How did you get here, to a RI view of the world?

[Nordic]

I'm pretty sure I came here because of DU. SLAD was posting there, also someone named Octafish (was that Jeff?) and a couple of other people who just BLEW MY MIND. These people were so incredibly informed, more informed than anyone could possibly be from reading the usual mainstream stuff! WHERE did they learn all of this stuff? I was utterly fascinated, and, frankly, wanted to be as smart as they were!

Minstrel Boy (Jeff), and yes...if I were to expand on my first post, that is just my story as well. I posted a link to Jeff's blog article, but to be precise, this is the exact link-

http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... 04x2160541

Minstrel boy! Yeah, that was it. So who was Octafish? Anybody here?

There were a couple of others that really impressed me, too, but I can't remember their names now. Somebody named Starroute maybe?

[Project Willow]

3. Experiencing state violence & total media lockdown at S11 blockade of WEF meet in Melb.Au in 2000. Yo wordspeak, i wish we could get pissed together and mourn the antiglob. movement that once was.

Count me in on that too. Viva N30!

I followed Minstrel Boy from DU.

Compared to the general population, a significantly smaller proportion of posters here call me nuts when I speak to what I've witnessed and survived, although I suspect that's just because it's against the rules.
Thank goodness it's against the rules somewhere.

............

Nice place Joe!

[Seamus OBlimey]

I started posting when I thought this was the only place I could get away with it..

And did..

And still do.. ocasionally

[Occult Means Hidden]

One December I was about 8 years old or so and I noticed a toy my parents bought was mysteriously instead provided by Santa "Goldstein" Clause. I was never the same after that. Fast forward several years of equal authority suspicion and I came to RI.

I'm only half joking, I suppose. The truth of Santa is a rite. This is an element of initiation. I think the most powerful form of initiation is the self-inducted variety. We came here because a part of ourselves willed it so. I'm currently reading Campbell's A
Hero With A Thousand Faces * and the theme is true. Kids are lied to for the purpose of initiation. For integration. Then as they mature, they are lied to for control, only this time you have to be a grown adult and realize it for yourself. Otherwise in somnabulance you'll stay. Most are still children. I remember my Santa realization Day as clearly as I remember my 9/11 day. They were both a powerful ritual.

*We are heroes. It's just not so glamorous in the real world.

[Joe Hillshoist]

Nice place Joe!

Its not mine, but its not far from here. If I hadn't watched that movie on the deck there tho, I wouldn't have come here. 5 years ago it was for sale for about 20K on a MO or multiple occupancy - a communal titled property.

There used to be Salvia Divinorum growing wild out the back of it.

[8bitagent]

My awakening was in several parts. When ET came out(I was 4), I was scared to death of the scenes where ordinary people are being forced into military camps. I remember it being seriously traumatizing, where even when I was 6 or 7 every time I heard helicopters I was afraid army men would come down and round up Americans. Never once did I have a fear of "commie reds" invading America.
I also always felt uneasy with the imagery on the US one dollar bill, but that could have been from being raised in a strict Christian sect household. 1987 I watched most the Iran Contra hearings on tv, since they were disrupting my after school cartoons.

1996 was my more modern awakening, given the whole CIA-drug exposure in the media and then discovering the internet when the TWA 800 thing happened and getting into early internet research.

1999 I became aware of globalization, IMF, worker rights

9/11 threw me for a loop, and it sadly wasnt until later in 2004 I even began questioning it. I had never once even entertained the notion there was anything at all wrong with the official story. It's all been downhill from there into the rabbit hole:)

Reading about and coming to terms with the CIA's systematic involvement in the drug trade was what got me to see the wizard behind the curtain. If they're doing *that* then they're evil and they know it. Then the whole 9/11 thing happened, which was a no-brainer to me. It destroyed the energy of the anti-capitalist-globalization movement, of which I was a part. I didn't get into a lot of details until much later. People on here have helped a lot.
Thanks for posting.

Absolutely. The Whole Seattle 99/anti WTO-IMF-World Bank-Globalization/workers rights thing was at a *fever* pitch in 1999-summer of 2001. That's why Rage Against the Machine played in front of the DNC, protesting the Democrats. In 2000 BOTH Dems and Repubs were seen as the enemy...one could call this time a pure "anti NWO" attitude from a leftist perspective. Then Sept 11th hit, and the whole thing collapsed. You kind of saw it brought back with the 2004 deluge of documentaries and anti Bush awareness, but so much of the focus was purely on the Iraq war it felt like.

To this day I cannot understand why the majority of college educated people on the left that I've encountered on and offline have such a distinct aversion of questioning 9/11 or being seen as a "conspiracy theorist".

[2012 Countdown]

I'm pretty sure I came here because of DU. SLAD was posting there, also someone named Octafish (was that Jeff?) and a couple of other people who just BLEW MY MIND. These people were so incredibly informed, more informed than anyone could possibly be from reading the usual mainstream stuff! WHERE did they learn all of this stuff? I was utterly fascinated, and, frankly, wanted to be as smart as they were!

Minstrel Boy (Jeff), and yes...if I were to expand on my first post, that is just my story as well. I posted a link to Jeff's blog article, but to be precise, this is the exact link-

http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... 04x2160541

Minstrel boy! Yeah, that was it. So who was Octafish? Anybody here?

There were a couple of others that really impressed me, too, but I can't remember their names now. Somebody named Starroute maybe?

Not sure, but he is still there (Octofish). I was 'Al-CIAda' over there, so you know I was playing without a net.
More interesting though, is this is another OP by Minstrel Boy:

DU has been, I think, the premier sounding board for challenging the official story, and a great resource for 9/11 skeptics. Here's a compilation of some DU 9/11 threads I'd bookmarked, for the next time someone starts yukking it up about how LIHOP/MIHOP is nothing but groundless tinfoil.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... d=1836172#

Well, we all know how radically that has changed.

[Joe Hillshoist]

To this day I cannot understand why the majority of college educated people on the left that I've encountered on and offline have such a distinct aversion of questioning 9/11 or being seen as a "conspiracy theorist".

PTSD?

Stupidity?

The fact that they went to college?

[Harvey]

Surprisingly, this is one of the most enjoyable threads in ages. So thanks Gashweir, for all the memmories being dredged up.

The facetious answer is that a link first brought me to RI, and I keep coming back because sometimes, just sometimes, the simplest, most elegant explanation is unthinkable.

I was probably nine when we filed into the church which was actually built into my little C of E school and the priest began his weekly sermon thusly:

“Can anyone guess who I’m talking about? He is a man who lived for peace. He is a man who spoke of love. He saw the poor, the destitute, and the miserable and he gave them hope. He died for us, with love. And his song is with us, will always be with us.”

Something like that.

And for once I knew the answer. So, up shot my little hand, attracting the hitherto unsought attention of father whatshisface. The pitiless, magnified eyes slowly, and, I thought, somewhat wearily, triangulated upon me.

“Yeeesss?”

“Sir, it’s John Lennon sir!”

Afterward, as I was exiting the church in disgrace, my teacher took me by the hand and whispered something to me.

“It’s funny, when people are looking for one particular answer, all the others are wrong. Even when they’re right.”


Once, a friend of my older brother, handsome, great dancer, bit of a rock star was involved in a discussion with my mother and it came out that he was an atheist. Calmly he went on to explain why he thought there could be no god. It was a revelation. Lights went on all through my little head. So many questions that had previously made little sense to my seven year old mind were suddenly answered. The gears that were jammed trying to resolve irreconcilable contradictions were set free and could whir along in harmony once more. As soon as I was permitted the idea that God did not in fact exist, I felt an incredible intellectual freedom. The bible was a collection of stories! Not the literal word of God handed down to man. Yes, that made sense.


Then there was the time we saw a UFO. We came back from the moss aglow with our story which improved in every telling. But to my shame, I went along with it, I knew what we’d seen was a flailing metallic weather balloon. It really was the archetypal identifiable flying object. But I was impressed by the tide of feeling that we’d seen something truly amazing. We did drawings and described our experience to the delight of adults, and with every telling I could see the fire of conviction growing in my comrades faces. So, I didn’t dissent, but I didn’t believe either. It didn’t dampen my interest in UFO’s, on the contrary. But I knew that truth was more valuable to me, even than a good story, even than the joy of belonging to a wonderful idea, it was the difference between real and unreal.

Then there was the burgeoning fervour for war in Iraq during 2002. The arguments made no sense because I’d been paying attention and the facts were available for all who cared to look. The rationale for war though it was demonstrable fantasy, swept up many of those around me. I recognised their fervent desire to belong to the moment, I’d seen it before, and I’d seen it in the history books.

The war came, despite it's injustice, and from that point forward, there was no going back. I began to question, everything.

[wintler2]

..I've always thought thats really what was (a big part of) what sept 11 2001 was all about - killing the antiglobalisation movement, that really was a globalisation movement in its own way. It was just a people's globalisation vs a corporate one. They seem to have won the first round. Its not over yet tho. 9/11 was a monumental KWH of s11 I reckon.

Jesus Joe, I've thought it, but never dared say it. And yes, its not over yet, and it wont be till we win.

..To this day I cannot understand why the majority of college educated people on the left that I've encountered on and offline have such a distinct aversion of questioning 9/11 or being seen as a "conspiracy theorist".

Pavlovian conditioning - constant ridicule & defamation of anyone talking outside bounds of acceptable discussion, by the Right & more damagingly, Left gatekeepers.

[8bitagent]

I missed the part on where we're suppose to explain how we got to RI.

It must have been in 2005, though I swear I may have stumbled upon it in 2004. But it was wayyyyy too much a deep rabbit hole at first. I was just interested in reading about MK Ultra, coverups, staged terror, october surprise and BCCI type stuff....but reading about child abuse coverups and "Forteana/Woo" in relation to this? Wayyyyyyyyyyy too much for my young mind to handle!

I never liked Democratic Underground or Above Top Secret, or most those popular sites of the time. DU is wayyy too hard to navigate for me. Why is the format like that? And why the hell is 9/11 in the conspiracy section, when many on DU are "truthers"? ATS is filled with too many idiots who believe in Forteana/UFOS but who are pro war and dont buy government coverups...plus a lot of people there have screws loose. Freedom Forum had way too many Jew haters, leftist blogs hate anything "conspiracy" related, so I didn't feel comfortable there.
Plus most forums seem to be mostly 18-30 year old males, and I love how RI is more 25-65 year old men and women who are highly intelligent and open minded.
(as much as this place often devolves into kindergarten like name calling!)

But Jeff's appreciation of the themes of Kubrick and Lynch(my two favorite directors) really put his clever writings and ability as a storyteller/connector in a really interesting light to me.
To this day I have never encountered anything on the level of mind blowing writing Jeff's blogs/book provokes. It goes there, and then some...and hence why it took a couple years for me to come back to the site and finally pour through it. I just wasnt ready...

In the summer of 1991 I witnessed what my logical mind has to conclude was a non terrestrial, non hallucinating event for a good 45 minutes in a summer one night. Basically it was bright craft like things all in perfect circular formations doing a sort of weird musical chair dance. There definitely was nothing "government black ops" craft about what was going on. A lawyer who lived next door started firing into the air at it, that's how shocking and alarming the scene was. (this was a very rural part of northern california) Later that summer I ended up for a week at a new age Shasta retreat meeting "alien medium" new ager types, psychics, shamans, UFO devotees, etc.

I just always kind of pretended that stuff was non existent, hookum. My dislike of Christianity, and for the most part religion makes me want to discount anything un-secular or un-scientific.

But when I see so much evil in the world, especially of the more symbolic kind like 9/11, I begin to wonder if maybe Crowley, Dee and Blavatsky weren't simply hucksters. Especially after reading most of Jeff's blogs, not much more one can conclude or take away as a whole. There has to me more to organized evil than incompetent greed and wanting oil fields...just too many damn coincidences
(back of the dollar bill, street layout of DC, specific numbers, symbolic buildings, etc)

I really think 9/11 was a bit of a magic trick, and literally hypnotized almost everyone. There are some seriously dark and powerful magicians out there. I think they literally get their power from causing the deaths of others. That's why they can't stop.

Couldn't agree more. Sometimes I think death as a high is the main reasoning for Iraq, over merely oil. The high death count and trauma inducing aspect of 9/11 I think was very important to those behind more than "pax Americana" or some PNAC documents.

Hello Gashweir,

Two words... Franklin Scandal.

I haven't been visiting this board for very long, just a few years now, and I was petrified to post my first few entries for the exact reasons you mentioned - very smart people posting here.

I don't remember what link led me to the Franklin Scandal thread a few years ago, probably some headline grabbing horrible child abduction or abuse story, but when I looked up whatever it was online, I was led to the Franklin Credit Union collapse via child prostitution in Omaha via RI. The first couple of posts in the thread were enough to make me hastily exit out of RI... I was at work for one thing, and I was a newly minted mom, and I was feeling a bit...discombobulated about work and motherhood and life in general.

But the damned story stuck with me, and after a few weeks I guiltily found my way back to that thread, and after that I was sucked in to RI on a weekly (and then a daily) occurrence. And yes, RI has changed my worldview, and not just regarding conspiracy or politics. (And welcome, BTW!)

That stuff scared the crap out of me, another reason I backpeddled from wanting to "expand my mind" and deep state research...I never imagined the deep chasm of horror that was the subject of child abuse and links to the deep state or conspiracies. Knowing about Franklin and all the other stuff, just really unsettling and to me takes "conspiracies" and coverups to a whole other dimension of evil

I was looking at a 1917 penny that one of my three cents for milk about one hour before JFK was murdered. When the school intercom announced that school was to be canceled for the afternoon because of the killing, I ran home to verify what I already knew, that Kennedy was born in 1917. (I was in second grade at the time.)

This is why reading stories on here or Jeff's blog is so much more interesting than what the left/right media and alt media presents a lot of times. Where does *that* synchro narrative fit? I love it

[Simulist]

How did you get here, to a RI view of the world?

I really hope that there isn't any single "RI view of the world" — because I think there are quite a number of different (and sometimes even seemingly "contradictory") points of view that are all about QUESTIONING what is supposedly "real" and who is supposedly "real."

And when a person begins seriously questioning his/her so-called "given" worldview (including ones most "sacred" and cherished beliefs!), that person suddenly has an opportunity (perhaps even for the first time) to become a real individual.

Before that, we remain simple analogs of the herd.

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

I thought RI was about CIA covert ops. Not the UFO bullshit.

[barracuda]

Hey Simulist, good to see you again, man.

[Simulist]

Thanks, Barracuda. I suddenly got the Geist. (And if the wind is right, no one will notice... )