Has a thread ever changed your mind? (Poll)

[zep73]

The reason I ask is because some UM users keep posting the same kinds of threads, clearly aiming for people to start believing in something* or to change their political affiliation, by trash talking a political party or observation. I am curious if it works!

Please vote and comment. Both are welcome!

 

Note: Votes are anonymous!

* By believing in something I mean anything that can be disputed:
  The supernatural, UFO's, conspiracy theories, religion, religious entities, fringe theories, life after death, even science.

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by zep73

[TrumanB]

Topics here had a quite an opposite impact on me - to stop believing in things such as UFOs...

[zep73]

2 minutes ago, TrumanB said:

Topics here had a quite an opposite impact on me - to stop believing in things such as UFOs...

Thanks for your input, TrumanB.

Yes, a normal reaction, when people push too hard to convince us, is that we question it even more.

[SecretSanta]

Not here but years ago I joined the TAPs forum, very much a believer in ghost and stuff, after being there a while I learned what pareidolia is and how to look at supposed ghost photos differently. 

[HandsomeGorilla]

I'm speaking mostly of political topics and the usual suspects, but no. The ones posting the most seem to be the main ones attempting to sway others' opinions. They aren't questioning, they aren't really asking for opinions, they're trying to confirm bias. 

Now, as for the truly unexplained, I agree with Truman. I've had more than one very unexplainable number of things I've witnessed that I rarely even share. As a kid, I was also obsessed with the paranormal. But as you mature, you start learning that all these 'mysteries' that pervaded through the decades, if not centuries, typically now have more cogent explanations, especially when it comes to really 'out there' stuff like alien abduction...

If anything, this forum and the content within has, over the years, made me MORE skeptical of anecdotal evidence, despite knowing (for the most part) things that I've seen. 

[spartan max2]

Change is slow and hard to pin down for people. Unless there is some huge significant event, you normally can't point to the exact thing that caused change to start accuring. Yet we know people and society does change over time. If we all looked at ourselves 10 year ago vs now for example.

I started UM when I was in highschool and I'm now 28. I've had views change over the years but I really can't give credit to one factor. It's really a build up of many. I'm sure in ways UM has contributed.

[XenoFish]

No thread has, but I'd say that a few people have soured me towards some things. 

Edited May 22, 2022 by XenoFish

[jethrofloyd]

Well, before joining this site/forum I was convinced that PGF bigfoot footage is a real thing. I first saw that famous 59.4 seconds film on the TV - I think it was 81/82 in the Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World - series. I was totally fascinated (and a little bit scared) by that short film. I was a quite young back then, and I had never ever heard of the term ‘Bigfoot’ before(no Internet back then). Nor I knew what it meant(Bigfoot?), but the film itself ozed a ‘reality’ to me. So, not knowing anything about the term ‘Bigfoot’ I remember thinking like this: 1. It may have been a surviving Nenanderthal or 2. It may be some kind of the human/monkey experiment that went totally wrong. But, the reality of the film never came into question for me.

Well, after joining here at UM and reading diverse threads about PGF and 'Bigfoot' in general, my thoughts on the PGF bigfoot footage is slowly, but surely, changing. Now I think that movie - PGF - is a hoax.

And, briefly just another thing on the another topic. Ghosts. I never believed in these things. And, a plenty of threads here on the forum like "Ghost moved a beer bottle in the Pub" only convinced me even more that a ghost stories are just plain stupid. Sorry, Papageorge.

[openozy]

I'm not a sheep so other people's posts, while sometimes interesting don't affect me .

[L.A.T.1961]

On topics I have an interest in my view has not changed much, if at all. 

But I have had an interest in certain topics, either on and off or continuously, for decades so its maybe no surprise I would be persuaded to change views fundamentally.   

[quiXilver]

The mindset expressed in response to the OP explains why most of the threads here are not conversations, but rather people talking at others, not talking with them.

 

Quote

Real dialogue is where two or more people become willing to suspend their certainty in each other's presence.
~David Bohm

 

edit to add:

“It is a sign of great inner insecurity to be hostile to the unfamiliar.”
― Anais Nin

 

Or as I experience it:  To be able to engage with a topic or idea, without instantly having to accept it and support it, or reject it and attack it, is a sign of advanced presence and critical thinking.

Edited May 23, 2022 by quiXilver

[Piney]

I believed in a lot of Native American archeology and anthropology woo which was pounded in my brain by AIM influenced members of my tribe, Ojibwa, 6 Nations and Lakota "elders" . Then @Harte and @Kenemet straightened me right out.

@Swede has also pointed out Objibway Midiwin bs to me.