Is Alex Jones of InfoWars a danger to society, or just entertainment? (1 Viewer)

Jon

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I do like watching InfoWars. It can be highly entertaining, especially when he goes off on a rant and becomes uncontrollable! The numerous threads of conspiracy theories are all nicely interwoven, with truth and falsehoods all mixed in together. He has become very adept at it.

He was banned from all the major platforms like YouTube and Facebook. Was this right? Is he a danger to society or just another news outlet with a different viewpoint?

Edit: Has anyone here not heard of Alex Jones before?
 
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Isaac

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I had not heard of it, but may have to check him out tonight after work.
 

CJ_London

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thought he was a she - a presenter on BBC's The One Show :geek:
 
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Jon

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He was very popular on YouTube, will millions of views every week. But about a year ago or so, YouTube and all the other major platforms banned him in synchronicity. Don't expect to replace the BBC with Alex Jones though. :ROFLMAO: But if you fancy listening to some nonsense for a while about globalists and the current target, Bill Gates, then you might find it amusing!
 

Isaac

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If I was king for a day, I'd try to find a way to prohibit tech platforms like Youtube or Twitter from censoring this kind of thing, though.
I come down on the side of free speech unless it's directly inciting, encouraging, requesting, or commanding something illegal. (I.E. if a video could be construed as actually encouraging violence, or this whole doxing thing, it would be immediately taken down/banned). But I don't like it that they ban things in the category, arguably, of "misinformation". Why? Mostly just the obvious reasons that have led others to make the same conclusion.
  1. It leaves some random individual at Youtube or Twitter to be the arbiter of what is true and what is false. That just seems like a crazy place to go as a country cruising along the "Information Superhighway". (blast from the 90's there!)
  2. It's a slippery slope. Maybe many people can all agree that claiming Sandy Hook is a hoax is nonsense, but what about things like Russian collusion.......or Epstein's manner of death.....or JFK assassination.....or oil & gas vs. electric cars....or hydroxychloriquine....the origination of the virus....what Joe Biden will do after elected...I mean the list obviously goes on and on, indefinitely. Hypothetically, first you might have Twitter banning the KKK, next QAnon, next any mention of alternate coronavirus treatments, and finally even things that are downright politically subjective, like 75% of the 'fact checked' things. Oh wait, all of that already happened!
This Alex fellow does sound like total nonsense, but it's never a good idea to make a "rule" (such as, "disinformation should be able to be banned on social media"), based on one extreme case that happens to garner widespread agreement. It's always a good idea to consider the entirety of what might fall under that rule, and judge its wisdom accordingly. Maybe a little bit like what courts do when they strike down a previously-used legal "rule" for being overbroad or having the potential to reach absurd results.
 

Jon

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There are plenty of flat-earthers on YouTube. Should we ban them too?
 

Isaac

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There are plenty of flat-earthers on YouTube. Should we ban them too?
Yah exactly.
I'm guessing the logic goes something like: "No, it's only dangerous "misinformation"
So maybe if we all thought the earth WAS flat, and a few people were saying it was round, then the round-earthers would be banned due to the danger of would-be explorers falling off the edge. :ROFLMAO:
 

Jon

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If government policy was based on the flat-earth, it might affect quite a few things! Like why are all our astronauts lying and why does Brian Cox and Sir Patrick Moore continue to spread misinformation, and not condemn the moon landing hoax? :ROFLMAO:
 

Jon

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I just want to roll back a little what I said earlier about his stuff being nonsense. It is not all nonsense. I remember a couple of years ago listening to Alex banging on about Epstein and Bill Clinton, talking about Epstein being a pedophile and Bill Clintons flights to his island. This was before any of it ever hit the mainstream news.

Anyway, here is Alex having a rant which had me chuckling earlier... :ROFLMAO:

 

Pat Hartman

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I'd try to find a way to prohibit tech platforms like Youtube or Twitter from censoring this kind of thing
Maybe you could get me off of Facebook's permanent ban list :)
 

Jon

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OMG @Pat Hartman, what did you do? We are a bit more free speech on AWF.
 

Pat Hartman

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I joined FB to look for an old friend. I made ONE post in response to a talking head on TV. He was carrying on about how Social Security is an entitlement program. So my reply was something like "If the government takes money from me at gunpoint for 50 years with the promise to give it back with interest when I retire, it is MY MONEY and I want it back." I'm thinking "gunpoint" was the trigger but I could never get a human to talk to me.
 

Jon

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Yes, perhaps a bot got triggered. That is the frustration in dealing with these huge companies. I got banned about 12 years ago from the Google advertising platform. About 200K people got banned that year. To this day, I do not know why.
 

Pat Hartman

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I think that part of the reform that the business needs is a way to review automatic banning with a human. Not that I actually want to be part of FB but it is inconvenient to not have an account.
 

Jon

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These platforms are so big that they are almost like a public utility now. To get banned for life from them can be a bit debilitating.
 

Pat Hartman

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Our Congress is the best that money can buy and it's easy to tell that when you listen to the questioning that goes on in the hearings that get broadcast on cSpan. The fawning and god-like adoration combined with the technical lack of sophistication by the members is scary. The rules in the committee give each member 5 minutes to question the "guest" and they alternate between Democrats and Republicans on the committee. The rules also allow a member to give up his time to a different member. If they really wanted to get to the bottom of anything, they would choose ONE knowledgeable person, and give him written questions to ask. Of course, they could still keep 4 of their 5 minutes of time for their speech which is of course the most important part of their turn :sick:

Maybe your Parliament isn't as subject to bribery as our Congress is and they could get some meaningful reforms enacted. If the UK or EU put the pressure on, the US would follow. It is amazing how these big tech companies kowtow to China's demands. It's like they were Chinese companies rather than American companies. I really wish it were possible for Congress to revoke the "citizenship" of a company when they are so anti-American, starting with Google and the NBA (National Basketball Association).
 

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