It isn't just controlling or limiting free speech that bothers me... it's that a selected few are pounced on while the rest are free to run wild and uncensored.
I'm not crazy about Jones, either, but that isn't the point. While he was spewing I was allowed to listen, form my own opinion, and move on from there. Freedom of speech allows me to reason. I imagine if this keeps going on that, it will be the sheeple effect with a choice few megalomania running the world. And yeah, it will come to it at the rate we are allowing social media giants to control and censor. Scary stuff.
Excellent point. It starts with the implication that people aren't smart enough to make their own decisions: "Alex Jones is too dangerous, Joe Rogan is spreading misinformation, yadda yadda yadda."
It can all be summed up with, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK
Good article. Sad that we live in a time when you would have to write something like that in defense of free speech. Actually, it's worse than that. That would have been even-handed defenses of Alex Jones 5-10 years ago. But, as a society, we've moved well past that to the point where government and big tech take turns tag teaming anyone who doesn't parrot the mainstream narrative. This is where the deplatforming of Alex Jones has led us.
One personal anecdote: In a previous life, I worked at a high paying professional firm where one of my bosses was a member of the Bohemian Grove, which he just called "The Grove." This was 35 years ago. I was new to the Bay Area, having moved there from the midwest. This particular boss asked me to apply for membership several times and offered to sponsor me. He described it as a bunch of interesting guys getting together once a year to hang out in the woods, have interesting conversations, put on plays and discuss politics and the arts. (There was a similar club in San Francisco called the Olympic Club, which was more for blueblood Bay Area families, and he warned me away from that.) I never applied, never even really considered it. The notion of joining a club with a membership of rich people, dignitaries and celebrities . . . seemed repulsive. I moved out of the area a few years after that. Later, seeing Alex Jones' reporting on it was wild.
I can't attack anyone for supporting Alex Jones. Other than The Grove stuff, I had never listened to him until 3 months ago. Since then, I've listened to several of his shows. Perhaps he's changed, but he's almost universally polite to guests, self-deprecating, and he's usually (though not always) over the target when it comes to scandal. That said, he's a bit like Andrew Tate -- there's some pro wrestler in him, which frequently counts as showmanship these days. If you can get past that, and if you don't mind 5 minutes of ads every three minutes, he's entertaining. He shouldn't be anyone's source for absolute truth, but he's entertaining.
To say "well said" would be an understatement, Laramie. I always thought of Alex Jones as an entertainer but the WWE analogy is spot on. He's a complex figure but the most salient part of his character is the free speech debate.
And damn, imagine knowing someone who actually went to the "grove" HAHAH. Personally, I never bought into all the conspiracy hype surrounding it. I just thought it was a creepy and bizarre place. At the most extreme ends of the debate it could certainly be apart of the occult... but it's a weird group to be in nonetheless.
Yeah, that was a low point, and it was also an eye-opener, and it really alerted me to how things had radically changed when Facebook banned Jones and, nothing but crickets from the ones you would normally expect the push-back to come from. I think Bill Maher was probably the only one I can remember. And it just went on from there, predictably as you said, no pushback, very little resistance.
If there is one thing that I wish people would grasp is that free speech is also for speech you hate, from people you would rather not listen to or even like. Especially for the things people don't like, or else its not really free speech.
Every social media site has a way to easily block anyone you don't want to hear, so people who want to hear them can. It's selfish - more of a power trip for would be tyrants to silence people they don't like - thoughts and ideas they don't want to hear so no-one else should hear it either.
But the worst thing about it is that it came from the top, from the new, increasingly tyrannical government and it's wealthy donors, ruling classes, corporations, etc. - The ones who have all the power and want even more.
They Need to silence their critics in order that no one hear any information that might cause them to vote for the wrong person in the next election. And they the 1% are being defended and assisted by the unwitting narcissists on the other end of the spectrum cheering on all the censorship. Democracy and censorship are natural enemies of each other. They can't both exist in the same room, one of them has got to go. When one wins, the other loses.
It's insane to think anyone would choose authoritarian censorship, and if they really understood the implications there is no way they would. People need to understand it's a package deal. It always is and if you open the door to silencing the ones you don't like, they are coming for you next,
It's just too ironic, and I'm sure the Elites have a great laugh at how easy it is to get the 99% to defend them and go against their own interests. Time after time after time again.
When Alex Jones was banned from Facebook and almost nobody protested, it marked the beginning of the end to any notion of America, land of the free. Unless there is substantial resistance to the constant never-ending onslaught of would be tyrants - and it is a non-stop effort by this small fraction of 1% of the population to return the world to Feudalism, with them as Lords and the 99% as serfs.
I know it sounds crazy, because it is crazy, and I sometimes can't believe I'm typing what I'm typing as I'm typing it. And I wish it wasn't true, and I still hope it isn't, but it is looking more and more real month after month. I think we need to come up with some creative solutions to counter this power grab, turn it around before we lose more and more freedom.
Meanwhile, Alex Jones is seeming less and less like a crazy person, and more like a prophet.
With Alex I always know that the 'TRUTH' lies somewhere in between. Like many I stumbled on A. Jones after 911. I questioned WTF? seemed to be going on with some of the reports that were coming in. As an associate Architect and knowing a thing about physics I knew the towers did not come down from the way it was reported. I knew something was amiss. So down the rabbit hole I went. I emerged a full year later questioning everything that I see or heard. Everyone was getting the side eye. A. Jones was just the catalyst as I used HISTORY as a way of collating data and even witnessing first hand of the f__kery of the 'Tuskegee Experiments' as I was a graduate of Tuskegee University. You can't tell me Sh_t about governments and the like constantly spiking the punch so to speak. So where am I now? I tune in to A.Jones every now and then. I look at many sources still but I don't' Rabbit hole anything anymore. (well except Ai) . Much of what is happening now I know that men are creatures of habit. Do leopards change their spots?
It isn't just controlling or limiting free speech that bothers me... it's that a selected few are pounced on while the rest are free to run wild and uncensored.
I'm not crazy about Jones, either, but that isn't the point. While he was spewing I was allowed to listen, form my own opinion, and move on from there. Freedom of speech allows me to reason. I imagine if this keeps going on that, it will be the sheeple effect with a choice few megalomania running the world. And yeah, it will come to it at the rate we are allowing social media giants to control and censor. Scary stuff.
Excellent point. It starts with the implication that people aren't smart enough to make their own decisions: "Alex Jones is too dangerous, Joe Rogan is spreading misinformation, yadda yadda yadda."
It can all be summed up with, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK
Summed up perfectly... and so true.
Good article. Sad that we live in a time when you would have to write something like that in defense of free speech. Actually, it's worse than that. That would have been even-handed defenses of Alex Jones 5-10 years ago. But, as a society, we've moved well past that to the point where government and big tech take turns tag teaming anyone who doesn't parrot the mainstream narrative. This is where the deplatforming of Alex Jones has led us.
One personal anecdote: In a previous life, I worked at a high paying professional firm where one of my bosses was a member of the Bohemian Grove, which he just called "The Grove." This was 35 years ago. I was new to the Bay Area, having moved there from the midwest. This particular boss asked me to apply for membership several times and offered to sponsor me. He described it as a bunch of interesting guys getting together once a year to hang out in the woods, have interesting conversations, put on plays and discuss politics and the arts. (There was a similar club in San Francisco called the Olympic Club, which was more for blueblood Bay Area families, and he warned me away from that.) I never applied, never even really considered it. The notion of joining a club with a membership of rich people, dignitaries and celebrities . . . seemed repulsive. I moved out of the area a few years after that. Later, seeing Alex Jones' reporting on it was wild.
I can't attack anyone for supporting Alex Jones. Other than The Grove stuff, I had never listened to him until 3 months ago. Since then, I've listened to several of his shows. Perhaps he's changed, but he's almost universally polite to guests, self-deprecating, and he's usually (though not always) over the target when it comes to scandal. That said, he's a bit like Andrew Tate -- there's some pro wrestler in him, which frequently counts as showmanship these days. If you can get past that, and if you don't mind 5 minutes of ads every three minutes, he's entertaining. He shouldn't be anyone's source for absolute truth, but he's entertaining.
Thanks for your thoughts, as always.
To say "well said" would be an understatement, Laramie. I always thought of Alex Jones as an entertainer but the WWE analogy is spot on. He's a complex figure but the most salient part of his character is the free speech debate.
And damn, imagine knowing someone who actually went to the "grove" HAHAH. Personally, I never bought into all the conspiracy hype surrounding it. I just thought it was a creepy and bizarre place. At the most extreme ends of the debate it could certainly be apart of the occult... but it's a weird group to be in nonetheless.
100%
Yeah, that was a low point, and it was also an eye-opener, and it really alerted me to how things had radically changed when Facebook banned Jones and, nothing but crickets from the ones you would normally expect the push-back to come from. I think Bill Maher was probably the only one I can remember. And it just went on from there, predictably as you said, no pushback, very little resistance.
If there is one thing that I wish people would grasp is that free speech is also for speech you hate, from people you would rather not listen to or even like. Especially for the things people don't like, or else its not really free speech.
Every social media site has a way to easily block anyone you don't want to hear, so people who want to hear them can. It's selfish - more of a power trip for would be tyrants to silence people they don't like - thoughts and ideas they don't want to hear so no-one else should hear it either.
But the worst thing about it is that it came from the top, from the new, increasingly tyrannical government and it's wealthy donors, ruling classes, corporations, etc. - The ones who have all the power and want even more.
They Need to silence their critics in order that no one hear any information that might cause them to vote for the wrong person in the next election. And they the 1% are being defended and assisted by the unwitting narcissists on the other end of the spectrum cheering on all the censorship. Democracy and censorship are natural enemies of each other. They can't both exist in the same room, one of them has got to go. When one wins, the other loses.
It's insane to think anyone would choose authoritarian censorship, and if they really understood the implications there is no way they would. People need to understand it's a package deal. It always is and if you open the door to silencing the ones you don't like, they are coming for you next,
It's just too ironic, and I'm sure the Elites have a great laugh at how easy it is to get the 99% to defend them and go against their own interests. Time after time after time again.
When Alex Jones was banned from Facebook and almost nobody protested, it marked the beginning of the end to any notion of America, land of the free. Unless there is substantial resistance to the constant never-ending onslaught of would be tyrants - and it is a non-stop effort by this small fraction of 1% of the population to return the world to Feudalism, with them as Lords and the 99% as serfs.
I know it sounds crazy, because it is crazy, and I sometimes can't believe I'm typing what I'm typing as I'm typing it. And I wish it wasn't true, and I still hope it isn't, but it is looking more and more real month after month. I think we need to come up with some creative solutions to counter this power grab, turn it around before we lose more and more freedom.
Meanwhile, Alex Jones is seeming less and less like a crazy person, and more like a prophet.
Very Well said!
With Alex I always know that the 'TRUTH' lies somewhere in between. Like many I stumbled on A. Jones after 911. I questioned WTF? seemed to be going on with some of the reports that were coming in. As an associate Architect and knowing a thing about physics I knew the towers did not come down from the way it was reported. I knew something was amiss. So down the rabbit hole I went. I emerged a full year later questioning everything that I see or heard. Everyone was getting the side eye. A. Jones was just the catalyst as I used HISTORY as a way of collating data and even witnessing first hand of the f__kery of the 'Tuskegee Experiments' as I was a graduate of Tuskegee University. You can't tell me Sh_t about governments and the like constantly spiking the punch so to speak. So where am I now? I tune in to A.Jones every now and then. I look at many sources still but I don't' Rabbit hole anything anymore. (well except Ai) . Much of what is happening now I know that men are creatures of habit. Do leopards change their spots?