I get it. I don’t like to see people be deceived either, especially by some jackass like Jones. People like him create a Gordian knot out of gullibility and freedom and it really does sicken me a bit to see them succeed, but that seems to be a consequence in a collision of different elements of human nature.
I think that some peoples incredulity prevents them from believing that these truly horrible things can happen, and would therefore rather believe someone like Jones.
I honestly don’t know what to do about it, because silencing opposition at an institutional or industrial level gives me the creeps just as badly.
Sure, but what was the breaking point? As far as I know, he didn’t post anything anymore outrageous than things he said in the past where he was hosted. It just seemed so random, like one day, “We decided this is hate speech, so we are going to remove you.” Where he’s been doing this for a while and never backed off and he was platformed and has been as hateful as ever.
Hmmm, seems to be some correlation. Still seems odd.
He’s a crazy fuck, but I don’t like the act of silencing crazy fucks. The best weapon against crazy fucks is not to listen to them. They go away if they are ignored. That’s the people vote.
Sure he can have his own website, but he can’t go to Youtube competitor or a Facebook competitor because there aren’t any.
Given hes a crazy fuck that intentionally spreads lies about the deaths of children, it doesn’t seem that odd to me.
I know I’d sure as shit hate to be cutting the guy a check if I was YT/etc.
I think that was the issue. He was knowingly disrespecting dead children in what is probably the most disrespectful way possible, yet wasn’t being ignored.
Sure there are. There’s dozens and dozens of them. They just don’t have the same traffic
Edit: I mean good god. Even from your article
AUSTIN, Tex. — In the five years since Noah Pozner was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., death threats and online harassment have forced his parents, Veronique De La Rosa and Leonard Pozner, to relocate seven times. They now live in a high-security community hundreds of miles from where their 6-year-old is buried.
“I would love to go see my son’s grave and I don’t get to do that, but we made the right decision,” Ms. De La Rosa said in a recent interview. Each time they have moved, online fabulists stalking the family have published their whereabouts.
I mean, what do you want to happen though? Some kind of law that obligates these platforms to carry him? What I am missing here to where some on the right seem almost reluctant to let the market decide for itself? And, for Alex Jones, of all people?
I mean, it couldn’t have happened to a better guy. Sorry, the guy is a slime ball to the nth degree.
It’s actually a case of credulity. They are unable to accept the truth because the truth is actually complex. Take 9/11. To truly understand it would require knowing the history of the Middle East and its relationship with the West, going as far back as the ancient Greeks, and being able to put Islam in an historical context. That’s just for starters. It’s easier to believe in a plot (that has been around in its basic form for well over a century) because even though it is ridiculous, it is much simpler than the complexity of human history and behavior. It’s like pro wrestling: it provides a heel.
But they aren’t ignored. Many people in Germany thought Hitler was a clown and that Mein Kampf was unreadable trash. Even some of those who followed Hitler didn’t take Mein Kampf seriously.
And Jones isn’t crazy. He is an actor by his own admission. He’s scum, but not crazy.
I do get the unease to some degree. It’s something to be aware and watchful of. A few powerful giants potentially controlling the main avenues for communicating ideas. Yes, even unpopular ideas. I don’t trust enormous centralized private actors much more than a government of the same description. But, if we do have some freedom to not do business with folks, surely Alex Jones is an easy one to tell “take a hike.” I wouldn’t carry him, so I’m not going to insist others do.
Yeah, but I also realize that he’s not the guy to go to bat for either. If they were deplatforming Joe Rogan, or Jordan Peterson, or somebody like that, then I would be really concerned. It’s the slippery slope I fear, I don’t give a rat’s ass about alex jones.
I think he’s a little crazy. Certainly a provocateur, but you have to be a little nuts to want to be so hated.
Being hated is easy in this day and age. It takes very little effort.
If you consider Jones the same way you would think of the Onion, then it isn’t so bad. He’s a fictional character just trying to make money, not spread ideas.
Sadly, all too many think he’s the real deal, exposing how the world really works. Then again, I wouldn’t be shocked if a few people haven’t stumbled upon the Onion and then proceeded to share the ‘news’ with friends and family.