Removing Conspiracy Theory stuff from this forum

[Pokemon]

Should Winston remove the Conspiracy Theory stuff from this forum?

My feeling is that he should because it's just a distraction from the main purpose of this website (to date foreign women)

Feminism is a conspiracy in itself. It took me a long time to accept the fact that highly disfunctional nature of western women was no accident. If the women in our respective countries were "normal" there would be no need for this forum or for most of us to travel the world in search of greener pastures.

[odbo]

Absolutely. The purpose of feminism and the hippie movement which tied into it was the destruction of femininity.
Butch lesbians were rebelling against 'the man' by doing exactly what he wanted. And hippies added "free love" and brain killing/body changing drugs to the equation. They were oblivious to where the drugs were coming from.. which were being imported by the cia by the truckload.

Interestingly, here are some of the side-effects of marajuana:
viewtopic.php?t=9575

Long-Term Effects of Marijuana

Effects on males:
Decreased masculinity. Use of marijuana results in lowered levels of the male
hormone testosterone. This hormone is essential for the development and
support of male secondary sexual characteristics such as hair growth, voice
tone, and muscle distribution.

Effects on females:
Decreased femininity. Marijuana use by females increase the amount of
testosterone in the body, causing an increase in acne and such male
characteristics as body and facial hair, and flattening of the breast and
buttocks.

source: http://www.gmu.edu/facstaff/facultyfacts/1-2/grass.html

So it was as much a chemical revolution as it was a big mindfuck for naive morons.

[Jackal]

Believing in conspiracies makes one more more intellectual I think, in that one becomes liberated from the programmed belief that "authority=truth", and thus more "free" to seek truth. So yes, accepting that conspiracies are a part of history, both past and present, is a step toward truth and intellectualism or freethinking, whatever you want to call it. Remember, truth is a process that takes work to move toward. It does not come on a silver platter.

You would sound less hypocritical if you were interested in all types of "truth"--but clearly you're not.

For example, you have a son who needs you. That's the truth, but it's not the type of truth that you personally find interesting. A statistics course would also be an example of truth which you probably wouldn't be interested in.

This avoidance of ordinary truths is what continues to make most CTs just seem like escapism and mental masturbation to me. The guys who follow that stuff will often ignore ordinary truths which aren't exciting enough and mysterious enough to get their juices flowing.

[Winston]

Jackal,
You know, I could just say something like, "It's my forum and that's that" but that's the a-hole way of doing things. I prefer to appeal to your reason personally, to set an example to others.

Now think about this: Suppose we did what you suggested and disallowed conspiracy topics here. In effect, that would be TAKING AWAY the right of other people who want to post conspiracy related subjects. Why would you want to do that? Why would you advocate censorship? I thought you were a truth seeker by heart?

A truth seeker does not suppress. They like to enlighten and liberate people. Why not let simple logic propose a fair compromise, such as the following:

- Conspiracy enthusiasts can post their topics.
- Anti-conspiracy posters are NOT required to read or participate in such topics.

Isn't that a simple solution? Why do you prefer censorship?

Now, you said that seeing threads about "Bigfoot clips" might turn off new people. First of all, Bigfoot is more in the paranormal category rather than the conspiracy category. Second, if someone is that anti-conspiracy and closed minded, would you want that person here? Most open minded people are open to hearing about them. Wouldn't you prefer open-minded types here? Isn't it better to attract more enlightened people who think freely?

Your thoughts? Please meditate on the above. (since you're into Buddhism) And practice mindfulness.

[Winston]

The point i was trying to make is this i used to be a conspiracy theory junkie myself. 2 Many people across the globe know all these things and yet do nothing about it! American males in my mind are the world's pussies because they watch all of these videos, talk about it, chat about it and then do nothing.
American males would rather play xbox all day then pick up a gun and confront the so-called Illuminati.
So you can watch and believe Alex Jones or David Eick i probably spelled his name wrong, but if your not going to risk your ass in the streets like the Arabs are doing right now in their nations, then respectfully Winston all of this is plain bullshit!
I am ready for civil war i am not afraid of death i wonder are the rest of you?

Well said! All this talk and obsessing about CTs does nothing other than entertain the few who are into these things and like to mentally masturbate on them. It certainly does not make one an intellectual. Sure, some of the leading CT figures are charismatic and intellectual types. But many followers are just wanna-bes who fancy themselves as original thinkers but who are actually just sheep to these gurus. And there are plenty of extremely smart, creative, and intellectual types who refuse to waste time entertaining the leading CTs or even outright deny them. Being a CT enthusiast does not make you a big picture free thinker.

Mobilizing a material revolution against corruption and lies in the States just might have some impact. Those of us who sacrificed in order to support such a movement would speak with action. Otherwise, it all seems like a waste of time, at best, just entertainment. Up to now, what material benefit has come from all this information and proof. The US and much of the world is still pretty much controlled by the richest 0.1% of the population who rule with callous impunity.

I disagree with that. Being well read in conspiracies makes you more knowledgeable in alternative topics, and thus makes you MORE intellectual, but not necessarily a "great intellectual". An intellectual is well read on a variety of topics and is concerned with more than just work, money and family like mainstream people are.

If you go to David Icke's forum, you will find some of the most intellectual people in the world. They are also very tolerant there, like we are, of controversial ideas, including the ideas on this site.

Rock, if you listened to David Icke, like I suggested before, you would know that he advocates MASS RESISTANCE AND NON-COMPLIANCE to the system, not violent revolution. If everyone refuses to acquiesce to the system, to the Iraq War, etc. the elite cannot control any longer. That is Icke's message, and if you listened to the lectures I suggested, you'd be more aware of that.

A true intellectual loves knowledge, and that knowledge can be in many areas, not just in conspiracies. Just because something is not useful doesn't mean one cannot love knowing about it. If you don't understand that, then you don't understand the soul of the intellectual.

[momopi]

Should Winston remove the Conspiracy Theory stuff from this forum?
My feeling is that he should because it's just a distraction from the main purpose of this website (to date foreign women)

Feminism is a conspiracy in itself. It took me a long time to accept the fact that highly disfunctional nature of western women was no accident. If the women in our respective countries were "normal" there would be no need for this forum or for most of us to travel the world in search of greener pastures.

Your socio-economic status has bigger impact on your sexual market value than feminism. Marxist views on gender inequality is far more realistic than man-hating feminists, the type who thinks it's the inherent biological trait of men to oppress women. Marxist perspective is, ironically very capitalistic: the oppression of women is the result of social conditioning and economic status. Women becomes subordinate to men when men is elevated to higher social-economic status/class. Where men is in charge of capitalist mode of production, women depend on men for goods and services. Therefore, Marxists believe that a successful revolution would result in the emancipation of women.

IMO women in communist or formally communist bloc countries were raised with more gender equality mindset than westerners in the 20th century. Yet, you'd find more women from Eastern Europe and China looking to marry to the West, than the other way around. This is because Russia and China is poor-er and the Western sphere is richer. As much as feminists hate to admit it, it's a women's natural and biological drive to seek out taller/bigger mates who can build a stronger house (or hut) and bring home the bacon.

Western women are not dysfunctional, they're simply frustrated by the lack of men in superior socio-economic status. You might hear a women complain about her lack of interest in all the "immigrant men", but if the immigrant was a tall dark handsome Italian millionaire, you'd find her make an u-turn. This is compounded by the fact that, in a competitive society, people are raised to be competitive (social conditioning). How well do you compare to your neighbors/peers? Losers are treated like the losing team in a competitive sports match, they might shake hands after the game but there is little sympathy from the winner to the loser.

I'm an immigrant from an East-Asian culture where competition is tough and winning is highly valued. To put it to perspective, from 600 AD to 1900 AD Imperial China implemented the system of Imperial Examination, where any adult male in China regardless of wealth and birth (social ranking) can take the exam and qualify for high-ranking government post. Test subjects include music, math, writing, rituals/ceremonies, military strategy, civil law, tax law, agriculture, geography, Confucian classics, archery, and horsemanship.

The exam starts at local/county level, where only a small % of candidates would pass and go on to the provincial level exam that's held every 3 years. Again, only a small % of of the candidates would pass the provincial level and go on to the national (Palace) exam, where the top winning scholar would be rewarded with government posts. The top winner is awarded the title of Exemplar of the State, while the #2 guy is called "banyan", or "eye positioned to the side of the top winner" (the loser can only look over & up to the winner).

From my cultural perspective, competition is natural and normal. Even after China adopted communism, they still implemented the National Higher Education Entrance Examination. When the communist authorities thought the college-educated students were becoming bourgeois, they sent the students en mass to the countryside (Down to the Countryside Movement) to learn how to live like peasant farms and be reformed (Rusticated) so they'd become better Marxists. In reality, it only reinforced the class division mentality as one looked down on the other, and the other looked up.

From personal experience, I found the US to be less competitive than Taiwan back in 1980s. However due to large influx of East Asian immigrants here (Orange County, CA), things have changed. Back when I went to school here, I thought the schools were academically lax. I barely studied and graduated with honors. Today I look at high schools in Diamond Bar (my cousins went there) and Irvine with large East Asian student population, they impose a higher academic standard -- for better or worse.

[Jackal]

Now think about this: Suppose we did what you suggested and disallowed conspiracy topics here. In effect, that would be TAKING AWAY the right of other people who want to post conspiracy related subjects. Why would you want to do that? Why would you advocate censorship? I thought you were a truth seeker by heart?

It depends on one's perspective. If a separate website served the function that the current "subform" for conspiracy theories does, then there would really be no loss of freedom. The location would just change and that would make this site more focused on international dating.

But the real question is "What do you think the main purpose of this forum is?" On your Happier Abroad main page, the subtitle is "Your guide and inspiration for international dating, living, and freedom beyond America." However, on the HA forum index, the subtitle is "Community of Global Daters, Expats, and Freethinkers Promoting Truth and Awareness."

I guess I am just trying to get the forum to better match with the mission outlined on the Happier Abroad main page. Think about it. A guy might read the main page and get all excited about international dating only to log in and find people more interested in discussing conspiracies. There is quite a disconnect between the main page and the forum.

If the main mission of this forum is to inform men about international dating, then conspiracy theories are quite irrelevant. But if the main purpose of this forum--and the secret purpose of the main page--is really to promote "truth" (according to Winston Wu's definition), then it's more understandable why the CT stuff is here because you are such a CT enthusiast. If this is the case, then perhaps this forum should not be named "HappierAbroad.com" but should be called something like "WinstonWuLand.com" instead.

I suppose that I was once foolish enough to believe that this site was mainly about international dating, but now I know that that's clearly not the case: This site is just about promoting Winston Wu's opinions and views about all subjects, and international dating is only a small part of this.

And whether things change here or not, I think I've illustrated that many other long-time members also feel irritated about the overabundance of CT stuff on this forum.

[ErikHeaven]

To WINSTON it is your site and you have the right to run it as you please. I like the others was just commenting on what was posted. I think its not worth it to even bother with the CT knowledge as most Americans are too dumb, lazy or stupid to understand them. And nobody will risk their own life as long as they have XBOX, PLAYSTATION,YOUTUBE,SEX,DRUGS, Etc.
America has been finished for a long time. I do believe the GOV is putting something in the air and water to pacify people. We are too passive here its disgusting. I gave up i do not see violent revolution or non-violent revolution aka people not shopping coming here. People are just too damn stupid.

[ErikHeaven]

Get ready for the dollars collapsing, buy silver and gold and food and medicine and guns. We might see the collapse in as little as 2 years. You do not want to be here when the shit hits the fan as most Americans will not be prepared. So you will see massive riots, killings, rapings etc.
I do follow Gold Silver.com and they as well as NIA.com predict this as well. America i believe is 100 trillion dollars in debt if you correctly look at the Debtclock.org. Do not stay here prepare to leave America before it falls!

[odbo]

This avoidance of ordinary truths is what continues to make most CTs just seem like escapism and mental masturbation to me. The guys who follow that stuff will often ignore ordinary truths which aren't exciting enough and mysterious enough to get their juices flowing.

The truth is that there is a huge demographic of intelligent men who are avoiding certain knowledge because they are scared. Scared for several reasons, but the point remains that you're not really a man if you give into fear. The only mental masturbation I see is the masses watching tv and being proud of their trivial knowledge (like sports statistics!) or taking the manure public education/university feeds us and pumping up their egos with it, pretending like they know something about history, psychology, whatever. When it's all make belief, designed to make us dumber and more confused than we are without education! It's called in-formation for a reason. Sadly most people don't understand the reality of exoteric vs esoteric knowledge.

There is a LOT of crap in the conspiracy movement, and there are a LOT of idiots because the intelligent people are too busy living inside a box, but that shouldn't bother you. It's a personal journey, take the information and combine it with life experience, you'll make much better sense of the world. Being empowered is not something you need to avoid. But that's the thing, a lot of people live with these rationalizations in their head like "If I find out the truth, I'll have to do something about it." Of course no American wants to do anything. Or so they think, because they've been fed these memes and slogans glorifying the worst traits imaginable.

[Winston]

Some more thoughts on Conspiracy theory:

I first heard about the Illuminati in the early 1960s. My father had brought home a 78 record album given to him on which there was a man with a squeaky high voice explaining the entire theory of the Illuminati. I had never forgotten that and was quite amazed to see it start popping up on the Internet in the 1990s. I grew up in a small conservative community and the "Illuminati" was a popular John Birch/Right Wing Conspiracy theory of that time.

I have studied the conspiracy theories and find them inconsistent. I remember following two sources that agreed and were friends and then they had a falling out and began to call each other agents of the Illuminati. At that point I started to smell a rat. It is basically a huge waste of time to study this stuff. Also, the theories make the "Illuminati" sound so overwhelmingly powerful that, by the terms of the theory itself, there is nothing you can do about it. So, why waste time learning about something that you can't do anything about to begin with? And, at the bottom of it all are a few folks selling DVDs and subscriptions to their websites. Are these real revolutionaries? They never organize a movement against this deadly threat. They only offer more DVDs.

If you want to study some of the real thing, just read historical books on British Imperialism. There was a man who thought it would be a great idea for a small British elite to takeover and rule the world. His name was Lord Milner. He thought that the British were great administrators and such great guys that they should rule the world. I recommend the book "A Peace to End All Peace" by David Fromkin. It shows a detailed example of how the British bureaucracy made all the important decisions to rewrite the map of the Middle East.

In my opinion, one's time will be better spent by taking action and finding a happy life. But it is up to you.

Now that's an example of someone who has critically analyzed CT theories, put 2 and 2 together, and written them off for good reason. Not only does your conclusion based on long experience shed serious doubt as to the validity of many if not all CTs. It also gets to the heart of the salient issue - what benefit do they create other than $$$ in the promoters pocket?

That's not to say that all CT theories are 100% false. Rather, there are big incentives for 'gurus' to propagate such theories, put their own spin on things to achieve ownership and deceive 'followers' into believing that if they buy into their ideas, attractive sounding synonyms apply to them - intellectual, truth seeker, big picture visionary, enlightened, etc. Did it ever occur to you that maybe you are just a blind follower who has been seduced by a smooth talking guru who has 'proven' that everything he hypothesizes is correct beyond the shadow of a doubt? Think about it more deeply and challenge yourself. That's what having an open mind is all about.

Huh? I thought you said you looked over 9/11 and decided that the 9/11 conspiracy claims were probably true and that the government lies? So why are you now claiming that conspiracies are either mostly if not all invalid? Which is it? Why do you contradict yourself?

Your statements above are narrow and full of inaccuracies and fallacies. Allow me to elaborate.

First, it sounds like you are marginalizing and lumping "conspiracies" as all true or false, useless or not. That's not an accurate way of looking at it. You are dealing with an umbrella term here. It would be more effective if you discussed the EVIDENCE for the conspiracies that you wish to discuss and weight that EVIDENCE. For example, discuss the thermite residue found in the WTC dust, the collapse of Building 7, or the single bullet theory of the JFK Assassination, etc. Debate those specific issues. That's more precise and specific. Lumping a huge umbrella term like "conspiracies" is vague and unclear.

I already explained the benefits of educating oneself in conspiracies. Didn't you read it? Why do you always forget when a point has already been addressed?

Conspiracies give us an ALTERNATIVE way of seeing things, or history, or world events, of reality, etc. For example, the official US history teaches us that the reason the US dropped the H bomb on Japan in WWII was to spare millions of Allied lives which would have had to be sacrificed in a ground invasion. But it later came out that that was false, because Japan was about to surrender anyway, so the bomb did NOT have to be dropped on Japan after all. That means the US government killed a lot of civilians when it didn't have to. It turns out that the real reasons why they dropped the bomb on Japan were:

1) To end the war before Russia declared war on Japan, so that the US would not have to divide its rule over Japan with Russia as it had to with Germany.
2) To make the Manhattan Project count for something after all the money and resources invested into it.
3) To start the Cold War and give it credibility. Unless the bomb was dropped, people would not take the Cold War seriously. So it had to be dropped to make the Cold War effective and give us an enemy to fear.

It also turned out that FDR knew about Pearl Harbor before it happened and purposely let it happen so that the US would have a reason to enter WWII.

So you see, conspiracies debunk a lot of lies and shed light on how things really work in this world. Again, if you don't love knowledge and truth, even when it doesn't apply to your life, then you aren't a true intellectual and therefore you are not in a position to decide what makes one an intellectual or not.

Make sense?

Can you factor in the above examples and points in your equation, so that they do not have to be repeated?

Furthermore, conspiracies also:

- Help you think outside the box. They foster critical thinking.
- They help DEPROGRAM you from mind control and help you understand the techniques of mind control, so that you become more immune to it. Isn't that a benefit? See "Architects of Control" by Michael Tsarion.
- They are part of becoming a true skeptic. A true skeptic QUESTIONS EVERYTHING. Part of learning to question everything is in understanding how conspiracies work, since they are a part of reality and life.
- They help liberate your mind from the assumption that "authority=truth".
- They help you understand how the world works (as in the previous examples above).

So you see Rock, you are wrong that conspiracies are merely mental masturbation and serve no purpose. You do not take into account the above, probably due to your limited left brained thinking and pragmatic Asian-like mentality which does not see the big picture.

Furthermore, you are not accurate in saying that conspiracy leaders are like gurus that deceive others. Why do you say that? Many conspiracy leaders lose a lot and endure lots of ridicule for the truth. They don't care what others think. Some even lose their lives (e.g. Jim Keith, William Cooper). In fact, David Icke endured tons of ridicule and hardly had any fans for a while, before people starting realizing that he made more and more sense, and that he was right about many things. You have to admire these people for following the truth and what they felt was right regardless of consequence.

Do you have that kind of courage? If not, who are you to criticize them and claim that they are deceivers? On what basis?

Is pure bias your basis? Can you give a logical reason for your claims?

Please rethink your narrow minded claims, which are full of INACCURACIES, in light of the above, instead of assuming that your extremely narrow claims are the end all of truth, which they are NOT. Many of your assumptions are full of fallacies, errors and misattributions.

And again, instead of lumping and marginalizing all conspiracies into one group, which doesn't make sense, it's better to discuss specific ones and specific evidence. Wouldn't your pragmatic mentality agree with that?

[Winston]

But since discovering the formulas they like to use and reuse ad infinitum I'm able to brush off their attacks without a sweat. Zombies aren't happy people. The programs, which are implamented gradually, (otherwise the zombies might notice and awake from their slumber), are causing them to be more and more dysfunctional. Such people cannot enjoy life. I'm in control of my life. I'm not running a program, I'm not working towards my own demise.

I disagree. I think many people who are "zombies" by your definition are happy with their lives. Sometimes too much thinking interferes with affairs of the heart.

If you feel that you've benefited from CT stuff, that's great; but you're still missing the point that all that stuff is pretty useless when it comes to dating overseas.

If Winston had a separate website for CT stuff that would make the mission of this site more focused. If you had a forum about electrical engineering and people kept posting about dog food there, eventually, you'd say, "Hey, wouldn't it be better if we moved the posts about dog food to a different website?" CT and international dating go together about as well as toothpaste and orange juice.

You can take the CELTA in many countries, so you could take it in the country you are interested in. (I am taking the one in Thailand in May)

Good for you! You might have to put up with a lot of pointless work and some feminist instructors, but just grit your teeth, smile, and get through it. Having a CELTA is very useful, especially if you have a degree in addition to that.

Since I've settled on teaching English as my career for the forseeable future, I think I might want to get a master's in ESL sometime, if I can arrange it. I thought about a DELTA, but it seems like half the work of getting a master's degree for only 1/10 the respect.

Jackal,
Don't you remember that news report someone posted that said that American women today are less happy than before? Obviously, the feminist zombies are less happy, even though they think they are liberated. That's an example of what LinuxOnly was talking about.

The CT stuff is already segregated into another board on this forum, in the Paranormal/Conspiracies board.

Keep in mind that many conspiracies are not theories. They are already facts. The term "conspiracy theory" was designed to marginalize the whole thing as nuts.

I agree that mixing dogs food and electrical engineering topics would be off-topic. But conspiracies are partly to blame for why we are going overseas, since it is likely to be behind feminism, the dumbing down and dyfunctionality of America, etc. So, they are part of the CAUSE of why we are going overseas, and in that sense, they are related. Do you see the connection Jackal?

[Winston]

Now think about this: Suppose we did what you suggested and disallowed conspiracy topics here. In effect, that would be TAKING AWAY the right of other people who want to post conspiracy related subjects. Why would you want to do that? Why would you advocate censorship? I thought you were a truth seeker by heart?

It depends on one's perspective. If a separate website served the function that the current "subform" for conspiracy theories does, then there would really be no loss of freedom. The location would just change and that would make this site more focused on international dating.

But the real question is "What do you think the main purpose of this forum is?" On your Happier Abroad main page, the subtitle is "Your guide and inspiration for international dating, living, and freedom beyond America." However, on the HA forum index, the subtitle is "Community of Global Daters, Expats, and Freethinkers Promoting Truth and Awareness."

I guess I am just trying to get the forum to better match with the mission outlined on the Happier Abroad main page. Think about it. A guy might read the main page and get all excited about international dating only to log in and find people more interested in discussing conspiracies. There is quite a disconnect between the main page and the forum.

If the main mission of this forum is to inform men about international dating, then conspiracy theories are quite irrelevant. But if the main purpose of this forum--and the secret purpose of the main page--is really to promote "truth" (according to Winston Wu's definition), then it's more understandable why the CT stuff is here because you are such a CT enthusiast. If this is the case, then perhaps this forum should not be named "HappierAbroad.com" but should be called something like "WinstonWuLand.com" instead.

I suppose that I was once foolish enough to believe that this site was mainly about international dating, but now I know that that's clearly not the case: This site is just about promoting Winston Wu's opinions and views about all subjects, and international dating is only a small part of this.

And whether things change here or not, I think I've illustrated that many other long-time members also feel irritated about the overabundance of CT stuff on this forum.

Jackal, did you read the above posts? Conspiracies are partly at least, to BLAME for the CAUSES of why we are going abroad. They are not just some out there theories. They affect all of us in our areas of life - banking system, money system, health, food, feminism, etc. So in that sense, they are relevant to our lives. Don't you see that? Don't you see the obvious connection?

This forum is not overrun by conspiracy threads. Most of the threads are still about international dating or culture, etc. You are blowing this out of proportion for some reason. Most of the new threads are not about conspiracies. Conspiracies are not good or bad, they are simply part of the learning process. Please don't marginalize them into one group.

This forum is not all about promoting my opinions. I do not even participate in most threads here. It is conglomerate of many different opinions. So I don't know where you get that.

[Winston]

Momopi,
What do you mean when you said that American women are not dysfunctional? Huh?

They do not just have high standards. They also treat men badly, are selfish, narcissistic, blame their faults on others, make up reasons to argue, hate men (have you seen daytime talk shows?), are drama queens, unfeeling, do not like to cook or clean, do not care about their man's happiness, do not act feminine, and some do not even need men.

Etc. Etc.

So there are many things wrong with them, not just that they seek high socio-economic status. Where have you been???

[Rock]

Some more thoughts on Conspiracy theory:

I first heard about the Illuminati in the early 1960s. My father had brought home a 78 record album given to him on which there was a man with a squeaky high voice explaining the entire theory of the Illuminati. I had never forgotten that and was quite amazed to see it start popping up on the Internet in the 1990s. I grew up in a small conservative community and the "Illuminati" was a popular John Birch/Right Wing Conspiracy theory of that time.

I have studied the conspiracy theories and find them inconsistent. I remember following two sources that agreed and were friends and then they had a falling out and began to call each other agents of the Illuminati. At that point I started to smell a rat. It is basically a huge waste of time to study this stuff. Also, the theories make the "Illuminati" sound so overwhelmingly powerful that, by the terms of the theory itself, there is nothing you can do about it. So, why waste time learning about something that you can't do anything about to begin with? And, at the bottom of it all are a few folks selling DVDs and subscriptions to their websites. Are these real revolutionaries? They never organize a movement against this deadly threat. They only offer more DVDs.

If you want to study some of the real thing, just read historical books on British Imperialism. There was a man who thought it would be a great idea for a small British elite to takeover and rule the world. His name was Lord Milner. He thought that the British were great administrators and such great guys that they should rule the world. I recommend the book "A Peace to End All Peace" by David Fromkin. It shows a detailed example of how the British bureaucracy made all the important decisions to rewrite the map of the Middle East.

In my opinion, one's time will be better spent by taking action and finding a happy life. But it is up to you.

Now that's an example of someone who has critically analyzed CT theories, put 2 and 2 together, and written them off for good reason. Not only does your conclusion based on long experience shed serious doubt as to the validity of many if not all CTs. It also gets to the heart of the salient issue - what benefit do they create other than $$$ in the promoters pocket?

That's not to say that all CT theories are 100% false. Rather, there are big incentives for 'gurus' to propagate such theories, put their own spin on things to achieve ownership and deceive 'followers' into believing that if they buy into their ideas, attractive sounding synonyms apply to them - intellectual, truth seeker, big picture visionary, enlightened, etc. Did it ever occur to you that maybe you are just a blind follower who has been seduced by a smooth talking guru who has 'proven' that everything he hypothesizes is correct beyond the shadow of a doubt? Think about it more deeply and challenge yourself. That's what having an open mind is all about.

Huh? I thought you said you looked over 9/11 and decided that the 9/11 conspiracy claims were probably true and that the government lies? So why are you now claiming that conspiracies are either mostly if not all invalid? Which is it? Why do you contradict yourself?

Your statements above are narrow and full of inaccuracies and fallacies. Allow me to elaborate.

First, it sounds like you are marginalizing and lumping "conspiracies" as all true or false, useless or not. That's not an accurate way of looking at it. You are dealing with an umbrella term here. It would be more effective if you discussed the EVIDENCE for the conspiracies that you wish to discuss and weight that EVIDENCE. For example, discuss the thermite residue found in the WTC dust, the collapse of Building 7, or the single bullet theory of the JFK Assassination, etc. Debate those specific issues. That's more precise and specific. Lumping a huge umbrella term like "conspiracies" is vague and unclear.

I already explained the benefits of educating oneself in conspiracies. Didn't you read it? Why do you always forget when a point has already been addressed?

Conspiracies give us an ALTERNATIVE way of seeing things, or history, or world events, of reality, etc. For example, the official US history teaches us that the reason the US dropped the H bomb on Japan in WWII was to spare millions of Allied lives which would have had to be sacrificed in a ground invasion. But it later came out that that was false, because Japan was about to surrender anyway, so the bomb did NOT have to be dropped on Japan after all. That means the US government killed a lot of civilians when it didn't have to. It turns out that the real reasons why they dropped the bomb on Japan were:

1) To end the war before Russia declared war on Japan, so that the US would not have to divide its rule over Japan with Russia as it had to with Germany.
2) To make the Manhattan Project count for something after all the money and resources invested into it.
3) To start the Cold War and give it credibility. Unless the bomb was dropped, people would not take the Cold War seriously. So it had to be dropped to make the Cold War effective and give us an enemy to fear.

It also turned out that FDR knew about Pearl Harbor before it happened and purposely let it happen so that the US would have a reason to enter WWII.

So you see, conspiracies debunk a lot of lies and shed light on how things really work in this world. Again, if you don't love knowledge and truth, even when it doesn't apply to your life, then you aren't a true intellectual and therefore you are not in a position to decide what makes one an intellectual or not.

Make sense?

Can you factor in the above examples and points in your equation, so that they do not have to be repeated?

Furthermore, conspiracies also:

- Help you think outside the box. They foster critical thinking.
- They help DEPROGRAM you from mind control and help you understand the techniques of mind control, so that you become more immune to it. Isn't that a benefit? See "Architects of Control" by Michael Tsarion.
- They are part of becoming a true skeptic. A true skeptic QUESTIONS EVERYTHING. Part of learning to question everything is in understanding how conspiracies work, since they are a part of reality and life.
- They help liberate your mind from the assumption that "authority=truth".
- They help you understand how the world works (as in the previous examples above).

So you see Rock, you are wrong that conspiracies are merely mental masturbation and serve no purpose. You do not take into account the above, probably due to your limited left brained thinking and pragmatic Asian-like mentality which does not see the big picture.

Furthermore, you are not accurate in saying that conspiracy leaders are like gurus that deceive others. Why do you say that? Many conspiracy leaders lose a lot and endure lots of ridicule for the truth. They don't care what others think. Some even lose their lives (e.g. Jim Keith, William Cooper). In fact, David Icke endured tons of ridicule and hardly had any fans for a while, before people starting realizing that he made more and more sense, and that he was right about many things. You have to admire these people for following the truth and what they felt was right regardless of consequence.

Do you have that kind of courage? If not, who are you to criticize them and claim that they are deceivers? On what basis?

Is pure bias your basis? Can you give a logical reason for your claims?

Please rethink your narrow minded claims, which are full of INACCURACIES, in light of the above, instead of assuming that your extremely narrow claims are the end all of truth, which they are NOT. Many of your assumptions are full of fallacies, errors and misattributions.

And again, instead of lumping and marginalizing all conspiracies into one group, which doesn't make sense, it's better to discuss specific ones and specific evidence. Wouldn't your pragmatic mentality agree with that?

I don't mean CTs are all either true or false. I have a deep distrust for rich and powerful who run the US government and realize they've been lying and manipulating their gullible and naive citizenry for at least many decades. I admit the conditions are ripe (corrupt government and elite class) for such things to happen and have no doubt that many of our so called leaders are capable of killing millions of innocents if it furthers their agenda and they can get away with it. But I have no way of proving or disproving any of the leading CTs.

Anyway, for the sake of the argument, lets assume each and everyone of them is true. Then what? Is our dwelling on them going to change anything? Do you really believe David Icke's solutions are the answer? There are many areas for an intellectual mind to grow. CTs are not the holy grail.

Winston, I think you've lost sight of Jackal's main point - CT's are a distraction on this forum. The title of your website and the visuals on the home page and throughout suggest a theme of helping frustrated western men meet desirable women by going overseas. CTs seem quite unrelated to this theme, at least to me. I would argue that even the financial section has a lot more relevance because money is the fuel which allows us to pursue the "Happier Abroad" lifestyle.

Since you own the forum and CTs happen to be your passion, we are stuck with having them often dilute the most recent posts list. When a bunch of CT posts pop-up, it really does make your site seem unfocused and all over the map.