It was a "fringe view" in early 2020 when those of us wore masks despite Fauci and the rest of the pointy heads in DC saying that masks weren't needed, and were possibly harmful. It was a "fringe view" when those of us said we shouldn't invade Iraq, because their was no credible evidence of WMD. It was a "fringe view" (and still is, unfortunately among many) when some of us said that there was no credible evidence of a "Russian attack" on our election in 2016. It was a "fringe view" when some of us insisted that the government was illegally spying on us before Snowden's revelations.

According to modern standards of social media censorship, all of these "fringe views" would very likely lead to getting banned and/or silenced for "misinformation". The fact is that the accuracy of a belief has absolutely no relationship to how widespread that belief is. This is especially true when the government, big tech and their legacy media outlets work together to engineer a consensus view (or the appearance of a consensus view) that hews to their preferred narrative rather than reality.

Glad you recognize this. Gay marriage was also considered a fringe view at some point.

Fringe views need a platform because they're right ALOT.

Alex Jones

Alex Jones is an interesting example. I had never really heard anything about him except for the little bits and pieces that make it to CNN. Then I listened to a Joe Rogan interview with him and it convinced me that Jones is literally crazy. Rogan would ask him something and Jones would go ballistic yelling and spewing nonsense.

I've heard criticisms of Rogan for giving people like Jones a platform, but in the end I can't believe it helps Jones. He came off as a lunatic in the show I heard.

I don't know enough about Alex Jones to say one or the other. He's got millions of listeners.

I'm sure he may have some fringe views but so does Neil Degrassi Tyson and everyone else.

Define fringe views.

You know, there's a big difference between being a devil's advocate and pure idiocy.

Edit: I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on whether you've never actually heard of or seen alex jones, here's a quick rundown

https://youtu.be/WyGq6cjcc3Q

Picking 20 seconds out of thousands of hours of your political enemies broadcasts to smear them is the lowest form of propaganda.

How do you know you're not the one being radicalized?

Have you ever tried to listen to Alex in good faith even if you don't agree and try to understand his view at least? Or is your entire perception based off of John Oliver?

Do you think you could pick 20 seconds out of John Olivers footage and make him look like a crazy person?

> impressionable young men have been radicalized to a dangerous degree on the internet. Having the same views on his podcast as conspiracy theory sites, for example, will undoubtedly make it easier for the bad actors running these sites to radicalize JRE listeners

Some would say that claiming the outcome of free speech is radicalization...to be pure idiocy.

And this cancel culture lockdown mentality is possibly why mid terms are going to rough for the left.

> Picking 20 seconds out of thousands of hours of your political enemies broadcasts to smear them is the lowest form of propaganda.

ok, here's 5 full hours https://youtu.be/-5yh2HcIlkU

> How do you know you're not the one being radicalized?

How do you know you're not the one being radicalized?

> Have you ever tried to listen to Alex in good faith even if you don't agree and try to understand his view at least? Or is your entire perception based off of John Oliver?

I have, he's entertaining. I don't take a single thing seriously. I've spent some time researching on thing he's said, all of it was gross mischaracterizations and exaggerations on any topic. I won't spend any more. I'm not a journalist, that's their job.

> Do you think you could pick 20 seconds out of John Olivers footage and make him look like a crazy person?

That would be fantastic, go ahead. This isn't idolatry.

> Some would say that claiming the outcome of free speech is radicalization...to be pure idiocy.

Well, it is through free speech that radicalization does happen, however, nobody is talking about free speech here. because alex jones can still say whatever he wants. (as long as he can pay for libel/slander fines), you can exercise free speech. deplatforming has nothing to do with free speech.

Probably you should make sure Alex Jones didn't do something horrible like call the sandy hook shooting victims "crises actors" leading to mass harassment campaigns and suicides (that he is currently losing lawsuits over) before you decide to defend a random person for no reason.