Since by your own admission you know nothing about Alex Jones’ beliefs, statements or followers (or how they violate Twitter’s own terms of service) then maybe you should just sit this one out.
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You do realize that we have at least two people who are unapologetically nazis running for office on a GOP ticket right? This is not a conspiracy theory… it’s a fact.
Unlike their white genocide conspiracy they keep harping on about.
It seems so very easy for some to dismiss this stuff, when it’s not them that’s the target. I’d suspect that the post-Loving V. Virginia rise in mixed race families is only feeding white supremacist paranoia, despite the fact that it’s none of their fucking business and not in any way hurting them.
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I refer you to my post that satirically mentions black cats and halloween. I support democracy, I have confidence in the people to have enough sense and to think critically enough to not run off a neo-fascist cliff. If I did not, I would be supporting some sort of non-democratic form of government. Do you support democracy? If so, how can you justify that support given your lack of confidence in the people?
Are you saying that @DimeSpin’s concerns are entirely unfounded and that they’re being paranoid when actual people who mean them harm are part of our political conservation?
You mean, the 1/4 of the population that voted for Donald Trump and believe that Barack Obama wasn’t born in America? Or the ones who’d cheerfully vote for a nazi over a democrat, because democrat? Or the ones who get their news only from Fox, which has a horrible track record with reality?
No one here said they were anti-democratic… it’s people like Jones who are anti-democratic. They actively distort reality in order to get a particular response in order to rule over people via fear.
Also, Paul Von Hindenburg would like a word about controlling fascists:
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I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the candidate who won the ringing endorsement of the American Nazi Party (and has since called them “very fine people”) was elected President in 2016.
As noted above a disturbing number of actual, explicitly self-identified fascists have been winning primary races across the country.
The fascist takeover of America isn’t a far off boogeyman. It’s already in progress.
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not quaking in my boots, nor do I think the Soul Of Democracy is the only thing at stake here, though others have made fine points on that matter. Even if Jones can’t whip up enough crazies to take down Modern Civilzation, it takes a rather smaller group of activated loonies to abuse and harrass the families of victims of mass murder. I see absolutely zero reason to protect that kind of speech.
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Your confidence is not particularly well-supported by history.
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Your argument is that we need open dialogue to maintain democracy, and in order to have an open dialogue, even those who wish me ill cannot be removed from online spaces like twitter.
The internet has had completely unmoderated or less-moderated spaces before. This has been tested already. I don’t go to those places because they are full of people being horrible about me and mine and the horribleness ramps up to 11 if you talk about certain aspects of yourself. There’s no such thing as a perfect environment where everyone is free to say everything, because some things make it harder for other speakers to participate, thus removing some speech from the online sphere via a different route.
You can’t just declare you want freedom and democracy, you have to explain how exactly you maximize it and what you’d consider acceptable casualties.
If you’d rather hear this in video format from someone who cracks some jokes here and there, have this:
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I’m always amused by the ‘first you ban people from planning lynchings and then you ban people from smearing innocent families with bogus conspiracy theories, and before long, you’re banning all human communication ever. Where do you draw the line???’
Nazis. Nazis are a great place to draw the line. You draw the line at Nazis. It’s not that hard.
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Plurk sounds pretty cool; from their page on the Google app store:
“Some of the largest communities for cosplayers, knitters, anime lovers, gay and etc found their voice on Plurk. And for that we are proud.”
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Always draw the line at Nazis…
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Honestly I’m just impressed you started with “freedom of expression” and somehow ended up with “maybe we should give up on democracy?” as if the the online presence of the KKK is necessary for representational government.
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Liberal democracy doesn’t need a robust debate on whether or not it should exist anymore, which is exactly the debate that the alt-right wants to have. The xkcd cartoon is correct and so is this one:
The very site you’re on, left-leaning by all accounts, regularly de-platforms people not only for preaching fascism but also other offensive and long-discredited ideas listed here. Do you see any indication that this site’s authors and moderators have “given up on democracy”?
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Oh, for fucks sake, that this is even still a discussion that some people feel ‘must be’ argued.
Bottom line:
If one’s ideology involves dehumanizing, abusing and/or exterminating other people based upon superficial differences like skin color, gender, sexual preference, physical abilities and/or religious beliefs, that ideology is inherently antisocial, and has no place in society.
It’s primitive, sociopathic thinking that is a colossal detriment to those attempting to maintain any semblance of a peaceful civilization.
It doesn’t merit being discussed or "debated."
Period.
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neo fascist conspiracy propaganda made a guy with a gun show up in a kid’s pizza restaurant and nearly kill a bunch of people.
It’s dangerous and powerful enough that we might find it prudent to counter it, rather than ignore it.
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That was mistake number one on your part. For evidence I present the election of Donald J Trump as president of the United States.
Now. go away. I have zero time or desire for anyone talking out of their ass or driving trollies.
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But why o why do they have to quote a tweet then put the same words in the text block right under? It’s like journalism has been taken over by Jacob Two-Two and it drives me nuts.
Then why even type anything?
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Best thing I’ve read on the topic of tolerance recently: https://extranewsfeed.com/tolerance-is-not-a-moral-precept-1af7007d6376
The summary is that the only paradox is when we think of tolerance as a virtue. Zunger’s argument is that tolerance is not a moral requirement in itself, it’s a peace treaty. If you don’t sign-on to promote tolerance, others are under no requirement to tolerate you.
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No system, even Democracy, is invulnerable. We have repeated examples from history that show that this exact recipe of paranoia, propaganda, isolationism, and finger pointing are an exploit that collapses liberal Democracies into authoritarianism with some reliability. One response that has shown some success in the past is to shut-off the megaphone and make these, typically small, fringe groups fund their own hate speech. That works until they get control, then all bets are off. We may be past that point, but it’s nice to think we might shorten their run by taking away some of the free amplification.
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