“Truth? You can't handle the truth!”

[JOE SOAP]

so are we in the post-campbellcene era?

[TordelBack]

so are we in the post-campbellcene era?

Ah, alas for the Campbrian, when bony fishes ruled the depths...

[Mikey]

Ye know, the Trout speaks truth. Off Topic has had it's share of rows, but it was always the fun sort I reckon. Perhaps overt politicizing doesn't really have a place in a leisure zone.

Unfortunately, i've contributed to it. Like a moth to a flame perhaps.

M

[TordelBack]

You lahve it you slaaag!

[JOE SOAP]

Maybe Pete's posts are just too long-winded, too long for a comics forum? Wood & trees comes to mind...

[The Legendary Shark]

My posts are often long winded as well, to be fair, as are others.

IMHO the problem most people have with the topics discussed here seems to be the idea that posters such as Peter and myself offer views and ideas which are anathema to most other people's world view and experience. We're basically implying that the world you know so well is actually very different than is generally accepted. It's like saying that if you believe what the politicians, corporations and media tell you then you're an idiot. This is bound to make people angry. It made me angry when first I was exposed to these ideas.

I obviously can't speak to Peter's motives for posting here but mine are simply to ask "are you sure you're seeing the world correctly? Am I seeing the world correctly?" I don't want to convert anyone or belittle anyone for not seeing things as I do. I'm also not looking for anyone to convert or belittle me for not seeing the world as they do.

The topics discussed on this thread are often upsetting and bound to cause friction, bemusement and anger. These are, after all, big topics with many, many dimensions to them. Accept nothing out of hand and deny nothing out of hand, for what is true today may not have been true yesterday and may not be true tomorrow.

We may as well just chill out, because in a hundred years who's going to care?

[M.I.K.]

130 year olds.

[TordelBack]

130 year olds.

[JOE SOAP]

My posts are often long winded as well, to be fair, as are others.

IMHO the problem most people have with the topics discussed here seems to be the idea that posters such as Peter and myself offer views and ideas which are anathema to most other people's world view and experience. We're basically implying that the world you know so well is actually very different than is generally accepted. It's like saying that if you believe what the politicians, corporations and media tell you then you're an idiot. This is bound to make people angry. It made me angry when first I was exposed to these ideas.

I think that's a rather inflated view of the thread, we aren't messengers of the light or Neo in the Matrix or even proper contrarians.


Speaking for myself I've been aware of this stuff you and Pete have posted about for years -read with genuine interest and amusement- as I'm sure others have on this forum, and no sensible person can claim that what they have gleaned from such readings could be sure it's such real 'truth' or particularly enlightening to live one's everyday life though we all have moments of clarity. A lot of it is divorced from any real-world sensibilty -veracious or not- and the bits that may be truthful get lost in the conspiracy gestalt. It's all a bit of fun and if some genuine personal views get aired it can be a little bit cathartic.

What grates is when certain members throw around words like sheep and adopt a condescending tone in relation to either the so called masses or members of this forum. It's arrogant and rather naive, none of us are privy to such info, our opinions are always broad brush strokes feverishly typed in private domesticity.

[Emperor]

Now I'm starting to worry that too much sense is being talked here - we should get this thread back on topic.

Or talk some more about the moody fish of the Cambpeniferous.

[Peter Wolf]

As Jim Campbell said, I increasingly feel I'm out of step with this board. I don't come round too often anyway. This isn't a flounce off, or a big announcement - I'll still pop back and say hello - but I think it's moved beyond me.

By the way, I do intend to go to the comics event Peter mentioned before, and I am happy to encounter him at it. If he carries out his threat of violence, I'll be sure to post the results here.

- Trout

There was never a threat of violence apart from one that you chose to read into it but it was ambiguous so thats fair enough but the fact is i am not interested in violence as telling you what i think of you will be enough.having said that its a long time away and i may drop out before then but if i dont i would prefer it if the whole thing was dropped which it seems like it has been anyway by the looks of things.I am saying that there may be an opportunity for you to say what you think in person.I am not desperate to talk to you and i would rather move on from the whole thing.

Thats my position on that but i have to draw the line at being called certain things as its unnacceptable.Being told that i am wrong or paranoid or ill informed and being wrong headed or whatever is one thing but slander/libel is another.I dont want to hear it or read it again.

If you had your way this thread would not exist which seems like a very intolerant and authoritarian attitude plus the fact that you dont respect others views.

As for this thread the problem is really my views on this thread rather than the thread itself and while i can still say what i want like everyone else i have a kind of pragmatic attitude to it all now where i dont really think its worth continuing anymore as it gets to the point that its no longer enjoyable or productive.Too much "overt politicising" rahter than just conversation on my part.

I had already dropped out of this thread because i could feel something was building up.

I do think that certain individuals here who throw around terms like "paranoid" are in some kind of denial of reality or reality prison.Like i said earlier this thread isnt called what its called for nothing.

[The Legendary Shark]

I think that's a rather inflated view of the thread, we aren't messengers of the light or Neo in the Matrix or even proper contrarians.

Speaking for myself I've been aware of this stuff you and Pete have posted about for years -read with genuine interest and amusement- as I'm sure others have on this forum, and no sensible person can claim that what they have gleaned from such readings could be sure it's such real 'truth' or particularly enlightening to live one's everyday life though we all have moments of clarity. A lot of it is divorced from any real-world sensibilty -veracious or not- and the bits that may be truthful get lost in the conspiracy gestalt. It's all a bit of fun and if some genuine personal views get aired it can be a little bit cathartic.

What grates is when certain members throw around words like sheep and adopt a condescending tone in relation to either the so called masses or members of this forum. It's arrogant and rather naive, none of us are privy to such info, our opinions are always broad brush strokes feverishly typed in private domesticity.

In my own personal view, I don't think most of the subjects discussed here can be inflated. To take my own personal bugbear as an example, the banks are hoovering up the wealth of the world, wealth that belongs to you and me, and society in general seems content to let this happen. Content to allow Africa to starve because of it. Content to allow wars because of it. Content to ignore it. I firmly contend that everyone needs to understand that the way the banks operate is killing humanity in vast swathes and that putting this right would be relatively easy. In my universe, there is, politically and socially, nothing more important than this. That said, I know that every single one of us lives in our own unique universe and so this subject is nowhere near as important to others as it is to me. I get that, but sometimes I have a hard time accepting or even understanding it - but that's my problem and nobody else's.

For instance, how can the fact that your parents' wealth, your wealth and your children's wealth is being stolen by an elite few possibly be seen as not "particularly enlightening to ... one's everyday life"? How much will people have to loose before they start thinking that maybe something's not right with the way things are being run? Again, this is just my own personal viewpoint and I believe in what I say so firmly that it actually scares me.

Without wishing to sound derogatory, I reckon that around 80% of people are sheep. This is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to, say, traffic regulations and such. The fact is that most people like to follow leaders/fads/fashions - and it's a trait that has served humanity well through the ages otherwise there'd be none of us here to debate the matter.

Where the sheep mentality comes a cropper is when unscrupulous people take advantage of it. Tony Blair took us into horrid wars; a few people objected but most just kept their mouths shut and went along with it. If someone in an official costume or uniform tells a person to do something then most people do it. (Remember that experiment where ordinary people were ordered by men in white coats to apply ultimately "fatal electric shocks" to an unseen victim and 80% happily went along with it?) Sometimes this trait is beneficial, like following instructions to evacuate a burning building - but sometimes it's positively disgraceful like convincing a population that a minority must be expunged for the common good.

The trick is knowing when to bleat and when to roar - which is never easy.

[Mikey]

Where was there threats of violence? Was it on this board?

M.

[Tiplodocus]

For what it's worth...

I don't understand why anybody feels the needs to raise these topics and questions here. 

It's primarily a light hearted leisure forum.

Why not take these opinions and questions someplace else where they might make a difference? Surely a proper political or newspaper site would be a better fit for your thoughts?

Though I dip my toes into the thread occassionally, (I live without it and) I don't feel they add value to the forum as a whole (though obviously a couple of you get some form of validation from posting here).

I'm not against OFF TOPIC, and even, on occassion, SILLY stuff but the nature of these things just doesn't belong here.
e.g. I think a thread where "fans" of teh Old Firm spout rubbish at each other would be equally out of place.

Maybe I'm out of step as well, or maybe, not enough people have actually bothered to voice an opinion for fear of offending.

So plainly - I'd rather this thread, and the political thread didn't exist.  Where the real world* does cross into the forum (e.g. RIPs), I'd rather people didn't politicise their posts.

* I, in no way, mean to imply that this thread represents the "real world".

[Mikey]

Where was there threats of violence? Was it on this board?

I see it was. That's not a good thing.

M.