How many of you have been marginalized in a conversation on reddit based upon your participation in /r/conspiracy?
75 2012-10-10 by Flytape
Many times during a debate/conversation I'm having outside of /r/conspiracy I'll have some clown show up and butt into the convo with a comment that goes something like "oh god, this guy frequents /r/conspiracy, that explains everything". As if this is some sort automatic disqualifier.
Is this the direction that our society is headed? Are we so afraid of alternative opinions that we disenfranchise our opponents based upon their system of beliefs?
Classic examples:
An atheist finds out you're religious "says the guy who worships the flying spaghetti monster"
Liberal finds out you're a conservative "1 word, Santorum"
A conservative finds out you're a libertarian "Isolationist!! "
A feminist finds out you're an MRA " misogynist!!! "
Pretty much anybody finds out you don't support Israel "anti-semite!"
When did we forget how to respect other people's opinions? And furthermore why is it so hard to just converse with someone who doesn't think the same as you without leveling attacks at them or their affiliates?
I think sensationalism is driving us all mad. Rush and Cooper are teaching us to be dismissive and avoid debates. To just accept what the talking heads push down our throats.
Prepping us to be good little echo boxes ripe to be stirred up into a frenzy and equally easy to tame.
We don't even respect ourselves enough to form our own opinions. We (not nearly as many of us in conspiracy do this) pick some figure head that is popular and everyone just mindlessly repeats their rhetoric hoping that this somehow makes them sound smarter than their adversaries.
WTF world?
I've found the answer
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” ~ Aristotle
69 comments
25 [deleted] 2012-10-10
I have never had someone check my comment history and call me on it. I'm all over the fucking place, I read everything. Who doesn't? I even go to /r/feminism and I'm a dude. I just like information. I don't believe everything but I don't willingly shut myself off from it.
If anyone should be judged negatively, it's those who willingly ignore other perspectives.
11 Flytape 2012-10-10
I agree 100%, soak it all up and decide for yourself.
3 HarmReductionSauce 2012-10-10
I have been directly called out for reading r/conspiracy.
The guy was a total knuckle dragger though so he had already lost.
It's hard being a conservative, conspiracy believing, christian, libertarian on reddit.
I can't even leave a comment on the main subs without an argument.
1 [deleted] 2012-10-10
to be honest, maybe /r/poetry isn't the most appropriate place to tell people about the shape-shifting lizards who worship satan in ritual abuse ceremonies feed on our fear and suffering like energon cubes from transformers
edit: it's a joke
1 inept_adept 2012-10-10
This same shitty joke in here everytime.
21 profanegoy 2012-10-10
TV/newspaper conditioning is a tough fight. Everyone who watches lots of TV or "reads the papers" has their opinions moulded and conformed, either a little or a lot. The best you can do is try to point out media lies, ownership and propaganda because until that grip is broken they won't examine anything else.
4 brianed 2012-10-10
Very nicely put, congrats.
2 joseph177 2012-10-10
Fortunately people decades ago figured out a proper methodology for debate - 'Critical Thinking' (aka trivium method - grammar, logic, rhetoric). Learn the common logical fallacies and point them out while doing your best to avoid them in discussion.
1 [deleted] 2012-10-10
The grip will never be broken because people WANT, no NEED, that grip to live their lives. It has always been so, and will always be so. They choose to believe lies because it makes their lives easier.
13 Flytape 2012-10-10
Did anyone bother to read the internetAMA of our conspiracy mods?
Most of it was calls for censorship of anything anti-zionist.... disgusting.
Thankfully our mods didn't really budge on it.
2 supercede 2012-10-10
Thank you for checking that out!
4 Flytape 2012-10-10
http://www.reddit.com/r/InternetAMA/comments/118a6x/were_the_moderator_team_over_at_rconspiracy_and/
Link for anyone who wants to see.
-1 DocHopper 2012-10-10
(vomit)
2 SovereignMan 2012-10-10
I've read through all of the comments and see only about a half dozen asking for censorship. Those few all seemed to want to impose their own rules on r/conspiracy.
For the most part, I thought it went well and the mods handled themselves quite well. They also dealt with the anti-free speech group in ways that glaringly called to attention that groups lies.
1 preventDefault 2012-10-10
It was linked to by our buddies in conspiratard. Some of the questions shouldn't surprise you.
9 MatthewD88 2012-10-10
I've had it happen, but all this does is help my position by illustrating their ad hominem attacks. When they are reduced to personal attacks, then they've begun to lose the argument.
7 Flytape 2012-10-10
While I agree with this statement, lets look a little deeper inside.
They've begun to lose the argument, but you haven't won it until the audience is willing to objectively think about what you have said. So IMHO regardless of the fact that your detractor has fail to "slam dunk" you with a logical argument they have effectively shifted the topic away from anything substantial (the subject at hand) and they have created an easy psychological spillway for people to outright ignore any flicker of free thought they may have begun to experience.
It's a dishonest tactic.
9 badbillsvc 2012-10-10
Don't read too much into it. Reddit is so hive-minded (I feel even more so than real life) it is ridiculous. If you are not a super-atheist obama loving breaking bad watching cat loving pot smoking nickleback hater you are no one here.
6 TheProblem_IsProfit 2012-10-10
You know, for that reason it's a good idea to just have multiple accounts. The idea is to discuss and exchange information, not get your e-pseudonym out there, right? Of course, you could always call such a person out and have them demonstrate how and why you're unqualified to say what you're saying, but that only really works in RL where people really feel the social pressure to not be asshats.
4 TheRogueHippo 2012-10-10
This account is for conspiracy posts only. I have multiple accounts, and I find that keeping it that way is not only a benefit of the Reddit platform, but benefits in many other ways as well.
2 archonemis 2012-10-10
One account.
I don't give a flying fuck if people read through my comment history and call me on it.
If anything it means that I've touched something in them that needed to be touched.
2 TheRogueHippo 2012-10-10
You are now tagged as "the toucher".
1 archonemis 2012-10-10
http://youtu.be/ol6pyUHE6Ts
Kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty
Touch it
Kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty
Touch it
Kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty
Touch it
Kitty at my foot and I want to touch it
1 TheRogueHippo 2012-10-10
This made my day, thanks!
5 highguy420 2012-10-10
The sort of person who would do this never has to look farther than my username to find something they are capable of exploiting in order to create a childish distraction from the subject. In fact, that is a wonderful beneficial side-effect of this username. I call it an idiot filter. As soon as someone dismisses me because of my username I know they are incapable of providing any further value in the conversation and have resorted to immaturity in an attempt to save face.
2 Flytape 2012-10-10
http://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/1172xx/top_neurosurgeon_spent_six_day_in_heaven_during/c6jwvjf
This is how i handle it.
The synopsis is this connery fellow is getting all hyperscientific on people and talking about proof versus testimony. Then i find this bullshit story some kid at seaworld told him that he shared on reddit as if it was the Gospel truth.
5 yellowsnow2 2012-10-10
I tried to have a scientific discussion on r/askscience about the Tesla and Moray free energy devices. I am very knowledgeable on the subject. They wouldn't even consider the subject. And called it pseudoscience......Moray (with a PhD in electrical engineering) and a device completely verified by scientists in public, with old newspaper articles confirming it. And Tesla, with the greatest understanding of energy ever..... Both pseudoscience fakers.... That is why some of my discoveries will show up in r/conspiracy.
3 Flytape 2012-10-10
Exactly! Pseudoscience... pffft.
2 openbluefish 2012-10-10
What exactly were you trying to ask them?
4 [deleted] 2012-10-10
Similarly:
I mod a couple of nsfw/sexy subreddits.
A few weeks back I had someone here attack my POV by bringing up my subs.
4 Flytape 2012-10-10
Oh yes, I've been attacked for commenting in /r/mensrights on numerous occasion. I don't even mod there and my comments have been far from misogyny.
4 joseph177 2012-10-10
Point out their logical fallacy (ad hominem) and ask them to rise above the status of a tabloid reporter. Debate the message, not the messenger. Don't fall victim to a character assassination, rise above it and demand facts.
"Small minds discuss people, mediocre minds discuss events, great minds discuss ideas".
4 jakenichols 2012-10-10
They are spouting programmed responses to ideas that conflict with their comfortable world view. The responses have been programmed into them by A) School and B) The Media also possibly C) their idiot friends who are subject to both A and B.
4 hs0o 2012-10-10
"Based on your user history you seem to be a Marxist conspiracy theorist." The person couldn't even have a decent discussion and went straight to marginalizing me.
3 SteveDave123 2012-10-10
No, but its a clear ad hominem attack and as such, you've pretty much won whatever argument you were having.
Seriously - calling out the person instead of the subject is one of the oldest diversion tricks available.
3 treebright 2012-10-10
This hasn't happened to me but I've seen similar things happen to others.
Some people say a person's submissions should be ignored and/or dismissed because almost all of that person's submissions concern basically the same issue.
Some people say that someone with strong opinions about a topic should be ignored (and even considered wrong) because they have "bias".
3 Flytape 2012-10-10
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” ~ Aristotle
Aristotle had the answer I've been looking for.
3 archonemis 2012-10-10
No matter what you say someone will find you repellant.
You don't have to fall asleep with them - you have to fall asleep with yourself.
There's nothing you can do other than live your life the best you can.
2 antinuclearenergy 2012-10-10
Yes, but then random people defended me. It was in an discussion against nuclear energy, obviously.
0 Flytape 2012-10-10
Pffft. I don't see how anyone CAN support nuclear energy after this Japanese incident.
Liquid Thorium Fluoride is another discussion, but conventional nuke power is just bad and dirty.
2 hanahou 2012-10-10
Irritating fucks aren't they?
Just ignore them. When getting in debates the best defense is thick skin against a troll.
1 Flytape 2012-10-10
Yeah they are. I have a thick skin i just hope maybe they don't realize what they're doing and might read this and think " oh god maybe i sound crazy to people who don't realize X, Y, or Z.". Then maybe they will think more. You don't have to believe an idea to entertain it.
1 hanahou 2012-10-10
Sorry if this comes off pessimistic, but those type never learn to think.
1 Flytape 2012-10-10
Found the quote i was looking for...
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” ~ Aristotle
2 hanahou 2012-10-10
Yes it's a good quote.
Oh wait it's Aristotle! Wasn't he a racist Greek? (sarcasm intended). ;P
2 Flytape 2012-10-10
Oh god i choked on my drink!
1 Enkmarl 2012-10-10
My other account got shadowbanned for posting in /r/conspiracy . I encourage everyone to check if they are shadow banned by logging out and trying to go to their own user page. If you were shadow banned don't bother asking to be un banned because they will not do it.
2 [deleted] 2012-10-10
Why won't they do it?
1 Enkmarl 2012-10-10
No idea, they just ignored me
1 [deleted] 2012-10-10
We have no say in shadow bans, it isn't a decision made by the /r/conspiracy mods and that's the truth.
1 Enkmarl 2012-10-10
Not saying it was you guys but that it was probably related to me posting here. I asked admins but all I hot was a fuck you in the form of silence
1 [deleted] 2012-10-10
Because we cannot do it, a shadow ban is not put in place by the moderators, only the admins can do it.
1 DocHopper 2012-10-10
That's the go-to crutch for whenever I prove someone wrong.
1 MyIQis2 2012-10-10
Aristotle had a good idea there. I personally didn't open my mind until I statred researching opposing views. I was christian and had a very basic concept of higher power that was until I opened my mind to other belief systems: Atheism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, philosophy, Science, Philisophical overlapping of science (or vice versa), etc. Personally I feel like my mind's reasoning has expanded. I never really payed any attenttion to Conspiracy at a young age aside from the occassional 9/11 video and Metal Gear Solid. What I've come to notice is that a cohesive, complex conspiracy takes a very intelligent person to tackle, I think that's why many people disregard Metal Gear Solid as trivial, and not worth their time. This is because people aren't able to follow, because to me the more intelligent conspiracy is backed my history.
1 blacksunalchemy 2012-10-10
The tactic of division is one used primarily by individuals who have lost the argument.
~ Me
1 Keegsy 2012-10-10
I get called 'conspiracy theorist' all the time. I have trouble coming up with a response to it. Can someone help me here? Should I give examples that people thought were conspiracies until they came out about it? (ATF selling guns to mexico etc.) If so what are some good ones!
1 VELOXIMIDE 2012-10-10
Haven't had it happen to me.
1 danxmason 2012-10-10
Try posting in /r/medicine after posting here
1 evenmoretiredoflibs 2012-10-10
surprisingly not
0 meh65535 2012-10-10
/r/conspiracy posters are like the jews of reddit :(
-1 catsfive 2012-10-10
I asked to be un-banned from r/AskReddit and one of the mods said he would because I had been "mostly good," even though I was a frequent poster here. Cool mod, though, nothing personal, just, yeah, that seemed a bit freaky. But, that said, the chemtrail-retards here do give us a bad name.
3 Flytape 2012-10-10
Wow i would love to see a screen shot of that PM... for science.
3 [deleted] 2012-10-10
Because chemtrailing is impossible, right?
7 Flytape 2012-10-10
Hasn't it been proven to have happened on a small scale? Some medical experiments or something. Of course we won't be able to prove its happening now because its still top secret.
7 [deleted] 2012-10-10
It has been proven to be possible and also it has been proven that governments have done and are still doing weather modification.
2 grandmacaesar 2012-10-10
Yeah, there's no such thing as chemtrails.
However, geo-engineering and weather modification exist.
Our government admitted to it in Vietnam.
The US Air Force has shown more than a passing interest.
And NASA suggests it be used to control global warming.
But to suggest that a group of people might be in charge of something like this certainly has no place in /r/conspiracy.
[cough]
Someone might think we're actually investigating something. And that would give us "a bad name".
1 catsfive 2012-10-10
I have to agree with 100% of everything you just said. Chemtrails, OTOH, uh....
-1 [deleted] 2012-10-10
Threads like this are the reason people think this is a circle-jerk sub >_>
With that said:
This is pretty much bread and butter. A few people come here and post crazy shit, it gets instantly downvoted, and yet we all are the same as those few people.
-3 CptJackHarkness 2012-10-10
Dude, I need a misogynist so bad.....my back has been so tight lately.
2 supercede 2012-10-10
Thank you for checking that out!
11 Flytape 2012-10-10
I agree 100%, soak it all up and decide for yourself.
2 SovereignMan 2012-10-10
I've read through all of the comments and see only about a half dozen asking for censorship. Those few all seemed to want to impose their own rules on r/conspiracy.
For the most part, I thought it went well and the mods handled themselves quite well. They also dealt with the anti-free speech group in ways that glaringly called to attention that groups lies.
2 hanahou 2012-10-10
Yes it's a good quote.
Oh wait it's Aristotle! Wasn't he a racist Greek? (sarcasm intended). ;P
1 preventDefault 2012-10-10
It was linked to by our buddies in conspiratard. Some of the questions shouldn't surprise you.