Where Are The Adults In The Room

I’m going to kick this off by saying that I am not a fan of Alex Jones. I have many, many reasons for not listening to him. Let me just give you a few.
His constant interruption of guests on his shows. Alex, let whomever you’ve asked a question to answer it. You don’t have to jump in every third word. This tactic alone makes it look like you’re just there to hear yourself talk and that isn’t why I tuned in.
No, Alex Did NOT Predict 9/11/01 or it’s events. That credit goes to William Milton Cooper who accurately predicted it days before it happened. Cooper was also a guest on Alex’s show Infowars and I am of the mind that this is where Alex took the information, amplified it and people with short memory and attention spans put the wrong things together and came up with this nonsense.
He’s been caught plagiarizing Q posts and then putting them forth as something that he came up with.
I was listening to him on a walk to work one day when he literally broke down into tears on the air and said that he knew just how bad it was and couldn’t tell us how bad it was because we wouldn’t be able to handle it. That’s when I tuned out forever. I don’t need a gatekeeper, Alex. If I don’t know how bad it is, I can’t do anything about it and if that’s what you want, that’s what you got. Bye.
With all of that being said, I did listen to his interview on Tucker Carlson’s twitter feed. I got to see a calmer, more reasonable version of Alex Jones. I didn’t agree with how he was basically targeted over his comments on Sandy Hook (and yes, I can still disagree with them), nor did I agree with his expulsion from social media. At all.
So when some Twitter users began posting polls as to whether or not I supported his account’s reinstatement, the answer from me…yep.
I know that’s going to upset and piss off some people but before you start banging away on your keyboard, let me make some points here.
First. There are two buttons called Block and Mute. Use them as you wish. Plenty of people have used them on me and I have used them in return. This isn’t a hard thing to do, in fact, it’s pretty easy. It’s something as simple as a click and boom, it’s done. Already, I had to block several accounts that were hitting me with stuff like “Have your account unblocked by at mrbestfriendever Blah, blah, blah.” and that comes when discussing accounts getting banned. Every time.
Second, anyone taken a look a Discord lately? Last year or so they announced their policy which was clear that, if you engaged in any speech that they felt was harmful, then they would ban you from the app even if it occurred off-platform.
Today, they rolled this out and boy, oh boy, this is one of those moments where I Told You So just won’t cut it. I’ve said before it wouldn’t stop there at just broad generalizations, a simple report and you get not one thing to say about it. Check this out, they want you to actively change your behavior online in totality. Yeah, I was wrong about them not letting you know what you did but you’ll be notified and you’ll either change it or get banned. That’s the message. Do, say and think what you’re told…or else.
Personally, I’ve been living without Discord for a couple of years since I found the off-platform policy. I’ve never been happier. I’ll take “or else.”
Third, we need to talk about this hate speech thing. When it popped up in the 90s, if news media was to be believed, there were Neo-Nazis running the streets. They were behind every blade of grass. That kind of thing was being paraded in front of us all the time. I lived in the deep south and I can tell you one thing, I didn’t see it much and when it popped up, no one wanted to be around the moron who spouted it. In fact, I’ve been witness to more casual racism and racism in practice here in the Northeast in 15 years than I ever have during my 30 years living in the South. At best when encountering someone holding Klan type beliefs they were laughed off and dismissed. No one ever took them seriously. Ever. The problem with these “hate speech” rules is that they’ve devolved from you can’t call someone a racial slur, which is reasonable, to you can’t say anything especially if you’re white and if you’re white, you’re privileged and on and on and on and on. Basically, it became any type of speech that’s just hated. I warned people of the extremes that would eventually come as a kid but, I can see that fell on deaf ears. Now, I Told You So won’t begin to cover this one.
Fourth, I’m gonna let George Carlin take it away here because he did it best…
My support of Alex Jones having his accounts reinstated has never been about whether or not I liked the guy or whether or not I was a fan at one point. Those are not the issues at play here. It’s that I do not believe in the suppression of speech just because I don’t care for what is being said.
You can say anything you want, as far as I’m concerned, I simply do not have to listen. I can block, mute and walk away, it’s that simple. I don’t need someone else to come rushing in to “save” me from Alex Jones, I’m pretty well-capable of that myself.
We’re all capable of being civil with each other, the problem is that there are a small group of loud, noisy, people whose lives are so completely empty that they wanted to, under the guise of “the greater good” make decisions in language for us that would effectively shield them from any and all criticism. That meant anything resembling free speech had to go in order for that to become a reality. When the limits sounded reasonable, I could agree but I cautioned against the overcorrection and now we’ve sat in the overcorrection where speech was only free if you agreed to stand with the status quo which is the direct opposite of bravery in any fashion.
When it comes to the amendments of our Constitution in the U.S. which serve as restraints on government, we’ve been hearing from these smug fucktards that “No amendment is absolute tee-hee-hee” and to that I say, try telling your government that when it comes to the 16th Amendment and see how long before you’re kidnapped at gunpoint and held against your will.
Also, if you’re about to hit me with “You Can’t Scream Fire In A Crowded Theatre!” then let me remind you that, for three years our own government screamed COVID in a crowded country, caused panic and ruined people’s lives and businesses and actively killed people via policy (with exceptions to “Sides” of course) without any accountability whatsoever and, unlike our government. If I see a fire in a crowded theater, then I can prove it’s there. No one has to like it, hell, you don’t have to listen but I am well within my rights to warn someone of a fire when it’s actually present. There’s no law at all that can stop me from pointing out what is glaringly obvious, so please, spare me your bumper-sticker bullshit.
I’m going to let George close this one out because it’s logic that needs to apply to today’s world and even though the references might be a bit old, the reference to choice is anything but…
George Carlin : The FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, decided all by itself that radio and television were the only two parts of American life not protected by the free speech provisions of the first amendment to the Constitution. I’d like to repeat that, because it sounds… *vaguely* important!
[laughter]
George Carlin : The FCC, an appointed body, not elected, answerable only to the president, decided on its own that radio and television were the only two parts of American life not protected by the first amendment to the Constitution. Why did they decide that? Because they got a letter from a minister in Mississippi!
[laughter]
George Carlin : A Reverend Donald Wildman in Mississippi heard something on the radio that he didn’t like. Well, Reverend, did anyone ever tell you there are two KNOBS on the radio?
[laughter]
George Carlin : Two. Knobs. On the radio. Of course, I’m sure the reverend isn’t that comfortable with anything that has two knobs on it.
[laughter]
George Carlin : But hey, reverend, there are two knobs on the radio! One of them turns the radio OFF, and the other one
[slaps his head]
George Carlin : CHANGES THE STATION! Imagine that, reverend, you can actually change the station! It’s called freedom of choice, and it’s one of the principles this country was founded upon. Look it up in the library, reverend, if you have any of them left when you’ve finished burning all the books.
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