I agree a 100% with you. I am very glad to see people like you and @TrekJunky on here, as well. The resistance is living and nobody will be able to shut it down:
I unequivocally reject everything I have ever heard Alex Jones say, BUT I will wholeheartedly support his right to say whatever he wants. Did you hear the cheers from his audience to the information that Alex Jones was kicked off of Twitter, Facebook and other platforms? They are really cheering for a state sanctioned truth which is also known as propaganda. They want big brother to protect them from idiocy. WHY THE FUCK CAN"T THEY PROTECT THEMSELVES?
Again, a 100% agreed.
Not an Alex Jones fan either. He’s way too far out there for me. Just wanted to clarify that.
I don’t think a real Alex Jones fan would be as smart as you guys. 
Who is going to protect the parents of dead Sandy Hook kids from the violent thugs inspired by Alex Jones? That to me goes WAY over abstract notions of free speech into criminal incitement. That, too, you find worthy of protection?
Can you show a quote where there is an explicit call to violence? Because if there is no explicit call to violence then you can’t blame the one who uses words for the ones who read those and understand violence.
I just looked up Sandy Hooks and found this:
A report issued by the Office of the Child Advocate in November 2014 said that Lanza had Asperger’s syndrome and as a teenager suffered from depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, but concluded that they had “neither caused nor led to his murderous acts.” The report went on to say, “his severe and deteriorating internalized mental health problems … combined with an atypical preoccupation with violence … (and) access to deadly weapons … proved a recipe for mass murder”.[18]
What does this have to do with Alex Jones?
You’re either for free speech or you’re not. That means speech you do not like. It’s a catch 22 and those who fully support free speech understand their party may not always be defining it. Opening the censorship door could easily bite you in the rear years later.
@cliffsloane I skimmed through the articles and I don’t see a connection. Alex Jones is a famous but definitely not the only conspiracy theorist out there. I have seen hundreds of people believing in the weirdest theories and none of them have murdered anyone, some of them didn’t even do the slightest crime. I don’t see how that someone who believes in the shit Jones says/said can lead to violence, per sé. I watched some of his shows and he literally talks stupid bullshit all the time, but I have never seen him say something like “well, they are against you, you should shoot them!”, or anything alike.
I have. He repeatedly exhorted his listeners to go out there and challenge these crisis actors. He calls on them to stand up for the truth against the hoax of grieving parents.
Where I part ways with free-speech libertarians is that I think violence is the inevitable result of conspiracy theories that are historically rooted in violence. Holocaust denial will eventually result in violence against Jews. White Identity activists will inevitably take up arms against immigrants and their children. @Akito is looking for the kind of linkage that can stand up in a jury trial, which I consider to be naively ignoring the nature of such hate groups.
If we take away everyone’s right to block anyone anytime and replace it with a ruling body made up of people who understand the intricacies of free speech and the causes of tribalism making the decision by first determining if the offender’s goal is to harm rather than help and they have proved it with their posts up to the review, whether the troll should be banished. By having the readers police for trolls and flagging them to the ruling body rather than banishing the troll themselves we prevent a block just because someone disagrees with the blocker thereby promoting diversity rather than tribalism.
This is very much the way LTT and many other forums are moderated. Members can report “abuse” and we don’t block/ban just anyone who speaks out with an unpopular opinion, but rather only those who are intent on being trolls or are truly toxic individuals. This type of moderation of behaviour in online communities is not meant to stifle free speech, but moderate the behaviour of the members, which I believe we agree, is not the same thing.
I have seen tons of people who critize religion or certain politics being called “trolls” for expressing unpopular opinions about mentioned topics.
It is never meant like that. But the result remains the same, which is the one to avoid.
As I suspected, this topic has become a North American centric debating society on how your Constitution, should work or evolve.
Thus a departure from the purpose of this forum, and its International membership.
Should you gentlemen wish to to continue the finer points of your cultural diversity and nuances, find the appropriate forums.
The game you refer to as Soccer, is known as Football by the rest of the World.
Thank you @anon56357095 my friend, I was about to say the same thing, more or less and this really is the place just the FOSS Community not a political/religious/ whatever community. Although if anyone wants to debate on the finer points of the health benefits of Choccy I am happy for them to do so as it is open source isn’t it:rofl:
Actually, the only thing I have to do with North America is that most YouTube videos and TV shows I watch come from that. But that’s about it. Due to the capitalistic parasitism in North America especially, as this is the HQ for this disease, I am confronting it very sceptically, in general.
It is in the Discussion category and anyone is welcome to join. If anyone isn’t interested they are welcome to not join.
Secondly, it is a FOSS-centric community - it is literally called itsfoss.community - so it has a lot to do with freedom by default. Therefore, I don’t see why this shouldn’t be a place to discuss something more theoretical as opposed to the concrete problems we face every day.
If it is really bothering anyone, a new category of the type “Off-Topic” can be added and then it’s really clearly belonging to an undisputable place, as there is no way to complain that there are some off-topic things in that category. I don’t see harm in extending this forum’s horizon. Actually, I would welcome that.
I can see how some can be interpreted that way, and it also depends on how the person is conducting themselves in doing so. But that’s why we have moderation teams (on LTT anyways) where we often converse with each other to determine if someone is in fact trolling or not. There’s a difference between trolling and merely expressing an unpopular opinion and I agree, it can be difficult to distinguish between the two, depending on the views of the moderating body.
It’s a dilemma that many online communities face, this one included. Do we cater to true free speech, let everyone say what they want and leave it to the members themselves to “deal with the trolls”, or do we moderate to “keep the peace” yet at the expense of applying censorship?
On LTT there are rules in the code of conduct such as; “no discussions of religious or political nature”. While it’s nearly impossible to avoid that altogether, it does make moderating that community a lot easier. Is that the right or wrong thing to do? I don’t have an answer for that.
What I would point out though, is there are other platforms and communities specifically created for such topics of debate. Where as communities created for the main purpose of a common specific interest (PC/tech enthusiasts, FOSS enthusiasts etc.) is it wrong then, to say these communities are not the place for discussions of more sensitive topics?
Not saying which is right or wrong, just raising the question. 
Well, here is my opinion:
- Philosophical topics have their place everywhere, as every topic is essentially a philosophical topic, if you follow the chain of causation to its root, regarding any science or part of reality in general, out there.
- itsfoss.community is about FOSS (I hope also FLOSS) which is philosophical by default. So discussing matters of freedom, like freedom of speech, is in my opinion not off-topic, as it is the topic that is actually closest to what the root of the whole FLOSS movement is about. Nobody joins FOSS and engages in making it better just because you get shit for free. You join it, because of its philosophical background.
Therefore, to me keeping these topics out of this forum would be like disallowing women in a brothel, as people go to the brothel for intercourse and not for women. You see?