I remember my whole life people would say"don't say that, they'll think you're crazy"

I said" who's they? They know I'm crazy, and I don't care"

Just seems much more profound now that "they" persecute you for passion and honesty.

People are scared. They don't even know why.

They're certainly dumbing us down. Hard. I do believe that marijuana somehow counteracts the mind control.

Marijuana mimics Anandamide in the brain. Anandamide is a chemical that is released, which CAUSES dopamine to be released. An example of this cascade is right after orgasm - that happy feeling is anandamide-mediated natural dopamine release.

THC mimics anandamide, and causes dopamine release in the same way. It causes "positive" effects, on demand, with nearly zero immediate negative repurcussions, and minimal ongoing negative repurcussions. This makes it ideal for controlling negative emotions. Anandamide (and THC) are literally emotional painkillers.

Having this power in the hands of the people diminishes the power of those who would seek to actively deny you your natural dopamine rushes while at the same time being able to grant you a "forced" dopamine rush (only available from them - at a cost).

This is why it has been so restricted despite being a mostly harmless naturally occuring substance - it diminishes the ability of the elite to control the populace by cornering the market on their emotional pain.

Interesting. I wonder then, why they are allowing it to be legal?

Somewhat like releasing a pressure valve?

Not sure what you're referring to.

I see, thanks for clarification.

Public demand. It's a lie that most people are begining to see through, especially in the west. In other places people still shudder at the sound of weed. I'm from India, even though it used to be part of our culture, programming by the government after 1966 has clubbed ganja with "drugs" and is highly frowned upon. Alcohol though, they sell it to even kids.

Booze is legal poison. I hate it.

Also - Please realize that the only reason India did this (especially given the time frame) is due to an international treaty negotiated (by the USA) shortly after Nixon initiated the "War on Drugs" in the USA.

Many, many other countries share a similar story around the same time frame.

Wait with over 93% upvotes and 77 comments, how is this not on the frontpage of /r/conspiracy :O

I still think that is ridiculous..... These needs to be seen by more people!

A lot of the links on the first/second page are not half as important.... Oh well....

PS: Did you write this up yourself?

PS: Did you write it up yourself? PS2: Yea, i think they switched the algorithm recently so that links move faster...

So are u living in America now?

Long story. I was living in Canada for ~ 10 years and travelled to America frequently. I am working abroad atm. Don't want to disclose too much deets, cause you know shills and all.

Right. Well I've seen you around for a bit, and it's interesting. I'm one of the few (f) conspiracy regulars. I think. That's what continues to intrigue me about reddit, the diversity of contributors. Cheers.

Yea, I do what I can! Cheers and see u around :)

100% agree. That's also explains why beginners report to feel paranoia or anxiety. Once you get comfortable with your "high" mind, you start thinking differently, not just according to the patterns that we have been programmed.

It's interesting a first time user I know reported "I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders. He doesn't realize how literal that is.

There is a reason some people treat weed as holy ... rastafarians and shivaites that I am aware of.

All it takes to start a revolution is for the right information to reach the right ears.

We need to take a massive stand against the corruption and lies that are rampant in politics. It shouldnt be about finding a politician who can work within a corrupt system, but one who can work from the outside to fix it. We need immediate reforms in the media, 90% of which is owned by six companies. We need to eliminate the concentration of power, which as become so skewed that the entire culture of the USA had been warped. We need to spread education, provide universal healthcare, social security, human rights awareness. We need to close the income inequality gap. We need people to believe this system can work for all of us, and not just the few elitists. We need to lead in the advancement of climate technologies, and stop giving tax breaks to those who would poison this earth. We need a push for accountability, and for those reslonsible to face the consequences. We need to be less worried about being PC, and more worried about the fact that the richest country in the world still has children starving on its streets.

Crucify me- i believe that Bernie Sanders is the one chance we have to turn this around, before weve gone past the point of no return. Hes saying it exactly how it is, calling out the people who have let it get this far (them, and us) and trying to unite us in a common purpose. He is transparent and credible. Hes been on our side since the beginning, which is evident in his track record. He is what became of the occupy movement- it isnt going away, the people just needed better representation. The direction hes trying to lead us in is the inevitable direction that we will have to take, and if he doesnt succeed, the next to try will encourage anarchy, reasoning that we continue to fuck up and that we no longer depend on our democracy to be democratic. Maybe im crazy, maybe everyone feels this way during election season, but I dont, usually... and this time, I do. Obama was the lesser of two evils, as its been over the past few elections. Bernie isnt the average politician, hes the exception- he has true vision, and i want to see America great again.

We arent alone. Many feel this way, but as OP said, keep their mouths shut to not offend, or upset the agreed upon blindness. One at a time, were actively fighting to change, and we truly can. We just need more discussion- more people on our side, more awareness.

I concur wholeheartedly. Keep spreading the word, brother!

Are you serious about Bernie sanders? Dude. They are all puppets and actors. Did you not notice how staged and scripted the presidential debates are? Moreover they make false promises without a care. If Obama did not teach you a lesson, I don't know if Bernie will.

You need to place blame where it is due. I truly believe that Obama would have done significantly more had he not been completely obstructed by congress at every pass.

A congress that only exists in its current biased state due to gerrymandering. Fix that and we should be on our way to a nordic-style government - one that actually SERVES its people.

And no, I'm not saying he would have done everything right. Lots of broken "privacy issue" promises with Obama, amongst a few other things. I am somewhat disappointed by his Presidency. But the things I'm dissappointed about are mostly the things he DID rather than what he DIDN'T DO.

Bernie is the closest thing to an honest politician that we have seen in our lifetime. Elizabeth Warren would be a close second - though she's obviously not running for President.

Hillary is for sale to the military-industrial complex, though would likely use some of that political capital to make some things better for the little guy. The entire republican field is on-their-knees-under-the-desk of the military industrial complex, and would likely make as many efforts as possible to deploy as many expensive weapons as possible to maximize profits for their "meat popsicles".

Wow. I don't have the ability to construe what you just wrote about into a fluent write up like that, but that is exactly right. 3am it comes out, for me at least, and people look at me like I'm crazy. What will it take for people to realize we're all pawns in TPTB game of greed, corruption and unlawfulness.

I think what it'll take is when people no longer have the things they had achieved through being apart of the system, like housing and air conditioning, gas in their cars, food in their fridge, etc.

People will realize what's going on when the rug is swept from under their feet, they'll contemplate as they stand up once again, finally understanding what has been going on all around them with their once blind and dumb senses.

I don't think they will even then. Their facilities of thought and morals are severely diminished.

Great post.

Notice how it is never okay in our society for you to be openly angry about something?

I believe Government and media are using manufactured events to slowly inculcate "passivity" and "acceptance" in the populace. If you consider recent government hoaxes like Sandy Hook and the Charleston shooting, the "surviving relatives" were all on television within a day. The Sandy Hook parents were laughing and joking, not a care in the world. The completely unemotional adult children of a Charleston shooting victim had "forgiven" the shooter within a day. When the police caught the "perp", they took him to Macdonalds for lunch. This makes no sense.

In all these fake events, the relatives are extremely calm and passive. They express no shock, or disbelief, or confusion, or anger, or sadness or any desire for answers as to what happened, or desire for retribution. In other words, no normal human reactions which you might expect to see in the circumstances.

I think it is possible that TPTB are trying to condition the populace to deal with "very bad things" in our not-so-distant future, with a message: "See, this is how you behave when your loved-ones are suddenly and inexplicably killed. Do not ask questions. Do not fight back. Forgive and move on."

Have you you also noticed how feminized men are becoming? Take a look at the average male college student these days...they care more about emotion and being sensitive than they do about stuff that actually matters.

Government and academia have neutered younger males...the exact group that would be expected to stand up to them in the next 10 years when they become even more tyrannical.

Surely estrogenic chemicals - which mimic estrogen in the body and cause a nearly permanent endocrine imbalance - and are in goddamn near EVERYTHING in modern society - have a much larger effect than the government or academia on the development of young males.

That has a major role in it too. It doesn't help that young men are being taught to be ashamed of their gender simply because off the things men have done in the past.

This is sort of related but a few days ago, my manager at work, an African American, was telling me in a not so serious way that, since I'm from Kentucky I owe him and his people money and land because of slavery. He was quite surprised to know that Kentucky was sided with the union during those days.

More on point, I think they want to destroy masculinity as much as possible because of aggression towards the state of society and thus our cultural abyss.

People are less likely to have any dissonance if they aren't aggressive and are passive.

It's the reason people hate activists because they are angry and passionate about their concerns.

it's the reason we have the "keep calm and ____" meme

OP hit on something big. It's a status quo preserving, culturally sedative affectation that we've bought into. It's a form of mind control, the psychopathy/empathylessness of the social-cultural abandonment of our emotions to the new religion of scientism.

Also relevant:

• Adam Curtis' nonlinear cultural warfare -- mixed messaging and confusion in the media causes people to fall to 'oh dearism'; purposeful creation of cognitive dissonance that effectively 'shuts people down', causing them to feel great discomfort when discussing controversial things that matter
• Howard Beale, within film, Network -- "we are the illusion", and on life as bullshit
• "Society of the Spectacle", Guy Debord
• A Sedate Global Eschaton
• /r/sorceryofthespectacle
• Adam Curtis' Century of the Self

Well said and spot on.

Masterfully put. Emphasizing the point, see: number of votes and comments for this post. People are even reluctant to talk about it on the internet. Even in /r/conspiracy, where you could just retroactively claim you were bullshitting (and people would likely sympathize with you).

Well, can't blame them - not everyone has access to the access-liberating freedom that is a VPN, and as such, they have to moderate their internet usage.

I don't like giving money to the machine but I think this post is an exception to that rule.

Awareness helped me, as well as certain plants. ;)

Emotional suppression is a scientific system of control designed to pacify people into conformity to make them more accepting of exploitation, oppression and brutality.

And no where is this phenomena more evidenced than in the fact that the US is the most overworked, underpaid, incarcerated, psychiatrically unhealthy and medicated population in the developed world.

Great post op!

I'd also would like to add the disconnection from our true roots. we view ourselves as above and beyond what this planet has to offer and we have no respect for the natural world, or keeping this planet clean and healthy, that includes everything living on it. our mentality is to exploit everything we possible can for self profit. not every society was like this. animals are dying off in record rates and no one gives a shit about that as well, that reality also scares the shit out of people.

Yep this really bugs me as well. The earth is our home, let's protect and enhance it.

Holy shit, this title. It speaks a magnitude about America's current epidemic. This alone will destroy our country over time.

Beautiful analysis on our collective emotional state as a society, and how we have been unwittingly manipulated towards seeking the middle as to not fall off 'the edge'. It's a perversion of morality, and I just can't overstate what a wonderful job you've done summing up many of the concerns I have. Clearly we all value truth, and we all despise bullshit ; George Carlin is idolized for his ability to use language to cut through bullshit like a hot knife through butter. However, we are not all blessed with Carlin's talents to use the perverse hijacked state of language against itself. Knowing we can't communicate effectively, we resort to anger and outrage. I find myself upset that people cannot see these truths that are written so simply before us, and because of impatience, and a poor communications ability, instead of being able to convey my beliefs in a rational manner, I become enraged. It is a practice in futility to engage in the absurd. It's hard not to become disillusioned by the absurd, but if we can somehow use George Carlin as a mentor, we can see that by some sort of literary ju jitsu, he uses the state of things as a mirror to illuminate the truth, and for that I will always honor that man. I am lucky I got to see him once before he passed.

Thanks again for writing such a great post.

Your comment was quite well written and insightful as well. Thanks.

Thanks mate. Cheers.

And Bernie supporters are the epitome of this.

Downvote away, socialists. Prove my point.

The conditioning starts early for Americans. By the time adulthood comes around there is no way to undo it.

There is. Difficult but possible. Ps: weed helps. ;)

Yeah. See my post above as to why it helps.

This is mostly driven by Religion, which is fundamentally a belief in a fantasy world - a fantasy world that has the net effect of imparting positive emotions to or alleviating negative emotions of the believer.

Scientists just proved recently that the "chills" you get when being emotionally moved (by fantastic music, or "the spirit", for example) is actually a rush of dopamine in the pleasure centers of the brain.

The mammalian brain (necessarily) craves dopamine rushes. This is literally the only fundamental way we are able experience pleasure (of every kind - good food, good music, good company, etc..). And we only crave more intensely when things are bad (economy, death of a loved one, etc..). Since we necessarily crave this "rush", it makes it an incredibly powerful means of controlling humans. And if the controller is able to cause/create/invent economic or other distress in the controlled (which has the effect of reducing "natural" dopamine rushes), the magnitude of the control is increased.

Which just reinforces the fact that we are all dope fiends. Religious folks are no better than heroin addicts in this regard.

Who we should be concerned with is the individuals who are propagating and disseminating reproducible methods of causing these dopamine rushes on demand, while at the same time preventing/reducing natural dopamine rushes. They are the ones in control.

Science is also a religion. You have to believe in "scientific establishment". Very few experiments are reproducible on your own or with little funding.

I'd honestly much rather global nuclear war to take place than for society to move in the direction of 1984 or Brave New World. That kind of society scares the shit out of me. A post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland would be terrible, don't get me wrong, but at least it would be every man for himself and there wouldn't be a corrupt government with a sinister agenda ruling over us while the people around you are sedated with religion, entertainment, and other distractions. At least in that world, there would be no secrets, lies, or deceit, it would just be survival and reestablishment. But of course the best case scenario would be revolution and awakening. I just can't really see that realistically happening unless the government does something blatantly obvious that people perceive as a need for instant change.

Some people wonder about the authenticity of nuclear weaponry.... Which have been used effectively to instill fear.... Which is a bigger weapon in itself.

Well - since A KID produced/replicated Nuclear Fusion in his garage ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Wilson ), coupled with the fact that I understand the physics behind both Fission and Fusion, and the fact that Nuclear Weapons have actually been detonated many times (with a preponderance of documented evidence), I'm going to assume that they do exist.

Exaggerated? Maybe. Non-Existent? No fucking way. That's a bridge too far.

This is why I've given up on Facebook. Put all comments about how I shouldn't have been there to begin with. I was on there for personal reasons.

I've given up being on there. I've realized that friends who post pictures, emotions, or any other type post is looking for self verification. I realize that. It's asking people to think their photo is amazing of the dinner they're about to eat. Maybe they're angry that some twist to some tv show they watch angered them. It's all self satisfaction that they want.

Aside from that, the media/blog sites I followed would post stuff to just get people wound up about the dumbest stuff. Two women arrested in Hawaii this week because they were displaying too much PDA and the cop didn't like it. Ok, thanks I agree that's wrong, but the types of comments people put with the article are all angry or supportive. It's just constant fighting over opinions. It never leads to any resolution.

So I've given up Facebook and just stick to alternative ways of getting self satisfaction without having to advertise to the world. I'm also using other ways of getting my news. It's been bugging me for a while but it's true. Our society is always asking us to engage each other over opinions and it just makes us more angry and feel crappy.

It's true about Facebook, lot of mentally sick people there seeking self verification and approval.... I use it to wake people up... I've lost friends as a result. But I couldnt be bothered. :)

Me too -- I have an account but my net sum of time spent on facebook is probably on a couple of hours in my whole life. I've accepted friend invitations and had a few conversations, but I have a huge fear of it. I like being unable to be reached. It's something I value very much in my life -- I'm sure some of you would refer to me as a shut in. I don't know what I call it, but I have no desire to use facebook. All of the other moral transgressions of personal privacy on Facebook's behalf is just icing on the cake for me, I'm just not a social person really. For some reason I like reddit though. Maybe it's because it's anonymous.

Yea, i really enjoy my own company, and those I can connect with intellectually. I find that they can share my kind of humour as well.

Here's what it all boils down to, people do not have their own opinions. On any issue that matters, the media manufactures an opinion and divides the issue into black or white, you're either on the black team or the white team. When confronted about their manufactured opinion, they don't even really know why they have it so they react violently.

The number one goal of 90% of people is fitting in. Not being ostracized. The nail that sticks out gets hammered. So you have billions of people trying to go with the flow, and doing whatever they can to be accepted. The quickest way to get accepted is to join the majority, and parrot it's talking points.

Emotion and anger is only acceptable for sports really. It's depressing seeing 20,000 or 80,000 people going absolutely bonkers about an event that means literally nothing - while their country is being destroyed around them.

Bread and circuses. That's all it is, keep the people pacified till they're completely looted, and the country has burned to the ground.

I wrote a similar thread recently: The psychology behind manipulating public opinion on reddit

The part about being calm all of the time ties into what I've been thinking about proper flow and feedback in our interaction with the world. Flow is what I call when interaction (for example human interaction) is optimal, where it becomes a dance, the ideal give and take. Feedback is what must occur to achieve this flow where all parties involved in the interaction give feedback regarding their part in it. This occurs subtly and directly through body language, tone of voice, word choice and direct speech. Being agreeable at all times throws a monkey wrench into the situation because proper feedback is disrupted (because you're scared to show displeasure) thereby destroying the interaction, the flow.

This is what happens when we come home after a busy day to complain about all the shitty people we encountered, these shitty people that we likely smiled through our teeth at while hiding our irritation. This causes bottled-up emotions which leads to feeling like the world is against you, feeling like everyone can walk all over you and you are powerless to stop them.

I realized that to be truly calm and in control, we have to get angry when it calls for being angry. Simply ignoring the unsavory dynamics of life won't make them go away in mind and memory because I still remember those times I stayed quiet when I was being mistreated or misrepresented. I will often fantasize about reacting differently and this just depresses me more because I can't live in the present. But those times when I reacted properly, I got angry and I showed my displeasure to the world, they don't bother me and in fact I feel they are achievements in my ability to control the situation.

So we definitely have to interact properly with the world and that doesn't mean always being happily stoic, because that is simply the pragmatic safe route for those who are overcome by fear. Like in the movie Network, say "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!"

It's because people who rant are usually going on about shit like Zionist conspiracies, so being openly angry had become strongly associated with dipshit motherfuckery.

• stroking motion *

Eloquently said.

Great post, just to point out, it has been linked to the cesspit that is topmindsofreddit

No it isn't...

https://www.reddit.com/r/topmindsofreddit

I wonder why it hasn't drawn the shill comments yet. Topmindsofreddit amuses me a lot, to know that a group of people can obsess over us as much as they do.

Very well written. Non American here, it appies everywhere, what you mentioned.

True. I'm Indian. It does apply here to an extent. We are definitely more political though. But find it very difficult to organise overselves into anything meaningful.

I've learned that if you use satire and humor when discussing these things, people won't realize at first the implications of what you're suggesting. Here's an example.

"Israel is the greatest country on earth, they've never violated any human rights since Great Britain gave them the Palestinian's land in 1948."

Reading that for face value, it's obviously a lie, but if you use a what I said above it goes right over the conditioning. We've been taught to have cognitive dissonance in the context of truth, but if you speak truth in a sarcastic way like that, it will usually work.

Great post by the way.

irony is often not known or recognized in the US.

Since the great dumbing-down (in the US), in order to have a chance at being effective, sarcasm such as mentioned above MUST be delivered vocally and in person and must be just fucking dripping with sarcastic vocal tone.

You need to make it so goddamn apparent that you're being sarcastic that they cannot realistically mistake it for a normal statement.

See: George Carlin.

and the propagandists are very successful at implanting psychological links between real peoples losses and the fake losses say at Sandy Hook.

so it becomes verboten to question fake victims on TV news. it suggests that real peoples real dead relatives are fake too...

some real clever (and immoral) psychological propagandists at work.

remember the messiah photos of 'Cassidy Stay', people were hugging her hand to their faces in adoration.

Yeah man you're totally right, it's only Americans who do this. The hundreds of millions of devout Muslims in their nations who blindly follow their emotions and cut peoples heads off? They prioritize reality over emotions. The millions of Ukranians who want to be part of Russia and cause thousands of deaths and destabilize their country? They totally put reality before emotions. The millions of Germans who willingly allow dangerous refugees into their country at their own cost? They put reality before emotions am I right? What about the Chinese who want total war and genocide of the Japanese people? They definitely put reality before emotions.

I'm really glad you've been able to identify this problem which is specific to Americans.

It happens everywhere, but American people are closest to the propaganda machine and feel the programming the strongest.

No, they're closest to the propaganda that you see and feel the American programming the strongest. It happens everywhere you just don't see it because you're only able to see what our governments / media show.

I understand. I don't blame Americans .... i think any unwitting person would fall prey to the propaganda... you know in the end, most people just want to "live their lives" and see everything in relation to the other person, have weak wills and fail to grasp the big picture and lack the imagination to want and demand better.

Awesome, well put and good advice to go by. One thing though, as much as of a turn off flat earth is, that is also because we have been programmed to think that way by these so called space agencies.

Yes 99 percent of people are in denial of the reality around them. It's easier this way for them. It's too painful to face the truth.
As for me I had enough. I no longer have any friends. I rarely interact with people unless out of necessity.
I got tired of staring into the empty eyes. Tired of all the fake bullshit. The phony facades of personality. Try to bring up meaningful importsnt issues and people block you off. Persist and try to wake them up and they think your crazy. Your own family thinks your crazy. It's a lonely path.

Me too man. Me too. You're not alone.

I had a funny encounter with an American today. I asked him why is Hillary running for presidency.... He had nothing to say and gtfo as fast as he could. People really are trained not to have an opinion about these matters.

I only read the first few paragraphs, you should just be like me OP. I dont give a fuck what they think, I speak my mind, id speak it to the pope, to jeb bush, to any cocksucker banker or politician faggot. I bought my trump: make america great shirt the other week, and I proudly wear it around california to piss off the neoliberals who ruined my home

Since the great dumbing-down (in the US), in order to have a chance at being effective, sarcasm such as mentioned above MUST be delivered vocally and in person and must be just fucking dripping with sarcastic vocal tone.

You need to make it so goddamn apparent that you're being sarcastic that they cannot realistically mistake it for a normal statement.

See: George Carlin.

I understand. I don't blame Americans .... i think any unwitting person would fall prey to the propaganda... you know in the end, most people just want to "live their lives" and see everything in relation to the other person, have weak wills and fail to grasp the big picture and lack the imagination to want and demand better.