I enjoy the opportunity to freely share news, rumors, and views on this and other alternative websites. I also read the news on major established media websites - they have the budget and personnel to actually do the digging and reporting. The problem with the Main Stream Media (MSM) is when editorial control is dictated by hidden business and governmental interests.

The good side of Alternative News Sites is that the postings are far less filtered so you can find dissenting views and unverified raw input. These often have information and stories before the main stream media (MSM) get them and are usually free from governmental and commercial bias. They also give a forum where the average person can post their views or sometimes just vent.

The bad side to Alternative News Sites is that there is no journalistic filtering and sometimes that gets abused. Some people are prone to fear mongering and those posts tend to exaggerate and emphasize whatever the "fear of the day" is - from imagined natural calamities due to an unseen planet coming at us, fears of race wars, and expectations of immanent economic collapse. I understand that on both the MSM side and the alternative side it's usually the most fear inducing story that grabs people's attention. I also have observed that there are a few people with a personal economic motive in spreading these stories - they are selling a product or book or "click bait" to get you to look at their website. Aside from making us all look foolish for taking unwarranted fear mongering seriously, this endless negativity is hurtful to our spirits and outlook.

There isn't a lot most of us can do about the "fear-porn" some people post and feed on, but we would be wise to use our memories of all those past fantastic events that just didn't happen. Did all our computer based systems and utilities crash on Jan 1 2000? Did the world end in December of 2012? Did "Planet X" swing around and wipe us out? Did President Obama's election actually lead to any major changes in our individual lives? Did the US government disclose alien contact? Did the Iraq currency suddenly become a good investment? Did gold and silver recently increase in value by a factor of 100? I can remember a great many postings on all of these and more in the last few years which seemed to say that all of these things should have happened by now - and yet none of them did. If all these false rumors and more were so wrong, then we should remember that and not be so quick to hop on the fear bandwagon. In nearly all cases, the more extreme and scary the the rumor, the less likely it is to have any basis in fact at all.

There are areas that need the alternative websites to get a message out when the MSM seems to be ignoring the obvious - such as US and Saudi military support to rebels in Syria has led to ISIS and the current refugee crisis in Europe or that picking fights with Russia on its borders by moving military supplies to the Ukraine is a no-win situation (unless you are in the arms business). And each of us have our own personal struggles and it always helps to bring support and encouragement to each other. I encourage my fellow readers and posters to remember that the more spectacular the rumor the less likely it is to be true.