simulation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khL3l2G9Iow

bout to make a new post on this

See I'll entertain flat earth but I definitely don't believe it.

same here, its a fun topic imo

Does that apply to Russiagate and the Steele dossier?

Its pretty awesome when somebody says something that charges your opinion, or at least gets you to think about something in a new perspective. IMO.

its a great feeling. i remember when i realized weed wasnt a green version of heroin and the huge "holy shit what else have I been lead to believe" moment.

I wonder if there is a correlation between young people realizing theyve been lied to growing up into "conspiracy theorists" or not

Its like uncovering a mini-conspiracy theory I had orchestrated on myself!

I cant imagine thinking weed was like heroin. Thats horrifying!

A sub that prides itself on thinking critically instead resorts to hive mind like tactics. It's like no one here can reach a consensus on something and instead everyone is banging on their own fucking drum.

Maybe I'm not understanding this correctly, but don't these two sentences kind of contradict each other? You want a consensus but you don't want a hive mind? That's going to be nearly impossible, even if you could guarantee there isn't a single bad actor in the group. Just look at one of the most discussed and mainstream conspiracies: 9/11. You'll find dozens of different theories posted in this subreddit and all will insist that theirs is right. Was is a controlled demolition? Thermite? Nuclear bombs? Were the planes real or just holograms? Were they actually cruise missiles? There will never be any consensus unless someone literally comes forward and provides proof of exactly what happened. And even then people will question it.

Wow, that was fast.

I just find it funny that the mean conspiracy on this sub is the government sanctioned narrative about Russia

Tmor test to be getting money for this at this point. They're too efficient

As long as the Admins are complicit and allow degenerate scum like Top Minds to do what they do, and allow shills for the global deep state to use vote bots, this sub will remain fucked. There's really nothing we can do about it, except maybe to ignore shills.

100% agree

I've been a lurker here since 2010 because I find conspiracies cool. Watching this sub go from interesting theories to pure propaganda has been fun. I've decided to speak up more with the people in this sub being completely cool with blatant antisemitism and other hate speech that has led to the alienation of the sub.

Some of which may be cointelpro-style tactics to infiltrate and discredit this sub.

A sub that prides itself on thinking critically instead resorts to hive mind like tactics

It wasn't always this way. Since the last US elections people came here in droves spouting nonsense which has now turned it into a shitty news site with clickbait political garbage. And mass upvotes on non-conspiracy based threads and interesting ones completely downvoted and people just telling other they're wrong with no discussion or evidence provided.

It doesn't help that some mods seem to be in on it. You can't call it out without risk of punishment.

Do you have any evidence at hand?

Ask axolotl peyotl, he can show you first hand.

Thanks!

The non-organic voting patterns make it pretty obvious when there's a brigade.

Completely agree.

I am not a normal poster to this subreddit, but have been a lurker for quite some time. The amount of political brigading and absolute shitposting is unreal. Quite interesting times we live in, where most people will take a headline at face value especially if it resonates emotionally with them - regardless if its right or wrong.

Agreed, man. I've been saying for a while that it's best to ignore rather than to be confrontational. I see posts I think are stupid or low effort or blatant trolling all the time, I'm only human and can't help but engage them sometimes, but generally I move along and end up finding a good discussion in another less popular, less vitriolic thread. There's still real people here looking to discuss and learn, it just takes a little longer to find them than it used to, but I think it's still worth the effort.

You've said it dude. People need to have healthy amounts of skepticism.

We gotta stick together too. A lot of people want to destroy the level of discussion over here. They already succeded in other places, so this is probably the last stronghold and they not only managed to marginalize us from other communities but they also have us fighting against each other...

You can't kick-out all the troublemakers without eliciting claims of that being a conspiracy too.

Why aren't you allowed to question the Bible in conspiracy circles?

Source? Link? Does the TV approve? Occam's razor means complicated ideas are false. Does my teacher approve? Stupid, crazy, idiot, timewaster....

-your average comment here

I just think the answer is pretty simple. This sub became to large and attracted too much attention over time and particularly during the last election.

I think and am just speculating here in the past maybe this sub stumbled uncomfortably close to the mark in past discussions on topics relating to 9/11 and other government malfeasance.

That just isnt good for Reddit commercially and it certainly isn't good for opinion makers, politicians and other power brokers that vitally depend on people believing in the legitimacy.

So, I think the strategy became two fold:

First, make the sub look ridiculous(and i know this place does a good job on its own sometimes) by constantly bringing up topics like flat earth and reptile people or other outlandish stuff plus flooding the sub with ridicule for anyone that is bringing up 9/11 topics or drug running by the US government ,domestic spying, pedophilia rings run by those at the top of this society and the intelligence services.

Second, I think people are quickly losing faith in the two party system and that doesn't help any politician today at the top,middle or bottom so they have been trying to stem that tide by stoking fires of partisanship which I think we have definitely seen in the last year and half.

Anyway, it is just gonna get worse the closer we get the election. I think all we can do is identify the astroturfing and electioneering call it for what it is and lessen their effectiveness.

The thing I don't get is why people come and persist at pushing mainstream crap. I don't go in /r/politics , why do /r/politics lovers come here?

I get coming for intellectual debate. Hell, that's why I like hanging out in /r/communism and /r/debatefascism . But I'm not a dick about it, and I try to learn the perspective enough to actually argue for it when I'm there. Alternatively, I try to actually have a debate and explore how well-supported the discussion actually is.

But the folks who come here and push the same tired CNN lines then resort to ad hominems when called on it ... for the love of God why?

Yea Q is a crock of shit.

It goes with the seasons.. place was great when Obama was in office as it was filled with conservative truthers. Now that Trump is in office many leftist parasites flooded the sub to shill against trump. So funny to see communist democrats try to make up fake conspiracies to support their biased narratives.

> A lot of people here truly come from a "professional skeptic" standpoint, which is all fine and great, until you throw facts out the window and just start repeating cliche phrases over and over like some kind of circle jerk.

The people that call themselves "skeptics", not people who are just skeptical by nature, but the ones that hang on every word of Randi, Dawkins etc. go the meetings, read the books....They have just raised science and "rational" thought to the level of a religion. You might as well argue with Mormons (well maybe that's not a good analogy, Mormons are usually very polite.)

If you read r/skeptic you will see the amazing similarity between many posts there and here. I often say to myself "hold a mirror up to r/skeptic and you get r/conspiracy.

>It's like no one here can reach a consensus on something

I think that's the nature of the beast, it's a big complicated world and whatever "the truth" is, you can never really tell if you have found it or just a better lie. I really hate to compare life to entertainment products (I cringe when I hear "red pilled" I didn't even like that shitty PK Dick wannabe movie) but it's kind of like The X Files. Over 11 seasons you are given the "real answer" over and over, but then it turns out maybe that's not really it.

Because we have a lot of people here who aren't seeking truth; they're trying to block those who are.

they banned anyone from talking about pizzagate here, are you really laboring under the delusion that we're free from censorship? This should be your source for the relatively inconsequential stuff, since thats all that's allowed

The biggest question you have to ask is who the fuck would even waste money on astroturfing this sub? What does this sub do that has any effect on reality? If there is a 'deep state' why would they be worried about a bunch of shitposters on reddit?

To shape opinion and try to control the narrative. Human consciousness is like a hive mind, and what you say online does matter. Each post is a drop in the ocean, but it matters. If it didn't, why would organizations like ShareBlue (previously Correct the Record) exist?