Skeptic Project

That's pretty broad. What about the Fed and Builderburg conspiracies do you believe in? That they run the world?

Why does it appear that way? There can't be much evidence against if no evidence for is provided.

Joe, your story about how you got into CTs makes a lot of sense to me.

I'm curious, you didn't start being a Truther, but do you believe 9/11 was a conspiracy?

Part of the difficulty here is that disproving the conspiracy theories that attracted you, like Bilderberg, involves proving a negative. It's true that no one can prove that Bilderberg isn't a secret cabal ruling the world. This is where logic and rationality come into play. Because there is no evidence that the Bilderberg Group IS secretly running the world, and because it fits better logically with the world as we know it to be if they are simply a debating group, it makes much more sense that they're not a world-controlling cabal than it does that they are.

Maybe where to start is to ask yourself "Which is more likely?" type questions, based upon what you know. Conspiracy theorists often don't do this.

Is it more likely that the Bilderberg group is a cabal secretly ruling the world, and that they can get away with it without leaving any evidence behind? Or is it more likely that they're a debating society?

This can be a tough call to make particularly when you have people like Alex Jones and such shrieking innuendos about this kind of thing. But the "which is more likely?" question might help at least in terms of figuring out what is credible and what isn't.

The Bilderberg group do certainly meet, but what they meet about is not always certain to anyone outside of the group, this allows people to speculate about what it is they are discussing.
Now while a lot of the people who go to these meetings are of influential position in society, ceo's, royalty, politicians, heads of state etc... this makes it all the more interesting to outsiders.

Now lets consider the following.

Imagine if all heads of studios met in hollywood with all the top actors and film crews every year, or if all the record label owners met in motown with all the music chiefs and staff every year, and all the information was kept secret from the rest of the world does this sound as sinister ?

No and the reason it doesnt is because these people are not in positions to affect certain areas of the economy or public arena that are important to certain people.

So we have established reason. The reason you are concerned is due to their positions and ability to cause global change if they had the opening to do so.

Now lets look at that, what exactly is it you are concerned about?

perhaps you think they are causing the world to spiral downwards intentionally? Perhaps you believe they are plotting a coup or a take over ? maybe it is something else even more sinister you believe?

But the problem we have here is this, whatever you believe they are plotting you have no evidence to actually show what they are discussing so everything is speculative, and likewise this speculation has yet to prove true. For instance has the prince or netherlands commited mass genocide on his own people? has he put his own country into internment camps?

The answer to those questions is not at all. Neither have any of the other group attendees.

What could they all be discussing then?
Well alternatives could be maintaining harmony among member countries and businesses, maintaining trade and communication lines between states and countries informally, maintaining their positions of power because losing them would be catalcysmic to them, these are not necessarily evil things, just self preservational and most people are not as altruistic as they claim to be.
Even the most humble of human beings do things for themselves and try to maintain some form of life order around them whenever possible.

It seems to me you have a hate for state, capitalism and government and this is what is driving your mistrust of these people meeting.

But you have to wonder a little more about whether it is a personal interest meeting benefitting the members and countries/companies only, and not anything to do with ruining the world or everyone elses lives.

PS Given the opportunity to network with these people I would also attend if it meant I could benefit in lifestyle and business wise from it, as long as I wasnt doing anything immoral or corrupt, and i am willing to accept a lot of the members have this POV.

The first step is admitting you have a problem, we've made headway here today.

Joe, I haven't read them but I might try to give it a look later. What you should consider though, is that these are minutes from 1973! Now, you said you read them even though you did not understand them... can't really blame you there as I'm sure it's not the easiest thing to read, but did you notice any claims or predictions of terrible NWO type events that were later fulfilled?

If not, then I think the documents have already 'debunked' themselves so to speak, at least in the context of a NWO conspiracy.

I recall Edward talking about how people used to (and maybe still do) email him all the time with video clips and this and that and asking him to debunk so and so. And not in a confrontational manner like ChangeDaChannel's "Debunk This" series, but just because they want it to be debunked so they can put their mind at ease.

I feel that coming to Edward (or some other debunker) with EVERY single conspiracy theory claim you find and just asking him to debunk it, is similar to just tuning into Alex Jones everyday. All that you are doing is just waiting for them to tell you how things are. Then you'll feel good once the first claim is debunked, but once you hear something crazy again or watch something on youtube you'll come running back with another debunking request. (I don't mean 'you' as in you Joe, just a general form of 'you').

And I don't mean any offense by this or to suggest that Edward is like Alex Jones in anyway... (I love this site and I DO visit it most everyday) it's just I feel that to truly 'recover' from the conspiracy theory mindset you have to take it upon yourself to try to look at and analyze claims on your own. Of course there's no shame in wanting help to figure out certain things, or asking others to give their input... I do it all the time, but if you just let others do all the debunking for you you'll never acquire the skills that will make you into a true conspiracy theory skeptic and enable you to move on from this paranoid and probably unhealthy lifestyle.

Joe I used to be a CT'er. I remember the first time I watched a CT video, Endgame. What really convinced me that Endgame was true was a clip of Ron Paul saying the NWO was real. Never did it occur to me that he could be mistaken or flat out lying.

I remember complaining because only like 17 people showed up to protest Bilderberg. Now I laugh at this nonsense. Nothing stays a secret in this world. If there were anything nefarious about Bilderberg, there would be millions protesting.

Alex Jones and the rest of these CT leaders don't give a shit about you, if they did they wouldn't be presenting this insanity to people as "truth". These guys are fucking people's minds up.

They don't have to be incriminating, people will see what they want to see.

"They don't have to be incriminating, people will see what they want to see. "

Exactly. Like there was this one bill awhile ago (I don't believe it ever passed) but it talked about setting up 5-6 emergency centers so that in the event of something like another Hurricane Katrina these emergency centers would be set up to receive those who's homes were hit by whatever disaster. Plenty of CT'er types said that this was PROOF of FEMA camps, but hey... over a year later and still no such thing.

That's how I felt only a few months ago. It means you're making progress, because before you didn't have that critical thinking side to conflict with your CTs. Your brain is like an ice cube that's beginning to crack into a sane brain.