In my experience most people will admit that things are messed up but the second that I mention specifics they get upset.

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All the while they have that glint in their eye that says they're humoring you, or that smirk of confidence as if they know for a fact they're right. It's kind of sad, THAT level of ignorance. "Oh I remember back when I was in college reading all the conspiracies about vietnam."

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There's no such thing as a fight for peace. You either want to change things or you don't. You either want to fight for that change or you don't. Most people in the West already have peace, but it comes at the cost of their inaction and atrocities around the world and their slow slide into fascism. If people wanted change, they would fight for it. They don't, they want peace. So they stay still and stay quiet. That's peace.

I actually started a sub /r/UnitedWeStand for peace and love but in a different manner than what you think.

We need to show kindness and care for our fellow human beings. Once we have build strong bonds with each other and are capable of working together and seeing past differences, then we will be able to form a resistance against those who oppress us.

So the message of peace that I am spreading is that which connects people of all backgrounds and opinions, because we shouldn't be fighting among ourselves, but against them.

I don't really think global stability and peace are all that unobtainable. People just need to come to realize how idiotic it is that we've been forced to believe that conflict and aggression is the way we naturally solve our problems. Perhaps it has been a way, but not the only way for humans to co-exist.

The world just needs to chill out and think about the big picture for once. We're finally at a stage where our technology could easily provide adequate resources for everyone on this planet, but it requires people/society giving up on this idea of a lust for power and control at all costs.

It's just a social paradigm shift that needs to happen for long-term sustainability of our species on the planet. Somehow we better find a way to accept and come to terms with it. Or else, it's pretty bad for everyone involved...obviously.

You are absolutely right. That's also partly why I created the sub. It helps reinforce those very ideas that you are suggesting. If we are able to group up with people to think in that similar manner, we won't feel alone in having those beliefs and so its much more likely that those beliefs will last and take form in this world.

I started the sub /r/UnitedWeStand for this purpose.

Secondly, we must remember not to forget all these conspiracies because people have a tendency to forget things when it comes to instances of government corruption.

peace comes from within, do not seek it without.

Whenever people mention age, it makes me cringe. Age doesn't mean anything, especially when it comes to being educated and well-informed about something. You could grow old and still not understand shit.

It takes some pretty good circumstances to be 15 and not still a boob but by 25 there is plenty of opportunity to have a good grasp of the world.

i still believed the official story of 9/11 until about 2006.

some people still believe the official story, and they say that i am the one jumping to conclusions, yet they still believe the same things today as they did the week of 9/11.

jumping to conclusions: thinking you know what happened on 9/11, the week of 9/11, because you saw 9/11 on TV.

not jumping to conclusions: changing your views on 9/11 slowly over 10+ years of collective research on the internet.

join us! http://reddit.com/r/911truth #911Truth

Old people are much more stubborn with their opinions. They have had time to believe and reinforce those beliefs for a long time. It is impossible to change an old person's opinion about something he feels strongly about. There is not a lot of flexibility there. Old people also like to believe they are much more smarter because they understand a lot more, and so they lack the humbleness to change their own mindset.

Old people have more opportunities than a 15 year old, but that doesn't mean an old person took hold of all those opportunities and corrected themselves. Old people are generally smarter than 15 year olds, but that can't be used as an argument to make the case that an old person is more right than the 15 yr old (generalizations are not a good measure for truth). When a person grows older, they might have a lot of experiences, but that doesn't mean they understand everything because its impossible to do so. They might understand many specific things well because of their age, but can't use their age to make the case that they are all-knowing.

I have parents that are now somewhat up to par on what's going on. In the past they've mentioned about how back during college they took part in protests, etc, for these types of things. They feel real good about it too until I point out the fact that things have only gotten worse and they completely stopped caring/paying attention since Vietnam.

I think that what happens is if I explain things I become either crazy or unsuccessful. It seems to me that there is this psychology where if you are really winning at life then you won't be bitching about things at all and instead will have an arrogant and happy smug look all of the time or a stern stodgey superior look more if you are from the old world style. So people perceive that someone who has something to say about something negative is someone who is losing the resource game. So I've found myself somewhere between crazy and loser in the monkey brain of many people. I think that it is rather difficult for them to get a perspective on me.

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Loser, crazy or both. I've been all of that and in L'viv, Ukraine I'm currently doing pretty well in comparison to many. I just can't seem to do amazingly well in California but I think that it is because I don't value it as much as the price.

Well I think that largely that I was cured of being afraid of what others think of me as a thing in itself when I was 18 and getting myself out of a ill concieved enlistment. At one point I was put in front of a mirror and one hundred privates walked by me and slurred their insults at me if they chose to. I was subjected to numerous nasty things as I was being singled out for trying to leave. I'm human so I do like people to accept me but I'm not afraid of simply people not liking me. I realize that people will do really nasty things to you to your face, to the back of your head or behind your back when you go against the common theme. So there is a consequence there from the normalcy makers. So I see many behaviours as veiled coercion because I have the experience and the intelligence to know that things will get nasty when I choose otherwise. I'm not a sycophant to want to suck up to someone who I perceive as being only abstractions away from aggressive behaviour.

Anyways I'd suggest toning it down until you are making some money in a traditionally respectable and validating way. Unless of course you are in a stage where you are testing the psychology and resolve of those around you. There is a price to pay there and it could easily mean that people alienate you as well. Also some people might agree with you and like you but they could perceive you to be too much of a liability to let into their fragile and trite social constructs. Pussy and a paycheck are very compelling things to sell out for and once people get these they don't want to let any destabilizing actors into their life. So you get to be the freak show to amuse them and to allow them to imagine a world in which they have the ability to think all thoughts all of the time. There is no place for that in the majority of marriages and for shallow conversation by the water cooler.

Read this image.

You know what... they are right. However, the fact that we are unhappy with our lives, causes us to re-evaluate these things, rather than accept and adapt to them. Suffering in this manner is good because it helps you see clearly and gain much more insight into your lives.

The people who have power don't like those of us who don't "fit" perfectly into their system because those are the areas from where threat arises against their system. Someone who benefits and succeeds under the system isn't going to be the one that starts a resistance against them, but a person who is unhappy and finds it difficult to struggle through. He who is unhappy and struggles to succeed under the system, questions whether he should be struggling in this manner or whether there are better alternatives to it.

I honestly feel like this way with a lot of topics. People (especially on reddit) definitely believe that in the vast universe there has to be some other life out there, but the moment you suggest they might already be here people call you ridiculous. Or when the snowden leaks happened (any leaks really) we learned that the government has tons of projects to direct info, discussion, and even create phony things to discredit the actual evidence. It's fact. People will still deny it if you try and show them proof of it happening.

"Man, stuff's so bad, you know like, things and stuff."

-The limit of the average American

This is an opinion from an outsider looking in, so take it as you will. The community on this sub reddit only seems to accuse the US as the bad and only corrupt government. Acting that the US has the only government that is corrupt.

See, really this is the problem. You want to believe that the US government is better than other, obviously corrupt governments. But sadly, you and others ignore the dirty hands of US foreign policy that go against the ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and statements about freedom by past presidents and dignified politicians.

It's a fact the US government, via various aid programs, spent $5 billion to overthrow an elected government in the Ukraine, and yet, most people on Reddit, lapped up the anti-Russian propaganda that has been shown to be demonstrably false.

Or going back to the run-up to the Iraq war, some 70+ % of respondents polled believed Sadaam Hussein was behind 9/11. This is the same war that led to a 1,000,000 or more Iraqis being killed in the name of "freedom." Yes the Hussein government was terrible, but Sadaam never killed as many Iraqis as we did. And it was the US government that helped Hussein consolidate and maintain power for decades, including selling him the WMDs that were the casus belli of the Iraq war.

The US government is the most inimical force to democracy and self-determination in the developing world. And it has been recently and historically inimical to democracy and democratic organization within the borders of this country as well (Palmer raids to the NSA). I mean, unless you believe total surveillance is harmless, which I don't.

Yes there are other governments that have been as or more corrupt than the US federal government, but those governments generally had the support of the US government.

The most conservative estimates of civilian casualties in the Iraq War put the number at 80,000 or more. Even if we accept those numbers (which are realistically probably below the true total), at a bare minimum it's still an unbelievable amount of casualties. We'd never accept something or someone causing that level of death and destruction in a "First World" country.

I am not a natural citizen of US. I know that other places are corrupted. However, the reason why I complain the most about the US government is this

1) people believe US government is not corrupted but in other countries, the people already know and accept that their country is corrupted

2) US is the most powerful nation in the world and so its the most dangerous country too

3) there is a stronger voice of resistance (in terms of educated resistance) here than in other countries and so there is hope that it can be fixed

I'm gonna be honest. I already believed things were corrupt long ago, though some of the specifics I wish I'd never seen. Sucks to know certain things and since I was convinced already the only reason I was still looking up things is due to curiosity..

In my experience most people will admit that things are messed up but the second that I mention specifics they get upset.

Very meta, but this thread, in which specific conspiracies are not being discussed, is a great example of that. No shills or /r/tards pissing in the well, a nice civilized discussion.

BUT, mention Sandy Hook in a thread and holy crap, the deniers are out in force.

Curious. What sort of 'specifics' do you mention? I feel like if any of us that are here truly want to make a difference, it will start with communication and awareness.

I've been working on talking points that have strong, documented evidence to support them. I want healthy dialogue so that people can make their own decisions about these conspiracies.

We have to choose our words and battles very carefully if we truly want to initiate change in the hearts and minds of those around us.

Because in movies, the "corrupt" people are never at the very top of the hierarchy. The top of the hierarchy is what comes in and saves the day, for example, when a corrupt police official is the villain, the movie ends with the FBI coming in and stopping him.

Most people do not imagine that those at the very top are corrupt even though all evidence proves this is the case.

EDIT: Even when there is corruption in a government or powerful organization in movies, it is usually implied that only one, or a few in that organization were bad guys and the rest are totally without blame.

A great example of this was Star Trek into darkness - watch the film from the point of view of Khan being the good guy and star-fleet being the bad-guys.

Khan becomes a lone hero fighting an evil corrupt organization intent on starting a war with a false flag, and Kirk becomes an idiot who ignores all evidence that the people he's working for are evil/corrupt and blindly sticks to his "starfleet programming" until the very end, where he happily receives an award from Star-fleet - and we're left never finding out how deep the conspiracy ran. (Assumingly thousands were involved because the corrupt general obviously didn't build his giant mega battleship by himself)

Movies like this, which paint the person who would be considered the "good guy" in real life by any sane individual as the bad guy are used to manipulate us into subconsciously supporting, and accepting the real bad guys in real life.

the movie ends with the FBI coming in and stopping him.

Or the cavarly.

Does the majority of viewers actually think Khan was the bad guy?

Probably...people don't pay attention to details...well dumb people which is most. They watched the movie and saw the action and thought it was cool, while sub consciously being turned into a zombie slave.

Yes - I actually brought up this on the Star Trek subreddit and the fans there couldn't see where I was coming from. They thought that because Khan was actually evil in his backstory/lore, he was evil in the movie too even though they were quite different characters.

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This is exactly how my mom thinks, and it's done nothing but dig a deeper pit for our whole family.

This

Ignorance is bliss.

Until reality bites you in the ass, and you're forced to wake up.

Thats a really good question. Look into MK Ultra to begin to understand the lengths theyve gone to, and the money they've spent to make it this way.

ive actually been thinking about going about my day clad in a tin hat out of a sense of extreme helplessness, because talking about the bs that is going on hasn't helped and the rate of good things turning to shit seems to be exponentially getting worse. An unreasonable response to an impossible environment starts to feel right and justified in the face of a terminally corrupt political system that is powered by war, human misery, and greed. In that context I could wear a tin hat as a visible symbol of the contempt I feel for the utterly crazy reality that life has become since the sept. 11 attacks. Surveillance state, police state, free speech zones, NDAA, patriot act, Homeland Security, TSA, drone strikes on Americans, drone strikes on everybody else, CIA black sites, and extraordinary rendition. What a stunning legacy for the victims of the terrorist attack on Sept. 11...but don't worry about it, don't think about it, and above all don't ever, ever talk about it, because then you have to do something about it. na, just go to the museum in new York and marvel at the new freedom tower, built on top of the remains of those who died in the attack, and don't forget to buy a fucking shirt while you are there.

You just worded what I think every day.

ty, means a lot to know that im not the only one who feels like they are living in a looney bin these days

I have felt that way, especially the last couple weeks. I feel like mainstream society is in denial, so hard.

Tin foil hats could be the new guy fawkes mask...

as a subculture I think we need to take it back, declare a national tin hat day, where if you believe shit is fucked up, wear the hat for a day and hope to start a national conversation. I bet you would see more tin on heads than you would believe, or maybe you wouldn't see any, I don't know anymore.

and don't forget to buy a fucking shirt cheese plate while you are there.

the first time I tried to click your link, and it didn't load, I thought to myself thank god that was a fake...then it loaded, and I died a little more inside, thanks internet.

I love you. Idc who you are you just laid it all out on the table and a sheep wouldn't be able to make sense of what you just wrote. Or they would accept it. "Ya so what" is what my sleeping parents would say

As Judge Judy says, "Once you tell me one lie, I cannot trust anything else you say."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKXfpX2rvSE relevant and hilarious

Fuck advertising for your band

I highly doubt he's in They Might Be Giants.

How deep does this conspiracy go!?

I wish I was. That guy wasn't blessed with brains or google.

Ha. What a person man...

That song is about the different forms of government/society. Particle Man = a man in a communist/collectivist society who is just a small part of the whole. Triangle Man = the power elite, the triangle being the pyramid of power. Universe man being the unending march of time. Person man = the individualist who is constantly bashed and hated, who is himself, etc.

Wow, I wish that I was in that band, I wouldn't be spending time on here talking to idiots like you...

Da1inchpunch huh? Tiny little punch you've got there, I bet the ladies love you. You who are so wise to think that a very famous person would be addressing a little peon like yourself in such a manner.

Wow, feeling small much?

I don't know, are you?

When?

all the time, looking at your little 1 inch

1 inch what? Punch? re you trying to make fun of a username as though it actually has some defining relevance about me? How retarded are you? Oh, I feel ever so insulted and emasculated by your jibe. Motherfucker, please!

Feeling big much?

No. I feel normal. That is why I don't need to insult strangers to change my mood.

Because freedom, america, TROOPS and APPLE PIE!!.

I do love me some apple pie!

Exactly, the Government is perfect. The State loves us. APPLE PIE and freedom for everyone.

Because most people believe they are free thinking individuals when in fact they are just programmed working drones. The best slaves are the ones who believe they are free.

I blame the public education* system

*conformity lessons

And Hollywood (both movie Hollywood and political Hollywood)

I feel like just saying the word "conspiracy" is becoming a taboo...

This isn't recent and it is intentional.

Who'd've thunk rich people might get together, and have a plan?!

It took me awhile to learn the answer to this question but alas I feel I have an answer for you. Read this https://archive.org/details/principlesofseco00ingliala this is a summery of the 6 principals here: http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.ca/2013/02/6-principals-of-secondary-education.html

From the first principal: 1) The adjustive or adaptive function. Schools are to establish fixed habits of reaction to authority. This, of course, precludes critical judgment completely. It also pretty much destroys the idea that useful or interesting material should be taught, because you can't test for reflexive obedience until you know whether you can make kids learn, and do, foolish and boring things.

So you see, the reason people trust their governments regardless of what they do is because they have been brainwashed into trusting their authorities regardless of how much they lie ect. Public schooling ensures this.

Those are conditioned responses that people are giving you when they say "tin foil hat" or "conspiracy theorist" anything like that. They are under literal mind control. School and the media imprint those types of responses into people's minds so that they can cope with questions that might be too controversial to ask.

How do you even respond to that though, because it's an emotion you're dealing with, not logic.

You have to slowly show them the real world for what it is, you cannot just openly tell them everything, they have to be slowly, over time, brought around. Drop hints about whats in the works for us and show them examples, etc. I've got a lot of people whom I work with, who used to think I was a crazy person, to actually approach me with questions about the news etc and I explain to them how it fits into the bigger picture and usually minds get blown, they're still all sports-idiot types but at least they're starting to think a little.

That sounds interesting, could you give me an example of a hint you drop or an example you show?

Say something like, "isn't it weird that almost every man is completely infatuated with millionaires playing catch and how at the end of the day the outcome doesn't really matter...?"

or...

"isn't it weird that cops can shoot people and get away with it, even though they're at fault?"

That kind of stuff gets people thinking...

Hm, I like that "Isn't it weird..."

I would probably say "Isn't it sickening how cops can just shoot people and get away with it?" and then they would react negatively. Your way invites a sense of wonder, which isn't quite as alienating, I guess. Thanks!

at the end of the thought you should add something like "... actually, now that I think about it, its kind of fucked up". You open their mind by saying "isn't it weird.." and they start to ponder, then you drive home the point that actually, its fucked up. Average people are hiveminders, very open to suggestion once you get their minds set for suggestion by forcing them to think.

Seems a little deceptive or manipulative, in a way. But that does make a lot of sense, and I'll probably give it a try. Thanks

Its not really deceptive because its not untrue, manipulative sure, but manipulation got them to where they are mentally, so it will take a little to get them out.

Fair enough, it's just that the "weirdness" isn't what I'm really feeling, it's mostly anger and depression, so I feel like I'm faking it a bit so it feels deceptive. But whatevs, if it helps people see the truth then it's worth it. And you're right, it is weird, and just because that's not my primary reaction to it anymore, doesn't mean that it's not still a valid reaction to it, so it's not really deceptive I guess. Thanks for your thoughts.

honestly, I ran into a congressional candidate tonight at the bar, just got home, no shit, the bar was empty, I am friends with the bartender. This woman comes in who just happens to be running for congress here in my state, I used to work with her at some shitty job she was working through college like 10 years ago, its the primaries next week so she is stressed needing a drink. I wait for a couple of drinks to get into her, and I go over and talk to her about Obamacare and how its basically fascistic in nature etc. She started to agree with me even though she is hardcore democrat, started agreeing that insurance companies should not be in charge of health care and that if they were taken out of the equation prices would drop dramatically, etc. So, it works at all levels. This is a true story, literally within the last hour this happened.

Uhh no. The government is not an elite club of corrupt millionaires. The fact is the people who say that the conspiracy theories are stupid are the people who have gone to state funded schools and where treated in state funded hospitals (in UK, not US), and who will become lawyers, bankers, and hold positions in the uncorrupt government. It is simply ignorance to say that a western government is corrupt when if you paid any attention to government and politics if people think that corruption exists there are corruption inquiries. Do you not understand that the government is made up of people, not a mysterious organisation that wants to steal from you. Furthermore, your accusations always lack cohesion and evidence which further proves the false nature of conspiracy arguments.

The government is not an elite club of corrupt millionaires.

No the government isn't, but the people who populate positions of power in government are. Not seeing what you're missing. The government is a fictional entity, there are groups of people saying they're the government and that they represent you and me in order to keep the herd at bay.

Same reason why murderers are excused on account of "bad childhood", thieves: "they were hungry" ; child abusers: "they were abused as children themselves". Some people cannot fathom that other human beings are capable of evil.

I've learned to brace for the next wave when people do bad things to me. There is the first act just because they are selfish uncaring people and then the second act is to justify how they can treat someone like shit the first time. That goes for real asshole narcistic non-psychopath types and with psychopaths they don't give a shit at all and instead they will target you if they see that you have the capacity to see them for what they really are. They will do this preemptively as they have much more experience in these games than normal people do.

Yet no one is the villain in their own story.

I think almost all evil comes down to ignorance. But damn, there are some deliberately ignorant people out there.

Amen.

Because it hasn't occurred to them that mainstream media (and most online "free" conversation) is govt-controlled. They get news from CNN, MSNBC, FoxNews, and BBC.. and think they're sampling a wide range of news sources.

And all these sources confirm that any corruption is minor and locally isolated, at worst. Any media source that points out the larger corruption is marginalized as propaganda or fringe. And so the manufactured reality remains intact.

An endless and savage loop. How does a society break free from such corrupt organizations? We need a good leader, and I'm not talking about a president. I mean a revolutionary. A martyr, if need be. Someone to truly change the way general society thinks.

I think we probably need a lot of those people, truthfully.

Denial ain't just a river.

If you put a tangible example into play it removes the ability to ignore and exposes a persons inability and position. A person doesn't want to know how they've let themselves become ignorant, they just want to pretend that they know without any responsibility. People want distance from the real world because it is so horrible and they want to be lazy and left alone in their little spaces. These people should not be left alone. They are guilty and need to be shaken awake.

So then when they hear "things are messed up" they get to be included in the wise resistance but then when they hear a detail they realize that they don't know very much or have much control. This fires up the cognitive dissonance self-defense mechanism and then they associate those unpleasant feelings with the person who brought the subject up. Then they are trained to give each idea its own small time share so this means that they are incessently bombarded with information to the contrary and they will have only heard that bit of different information for you and it will not be reinforced through any productive or pleasant experience.

The system will shake them awake, if people like us don't. There will be no denying reality when things come crashing down

I have never heard that argument, it is always that the government wouldn't be competent enough to pull it off or it would involve too many people keeping it a secret.

I think the problem is every single disaster has a conspiracy theory attached to it, which then takes credence away from the legitimate theories.. The moon landing, 9/11, JFK, mh370, columbine, sandy hook, batman premiere, chemtrails, gmo's, the list goes on and on.. surely not every single one of these is a conspiracy, yet there are so many people pushing so many different idea's that even when one has alot of good evidence behind it, it gets lumped into the 'crazy' theory pile..

Denial

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Why not both?

Psychologists explain 9/11 denial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGbEJ3pXwWM

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How true...

Simply Cognitive Dissonance through day 1 of your birth via constant barrage of mass media and educational system brainwashing, and from parents brought up the same way. Don't think for yourself and march to a different drummer. Stay in the collective hive-mind and do as you are told blah... blah... blah

Humans are self domesticated mammals & most have deep seeded need for a master unless or until each becomes with experience ones own educated wise master of self & thusly often well trained by others non self mastered humans tolerate abuse from their homelands govern ^rule-over mental masters & hierarchical ladders like an obedient dog severely abused but well fed only rarely bites the hand of master, if master so chooses to beat treat or work the animal brutally to death sadistically. [another human example: hierarchical hazing deaths.]**

Tin foil hats can be awesome! I can easily imagine that if one went back in time & handed a Pharaoh a tin foil hat he would have worn it as a new crown or added some or all of the aluminum to his existing one @ the suggestion of his alchemists & smiths whom would be in awe of the unknown metal & very likely the gifter as well.

Aluminum is a very important metal showing the power of mans mind over matter mastery. Gold refining with aqua regia gives the illusion of more magical human hand crafting but is a liquid transformation illusion more than a not found in nature mastered creation such as aluminum.

Once one masters oneself then that master or mistress may find a need to fill the old void of one needing a master with love & marriage with someone seen as an equal worth becoming one with potentially seeding life forward wisely.

;þ

Wisdoms.

are you kidding? in my city the mayor is an admitted crackhead. a video of him smoking crack was found on a phone that belonged to a guy that was targeted and killed.

if that's not outright corruption - he's dealing with gangsters, murders, and no arrest, nobody even talks about the fact that he was owned.. it's all 'personal problems' and 'rehab' fuck that. they have videos of him in compromising positions.. some worse than this..

and mention it to the older generation.. they don't want to hear about it, and I think I know why. they remember a time when the world was even crazier trying to destroy itself, and the fact that they are realtively immediately safe and secure mitigates the risk of any organized crime. they don't want to know... like a protection racket. let sleeping dogs lie.

"unit they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled, they cannot become conscious.' George Orwell

maybe because so many think they have no power to make change, i'm wondering - at this point now in the world, it requires more than yelling in the streets (unless it's a huge mass of ppl) and weapons would make things worse.

Because if they are wrong, well, that's scary. Corrupt government isn't even a conspiracy.

That is a very good point.

When it takes more energy to maintain the lie than it does to accept the truth, that's when people's minds start changing.

They don't, with the exception of some tiny percent.

People don't want to think their govt is capable of such things, and understandably. None of us want to believe it.

I want to believe

"I'm not lying."

• any given politician

People have a tendency to believe that sentence.

Remember how dumb the average guy is.

Now consider that statistically half the population is dumber than that guy.

Because they posses a much lower level of intelligence than us. Plain and simple.

Even some ppl in this sub make me question our legitimacy

lol. "IMm am A sMArter!"

Yeah, we have to be careful to look at things as openly and honestly as possible, but to also be fair to circumstances. The ignorance is so multi-generational at this point; it's hard to break out of the system under so many circumstances.

"People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People's heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool."

I find that the Wizard's First Rule answers most questions like this pretty handily.

Because football. ;)

It blew my mind how much attention the NFL draft got this year...

Meanwhile, a guy was boiled to death in a shower in Miami by prison guards, and no one seems to care. I thought that one would make national headlines, but nope.

It's such a strange "reality" we exist in today. But the strangest part is how most people don't seem to think it's strange.

We're definitely living in a fascinating time. I just hope more people can come to better realize it, myself included.

You have to understand, that behavior is a self-defense mechanism of the mind. It protects their view of reality.

The thing that worries me most is not when people think governments could never be corrupt, but when people simply 'accept' the fact that they are corrupt.

"Well that's just how leaders with power operate. you'll never stop corruption in politics"

It chills me to the bone...

They don't. But the shills that they employ certainly tell us they can't possibly be. Are only interested in our protection.

IMO -- for them to admit/recognize it as an age old conspiracy long since out of the influence of John Q Public, they'd have to admit its hopeless and 100% out of their control - they sleep better "thinking" (hoping) the gov has their best interests at heart and would NEEVVEERRRR steer them wrong.

Like the last guy on the Titanic to admit that it was in fact sinking...up until that point he dismissed everyone else as foolish.

I don't think people deny the possibility of their government being corrupt. I think people actually know its corrupt but that it goes so deep that they feel powerless to change it. That is how I feel. I have pretty much 100% given up on trying to tell people about it, I have stopped looking and reading about it. It is depressing. It sucks reading about how deep the NSA spying goes. Or how fishy and demonstrably bad the 911 evidence is. Or how laws are being written that may benefit us now but can have drastically bad effects if abused a certain way in the future. I hate it. I just fucking quit it because its depressing. I hate to admit it but I pretty much just keep my head low, do my job, and just have fun on the weekend with my friends and family. That is really all I can ask for. Trying to change our corrupt government is like trying to get rid of Hydra. You cut off one head and two more emerge.

It's a terribly screwed up system, and the corruption extends so far it truly can feel hopeless. Unfortunately, I think in the long run, if we continue to ignore it it's going to end very bad, probably worse than most people can or would like to imagine. That's why I think we have to work toward improving it, at least on some level, if only in just educating more people little by little. It's some kind of progress.

The world is bringing about a social/cultural revolution, whether we want it or not. I'd rather at least be somewhat better prepared than entirely ignorant. But, perhaps that's my own idealism for a better eventual outcome. I'd like to think we're not entirely doomed after all.

Edward Bernays, the father of Propaganda and Public Relations was a psychologist and the nephew of Sigmund Freud.

He thought that the masses didn't really think much at all about the world as a whole and that they could be fooled trivially.

Just have 'experts' repeat any false story and it would be taken as the gospel truth.

And how right he was.

Because they've never seen evidence to the contrary.

There's less and less of these people every day, because we're all practically soaking in corruption at this point.

Because they're fucking insane in lala land. They checked out of their brains a while ago and the ego is in residence for now.

I don't think it's the masses who act like that so much as it's the c'tards and/or shills.

Wow, feeling small much?

An endless and savage loop. How does a society break free from such corrupt organizations? We need a good leader, and I'm not talking about a president. I mean a revolutionary. A martyr, if need be. Someone to truly change the way general society thinks.

It takes some pretty good circumstances to be 15 and not still a boob but by 25 there is plenty of opportunity to have a good grasp of the world.

It's such a strange "reality" we exist in today. But the strangest part is how most people don't seem to think it's strange.

We're definitely living in a fascinating time. I just hope more people can come to better realize it, myself included.

I don't really think global stability and peace are all that unobtainable. People just need to come to realize how idiotic it is that we've been forced to believe that conflict and aggression is the way we naturally solve our problems. Perhaps it has been a way, but not the only way for humans to co-exist.

The world just needs to chill out and think about the big picture for once. We're finally at a stage where our technology could easily provide adequate resources for everyone on this planet, but it requires people/society giving up on this idea of a lust for power and control at all costs.

It's just a social paradigm shift that needs to happen for long-term sustainability of our species on the planet. Somehow we better find a way to accept and come to terms with it. Or else, it's pretty bad for everyone involved...obviously.