Fri Sep 14, 2012, 02:51 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
Modern Americans: Detached From Life & Living In HellThis discussion thread was locked as off-topic by cyberswede (a host of the General Discussion forum). This nightmare is about to get worse for nature lovers who want to get away from society and into nature like Thoreau once did: The FCC has been selling low frequency access to super wifi companies that want to broadcast low-level microwave radiation for hundreds of miles into remote rural areas. This technology is already known to harm plants, disperse entire colonies of bees and make some people sick. Eventually, the plan is to blanket the entire Earth with wireless signal from space, so that everybody has access to the internet, so that every human can be identified, so that every inch of this planet can be logged, charted, analyzed and stored as data. For what? To unify the world and make it a better place? No. The push to turn all life on Earth into numbers stored in computers is only the logical continuation of what scientists in Thoreau's time were doing: Recording every bug, every bird, every type of animal. Dissecting, testing, experimenting, analyzing – that's what scientists do. This electronic monitoring and subsequent oppression of all life is only the latest and perhaps final step in the mad march of humans to subdue nature. Will nature writing make a difference as the war between technologists and nature amplifies, expands, blows up and continues to an inevitable dead end? Well it could, but nature writing has to honestly assess humanity's parasitic activities on the Earth. We are an ungrateful species hell-bent on extracting and not replenishing. Humans have become the enemies of nature by backing science and thousands of corporations that produce thousands of toxic chemicals and materials for our desperate lives of shallow consumerism. We are assaulting nature by thirsting for more synthetic consumer products while using media and electronics to keep us insulated from the reality that we are driving our own species from this planet. I feel that honest nature writing has to ask the following question: Do humans even know how to get out of this self-inflicted mess? If we haven't stopped ourselves yet from the behaviors causing widespread natural destruction across the planet, what is going to make us reform? Modern humans are addicted to the notion that science can save us, but science brought us to the brink. Either acts of God or non-human assistance are going to be necessary to restore the balance between humanity and nature. Modern humans are too self-absorbed, flattered when liked on Facebook and detached from a deep connection to nature to even notice how far over the edge modern society has gone. More and more, modern people are less and less in touch with reality: Put down the “Dumbphone,” stop texting, go outside and play and plant a tree! Shut down the nuclear power plants, the chemical sprayers, the cell phone towers, the wireless networks, the GMO and cloning labs and just look at what we have done to the Earth! We need a reset. Heaven help us.
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53 replies, 4287 views
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Author | Time | Post |
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Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | OP |
DLevine | Sep 2012 | #1 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #2 | |
HiPointDem | Sep 2012 | #3 | |
riderinthestorm | Sep 2012 | #4 | |
cali | Sep 2012 | #5 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #6 | |
cali | Sep 2012 | #8 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #10 | |
cali | Sep 2012 | #13 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #14 | |
DLevine | Sep 2012 | #15 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #16 | |
DLevine | Sep 2012 | #17 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #18 | |
Odin2005 | Sep 2012 | #28 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #39 | |
RepublicansRZombies | Sep 2012 | #7 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #11 | |
RepublicansRZombies | Sep 2012 | #26 | |
leftstreet | Sep 2012 | #25 | |
Gregorian | Sep 2012 | #9 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #12 | |
Yavin4 | Sep 2012 | #19 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #20 | |
Yavin4 | Sep 2012 | #21 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #23 | |
Gregorian | Sep 2012 | #22 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #24 | |
bhikkhu | Sep 2012 | #30 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #40 | |
Gregorian | Sep 2012 | #47 | |
Odin2005 | Sep 2012 | #27 | |
RepublicansRZombies | Sep 2012 | #29 | |
TBF | Sep 2012 | #32 | |
Warren DeMontague | Sep 2012 | #34 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #41 | |
TBF | Sep 2012 | #31 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #42 | |
TBF | Sep 2012 | #48 | |
Warren DeMontague | Sep 2012 | #33 | |
Odin2005 | Sep 2012 | #35 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #43 | |
SidDithers | Sep 2012 | #36 | |
loli phabay | Sep 2012 | #37 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #46 | |
loli phabay | Sep 2012 | #49 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #44 | |
cbrer | Sep 2012 | #38 | |
Harley Jacobson | Sep 2012 | #45 | |
Warren DeMontague | Sep 2012 | #50 | |
EvolveOrConvolve | Sep 2012 | #51 | |
backscatter712 | Sep 2012 | #52 | |
cyberswede | Sep 2012 | #53 |
Response to Harley Jacobson (Original post)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 03:01 PM
DLevine (1,787 posts)
1. I agree with you. Well said. n/t
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Response to DLevine (Reply #1)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 03:04 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
2. thank you.
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Original post)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 03:10 PM
HiPointDem (20,729 posts)
3. kr
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Original post)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 03:13 PM
riderinthestorm (23,272 posts)
4. +1 and welcome to DU! K & R!
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Original post)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 03:17 PM
cali (114,904 posts)
5. these are my fears as well
I've spent my adult life in a rural place by choice after having been brought up in the suburbs. I still live in a place with no cell phone reception- though I'm sure that will soon end.
Where we part company is your wholesale dissing of science. And the use of the word "addiction" in regard to how humans regard science is laughable. If only. Your reliance on a mythical sky king to fix things is lame. Furthermore, humans haven't changed much evolutionarily over the our history. By the way, I recommend reading E.O. Wilson (a remarkable man and a scientist): The Future of Life The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth On Human Nature Also, if you haven't, The End of Nature by Bill McKibben. He's not a scientist but he doesn't share your disdain for science. |
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Response to cali (Reply #5)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 03:23 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
6. science is a passing fad...
americans consume 80% of the world's opiate painkillers.
i think we have an addiction to science solving our self-made problems. |
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Reply #6)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 03:38 PM
cali (114,904 posts)
8. Got a link for that assertion about opiates? Not that is has anything to do
with the topic on hand.
I'm sorry, but you're making yourself ridiculous with your anti-science superstitious, fear based nonsense. |
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Response to cali (Reply #8)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 04:15 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
10. don't you read the news?
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Reply #10)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 04:19 PM
cali (114,904 posts)
13. thanks for the link. why yes, honey, I read the news
shockingly, I don't read every news article extant. I'm sure YOU do.
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Response to cali (Reply #13)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 04:21 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
14. lol...not really
addicted to science as a solution to our problems...
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Response to cali (Reply #13)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 04:23 PM
DLevine (1,787 posts)
15. Could you be any more obnoxious and condescending? n/t
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Response to DLevine (Reply #15)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 04:24 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
16. to me?
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Reply #16)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 04:26 PM
DLevine (1,787 posts)
17. The person snarking at you is being rude, and I'm in a bad mood. n/t
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Response to DLevine (Reply #17)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 04:37 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
18. why are you in a bad mood?
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Reply #6)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 07:43 PM
Odin2005 (53,521 posts)
28. If you think that then smash you computer and go Amish.
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Response to Odin2005 (Reply #28)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 09:12 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
39. why are you so extreme?
why malign the amish? leave them out of this.
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Original post)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 03:34 PM
RepublicansRZombies (982 posts)
7. At a time when technology should be working for US, everyone should have enough food
With today's technology, everyone should have enough food to eat, everyone should have a home and with computers doing so much of our work for us, everyone should have more free time. We should be experiencing a beautiful cultural revolution across the globe. Instead we are devolving into a poverty stricken earth destroying mess? Every country must implement austerity to survive? Why? Who the hell took all the money? It didn't disappear. Why don't we get it back? Who benefited from all the technology? I walk around my town with all this political stuff in my head, no one wants to hear this crap. Who cares. Snooki is so much funnier. Everyone is getting squeezed, can't figure out why they can't make ends meet anymore...but they don't want to hear how Koch wealth has grown from 5 Billion to $50 Billion in 8 years because they have been gaming the oil market and driving the cost of gas up pilfering from each and every one of us. No one wants to hear that Goldman Sachs is the reason food prices are out of control. People don't get how politics affects their lives, and they don't want to get it. And if you tell them, you are the bad guy, that annoying pest that keeps trying to tell them stuff. Heaven Help US indeed, because at this point, I seriously think we do need divine intervention. WE NEED A MIRACLE!! |
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Response to RepublicansRZombies (Reply #7)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 04:16 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
11. you should write more...
i like your writing.
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Reply #11)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 07:32 PM
RepublicansRZombies (982 posts)
26. Thanks
I like your writing too!
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Response to RepublicansRZombies (Reply #7)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 05:33 PM
leftstreet (34,846 posts)
25. +1
Yep, we need to get that money back
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Original post)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 03:45 PM
Gregorian (23,867 posts)
9. The answer is pretty simple. Birth control. The problem is, it has to be voluntary.
Birth control is the single most important issue we face today, although most people don't realize or even agree.
So we do that, or we suffer the consequences of more corporations to house, feed, heat, clothe, transport, defend, heal, etc. All of the problems are just symptoms of the one big elephant that everyone is ignoring. |
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Response to Gregorian (Reply #9)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 04:16 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
12. yes, it's a big problem.
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Response to Gregorian (Reply #9)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 04:38 PM
Yavin4 (33,898 posts)
19. Precisely. You Cannot Solve The Crises of Our Day, Poverty, War, Famine, etc.
without solving the population explosion. No matter what we do in the U.S. in terms of our environment, our economy, our natural resources, etc. Our fate as a species is tied into what China and India do, and their fate is tied to their population explosions.
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Response to Yavin4 (Reply #19)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 04:42 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
20. population growth
apparently, america's population grows by 1.5 million every year.
how about: 1) composting toilets 2) something better than an automobile 3) outlawing GMO food 4) invest in local food systems |
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Reply #20)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 04:53 PM
Yavin4 (33,898 posts)
21. And NONE of that matters as India's and China's Population Growth Dwarfs Ours
It does not matter what WE do.
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Response to Yavin4 (Reply #21)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 05:22 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
23. sure it does
because the whole world of so-called developing nations want to be just like us...tvs, microwaves, cars, flush toilets...americans need to retrofit and conserve to set a better example.
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Response to Yavin4 (Reply #19)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 04:57 PM
Gregorian (23,867 posts)
22. I think we can solve problems independent of population. But population exacerbates the situation.
I do think we can solve the problems of poverty and war and famine. But now that population is as large as it is, it is an overriding contributor to the problem.
I just don't want people to think that my solution to everything is fewer people. |
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Response to Gregorian (Reply #22)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 05:23 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
24. yes, but
i think there are string-pullers around the world who would like the population reduced so they can consolidate control on the planet.
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Response to Yavin4 (Reply #19)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 07:50 PM
bhikkhu (10,645 posts)
30. The trend overall is really pretty good
![]() If you break that down into population growth by continent, its Africa that has the most current issues, rather than China and India. ![]() Generally speaking, where you have educated women who have the opportunity to play a role in society other than "mother", enough will chose to do so that birthrates will be about flat. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the world's resource base will deteriorate faster than population stabilizes. |
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Response to bhikkhu (Reply #30)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 09:13 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
40. good point!
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Response to bhikkhu (Reply #30)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 09:17 PM
Gregorian (23,867 posts)
47. That's informative. But there is still a huge problem. Using the Rule of 72,
which is just a cheap way of approximating the natural logarithm for doubling time, 3% results in doubling of population in SEVEN years!
1% results in doubling in 72 years. That sounds great. But the problem is, it IS great if it's 1750, for example, when we had very few people. But now, doubling in 72 years is a serious problem. Even 1% is too much. Any growth at all is too much. That's why I'm pessimistic about any possible solution to our present situation. People just don't realize how bad this really is. |
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Original post)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 07:42 PM
Odin2005 (53,521 posts)
27. Chemtrails? ROFL!!!
![]() What a bunch of technophobic Luddite nonsense mixed in with woo and ignorance. |
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Response to Odin2005 (Reply #27)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 07:45 PM
RepublicansRZombies (982 posts)
29. this post says more about you than it does about him
n/t
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Response to RepublicansRZombies (Reply #29)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 07:51 PM
TBF (31,869 posts)
32. It sure does and I'll stick with Odin. nt
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Response to RepublicansRZombies (Reply #29)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 08:06 PM
Warren DeMontague (80,708 posts)
34. Can you elaborate?
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Response to Odin2005 (Reply #27)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 09:14 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
41. maybe you live in a hole?
i guess you've never been to phoenix arizona when it's being sprayed.
good for you! |
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Original post)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 07:51 PM
TBF (31,869 posts)
31. I don't think your imaginary sky gods and heaven
are going to save us. Transition to an economic system that does not encourage greed might help.
What is it with all the anti-science BS lately? |
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Response to TBF (Reply #31)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 09:15 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
42. science is a passing fad...
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Reply #42)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 09:21 PM
TBF (31,869 posts)
48. lol - enjoy your stay. nt
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Original post)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 08:00 PM
Warren DeMontague (80,708 posts)
33. "Science is a passing fad", says the guy on the internet so his words can be read instantaneously
by anyone, anywhere else on the planet.
How refreshingly hip, someone who hates technology and thinks science is dooming us. What a novel idea! You need a slogan, though. Maybe "I'm Luddin' It!™" |
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Original post)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 08:23 PM
Odin2005 (53,521 posts)
35. Oh, and I'm a Transhumanist! BOO!!!
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Response to Odin2005 (Reply #35)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 09:15 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
43. good...
clone yourself and send us your better half.
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Original post)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 08:57 PM
SidDithers (44,228 posts)
36. What an enormous pile of crap...
Amazing, really.
Sid |
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Response to SidDithers (Reply #36)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 09:00 PM
loli phabay (5,580 posts)
37. ive read it twice and im still not sure if its satire or his real beliefs
then i see he wrote it on a computer and used the intertubes so im again not sure.
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Response to loli phabay (Reply #37)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 09:17 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
46. internet helps me reach people like you...
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Reply #46)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 09:24 PM
loli phabay (5,580 posts)
49. sorry but i am not at home at the moment please leave a message so i can delete later BBEEEPPPP
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Response to SidDithers (Reply #36)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 09:16 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
44. addicted to wifi?
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Original post)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 09:09 PM
cbrer (1,831 posts)
38. I wonder if the uncontained Ebola outbreak in the Congo will provide this reset you speak of?
31 dead so far. Health care workers in some cases. ~90% fatality rate.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/384518/20120914/ebola-outbreak-2012-congo-virus-deaths-cases.htm |
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Response to cbrer (Reply #38)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 09:16 PM
Harley Jacobson (88 posts)
45. tragic.
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Original post)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 09:42 PM
Warren DeMontague (80,708 posts)
50. Can you elaborate on what you mean by "chemtrails"?
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Original post)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 10:15 PM
EvolveOrConvolve (6,452 posts)
51. What are chemtrails?
How do they happen?
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Response to EvolveOrConvolve (Reply #51)
Fri Sep 14, 2012, 10:57 PM
backscatter712 (26,354 posts)
52. You can disperse them with a spritzer of vinegar!
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Response to Harley Jacobson (Original post)
Sat Sep 15, 2012, 12:19 AM
cyberswede (26,117 posts)
53. Locking...
I refer you to the GD Statement of Purpose:
Statement of Purpose
Discuss politics, issues, and current events. No posts about Israel/Palestine, religion, guns, showbiz, or sports unless there is really big news. No conspiracy theories. No whining about DU. And the DU Terms of Service: Don't go overboard with the crazy talk.
Democratic Underground is not intended to be a platform for kooks and crackpots peddling paranoid fantasies with little or no basis in fact. To accommodate our more imaginative members we tolerate some limited discussion of so-called "conspiracy theories" under the following circumstances: First, those discussions are not permitted in our heavily-trafficked Main forums; and second, those discussions cannot stray too far into Crazyland (eg: chemtrails, black helicopters, 9/11 death rays or holograms, the "New World Order," the Bilderbergers, the Illuminati, the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, alien abduction, Bigfoot, and the like). In addition, please be aware that many conspiracy theories have roots in racism and anti-semitism, and Democratic Underground has zero tolerance for bigoted hate speech. In short, you take your chances. http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=termsofservice |
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