11–20 of 191 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So your saying you would want Jones' demagoguery to be mainstream?
I think the best scenario would be for people to see en masse that his predictions amount to nothing. Some people will never catch on but many will. Over time this will discredit his movement.
"The InfoWars website receives approximately 10 million monthly visits, making it more visited than some mainstream news websites such as The Economist and Newsweek."
This bothers me. Say what you like about his content, but it is not fringe. He is the preferred "thinker" of a significant fraction of the population. If you think the solution is to deplatform him, you're thinking about the problem wrong.
He is an opportunity. By becoming a lightening rod and focal point for a large fraction of a country's misguided thinking, he has made that misguided thinking more fragile. Easier to dislodge. Because now you just need to find a combination of words that helps his followers see him for what he actually is.
And if you succeed, everyone who sees will get a lesson in thinking more clearly. They will be more resilient to a future charlatan.
So if Alex Jones makes your blood boil, then put that emotion to work. Raise his platform. Discuss him. Debunk his ideas one by one. Use whichever tools appeal to you. If youtube wants to help, then youtube algorithms should be tweaked to encourage people to view both sides of the debate.
>The decision comes hours after Apple and Facebook made similar moves
So I guess Mr Jones will have to report on this particular conspiracy elsewhere. I for one would like to hear it...
People are quick to point out that FB and Youtube are private entities and such but the reality is that they've become so ubiquitous in our lives that if they start censorship based on the company's preferred politics, beliefs, etc. than it will have an effect on all of us.
Can mobile apps (like WhatsApp) inspect messages and decide to boot users if they're saying things that aren't in line with the company's positions?
Can ISPs do that too?
I have mixed feelings about this. I fear it will actually make Jones' brand of demagoguery and crackpot theories more appealing and sexy. The best thing to do might be to let far-right conspiracy theory propaganda die in the mainstream, since the mainstream is where things go to die.
Jones is already mainstream. He is not going to get smaller if you give him bigger platforms.
Unrelated question.
Can somebody explain to me, how he went from "9/11 was inside job, police are jackbooted thugs, anti Bush, anti Obama" to being pro police, pro government?
I want to understand the logic behind this.
From Wikipedia: "The InfoWars website receives approximately 10 million monthly visits, making it more visited than some mainstream news websites such as The Economist and Newsweek." This bothers me. Say what you like about his content, but it is not fringe. He is the preferred "thinker" of a significant fraction of the population. If you think the solution is to deplatform him, you're thinking about the problem wron…
You are assuming this would actually have an effect. Given recent history I am pretty sure people would
A) Not see your debunking because it isn't in their little echo chamber of targeted fitlered online news and content.
B) Wouldn't believe you or critically think about any debunking anyway.
There is a reddit bot that tries to post alternative news sources to subreddits for a given story to encourage a balanced news diet which is a laudable step in this direction.
https://www.reddit.com/user/alternate-source-bot
Just have a look at it's log to see which subreddits it is banned from: https://www.reddit.com/r/alt_source_bot_log/
From Wikipedia: "The InfoWars website receives approximately 10 million monthly visits, making it more visited than some mainstream news websites such as The Economist and Newsweek." This bothers me. Say what you like about his content, but it is not fringe. He is the preferred "thinker" of a significant fraction of the population. If you think the solution is to deplatform him, you're thinking about the problem wron…
From Wikipedia: "The InfoWars website receives approximately 10 million monthly visits, making it more visited than some mainstream news websites such as The Economist and Newsweek." This bothers me. Say what you like about his content, but it is not fringe. He is the preferred "thinker" of a significant fraction of the population. If you think the solution is to deplatform him, you're thinking about the problem wron…
"Raise his platform. Discuss him. Debunk his ideas one by one. You use whichever tools appeal to you" You are assuming this would actually have an effect. Given recent history I am pretty sure people would A) Not see your debunking because it isn't in their little echo chamber of targeted fitlered online news and content. B) Wouldn't believe you or critically think about any debunking anyway. There is a reddit bot th…
I don't necessarily like this action. People are quick to point out that FB and Youtube are private entities and such but the reality is that they've become so ubiquitous in our lives that if they start censorship based on the company's preferred politics, beliefs, etc. than it will have an effect on all of us. Can mobile apps (like WhatsApp) inspect messages and decide to boot users if they're saying things that are…
ISPs should not do that, it violates net neutrality.
From Wikipedia: "The InfoWars website receives approximately 10 million monthly visits, making it more visited than some mainstream news websites such as The Economist and Newsweek." This bothers me. Say what you like about his content, but it is not fringe. He is the preferred "thinker" of a significant fraction of the population. If you think the solution is to deplatform him, you're thinking about the problem wron…