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My Bad (Former LCF Mod)

Temecula

Thinker
Temecula
Joined
Aug 24, 2009
Messages
177
Hey folks, I used to be a moderator at the "Loose Change Forum" back in it's heyday before they went to LCF 2.0 and whatever came after that. My name there was HotDogBun. I used to ban or suspend people from JREF on almost a daily basis. I would always make sure the email message that accompanied the action was as over-the-top insulting as possible.

Well, My Bad. Turns out you were right, and that "the truth movement" was a cult or a religion or...something, something intolerant and dogmatic and worst of all, completely mistaken and in some instances outright deceptive. I bailed out of the whole CT thing a while ago, and have actually become quite skeptical about everything since then. I recently joined this forum to post in the "Do skeptics ever convince believers" thread in your general skepticism subforum, because skeptics did in fact convince me to abandon my irrational beliefs. It reminded me of how I dealt with you folks back then, so i figured an apology was in order.

So, sorry about that.
 
Temecula said:
Hey folks, I used to be a moderator at the "Loose Change Forum" back in it's heyday before they went to LCF 2.0 and whatever came after that. My name there was HotDogBun. I used to ban or suspend people from JREF on almost a daily basis. I would always make sure the email message that accompanied the action was as over-the-top insulting as possible.

Well, My Bad. Turns out you were right, and that "the truth movement" was a cult or a religion or...something, something intolerant and dogmatic and worst of all, completely mistaken and in some instances outright deceptive. I bailed out of the whole CT thing a while ago, and have actually become quite skeptical about everything since then. I recently joined this forum to post in the "Do skeptics ever convince believers" thread in your general skepticism subforum, because skeptics did in fact convince me to abandon my irrational beliefs. It reminded me of how I dealt with you folks back then, so i figured an apology was in order.

So, sorry about that.
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cool post :)

yes it was indeed very cultlike. No religion on this planet was able to con me, and i looked at so many.
but the truth movement sureley did con me :)
 
Temecula said:
Well, My Bad. Turns out you were right, and that "the truth movement" was a cult or a religion or...something, something intolerant and dogmatic and worst of all, completely mistaken and in some instances outright deceptive. I bailed out of the whole CT thing a while ago, and have actually become quite skeptical about everything since then. I recently joined this forum to post in the "Do skeptics ever convince believers" thread in your general skepticism subforum, because skeptics did in fact convince me to abandon my irrational beliefs. It reminded me of how I dealt with you folks back then, so i figured an apology was in order.

So, sorry about that.
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Out of interest, why do you think you did buy into their obvious nonsense and what caused you to start looking at things more critically?
 
Temecula said:
Hey folks, I used to be a moderator at the "Loose Change Forum" back in it's heyday before they went to LCF 2.0 and whatever came after that. My name there was HotDogBun. I used to ban or suspend people from JREF on almost a daily basis. I would always make sure the email message that accompanied the action was as over-the-top insulting as possible.

Well, My Bad. Turns out you were right, and that "the truth movement" was a cult or a religion or...something, something intolerant and dogmatic and worst of all, completely mistaken and in some instances outright deceptive. I bailed out of the whole CT thing a while ago, and have actually become quite skeptical about everything since then. I recently joined this forum to post in the "Do skeptics ever convince believers" thread in your general skepticism subforum, because skeptics did in fact convince me to abandon my irrational beliefs. It reminded me of how I dealt with you folks back then, so i figured an apology was in order.

So, sorry about that.
Click to expand...

Welcome back to reality. Think of yourself as Arnold Schwarzenneger in Total Recall. He couldn't tell if he was awake or dreaming. Looking back, Arnie had the exact same mindset as truthers. He didn't want to return to reality and shot Dr. Edgemar in the head!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBEVuzWHaOc&feature=player_embedded
 
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What the hell kinda screen name is Hot Dog Bun?

I was a member of the forum for a while, I think the 2.0 one (as Pentagon Reality Check, what the hell kinda name is that?) and I was good at not getting banned, but I did get a steady flow of "we don't like your kind" snarkiness. Really pathetic and clumsy effort at controlling the info flow. Also I was slightly more Twooferish back then and acting a little more so than that, so that mighta helped.

More dirt! What goed on at teh Looz Branes forum?
 
cludgie said:
Out of interest, why do you think you did buy into their obvious nonsense and what caused you to start looking at things more critically?
Click to expand...


Well, it would pain me to retype the whole thing... I cannot yet post links, but I have posted a decent answer to both question in my first post, in the "do skeptics ever convince believers" thread in your general skepticism forum. it would suffice to say I was sucked into it at a very vulnerable time in my life, and a combination of dealing with crackpots like Killtown and having to absorb arguments from the skeptics I banned led me out of it.
 
Caustic Logic said:
What the hell kinda screen name is Hot Dog Bun?

I was a member of the forum for a while, I think the 2.0 one (as Pentagon Reality Check, what the hell kinda name is that?) and I was good at not getting banned, but I did get a steady flow of "we don't like your kind" snarkiness. Really pathetic and clumsy effort at controlling the info flow. Also I was slightly more Twooferish back then and acting a little more so than that, so that mighta helped.

More dirt! What goed on at teh Looz Branes forum?
Click to expand...

The behind the scenes stuff the staff at that forum discussed was so... surreal. It really makes me uncomfortable to think at one point I took what we did there so seriously.

I have found that searching 'HotDogBun' in the google search part of this forum returns quite a few results, most of which are indicative of what a debacle the whole thing was. I take some consolation in the fact that my actions ultimately triggered the downfall of that forum and that it never, ever recovered even in it's future incarnations. It was right when Dylan started introducing some sort of marketing to the forum too, trying to sell us LTW hoodies and other assorted cafe press garbage. I probably cost that punk some serious money.
 
We have a thread for ex-believers. You can either bump it or respond to the questions here if you want to participate.


Originally posted by ref
I am looking for written experiences from people who used to be on the truther side, but are not anymore. I know there are many on this board. What I'd especially like to know are follows:

a) How did you once become a truther? I am not looking for answers, like "watching Loose Change". If possible, I'd like you to write in a bit more detailed manner, like "I watched Loose Change, and started surfing the internet. All I could find were more truther sites, which further reinforced my truther status... etc" or something like that.

b) What convinced you back from truther to non-truther? Once again, I hope you do not respond something like "truthers are dumb", but a bit more specific.

c) What are your thoughts nowadays about your time as a truther? What mistakes you made back then? Were you 100% convinced, agressively promoting the truth? Whatever comes to your mind.


I can give examples from my own experiences.

a) Conspiracy theories were very remote to me before 9/11 truth. Of course, I had heard that there were some JFK conspiracy theories, but had never gone through any of the claims in detail. Then all of a sudden, I was exposed to some truther propaganda. I went surfing the internet and found only more and more stuff reinforcing the conspiracy point of view. I guess it was the lack of any previous exposure to any conspiracy theories, combined with the massive amounts of conspiracy material so easily found in the internet, that made me a truther for a short while. I had no experience dealing with this kind of false claims. I thought at least most of the stuff had to be for real.

b) I started debating my (conspiracy) point of view, but every time I came out disappointed. I always thought I had a weaker case. But still, I could support my case pretty cleverly, if I only distorted some evidence a little bit, ignored some other evidence, etc. Until I reached the point, when I was so frustrated with it all, I knew I had no case. I knew very well the points each side was making. It was a non-contest. I became a debunker overnight. But it took me a couple of months of trutherism and defending my weak points, before I fully realized I was wrong.

c) I am somewhat embarrassed, that I was lured into the conspiracy world so easily. I had always thought I was critical of evidence. I had always thought I cannot be fooled. And there I was, claiming WTC demolition. But that time also taught me a lot. One has to be very careful with stuff that sounds exiting, but you have no previous experience with. Because once you take the first wrong step, it is very easy to convince yourself with further evidence supporting the wrong conclusion, while twisting in your mind the evidence that doesn't.


Share your thoughts, all people that once believed even some of the truther stuff. I might do some writing about this subject, if I get enough material.
 
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I gotta PM this thread to Delphi_ote. He'd dig it.

I miss him posting around here.


Welcome Temecula. You'll have an avatar in no time, I'm sure. With any luck it's less depressing than mine. A popular way to up the post count is the games/humor section. I recommend it after snarky and bitter arguments elsewhere.

Watch out for the politics section. It's like a knife fight in Detroit after dark.
 
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:clap: :clap: :clap:

Big congrats on seeing reason, and huge congrats on admitting your mistakes and apologising.

It's obvious that the twoof movement is dying, or dead (only zombies are twoofers these days), but it takes moral fortitude to admit that you were deluded and apologising instead of just not actively promoting Da Twoof anymore.

Well done.
 
Glad to see another grow up and/or grow out of the 9/11 truth cult.

TAM:)
 
Welcome to the dark side. The cookies are in the kitchen, next to the lamb's blood and eye of newt.

Seriously, it takes a fair amount of character to come here and stand up and say "I was an admin at LCF, and I was wrong." I applaud your character and hoist a beverage in your direction.
 
Temecula said:
Thanks.

(If some of my posts seem unnecessary, I apologize, but I feel naked w/out an avatar)
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As you can see the folks here want your posts. This comment however puts an ugly spin on my own purposeful no-avatar policy. I'm a nudist. (turns away) I - I had no idea.
 
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