Politics thread

**Victor** · 07-30-2012, 08:24 AM

Originally Posted by GlowBear

Because they're childish and egotistical?

Also insecure and stupid.

**Sir Legendhead** · 07-30-2012, 08:24 AM

Originally Posted by GlowBear

And those that don't comply with the so called (in their own mind) majority really seem to piss folk off. People don't like when others speak their mind and it opposes theirs. I don't get why, it's silly.

Heh. I can see why people would be upset. It must suck, having an outsider demonstrate that their concepts of morality and reality are based on nothing more than a large scale game of Chinese whispers.

**GlowBear** · 07-30-2012, 08:29 AM

Originally Posted by Victor

Also insecure and stupid.

Ah that too.

Originally Posted by Sir Legendhead

Heh. I can see why people would be upset. It must suck, having an outsider demonstrate that their concepts of morality and reality are based on nothing more than a large scale game of Chinese whispers.

It sucks that people put effort into being like that and whaffting it on others, when it's easier to get along and just enjoy things. People got enough actual worries in life without putting up with the social douchery of others.
But meh that's how it goes.

**Sir Legendhead** · 07-30-2012, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by GlowBear

It sucks that people put effort into being like that and whaffting it on others, when it's easier to get along and just enjoy things. People got enough actual worries in life without putting up with the social douchery of others.
But meh that's how it goes.

Yeah, I'm probably on the opposite end of the hive mind spectrum myself. I'm so naturally anti-social that it makes me somewhat immune to that kind of thing. It probably seems like I'm going out of my way to rock the boat sometimes, but that's just me being me.

Of course, some other times I get smashed and try to blow up said boat, but that's different.

**Vahnati** · 07-30-2012, 04:35 PM

Ever heard of a thing called "peer-pressure?" That's essentially what it is. It's easy to boast about your "individuality" whilst sitting (presumably by yourself) at a computer somewhere, but put yourself in any significant social setting and your individuality is gone. I'm not talking about the childish "Oh, everybody's drinking I have to drink too!" type of peer pressure either, I'm talking about the fact we all censor ourselves to a pretty significant degree whenever we're around other people, the more people (and the more unfamiliar they are to us), the more we censor our own thoughts and actions. It happens at a subconscious level too, so don't bother trying to say "No I don't!" because yes, you do, we all do because we don't want to be labelled as "crazy" or otherwise abnormal. And I'm not talking about "LOL He's so crazy!" I'm talking about people whispering to their friends "Dude, just stay away from him/her, they're fucked in the head," and everyone treating you like a fucking plague. Nobody wants that, hence we all prevent ourselves from doing/saying certain things around certain people.

Bullshit you say? Ever been trashed, shitfaced drunk, absolutely hammered and done something you would never do otherwise? Like kiss your sister, or backhand somebody else's annoying, petulant, spoiled as fuck little brat? Tell that friend of yours what you really think of them and they're poorly disguised, sleazy, underhanded attempts at leeching off of you and others? You blame it on the alcohol, but the truth of the matter is all the alcohol did was inhibit your brain functions, and cause you to act without thinking about it first. You acted on deep-seated, normally suppressed yet innate nevertheless desires that have always been there, but you just prevent yourself from ever allowing them to happen. You feel like shit about it once people tell you what happened, but is this because you truly and honestly regret doing these acts, or because people have seen that ugly, uncensored side of you and now you know they're going to treat you like a pariah because of it?

You can go ahead and lie to me all you like, but you aren't fooling any of us, we're all victims of the pressures to conform and fit into society, and to be accepted by our peers. I'm no different, except in that I see it for what it is. There's plenty of things I want to do, I would love to do, but I prevent myself from it because I don't want to ostracized, imprisoned, or otherwise cut off from my family and friends.

**Victor** · 07-30-2012, 10:24 PM

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Such insight.

Now connect that to conspiracy theories. (or how it keeps people from doing all that shit, you know, what you were talking about before you stretched the concept to the limit)

**Sir Legendhead** · 07-30-2012, 11:36 PM

I think what he's getting at is how conspiracy theories are often marginalized because nobody wants to be the first one to go thinking outside the box. Sure, people love to be told how creative and insightful they are. It's a lot more rare, precious even, to run across those who truly embrace the initial risk.

**Aaron Mxy Yost** · 07-31-2012, 01:16 AM

Originally Posted by SyKo-KlOwN

@Aaron thanks, glad there was a government created website to clear the, err, government, of any possible nefarious plots against an unsuspecting citizenry.. I guess we'll just take their word for it, what's the worst that happens eh? Not that I'm trying to knock you or anything, but you just posted a website and, well, if we wanted to, we could find a website that "proves" the holocaust never happened >.> Sorry, but no, that doesn't necessarily "clear up" anything ; P

Popular Mechanics is a government created website? It's a science & technology magazine that's been around for over a century. Information isn't invalidated simply because it's on a website. Like with everything else, you first look at the source to gauge how trustworthy something is. Popular Mechanics has a long history and a reputation to uphold. They have little to gain by misinforming their readers.

The key to proving something is providing factual evidence of the claims being made. The article provides information that debunk the claims made by conspiracy theorists about FEMA. Their evidence can be (and has been) verified as true. What evidence exists that supports the conspiracies?

There are certainly legitimate conspiracies out there. I have no doubt the government plans some shady shit behind the public's back, and those stories get reported on all the time. Sadly, most of the time the general public don't seem to care very much. However, I have yet to see any credible information that leads me to believe there is a sinister plot involving FEMA and internment/death camps. If you've found any proof out there supporting those claims, I'd be down for hearing about it.

**Steven Hansen** · 07-31-2012, 02:29 AM

There is plenty of shady stuff going down always, often on the surface level, which removes the mystique and sexiness for someone who wants to believe in cloak and dagger jams going down.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/th.../a-simple-plot

I mean, how about US drone attacks on civilians in countries we are not legally/technically at war with? Nah, that's not cool enough, I guess. I know -- claim that NASA faked the moon landing! The actual military coups we know about aren't enough?

So much subversive things going down in plain sight every day that no one cares about.

---

Unrelated (to a degree):

Love everything I've read on this man's website thus far. LINK

**Vahnati** · 07-31-2012, 08:30 AM

Pretty much what Legendhead said there Victor. Anybody who might actually be onto something gets dismissed as being a lunatic by people, and the 99% are always right, regardless of what actually might be true. I never said the hive mind mentality had anything necessarily to do with conspiracies, I was pointing out how it helps immensely in covering them up/keeping them hidden from public eye.

@Mxy, Ah, been around for over a century has it? Well, I haven't, so you'll forgive me if I still don't buy what they're selling. I hope it's true though, I really do. This is one of those situations where I don't want to be right just so I can say I was right, trust me, I'd much, much rather be dead fucking wrong here. And if any evidence were readily available supporting the nefarious plot theory, well, I think the situation would be a tad different, don't you? Just sayin'..

We aren't legally at war with anyone, that is to say, the countries we are at war with, we don't have legal justification for such. We are, however, technically at war with everyone. We're America, preserving National Security, one global conflict at a time.
We launch drone strikes against our own civilians, so the fact we're killing (still killing I should say) civilians in other countries doesn't surprise me one bit. You want me to keep track of what country's regime our special forces are toppling today? For real? Come on man, let's be reasonable here. The topic of conversation was "let's discuss things that may or may not be happening, and how people honestly feel about them," not "shit everyone here should already know." Like that thing about the CIA being behind the drug trade, and asking for a show of hands who was surprised by the information. For reals? I'm pretty sure we can all agree that was common knowledge a decade or two ago... Oh wait, no, it was paranoid conspiracy theorists doing their thing. Now that some officials in Mexico have disclosed what they know about it, well, now it's common knowledge. Silly beans.

**Revuhlooshun** · 08-02-2012, 06:36 PM

More than 1.8 million people work for the Federal government. You're telling me there's not a single decent person in that 1.8 million willing to leak word of these evil, nefarious plans, or actually provide solid, concrete evidence of them? I know I'm a cynical bastard, but holy shit is that pessimism to a whole new level. A drone can't fart in Pakistan without us knowing about it the next day.

**Aaron Mxy Yost** · 08-03-2012, 08:29 AM

Originally Posted by Revuhlooshun

More than 1.8 million people work for the Federal government. You're telling me there's not a single decent person in that 1.8 million willing to leak word of these evil, nefarious plans, or actually provide solid, concrete evidence of them? I know I'm a cynical bastard, but holy shit is that pessimism to a whole new level. A drone can't fart in Pakistan without us knowing about it the next day.

That's exactly why major sinister government conspiracies simply aren't very plausible Someone always talks, or the info gets leaked. (In the CIA drug trade thing, a government employee involved came out about it publicly decades ago. It wasn't exposed by conspiracy theorists.) Believing that they could keep those secrets for any length of time without the truth (along with evidence) coming out is giving the government WAY too much credit. The more people involved in a lie, the more difficult it is to maintain. Being suspicious of government is perfectly reasonable, but latching on to extreme claims made without any sort of proof by people such as Glen Beck or Alex Jones only marginalizes legitimate concerns.

N7 · 08-06-2012, 04:21 PM

Hard to tell if it's really Satire had it not been the Onion:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/mic...-in-sik,29071/

Messed up, but it's their thing.

**Revuhlooshun** · 08-06-2012, 04:45 PM

I approve.

**Revuhlooshun** · 08-06-2012, 11:36 PM

http://www.guardian.co.uk//world/vid...est-kiss-video

Vladimir says no to that shit.

**That Silly Black Guy** · 08-12-2012, 07:40 AM

Government conspiracies cant work(at least as the way we see them). The time resources and logistics necessary to perform any number of the conspiracies our government is accused would require an amount of money, time, and resources no single country in the world is capable of properly producing. If there were conspiracies(there are probably a couple of small time ones we wont ever have a clue about) they would have to be small time operations, conducted by individuals with the mental vetting that would ensure they never spoke of it.