My story of how I came into the CT movement and how I got out.

Mackdog

Senior Member.
I first want to start off by saying that I do believe that there are certainly some "conspiracies" out there and there always have been. There are always people conspiring to do wrong and take advantage of others, and even some of what the CT'ers believe does have a shred of truth to it. Some examples would be how George Bush may have had foreknowledge about 9/11 and either failed to act on the intel or maybe wanted it to happen so he could invade Iraq ect.. but even this is debatable. Or the fact that Lee Harvey Oswald may have been working for someone other than himself when he shot Kennedy. In other words, there are still many unanswered questions about certain historical events, and it's my hope that maybe someday they will be answered. But either way, I just want to share how I came to be a conspiracy theorist and how I eventually got out of that mindset and "saw the light" so to speak and shed the layers of bunk that were weighing me down and adversely affecting my life. I don't want this thread to turn into a debate about the above mentioned "conspiracies" or any type of argument, rather I just wanted to share this with everyone and hope that maybe someone can relate to it somehow.

here goes...

When I was growing up in Northeast Ohio in the late 1990's, I listened to my Dad preach a lot about how the Clinton administration was extremely liberal/socialist and how we are headed for another great depression and that the world will run out of oil by the year 2015 or so. You see, my Dad is a petroleum geologist and has spent his life working in the oil field and exploring for oil and natural gas. But long story short, he eventually came to firmly believe that we were going to run out of oil in my lifetime and that the world will be thrown into chaos with energy shortages and a global depression that will kill everybody. I don't know how many times I stood there listening to him preach to someone about these things, but he preached a lot, and to many people, about being prepared and about certain political topics. I believe that these years of listening to my father (God bless him) preach about these types of topics really galvanized my opinion and thought process to that of a hard line conservative and eventually to that of a conspiracy theorist.

My first real dive into politics and bunk came in 2004. It was the big election season, and incumbent George W Bush was running against John Kerry the "socialist" "communist" from Massachusetts. My Dad was really into the whole election thing and one day he told me that I should listen to Rush Limbaugh for up to date information about how the campaigns were going and about how the socialist/liberal John Kerry was trying to oust the great and flawless president George W Bush. Well I took his advice and started listening to Rush on a daily basis and then eventually started listening to Glenn Beck, Quinn and Rose and Shaun Hannidy. I listened to those guys religiously from 2004 until the fall of 2008 (somewhere in there I started listening to Michael Savage and became one of his close followers) and then one day I came across this new website called "Youtube" and started searching around in my spare time, goofing off. I came across some 9/11 videos that showed that the towers were a controlled demolition and that the planes that flew into them may have been windowless military planes that were some part of a secret operation to destroy the towers, attack the USA, bring us to war and all to the benefit of this shadow elite. I soon found Alex Jones and was immediately hooked. I was one of Jones' listeners and would swallow anything he told me, without asking any questions. I found myself practically on the edge of insanity and thought, at one point, that everyone else in the world was mentally insane and I was the only sane one who was "awake". I bought into nearly every conspiracy imaginable: Vaccines, 9/11, NWO bankers, Illuminati, global depopulation, HAARP, FEMA camps ect...But NEVER the chemtrail theory or the moon landing theory. This went on from the fall of 2008 until early to mid 2012. Sometime in there I watched Ryan Dawsons 9/11 documentary "War is Always by Deception" and then "9/11 missing links" and began to believe that the Israelis were at least partly responsible for 9/11. And that they were working to bring the USA to war ect...As you can see, I was way too far down the rabbit hole for anyone to be able to rescue. I even started to be a listener of Coast to Coast AM in late 2008 early 2009 and even bought into some of the crap from Steve Quayle, William Henry and David Icke. I even remember preaching to one of my good friends about how shape shifting reptilians are running the world and that they are using us as slaves to build their global empire.

Anyways, the one thing that kept bothering me was this darn chemtrails conspiracy theory. Even to me at the time, it seemed pretty kooky. I just couldn't bring myself to believe that passenger planes were spraying us with toxic chemicals and that no one was exposing it, and that there was some government spray program in place to poison us all. I know it sounds crazy that I believed in reptilians for a short time, and not chemtrails, but I suppose that is just how I am. Well, the chemtrail thing was the thread that eventually unraveled the entire conspiracy line of thought for me. One day I decided that I would try to debunk this "chemtrail" conspiracy theory once and for all. It never made sense to me anyways. So I went to google and typed in "chemtrails debunked", and low and behold, a site named "contrail science" popped up close to the top. So I spent some time on Micks site and really learned a lot about plane contrails and saw the evidence disproving chemtrails once and for all. Then, several weeks later, I decided I would try to debunk the 9/11 conspiracy theories. If it worked for chemtrails then why wouldn't it work for 9/11? And wouldn't you know, I found all kinds of sites with good factual information that debunked almost all of the 9/11 conspiracy theories. At this point it was like a HUGE weight was lifted off my shoulders and that I could once again breathe and feel like I was alive again. I didn't have to live in fear anymore.

I have to say, throughout all of this, I did learn an awful lot and I have grown to realize that there is more to life than following various cult of personalities that just want to herd you into their pens and fleece you, while telling you that they are on you side and that they are giving you the truth and nothing but the truth. I have learned to be more objective in everything I research and not to have religious-like beliefs in things I can not prove, just because I am too afraid to admit I was wrong. I have finally realized that the "rabbit hole" is just that...a hole..an endless hole of ones own delusions that leads them through whatever fantasy they choose to live in.

Eric
 
What if you were both wrong and there actually was a conspiracy , what is the point of all this debunking or believing or not believing in something , either its real or not and without a proper investigation we will never know .
 
It only takes 1 out of the 999 conspiracy theories about 911 ''debunked'' to be real and therefore the whole conspiracy is real. And as yet I have seen no explanation for the molten steel coming out of the south tower that makes any sense apart from thermite.
 
What if you were both wrong and there actually was a conspiracy , what is the point of all this debunking or believing or not believing in something , either its real or not and without a proper investigation we will never know .

Without removing the bunk how will you ever know whether it is real or not? That's what debunking is - removing the bunk.
 
It only takes 1 out of the 999 conspiracy theories about 911 ''debunked'' to be real and therefore the whole conspiracy is real. And as yet I have seen no explanation for the molten steel coming out of the south tower that makes any sense apart from thermite.
The "molten steel" issue is discussed at length on Metabunk and a multitude of other sources, as I'm sure you are aware. I won't provide links because it's off topic here. The fact remains that all of the "999 conspiracy theories about 911" persist at this moment, as they always have, as nothing more than theories.
 
It only takes 1 out of the 999 conspiracy theories about 911 ''debunked'' to be real and therefore the whole conspiracy is real. And as yet I have seen no explanation for the molten steel coming out of the south tower that makes any sense apart from thermite.
l'd reply on here, but since I do not want this to turn into a conspiracy debate, I will have to discuss what I think about 9/11 on another thread, or in a PM.
 
Eric, That's a great story.

While my story is not as deep. I certainly was a believer that 9/11 was undoubtedly an inside job after watching "Loose Change" in my early 20s. I didn't dive deep into much though, until my stepfather passed in 2011 of lung cancer. Someone suggested I watch the documentary on Dr. Burzinski and his cancer treatments... This had me quite upset. I began following Natural News and the alternative health movement quite closely. My local organic grocer, on Facebook was posting pictures of contrails over our city, stating that "they've been spraying all morning and have been up to it all week." (Along to chemtrail links from Natural News.) I was puzzled, having been used to such images my whole life... The chemtrail debate started between us (and still goes on) and I began to question Natural News' and other alternative health website's motives. Not long after this, the Sandy Hook tragedy happened, and Mike Adams (Natural News) was posting within hours that this was obviously a false-flag operation designed to seize his guns. That was it for me. I found ContrailScience to help with my chemtrail arguments, then consequently Metabunk and haven't looked back.

Unfortunately, I dragged a few people into the alternative health movement, and they since have taken themselves down the Alex Jones path. For this I feel quite responsible, and work my best to try to bring them out of the hole. Metabunk is a great tool for this. Thank you.

Cheers.

Eric Lee
 
Great story. Must have been quite the ride. I quite enjoyed reading it.

I'm the personality type who would easily have become a conspiracy theorist. I have a pretty liberal view on things, followed alternative health for quite some time, always looking for an alternative explanations for day-to-day events. I hold on to the belief that nothing is impossible. My life is not even remotely cushy, and I tend to have a negative outlook on society and the world in general. A little more than five years ago, I did buy into some conspiracy theories. The number of 9/11 conspiracy theories, NWO theories, and illuminati theories did draw me in, and to an extent, I did accept them without really questioning their validity. But where I differ from other conspiracy theorists is that, personally, none of those theories really held much meaning for me, and whether they were true or not, I simply didn't care and never felt that it was worth the effort to validate or invalidate any of them.

What really drew my interest to the realm of conspiracy theories, and my subsequent membership on this site is, like yourself, chemtrails. I first came to know about chemtrails while browsing an aviation forum where one of the members was speaking about his friend who believed in chemtrails. Of course, the members of the particular forum thought the idea of chemtrails was ridiculous, but my curiosity got the better of me, and I went on YouTube and watched "What in the World are they Spraying?". To the director's credit (Michael J. Murphy), his video seemed pretty professionally made and is quite convincing. Having spent my last decade working in aviation, and being a pilot myself, however, this was one theory I couldn't buy no matter how convincing it was. What surprised me was how much traction chemtrails had on people while I had not even heard any mention of this in the aviation industry of where I work (even today).

I felt compelled to debunk chemtrails. I found it fascinating (as it was appalling) how out of context the theory can be taken, particularly when there are people out there threatening to shoot airliners down because of this belief. I read the stuff on contrail science, dug out my textbooks, scrutinized the claims of the theories that existed out there, and considered the possibilities. It was surprisingly fun and proved to be quite the intellectual exercise. I ended up falling in love with meteorology, and quite enjoy teaching the subject to students.

While I can't quite share the experience of having been in a hole, I think it is enlightening to see how much you've learned from your experience. I certainly agree that there are real conspiracies out there, but when it comes to conspiracy theories, I think there are more pressing things to be concerned about if such theories can be debunked within good reason. There is a lot to be gained from learning.
 
My story is not that different than Rico's . . . I have always thought that reality is not exactly what we have been lead to believe . . . I come from a long line of such believers . . . from my grandparents on down . . . I was taught by my parents the same theme. (Note: interestingly, my maternal grandfather was a 32nd degree Freemason as several of my relatives, though I am not) The central mantra was there are strong and powerful people in this world that pull all the strings economically, academically, and militarily but they never had a name for this group . . .

For the most part until around 2009, I was just too busy with my career to spend much time researching issues except to read some fiction: King, Koontz, Baldacci, Ludlum, Cussler, Clancy, Crichton, Patterson, and a host of SyFy writers . . . so you can see what I read only reinforced my conspiracy leanings . . .

Bottom line . . . I am addicted to conspiracies and invariably begin with . . . FIRST they exist . . . and then I have to research diligently to convince myself the world is simply a random mass of disassociated power centers all competing for their brief time in the sun . . .

Chemtrails for me was just a dare that got out of hand . . . I never used the internet except for email and technical research . . . so on retirement when I discovered Forums and Blogs by accident I stumbled upon a Conspiracy Forum that was a free-for-all (GLP) . . . Wow!! What a shock . . . people said whatever they wanted without any proof of anything except their opinions . . . coming from an academic and scientific career this was crazy but also exciting . . . so I wanted to fix it . . . LoL! I challenged a small group of debunkers on the Forum to sponsor some type of formal debate process and agreed to take whatever side of an debate they didn't want . . . so that is how I got stuck with being pro-chemtrails. I never had heard of chemtrails before 2009 . . . so like everything else in my life I jumped in with both feet and like my legal training demanded I ignored no possible argument out of my bag of possible tools to win the debate . . . I did however, observe a few rules . . . I refused to use any pro-Chemtrail sites or information unless they were the only place to find something important to my position . . . so even after months of research I didn't know who the leaders of the movement were . . . Jay has never believed me about that issue but it is true . . . my research on the subject was 90% plus original . . . I basically stayed in the research from NASA, NOAA, DoE, FAA, IPCC, and US law and international treaties . . . my own speculations and testimony from the supposed rare whistleblowers and a few bogus research papers that at the time didn't know had no peer review process . . .

I soon discovered that the trails in the sky were persistent contrails but I didn't give up there . . . what about geoengineering? How could it be done and what would you use?

Well how did I get to Contrail Science and Metabunk???? . . . one of my most dedicated opponents dared me to come to this Forum because he said I wouldn't last one day . . . well that was many months ago . . . what I found was a place where chaos was not the rule and common decency was promoted along with a demand for verifiable evidence to prove one's position . . . something I had missed since I retired . . . so I might not always agree with the conclusions here but I do agree with the process . . . Mick has done an exceptional job maintaining a place on the internet where rational debate can thrive . . . !!!!!!

P.S. Just like an alcoholic or drug addict I am only in remission . . . I am still a Conspiracy Junky . . . :confused:
 
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I would like to address something that I think is important . . . much of my debates, comments and discussions until I met up with Jay and a few others were basically entertainment . . . more or less a mental game of logic and persuasion played out in a public Forum with equally capable participants also interested in speculation and the game of winning for their side of any chosen debate . . .

I had no real thought that these debates/discussions were being played out on a worldwide stage . . . . I still find it hard to rap my head around!!! So the ramifications of our Postings are possibly more influential and far reaching than we may have imagined. Not that any of us think someone would seriously listen to our arguments, internalize them and base some significant life changing decision or act on . . . but this is not an isolated debate within the confines of a corporate board room, lecture hall, or cocktail party . . . this is for the whole world to see . . .

Because of this realization I have concluded . . . I/we need to be careful in what we say, how we say it and the motivations behind them . . . I am not talking about being paranoid or censorship . . I am talking about owning what we say (understanding their reach goes far beyond our little group here on Metabunk or any Forum) so we wouldn't be ashamed of them being dredged up and repeated in front of us for the whole world to judge . . . sorry for the rambling . . . :)
 
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My story is not that different than Rico's . . . I have always thought that reality is not exactly what we have been lead to believe . . . I come from a long line of such believers . . . from my grandparents on down . . . I was taught by my parents the same theme. (Note: interestingly, my maternal grandfather was a 32nd degree Freemason as several of my relatives, though I am not) The central mantra was there are strong and powerful people in this world that pull all the strings economically, academically, and militarily but they never had a name for this group . . .

For the most part until around 2009, I was just too busy with my career to spend much time researching issues except to read some fiction: King, Koontz, Baldacci, Ludlum, Cussler, Clancy, Crichton, Patterson, and a host of SyFy writers . . . so you can see what I read only reinforced my conspiracy leanings . . .

Bottom line . . . I am addicted to conspiracies and invariably begin with . . . FIRST they exist . . . and then I have to research diligently to convince myself the world is simply a random mass of disassociated power centers all competing for their brief time in the sun . . .

Chemtrails for me was just a dare that got out of hand . . . I never used the internet except for email and technical research . . . so on retirement when I discovered Forums and Blogs by accident I stumbled upon a Conspiracy Forum that was a free-for-all (GLP) . . . Wow!! What a shock . . . people said whatever they wanted without any proof of anything except their opinions . . . coming from an academic and scientific career this was crazy but also exciting . . . so I wanted to fix it . . . LoL! I challenged a small group of debunkers on the Forum to sponsor some type of formal debate process and agreed to take whatever side of an debate they didn't want . . . so that is how I got stuck with being pro-chemtrails. I never had heard of chemtrails before 2009 . . . so like everything else in my life I jumped in with both feet and like my legal training demanded I ignored no possible argument out of my bag of possible tools to win the debate . . . I did however, observe a few rules . . . I refused to use any pro-Chemtrail sites or information unless they were the only place to find something important to my position . . . so even after months of research I didn't know who the leaders of the movement were . . . Jay has never believed me about that issue but it is true . . . my research on the subject was 90% plus original . . . I basically stayed in the research from NASA, NOAA, DoE, FAA, IPCC, and US law and international treaties . . . my own speculations and testimony from the supposed rare whistleblowers and a few bogus research papers that at the time didn't know had no peer review process . . .

I soon discovered that the trails in the sky were persistent contrails but I didn't give up there . . . what about geoengineering? How could it be done and what would you use?

Well how did I get to Contrail Science and Metabunk???? . . . one of my most dedicated opponents dared me to come to this Forum because he said I wouldn't last one day . . . well that was many months ago . . . what I found was a place where chaos was not the rule and common decency was promoted along with a demand for verifiable evidence to prove one's position . . . something I had missed since I retired . . . so I might not always agree with the conclusions here but I do agree with the process . . . Mick has done an exceptional job maintaining a place on the internet where rational debate can thrive . . . !!!!!!

P.S. Just like an alcoholic or drug addict I am only in remission . . . I am still a Conspiracy Junky . . . :confused:
Now that clarifies some pf my confusion with your postings on GLP

I had suspected as much.

Cheers *raises coffee cup*
 
That you had taken a side for debates sake.

You didn't strike me as being a hard core believer but you kept at the possibility quite tenaciously.o_O

In reading here I see more of your nature and personality.

Oops I forgot to use the quote I was responding to George
 
I tend to be very skeptical, but I somewhat fell for a couple of conspiracies.

The first one is one that few would ever heard of. In the 1970s, 2 'new' canine viruses showed up. The first was a 'Corona' virus and it showed up heavily for the first time at a combined Collie/ Sheltie specialty show in Kentucky. It did kill some dogs, but good vet care saved most. A few months later, Parvo virus showed up. It seemed to have 'originated' at some dog shows in the Rio Grande valley of Tx. It was deadly. It still is. What seemed odd to me was that BOTH of these viruses had vaccines available within 6-8 months.

The conspiracy I somewhat fell for, was that they were the result of government testing of a biological warfare distribution system. The story seemed to have come from some Scientologists and it included 'evidence' that someone had 'seen cages and such'.

Is it possible it was ? Maybe. Is it likely? Nope. After thinking about it, I remembered that we had seen some severe viruses that caused a lot of the same issues as Parvo did before that. It seems that there was a virus evolving and it may have been passed among show dogs. Shows will have up to several thousand dogs, there are common exercise pens and or areas for them to urinate/defecate in. They are in crates, close together. It is perfect conditions for a virus to be shared.

The other one was the 'Hearst marijuana' story. I got that from the book 'Ain't Nobody's Business if You Do' by Peter McWilliams. That one I kept for awhile, until I got to researching more about hemp and I discovered that it was not true. The marijuana outlawing was most likely more racial and 'fear of the unknown' than anything else. Looking back on that time in the world, it fits in perfectly with the fears that folks had.

That is one reason I choose to fight the misinformation that abounds on the web, it can cause bad laws to be passed that are destructive for many years afterward.
 
That you had taken a side for debates sake.

You didn't strike me as being a hard core believer but you kept at the possibility quite tenaciously.o_O

In reading here I see more of your nature and personality.

Oops I forgot to use the quote I was responding to George
The only thing I feel possible about geoengineering but very low in probability is sulfuric acid injected into the stratosphere . . and then only at very low altitudes within the stratosphere and by a very few aircraft . . . I actually think as David Keith fears some isolated rogue group or G20 country could pull it off sometime in the future . . . and unlike Jay I think it could be done in amounts and techniques making it almost impossible to detect beyond background levels . . . ;)
 
The only thing I feel possible about geoengineering but very low in probability is sulfuric acid injected into the stratosphere . . and then only at very low altitudes within the stratosphere and by a very few aircraft . . . I actually think as David Keith fears some isolated rogue group or G20 country could pull it off sometime in the future . . . and unlike Jay I think it could be done in amounts and techniques making it almost impossible to detect beyond background levels . . . ;)
There is little need for the acid it is far easier to use other sulfur producing processes as the atmospheric moister takes care of the creation of the acid.

Nitric acid works as well and can be easier to produce particularly in a turbine engine without the negative effects of the sulfur carriers.
 
There is little need for the acid it is far easier to use other sulfur producing processes as the atmospheric moister takes care of the creation of the acid.

Nitric acid works as well and can be easier to produce particularly in a turbine engine without the negative effects of the sulfur carriers.
The reason I mention sulfuric acid is because the best product IMO to transport and handle in a way safely is Oleum . . . which is converted to sulfuric Acid simply with heat . . .


As an intermediate for transportation

Oleum is a useful form for transporting sulfuric acid compounds, typically in rail tankcars, between oil refineries (which produce various sulfur compounds as a byproduct of refining) and industrial consumers.

Certain compositions of oleum are solid at room temperature, and thus are safer to ship than when liquid. Solid oleum can then be converted into liquid at the destination through steam heating or dilution or concentration. This requires some care to prevent overheating and evaporation of sulfur trioxide. To extract it from a tank car requires careful heating using steam conduits within the tank car. Great care must be taken to avoid overheating, as this can increase the internal pressure within the tank car to a value exceeding the limit of the tank's safety valve.

In addition, oleum is less corrosive to metals than sulfuric acid, because there is no free water to attack the surfaces.[2] Because of that, sulfuric acid is sometimes concentrated to oleum for in-plant pipelines and then diluted back to acid for use in industrial reactions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleum
Content from External Source
 
The reason I mention sulfuric acid is because the best product IMO to transport and handle in a way safely is Oleum . . . which is converted to sulfuric Acid simply with heat . . .
I only mentioned NA as you don't need any additional weight it is a mechanical configuration.

Your method is far faster but you have the weight/bulk factor.
 
I only mentioned NA as you don't need any additional weight it is a mechanical configuration.

Your method is far faster but you have the weight/bulk factor.
Got your point . . . Think we need to get back to the Thread's focus . . . how has your journey through the Conspiracy Culture affected you?
 
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