Question

Thoughts?

This is an assignment for school. It asks us to critique an editorial piece and provide a rebuttal if we so wish. I did just that below. If you have any thoughts on the arguments presented, the logic, the grammar, or anything, feel free to present them below.

First off, let me admit my bias in relation to today’s topic. I am a conservative libertarian, which essentially means that I am all about the First Amendment and the freedoms of which it espouses — religion, press, assembly, petition, and most relevant, speech. My topic is Alex Jones and the controversy surrounding the use of his freedom of speech. As some of you may know, he is noted as being a right wing conspiracy theorist by many news outlets, who find his pieces on his news site InfoWars. Several of his most promulgated claims are that the government is ‘turning the frogs gay,’ that the government ‘carried out 9/11,’ and that the Sandy Hook Elementary mass shooting that killed 20 children and six adults ‘was a hoax.’ Now, he has backtracked on some of these asinine statements, such as that Sandy Hook was a hoax. But this came only after the threat of lawsuits by parents and victims of those affected by the shooting. Recently though, a plethora of news articles came out about how several companies such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Spotify, Apple, and various other ones either banned or suspended his accounts, or removed his content (AP News). Just to be clear, this was entirely within their rights. Companies have the prerogative to regulate speech as they see fit. The question is, should they?

Of course companies should follow along the same guidelines as the government must, which is that speech that advocates for violence is not allowed. You cannot go into a mall and say that everyone should punch each other. But, everything else should be allowed. Rafia Zakaria, a writer for CNN disagrees. She wrote that, “the stripping of InfoWars from Facebook, Apple and other platforms is an important step in the recognition of nativist, nationalist and white supremacist hate speech as a form of terrorism” (Zakaria). Here is where I believe we as a country, tread into dangerous territory. Speech is the means by which we express our thoughts, ideas, and wishes. It is the core element by which humanity functions together as a species. To begin to judge speech as being ‘hate speech’ relegates everything ever said to be open to being labeled as hate speech. In countries like Canada, the path of regulating speech has gone as far as to ban books that “constitute hate propaganda under the Code’s definition, in addition to media that are seditious, obscene, terroristic, etc” (McCullough). That definition is quite subjective. Who will decide what is obscene? Would if, for example, they dislike Muslims. Will the Quran be banned because of it’s verses relating to infidels, anyone who is not a Muslim. It can easily be perceived as hate or obscene. But is that all that of which the Quran is about? What if I wanted to learn more about it and see what was really going on? I possibly couldn’t, in Canada.

Here is my opinion, plain and simple. If you think someones ideas are bad, let everyone hear. Do not silence them. If everyone hears it, then it can be prevalently identified as a bad idea. The government should never be in the business of regulating speech, and those that advocate for such practices (and who are ironically journalists) have never read 1984 in which a dystopian government through it’s totalitarian regime began the business of controlling speech which turned the society into one none of us would ever want to live in. The government and society should trust people to read information and judge its merits and argument. The day we lose that trust is the day we lose our ability to express ourselves.

McCullough, J. J. “How Canada Bans Books.” National Review, National Review, 3 Apr. 2018, www.nationalreview.com/2018/04/canada-laws-crack-down-on-hate-speech/.

Ortutay, Barbara. “Major Tech Companies Remove Alex Jones for Hate, Bullying.” AP News, Associated Press, 6 Aug. 2018, www.apnews.com/518bcbaf93e44adeba0a4eca19a8caf6.

Zakaria, Rafia. “We Need to Talk about Alex Jones.” CNN, Cable News Network, 10 Aug. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/08/06/opinions/infowars-opinion-roundup/index.html.

Answer 1

@AP When you're online I'd like your opinion if you are willing to share it.

Answer 2

hi

Answer 3

so you like trump ?

Answer 4

Not particularly, though how is that relevant lol?

Answer 5

omg so big

Answer 6

‘turning the frogs gay,

Answer 7

you said "conservative libertarian"

Answer 8

Not all conservatives like Trump though

Answer 9

I did some spacing to help with the reading and revised it slightly.

Answer 10

O~O, dis is a lot. Why would torture such a soul ;_;. On a serious note it sounds good to me owo

Answer 11

If you can't see the new post refresh the page.

Answer 12

I know kitty, the republicans hate him, the democrats hate him, etc.

Answer 13

There are a fair amount of supporters sycophants on Facebook though

Answer 14

I will try to read all of that.

Answer 15

shadow, what do you think about john mccain

Answer 16

Try to stay on topic Bob. If you'd like, later today we can have a discussion about that if you'd like as I will have more time then. But I'd like criticisms on my writing if possible.

Answer 17

I think that he was a flawed man, but we should all respect his family's wishes in the wake of his passing

Yes, I know that wasn't @ me, but I wanted to respond

Answer 18

I just typed this up that's why lol

Answer 19

nah it's cool, I think he was completely flawed too. He pretty much hated everything about trump and hated his first wife

Answer 20

We can leave that up to debate after they've finished mourning, though. They lost a loved one and we should give them space

Anyway, back to Shad's question...

Answer 21

I think free speech is allowed unless it contains misleading information, such as the case for Alex Jones.

Answer 22

You mean publicized/commercialized speech

Answer 23

yeah

Answer 24

people call Paul Joseph Watson a conspiracy theorist, but he isn't at all xd

Answer 25

Bob so then you wouldn't be for commercialized satire?

Answer 26

using humor or irony isn't exactly misleading information

Answer 27

I think if you're known for it, that's okay. If you're doing it to troll when people are obviously very, very misinformed/ignorant, idk about that

Answer 28

I get where you're coming from but not everything in the news sphere is objective. It contains subjectivity, and holds a unique perspective. In the case of Alex Jones, he delineates from much of the news sphere. When he called Sandy Hook a hoax, he proposed a theory. Note how I called it asinine, because it is. The parents are suing for defamation currently, but in an article a lawyer who specializes in the First Amendment and related cases said that it would be extremely difficult for them to win.

Answer 29

They would need to prove that he portrayed it as a truth (with, I assume, an intent to mislead). I believe he's said on multiple cases that he puts on an act of sorts, which is why I brought up satire.

Answer 30

Growing up surrounded by liberals and having similar outlooks such as yourself, my views are aligned with yours. However in regards to your last paragraph, how would you go about having "everyone hear" such news that is already deemed unpopular and untrue?

Answer 31

But in my opinion, yes, I don't think Jones should have been silenced the way he was in that manner

Answer 32

Well the current trend in America is that 'we should cede more power to the government.' This isn't good at all, and will result in politicians having much more power than they were intended to, as per the Constitution. People simply don't like taking up responsibility, so sending a message of 'you get to decide if something is good or not' versus having a government arbitrarily take out the 'bad stuff,' they will choose the latter.

It truly is all about educating people about what is in their best interests. The media is full of agendas and incredibly polarized. It's hardly centered nor objective. Even outlets like AP News who are supposed to be objective, aren't. In order to get it out there, a compelling and easy to understand argument has to be developed to put forward to as many people as possible.

Answer 33

sleepy typo

Answer 34

Yeah, it's pretty clear that the government is biased. There's no hiding from that fact. We scrutinize it so much while expecting them to benefit us, "for the people" really, but also see the flaws they have too and make it a big deal (well, because it really is). It's really a mess, haha

Answer 35

Oh, not to mention that education can be biased too. For example, history. That whole subject is written by the victors. There could be so many dirty and dark sides we will never know.

Answer 36

Yeah and the only reason things are bad in politics is because of the interests of the elite, both on the left and right. This problem only gets worsened as the working class votes for politicians who hear from them 'take more power from us' and they are just like :shrug: okay, free money. Literally, free money. The more power the government has, do you think they get lobbied more or less? lol.

Answer 37

That's why if you take power away from the government and only have them do what the Constitution intended, which was to preserve our unalienable rights, then the rich won't have anyone to lobby for favors that can't be given. That's why conservatism is the way to go, smaller government is better.

Answer 38

It all just goes to greed and the sort. Some want to benefit more, and our type of government will always have those financial class divides which can be taken advantage of...

Answer 39

By the way, just a quick example of lobbying. Nutrition. Most people have seen those pretty and colorful pyramids, either online or in a public school. Food companies have lobbied Congress to get what they want on that pyramid, which is whatever they want to sell.

Answer 40

Well, now it's a more simplified plate, but yes. Same idea. xD

Answer 41

Really a healthy diet consists of mostly carbs (fruits/vegetables not bread) and some meat for protein. You don't even need meat. Can do beans or potatoes. Meat is just another nice profit margin for many companies.

Answer 42

Idk why I brought up food. Kind of starving. Terrible idea lol

Answer 43

It's pretty much a standard they wanted to set out, and well it's popular American products, hmm

Answer 44

Sleepy and starving, not a good mix :<

Answer 45

Yeah. I was kind of debating where to sleep in the library or not. But I'm staying up to fix my sleep schedule.

Answer 46

whether*

brain cells lol

Answer 47

when I make grammatical errors I blame my jelly fingers ;)

Answer 48

Anyways, I agree for the most part. Media has too much power and influence and we don't have much power over what to do with it as individuals.

Answer 49

Honestly, most typos are cause I think too fast, I'm already onto the next phrase so I feel like I typed it when I haven't. So either I don't write it or since I'm not consciously monitoring the task I type a homophone.

Answer 50

I don't know. Can anyone relate or is this just me ._.

Answer 51

I can relate but find heterophones more...fascinating

Answer 52

Never knew those existed, I think. Who knows, but those sound cool.

Answer 53

Well I am going to close this post cause it is significantly sidetracked and my ride is almost here lol.

Answer 54

I would talk about them but that'd be off topic in terms your post's purpose ;o

Answer 55

yeah lol xD

Answer 56

sidetracked...ride...I got it...nice

Answer 57

Uhh, is Jay still doing anime night

Answer 58

good question

Answer 59

Here you go