Thanks for taking the time to reply! I too have been away for many moons.

No further nuance necessary. In fact, you provided the definition I was looking for when I started this thread. I guess I was attempting to gauge the community's barometer on these kinds of issues. To far too many people, Conspiracy has come to mean 'the nutty ideas that mental cases come up with in their fantasy lands' and define it openly as such.

Glad you grasp the textbook definition, as that will allow a more open and fluid understanding of discussions that can and do occur in the conspiracy realm.

Remember: it is not necessary to accept an idea before you discuss it.

Wow, I'm honored.

I need to show up here more often, reddit is outrageously compromised.

Having also worked for and with large companies, the amount of nonsense mistakes made on their behalf cannot usually be attributed to conscious decision making.

More often than out, the outcome of a Corporate transaction is equal parts profit motive, self-interest on the part of the employees involved, and done at the barest minimum effort involved by those who would most likely be directly responsible for the request.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. As with all things, there are up and down sides to this. I agree that being objective is absolutely necessary. However, I think it's very important for people to remember that it is entirely possible to discuss an idea without accepting it first.

And that's really what I'm after, what we should all be after: discussion. No one person can say they know everything. And I've learned quite a few counter intuitive truths from listening to people who I wouldn't normally.

As long as you're willing to have an open mind, there's a truth about our world that can be discovered.

Perhaps I should have narrowed my terms.

The MODERN Corporate mechanism is absolutely unsustainable. You are of course correct that there will always be some form of a Corporate structure, but there must be restrictions on it's reach into society with heavy costs. Otherwise, well... look around.

Fukushima is an excellent example. Evidence is coming out now that TEPCO downplayed the nature and severity of the aftermath of reactor 3's meltdown, specifically to protect it's image and the broader image of the nuclear power industry at large. Let that sink in; a Corporate entity made an independent decision about an event that will effect humanity for decades to come, based on it's own profit motive.

This is the dangerous slope we're on that requires immediate and drastic correction.

This is what I'm looking for. Yes.

So we can start off by deciding mutually that the word Conspiracy has been given dirt to harangue those who might dare entertain notions that don't fall exactly in line with what is popular or accepted.

Nope, this is what I was asking for. Remember, no wrong answers.

Yes, WMD will turn out to be one of the central conspiracies of the 2000's. Our government expected them to exist because we were the ones that sold them to Saddam, and he was known to have used them (allegedly) in his quest for control.

What we didn't bank on was not being able to find them and the war effort reliably floundered from there.

I hear you about becoming consumed. It's a big black hole that you can fall down, and then realize that it's affecting your real life.

Hey America! We got in on their conference call network! (Pass: 91101) We totally know all their plans now, tell your friends!

And remember: guys like Snowden that also announce what we're doing and planning (except not really) are traitorous swine that endanger the mission of our intelligence professionals!

This message brought to you by False Flag International.

The world's first lab burger was had in London recently. I'm under the impression that there will be biological complications and consequences from eating too many chemical proteins and not enough naturally fatty ones.

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/08/05/first-lab-burger

I am more of a learner than an educator. In that regard, I hope to stick to what is relevant, and avoid the pitfalls of the money circuit, and the other popular red herrings. I have no intention of flooding people with total nonsense, I am intrigued that this community seems to be more conversation based.

I'm hoping that will translate with some of the ideas about our reality that are less moored in the zeitgeist than what the MSM has on offer.

I would only say that humanity continuing to look to solely technology based solutions is an ugly end to an epoch. We risk total resource depletion without a Plan B, and that can lead to a species-fatal population crash.

I think we as a global entity need to start focusing on disentangling ourselves from the Corporate mechanism we've created to bring us convenience and abundance. Because it creates people like Edward Bernays and Walt Disney and Megyn Kelly to trick us into believing things that are false and irrelevant.

Technology doesn't mean robots. It means better tools. Our user experience is still up to us, and at this juncture in human evolution, I think we all can look around and agree it's time for some brevity regarding where decisions like Citizen's United take us in the future. Not only ecologically and economically; but also spiritually, morally.

Nature, when not embraced, has the mechanisms to cleanse herself of infestation. We are a problematic infestation. It remains to be seen if we are self-correcting or are fated for extermination.

Oh no, not my implication! Just checking. I'll be sure to start using that tag judiciously then. Thanks for the info!

Can't retrace to where I found the link, but it was a thread talking about alternatives to an obviously compromised Reddit regarding censorship, votegaming, ect.

I did notice you guys don't have a #conspiracy tag? Is there a reason for that?

I think as a whole, our society places undue emphasis on acquiring 'stuff'. But what do you do with all this stuff? Being a minimalist isn't being strange, it's a rejection of societal pressure to be something that has no logical or moral resolution: an impulsive consumer.

You're not the only one. It's difficult to be a minimalist in a society that finds a distinct lack of material lust to be a defect of character. But like the article says, most of society doesn't live up to it's own definition of normal.

Here's the rub when discussing this: Time is an inherently human concept.

I wanted to not like it, but I do. Late for a summer jam, but I think it could usher in back to school nicely.

This is true, because race issues appeal to the kind of audiences that still watch network news with some inherent belief in objectivity. Any number of them will argue statistically improbable positions, with the hope of proving that non-whites are genetically inferior and the reason why our society is crumbling.

But if you point out the skin color of bankers and politicians and lobbyists and brokers that make the policies and sit at the levers of power, you get a lot of static while they pretend they didn't hear you.

The good news is that racism is on the decline constantly. And that's largely in part because of the ability to have discussions about it that subvert the popular narratives of the power structure.

I like the part where Hayden insinuates that We The People indiscriminately don't want hackers to go after dot-mil targets. As if to say such a conflict is inherently black and white for the American people.

Let's continue to say nothing about the recent revelations of corruptions, malfeasance, and wrongdoing by those behind dot-mil domains. Things we'd have no proof of if not for the persecuted 'cyberwarrior' caste.

America has a powerful enemy, and I can tell you it's not 'just' hackers.

People should STOP 'looking' for things in relationships. Not enough of us know what we're looking for in ourselves, and that can compound the complexity that comes with finding someone we want to spend time with.

Take an honest stock of your positives and negatives. Embrace and accentuate the good things about yourself, and understand what needs to be worked on and actively work on them. You will be irresistible to others, because they will aspire to be what you are being.

Oh, and get out of the house/office/grind more often. You never know what's just around the corner. Have fun, and you will meet someone accidentally.

Also new to Hubski, as of right now. And I found out about it on Reddit.

You guys should probably be ready for an influx of visitors. At least the first waves should be well behaved. Maybe.