Keeping misleading stories off of the forum
One of the goals of this site is to draw more of the "common man" to join in the defense of their community. One quick turn off is the word "militia"... because of the media, it has many negative connotations to the general public, that is why we discuss a civilian defense force and not a militia.
Another point that will discourage the every-man is fringe conspiracy theories.
To that end, I would like to discuss options among the membership here before any decisions are made.
My gut reaction is to blacklist known conspiracy sites such as Naturalnews, Infowars, TheCommonsense Show, Etc...
Now don't mistake me... SOME of their content is indeed truthful, but if there is a real story, you should be able to find it from another source, or get it from their original sources as well,
I did another post illustrating the vetting of an article on NaturalNews here: https://hq.civiliandefenseforce.org/forum/topic/case-studyvetting-an-intelligence-source/
What I propose... If such an article appears, I would lock it from further posts, and describe why it was being locked.
Is this too heavy handed? Are there more sources that should be blocked?
What are your thoughts. In want to establish the standard for quality of news here while we are still in its genesis.
Das
Patriots who believe in the sanctity of the individual and the Bill of Rights which includes Freedom of Speech should not be in the business of censorship. Leave that to the commies and America haters. On a practical note, Infowars in particular has woken up many many people to the Patriot movement. That would include me!
Quote from Civilian Defense Force GA on August 18, 2020, 8:43 PMPatriots who believe in the sanctity of the individual and the Bill of Rights which includes Freedom of Speech should not be in the business of censorship. Leave that to the commies and America haters. On a practical note, Infowars in particular has woken up many many people to the Patriot movement. That would include me!
I'll address both parts of your response... I looked at Infowars again (It has been a while)... They seem to have a lot less of the fringe conspiracy crap they used to, so I should not have included it by default on a blacklist.
As for freedom of speech, There will always be some form of "censorship" on an online forum. Porn would be inappropriate on this forum, as would a call for random acts of violence against innocent individuals. Likewise, a forum with a narrow scope, (for example, a forum about collecting baseball cards) is righteous in banning off topic content, (such as trying to discuss guns on a baseball card forum.) So the question is where do we draw the line?
I would like to keep the quality of content high, but I am just one person, which is why I bring the point up now.
I think that it is vital that things posted here be factual. This isn't the place for folks to share false info of any sort. I think each member should agree to personally verify anything they post or share, before they share it. And there should be some sort of downside to failing to abide by that agreement. The means are important, and unlike the "other side" we can not adopt the old "ends justify the means" mentality. Blacklisting entire sites should be a last resort, I think. But in some cases would be appropriate. OTOH holding members personally responsible for anything they post here, seems entirely in keeping with the purpose and goals. It's not censoring, it's demanding we all personally vet our info before it's shared.
Censorship is when the state, or some other body, keeps you from organizing a meeting to express your views, or prevents you from publishing them.
It is NOT when a private body determines who can participate in the proceedings of that body. If I organize a meeting with several speakers from different conservative viewpoints, it's NOT censorship if I do not invite some Leftists as well. (And vice versa.)
If I set up a conservative website with several pundits from the Right, it's not 'censorship' if I do not include some Marxists. Of course the same applies to the Left as well. I subscribe to several far Left websites/email lists, but do not assume that I have the right to make them post something from me telling them how wrong they are.
There are websites where Left and Right can debate, and a good thing too. But this site's purpose is to build a Civilian Defense movement -- all posts should be relevant to that.
Of course people will want to post their views on current events, even if these are not directly relevant to Civilian Defense issues, and this is good because it will attract and retain more people.
But what if we get people who think that Satan and the Lizard People (Google David Ickes, a guest on Alex Jones' show) and the Vatican are behind the riots? And who have the time to put up a dozen posts a day and dominate discussions? (I can point you to a site where this is exactly what happens.)
They will pollute and divert serious discussion, and probably repel just the sort of people we want to attract ... ie. non-fanatics.
I believe we have to be clear about this: the mission comes first. Everything must be secondary to completing the mission. This is not a forum for free expression of whatever you feel like -- there are plenty of those elsewhere.
So what to do with conspiracy theory posts? How about this: rather than forbidding them, why not have a 'No Holds Barred' sub-forum? I saw this work very well on a forum I used to frequent... the problem there was not conspiracy theorists but aggressive, impolite posters who approached but did not quite cross the line drawn to exclude really abusive posters.
Or ... call it the 'Conspiracy Theories' sub-forum, and let the people who think Donald Trump is secretly controlled by George Soros battle it out with the folks who think the whole world is controlled by the Illuminati, while the supporters of the Elders-of -Zion theory snipe from the sidelines.
And there is another point: the conspiracy theorists aren't entirely wrong. That is, there are people in power who deliberately mislead us, and/or do things they would rather we not find out about. Look up 'MKUltra' for an example of the latter, and 'the Gulf of Tonkin' or 'Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction' for an example of the former. (And, yes, in the world as it is, such deception is inevitable and even sometimes necessary.)
So, my proposal: a special sub-forum for Conspiracy Theories. As a bonus, this would also be a place to discuss how power is distributed and exercised in the world, and especially in the US. (One of the reasons conspiracy theories flourish is that we are not taught much about how government really works -- for instance, the power of lobbies and of campaign contributors, or of how an unspoken consensus develops among the ruling elite who determine our foreign policy.)
We've done just that the "Area-X" forum is where conspiracy theories will end up.
Quote from Marc Sayer on August 19, 2020, 7:26 PMI think that it is vital that things posted here be factual. This isn't the place for folks to share false info of any sort. I think each member should agree to personally verify anything they post or share, before they share it. And there should be some sort of downside to failing to abide by that agreement. The means are important, and unlike the "other side" we can not adopt the old "ends justify the means" mentality. Blacklisting entire sites should be a last resort, I think. But in some cases would be appropriate. OTOH holding members personally responsible for anything they post here, seems entirely in keeping with the purpose and goals. It's not censoring, it's demanding we all personally vet our info before it's shared.
One thing I would recommend is actually watching what one is going to link to, all too often I see posts "Hey Guys Watch This" and a link to a video.
But no discussion by the poster as to what the video is all about, so before posting such, in my opinion, it would be a good idea to watch the entire video and do some deep research about the subject of the video and include that information in the comments posted along with the video.
I subscribe to several far Left websites/email lists, but do not assume that I have the right to make them post something from me telling them how wrong they are.
I recently subscribed to a organization called the Indivisible, they seem to have connections with ANTIFA and they post dates and times for rallies which is good information to have.
They are radically leftest, totally support Biden and have a raging hatred for anything conservative or Trump.
They do have chapters around the U.S. and you might want to find one near you and get on their mailing list, that would allow you to stay up to date as to where the next trouble or riot is going to breakout.