Is r/conspiracy heading towards a politically-based distraction site just like AboveTopSecret has become?
1 2018-09-27 by moeron60
More and more, r/conspiracy is becoming all about the political theater that we are witnessing on "the news." I saw this same exact thing happen to the popular 'alternative forum' website called AboveTopSecret, where it was once filled with amazing conspiracy theories of all kinds to now it's just all politics. I seriously think this is intentional and makes me wonder just who is moderating Reddit subs.
Thoughts?
47 comments
1 Sabremesh 2018-09-27
I'm removing this post because frankly we have had enough people concern trolling about this sub in the past week.
This spate of "I hate /r/conspiracy " posts do seem to get an extraordinary number of upvotes. What are you saddos doing here in the first place, if you hate it so much!? Take your concern spam somewhere else.
1 Raven9nine9 2018-09-27
Wow, you sure take this personally don't you. I think you ought to take a step back and realize the reddit conspiracy sub is not you, and you are not reddit. Having hurt feelings when people criticise it is analogous to the shopping cart guy at walmart feeling hurt because customers bitch about the shopping cart wheels.
1 Sabremesh 2018-09-27
Nothing to do with hurt feelings, just cutting out concern spam which seems to be theme of the week.
1 LoganLinthicum 2018-09-27
I personally think it's a valid concern with an implementable solution (post tagging and sorting) that those in power refuse to consider, no matter how much it is asked for and the arguments made for it.
1 Rayfloyd 2018-09-27
Or perhaps there is a lot of conspiracies in politics
just a thought
1 MajorButtes 2018-09-27
Politics is obviously teeming with conspiracies but when people keep falling for the Left/Right distraction portion of the whole thing it gets a little old.
1 Rayfloyd 2018-09-27
but the left/right distraction is exactly that as you've said
the real fight is authoritarians vs libertarians
Do you want freedom or do you want your feelings to be safe, that's the real fork in the road.
1 mastigia 2018-09-27
So much this, jfc.
1 GuruOfGravitas 2018-09-27
That is funny since libertarian is the most extreme form of authoritarianism.
1 throwayohay 2018-09-27
Huh?
1 mlzr 2018-09-27
The fork in the road is manufactured, obviously. The rich control the poor and set up pretend battles between those poor as a distraction, the whole red/blue team nonsense is an invention of the same - both teams are financed by the exact same people. Check the receipts.
1 moeron60 2018-09-27
Right, I think anyone who is using this sub understands the idea of conspiracy in politics.
But what's happening right now in r/conspiracy is not talking about conspiracy theories - it's getting all caught up in this stupid political theater and arguing with each other because of left/right, red/blue, liberal/conservative, etc. This is becoming just another platform to keep all of us distracted.
For people who use a sub which has the overall notion of being more aware than the general public, r/conspiracy sure is falling in the trap just like everyone else is ESPECIALLY ATS.
1 3rdeyenotblind 2018-09-27
Or perhaps the whole of politics is conspiracy. People who even engage in any form of tribal warfare within the political system are missing the point.
To them I say...good luck and maybe one day they'll realize it's all theatre to accomplish exactly what it is doing now...
1 Rayfloyd 2018-09-27
what does the word even mean anyways, I get accused of being "partisan" sometimes, but it sincerely doesn't not compute to anything for me
what's happening and who's doing it?
1 3rdeyenotblind 2018-09-27
Politics I believe it means the "game" of governance that our leaders participate in.
What's happening now? How about for a start the people that we "elect" to represent us couldn't care less about the common person. They are simply beholden to corporations and their high end donors. If you can't see this...well...I don't really know what to say to you then.
As far as what they are doing...EXACTLY NOTHING for the common good of the people. If you are labeled "partisan"...give me a few good things your "team" has accomplished.
All the system does now is embolden people to draw lines in the sand and endlessly argue and accomplish nothing.
1 Rayfloyd 2018-09-27
I agree with everything of the above
But for some reason, supporting Trump as a figure of anti-establishment often gets me called partisan, though I'm not even American lol
1 Rockran 2018-09-27
Then submit more interesting content. You're guilty of what you complain about, given your submission history.
1 moeron60 2018-09-27
Please point out to me, which submissions I have posted that deal with our current political theater? I mean what is happening RIGHT NOW that is blasted all over the "news" ?
1 Rockran 2018-09-27
Posts on the power structure and Q are political.
1 moeron60 2018-09-27
So I was specifically referencing things that are a part of our current political theater (i.e. "the news") and taking said references and arguing with people about it?
1 mr_dong 2018-09-27
They all are. Non of the top conspiracy sites are focusing on our way out. Politics is tired and predictable. Politics is like a snake eating its own tail, it just goes round and round.
I think there are hidden truths about the nature of civilisation, extra-dimensional events, UFOs and more importantly consciousness that are all worth exploring.
Many look towards politics as being a magical solution for all of the Earth's ailments. It isn't, never has been,never will be. Folk have to make the changes needed by acting as a collective. people have power outside of politics.
Maybe that was the real conspiracy all along.
1 tiberius_regulus 2018-09-27
Well said! You were always one of my favorite mods here.
1 datsallvolks 2018-09-27
I lament the state of affairs at ATS. However, I don't think it is intentional I think it's just the state of affairs right now. The last election was the most controversial in my lifetime and Trump is the most controversial President perhaps ever. So politics are going to rule the day. Many of the OP's on ATS that revolve around politics are posted and joined into by some of most long standing members.
1 swansong19 2018-09-27
It is definitely intentional. The major change seemed to occur when Sandy Hook happened.
1 AnonymousHero4life 2018-09-27
The world and society are entering a major crisis. The political bullshit is a response to the crisis. Everyone is engrossed in it because it is a powerful and scary metaphor and true reflection of what is happening. Conspiracy theorizing loses it's appeal when real crisis hits the stage. Shit is going down.
1 geraltshairclip 2018-09-27
The Deep State pulled off the most amazing trick - they unveiled themselves thanks to Trump and in the meantime, created the most hyper-partisan political landscape ever.
Meanwhile the oligarchs in the MIC (obviiusly including big banking, pharma and agri now) carry on with the agenda while everyone is at each other's throats.
The problem is the regressive left are committed, mobilized and aggressive. I see conservatives and libertarians falling for this Q BS, and many of them have now switched off entirely ("trust the plan"). But WWG1WGA to my mind means be a sheep - they are one of the only types of creature that do that...
There is, in my opinion, one HUGE conspiracy going on, and multiple psy-ops, and they are all working.
We all need to work together and keep focused on the people who are socially engineering us to all hate each other, not on the Kabuki theatre.
BTW I am not a regressive lefty, a conservative or from the US. I'm a classical liberal in the UK tradition but can see that the cultural Marxism from the left, and the cultural imperialism from big tech is destroying Western civilization.
That's what we all need to focus on.
And yes, I stopped going to Abovetopsecret because it became impossible to have a discussion without someone from the left going on there and hijacking the thread, often arguing the most ludicrous, illogical points in the process.
Just my 2/c.
1 moeron60 2018-09-27
Well put... but again, you are labeling yourself as x or y, falling into the same ol' trap that you are calling out.
Left
Right
Liberal
Conservative
Red
Blue
X
Y
These are all labels, labels designed to keep us distracted and segregated. You are not a liberal you are someone who believes what you believe. Stop labeling yourself, that's part of the theater.
1 geraltshairclip 2018-09-27
Right mate, so we shouldn't have principles so we can't come up with policies that might actually make the human race move forward. This is what annoys me so much about the current situation: everyone is so distracted by the BS (deliberately in my opinion) that the elites can do whatever they want and we are all scrapping over idiocy.
I actually want to talk about policies that can move things forward, hence I've actually got off my ass and been an activist based on POLICIES and am now moving into politics.
Being amoral and having no position isn't going to get you anywhere either.
1 laika404 2018-09-27
I think you hit all the mainstream republican talking points. The Republican party and the Billionaires in charge thank you for your service.
1 geraltshairclip 2018-09-27
Congratulations for proving my point.
1 shiftbits 2018-09-27
Ive lurked on this sub for a long time, because conspiracies are always interesting. This sub isn't heading there, it is there, has been for a while. What it has become is a safe space for people to discuss their (usually trump supporting, and right wing, but not always) beliefs and conspiracies about their political rivals without feeling attacked by others who chime in with facts and sources that prove them wrong (well, there will be dissenting opinion, but it will be drowned out by people that agree with their point, which is why they have congregated here). If they go to a more mainstream political themed subreddit and start posting their beliefs, they get absolutely crushed by people that actually have resources to back up their claims (the vast majority of the claims on this subreddit are backed up by nothing but popular opinion amongst the userbase, but that's to be expected in a conspiracy discussion), but 90% of the time these people are not friendly about it at all, so this person isn't going to bother investigating any claims or following sources, they won't walk away with a new perspective, they will just cry shill and run away and post here about how horrible and uninformed (insert sub where it happened) is. At least from a lurkers perspective that's how the slow and steady politicization of this subreddit played out.
1 Lujanick 2018-09-27
As a fellow lurker, I agree. Most posts on this sub are a complete echo chamber.
1 ZiggyAnimals 2018-09-27
I dissent in that while post votes overwhelmingly favor the right wing spectrum, comments and comment votes favor the left wing spectrum. It's a balance of shorts. There is also a difference between day and night in the Americas. Right wing spectrum is a creature of the night, while left wing spectrum requires sunlight.
1 Lujanick 2018-09-27
That’s very interestingly put, I like it
1 sirio2012 2018-09-27
And when it gets quarantined like the other subs, it destroys it for long time posters who are true to the sub.
1 shiftbits 2018-09-27
I agree with that, it's bound to happen given a lot of the misinformation that got other subs banned winds up here too, I will be annoyed when it does.
1 Sabremesh 2018-09-27
Rule 10
1 Drake02 2018-09-27
Yes, I lament the times when we could entertain conspiracy theories without calling each other retards like 4channers.
1 Eywadevotee 2018-09-27
I used to post a lot on ats but after about 2013 or so they went into vapid no info mode. Sad.
1 LoganLinthicum 2018-09-27
Simple obvious solution that people have been asking for for a LONG time is ability to tag and filter posts. For some reason it never even gets consider, as far as I can tell. My guess is that influential mods think it's a bad idea for reasons and we can't have it.
Those reasons seem to boil down to not wanting to make it easy for people to see only what they want to see. To a degree, a captive audience that can be propagandized to is what is desired. We can't have people just wanting to talk about what interests them, no they also need to choke down all this divide and conquer political horseshit at the same time. And if you don't like it and want to talk about Bigfoot or whatever, well then I guess you can fuck off to one of the barely trafficed subs that does that.
They don't want us constructively sharing information. They want us to self-segregate and fling shit.
1 Raven9nine9 2018-09-27
Yes it seems to me the point of platforms like reddit is to compartmentalize discussion to the point where posting ideas is mostly preaching to the choir and helping to marginalize anything that contradicts the mainstream media.
1 LoganLinthicum 2018-09-27
Exactly. Intellectual ghettos. You can accept either the mainstream narrative or a heavily left or right slanted rejection of that narrative that your in-group will yesman and your outgroup will reject with frothing hatred. But we absolutely cannot seek middle ground, common understanding, or work towards a synthesis of all these ideas that moves beyond the right/left divide that makes us so easy to control.
1 SixVISix 2018-09-27
My thought is that most conspiracy is politically motivated and/or executed. I question the intentions of anyone asking to censor the topic.
1 bittermanscolon 2018-09-27
100%.
1 OrdinaryAardvark 2018-09-27
Are all liberal laggards now? You fucks only want to talk about aliens and big foot, meanwhile just look at what happened today. Virtually every real conspiracy is related to politics.
Move out of the city. It has turned you all into dumbfucks.
1 GimmeWafflez 2018-09-27
Woah, I haven’t been on Above Top Secret in awhile and it was shocking to go look after seeing your thread. It’s literally nothing but political/trump bullshit.
1 TragedyandHope_ 2018-09-27
As someone who stopped posting and lurking here (under a different account which name I have forgotten) prior to the 2016 elections, it was shocking to come back this year to see how awful this sub has become. I remember seeing the obvious rise in astroturfing here around 2011-2012, but now it's on a whole other level of manipulation and politicization.
When I say politicization I mean the injecting of left vs. right, republican vs. democrat, liberal vs. conservative, etc... When I was active here there was a general understanding here that all politics are just dog and pony shows meant to mislead and distract the masses while the financial ruling class pulled the strings through think tanks, non-profits, what have you. Now it's like watching two angry, drunk men arguing over a sports team at a bar. What the hell happened?
I would be highly suspect of this sub if it doesn't get quarantined like 911truth.
1 Rayfloyd 2018-09-27
I agree with everything of the above
But for some reason, supporting Trump as a figure of anti-establishment often gets me called partisan, though I'm not even American lol