Silencing Opposing Speech

unsung

So Alex Jones is apparently a strike away from being banned on youtube, supposedly there is an organized reporting campaign flooding youtube to forcefully remove him.

I don't listen to Alex Jones but I believe this is dangerous territory. 

I know Alex Jones is known to be of the Conspiracy mindset, but I feel he has made some worthwhile points on some common issues, but he comes across as the boy who cried wolf.

I have not known him to be called a racist, or promoting hate speech, he certainly demonizes anyone who criticizes Jews, and he doesn't appear to be alt-right (although definitions of that seem to be varying).

So what is it?  Why the fear in what he has to say?  If he is a known conspiracy theorist then why not just ignore him?

I think I know the answer.  I believe the fear is that the left doesn't want any forms of communication to exist that doesn't conform 100% with the agenda.

Tragically the left used to be the group that fought for free speech, not it seems to be all about silencing any opposing opinion.

Halifax2TheMax

unsung said:

So Alex Jones is apparently a strike away from being banned on youtube, supposedly there is an organized reporting campaign flooding youtube to forcefully remove him.

I don't listen to Alex Jones but I believe this is dangerous territory. 

I know Alex Jones is known to be of the Conspiracy mindset, but I feel he has made some worthwhile points on some common issues, but he comes across as the boy who cried wolf.

I have not know him to be called a racist, or promoting hate speech, he certainly demonizes anyone who criticizes Jews, and he doesn't appear to be alt-right (although definitions of that seem to be varying).

So what is it?  Why the fear in what he has to say?  If he is a known conspiracy theorist then why not just ignore him?

I think I know the answer.  I believe the fear is that the left doesn't want any forms of communication to exist that doesn't conform 100% with the agenda.

Tragically the left used to be the group that fought for free speech, not it seems to be all about silencing any opposing opinion.

YouTube is privately owned by Google. Are you advocating that the government take it over so anyone can post or have a channel?You really are all over the map, particularly since you think a baker should be legally allowed to discriminate against a gay couple and not bake them a cake. Alex Jones propagates stories of child sex rings on mars. “Silencing any opposition?” Please.

Halifax2TheMax

And Alex Jones and any other Alt Righter is free to start any internet search engine or server hosting company and invite the nutters to post their free speech or are you against free markets as well?

Halifax2TheMax

Trump will be looking for work soon. Maybe he can start TrumpStorm where every search result is about him?

dignin

Channels get banned for violating Youtubes rules all the time. Why should Alex "piece of shit" Jones be any different?

pjhawks

you really don't understand the concept of free speech do you?

ConorKavanagh

I don't know what the story with Alex Jones is, he comes across as a really intense dude. I heard he was funny on the Joe Rogan Experience though.

Halifax2TheMax

Letters to the editor never get published. In the WSJ or Washington Times. Fucking liberals.

mickeyrat

same as here right? speech has its limits on someone elses platform.

first amendment really is about criticizing our government. ..

google, as the owner of that website can do as they wish with it. it IS their property after all.

mickeyrat

and he is free to poat whatever he likes on hos own website. those that want to watch, know where to go.

now my free speech says fuck that douchebag. hes a fucking liar.

PJPOWER

I wish that social media sites would ban access to anyone under 18...And I wish Alex Jones was banned from Earth.

my2hands

Unsung getting owned again

lol

JimmyV

Thoughts and prayers for Alex Jones.

ConorKavanagh

Has anyone watched the most recent couple of seasons of Homeland? That character Brett O'Keefe is definitely based on Alex Jones I'd say.

my2hands

Thoughts and prayers lol

CM189191

pjhawks said:

you really don't understand the concept of free speech do you?

Add the 1st Amendment to the list of things unsung doesn't understand

oftenreading

I would say Alex Jones does promotes hate speech against Muslims. He has had some major rants about terrorism that put him over the edge from "amusingly kooky" to something worse. And for his part in fomenting the online abuse and denigration of survivors and victims of the mass shootings as fakes and "crisis actors", I can only hope there is a special place in the hell I don't believe in. 

unsung

Case in point.

I didn't say anything about the First Amendment and the fight against govt.

Yeah, a private company can decide what is on its platform, but it doesn't change the fact that anything right of Elizabeth Warren is often deleted.

And not one of you even bothered to have a discussion, instead you all go mob style to discredit and silence instead of attempting any meaningful conversation.

No surprise though.  The alt-left are the real fascists.

Big Bank Hank

dignin said:

Channels get banned for violating Youtubes rules all the time. Why should Alex "piece of shit" Jones be any different?

I don't agree with almost anything said by Alex Jones, but a lot of channels have been banned for total bullshit, like anyone that telling the truth about Syria, they shut them down and that's just one instance, Google is not some neutral player in all this, they have their own agenda too, and if you have the power to control content to fit your agenda, it becomes almost impossible to resist that temptation, I had my Twitter account shadowbanned, for nothing more than pushing the #NeverHillary hashtag during the Democratic Primary, didn't violate any Twitter rules, but all of a sudden I went from getting like 70,000 interactions a day to under a 1,000 and my followers were telling me none of my Tweets were showing up on their timelines, and they never removed the shadowban since, but whatever, you are only going to see what they want you to see, or if you really want to know what's going on the Dark Web is where it's at, you are only seeing 1% of what's out there, of course there is lots of illegal stuff on the dark web which I am not promoting, but there is a lot of info that gets revealed that you'll rarely see in traditional sources, plus the government is tracking & collecting everything everyone does and they don't need a FISA warrant either, they do it because they can, but they aren't able to collect it on the dark web

oftenreading

unsung said:

Case in point.

I didn't say anything about the First Amendment and the fight against govt.

Yeah, a private company can decide what is on its platform, but it doesn't change the fact that anything right of Elizabeth Warren is often deleted.

And not one of you even bothered to have a discussion, instead you all go mob style to discredit and silence instead of attempting any meaningful conversation.

No surprise though.  The alt-left are the real fascists.

You see what you want to see. I see several people commenting on the issue.

unsung

Title edited to cure the crying.

oftenreading

Did you really want a discussion? It doesn't seem so. You haven't responded to those who commented, other than to globally dismiss them.

Halifax2TheMax

unsung said:

Case in point.

I didn't say anything about the First Amendment and the fight against govt.

Yeah, a private company can decide what is on its platform, but it doesn't change the fact that anything right of Elizabeth Warren is often deleted.

And not one of you even bothered to have a discussion, instead you all go mob style to discredit and silence instead of attempting any meaningful conversation.

No surprise though.  The alt-left are the real fascists.

Care to answer my question?

JimmyV

unsung said:

Case in point.

I didn't say anything about the First Amendment and the fight against govt.

Yeah, a private company can decide what is on its platform, but it doesn't change the fact that anything right of Elizabeth Warren is often deleted.

And not one of you even bothered to have a discussion, instead you all go mob style to discredit and silence instead of attempting any meaningful conversation.

No surprise though.  The alt-left are the real fascists.

In one paragraph you accuse others of not being interested in having a meaningful conversation. In the next you call them fascists.

brianlux

Unless he says something false about an individual or makes threats on YouTube, I'd have to say a ban is not a good idea.  But who watches that creep anyway?  If he were ignored, he would go away.  Just don't  watch dumb shit. 

riley540

YouTube is private, they can do what they want. Although I do appreciate multiple viewpoints and the option to watch varying content. YouTube does have a bias. right leaning content will often be demonitized. Dave Ruben did a video called “capitalism is great” or something similar, and it was demonitized. He then experimented and made a video called “socialism is great” and it wasn’t demonitized. And sources like the young Turks never have any issues and speak are far left agenda. 

That being said, YouTube can do as they please. Private company! 

oftenreading

brianlux said:

Unless he says something false about an individual or makes threats on YouTube, I'd have to say a ban is not a good idea.  But who watches that creep anyway?  If he were ignored, he would go away.  Just don't  watch dumb shit. 

Have you watched Alex Jones? It’s rare that he actually says anything true about anyone.  He probably hits a few dozen falsehoods each episode. 

JimmyV

Alex Jones has made a lot of money trafficking in conspiracy theories he knows to be untrue for a very long time. If YouTube has had enough of him and his act he has brought that down on himself. That his Alt-Right followers and fellow travelers are unable to see anything wrong with his behavior is not YouTube's problem.

rgambs

oftenreading said:

brianlux said:

Unless he says something false about an individual or makes threats on YouTube, I'd have to say a ban is not a good idea.  But who watches that creep anyway?  If he were ignored, he would go away.  Just don't  watch dumb shit. 

Have you watched Alex Jones? It’s rare that he actually says anything true about anyone.  He probably hits a few dozen falsehoods each episode. 

Yeah and It's not just falsehoods, its delusional insanity.
He has purposefully cultivated a fanbase which is literally insane.  He has gathered and created a following of millions of mentally ill people who believe the Earth is flat, the world is ruled by humanoid lizards, and every tragedy is a nefarious false flag.
Every time Alex Jones opens his mouth about an individual, that individual gets death threats from paranoid delusional maniacs.  
He knows this, and he continues despite the fact that he has no credible evidence for anything he says. 
He should have been banned years ago.

Big Bank Hank

oftenreading said:

brianlux said:

Unless he says something false about an individual or makes threats on YouTube, I'd have to say a ban is not a good idea.  But who watches that creep anyway?  If he were ignored, he would go away.  Just don't  watch dumb shit. 

Have you watched Alex Jones? It’s rare that he actually says anything true about anyone.  He probably hits a few dozen falsehoods each episode. 

LOL, we always bashed Russia for not allowing their citizens to make conflicting statements to the Government, now we are doing the same thing in the United States, you are attempting the limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, because most of us aren't actually there, and we have to accept others accounts, they could be completely full of shit and we'd never know, unless we have them on video tape or something. Otherwise you are accepting the words of people you never met on a willingness to believe, a leap of, dare I say it, faith.

JimmyV

Big Bank Hank said:

oftenreading said:

brianlux said:

Unless he says something false about an individual or makes threats on YouTube, I'd have to say a ban is not a good idea.  But who watches that creep anyway?  If he were ignored, he would go away.  Just don't  watch dumb shit. 

Have you watched Alex Jones? It’s rare that he actually says anything true about anyone.  He probably hits a few dozen falsehoods each episode. 

LOL, we always bashed Russia for not allowing their citizens to make conflicting statements to the Government, now we are doing the same thing in the United States, you are attempting the limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, because most of us aren't actually there, and we have to accept others accounts, they could be completely full of shit and we'd never know, unless we have them on video tape or something. Otherwise you are accepting the words of people you never met on a willingness to believe, a leap of, dare I say it, faith.

Alex Jones insists the Newtown shootings never happened and declared the Boston Marathon attack a "false-flag" as it was happening. These are just two of his many blatant lies. Holding him accountable for those lies has nothing to do with criticizing the government.