As ridiculous as FE seems, prima facie, until it's proven false, I keep my mind open to plausible explanations for why:
A) the moon landings were all fake and we've never "been back"
B) there are no actual photos of the entire earth from space (unless you believe the sizes of the continents are changing by 30-60% every decade or so)
C) the only people on earth that we give billions of dollars to, to go to space, are faking any, let alone much (or all) of the footage, using green screens, parabolic "zero gravity" flights, actual hair spray to make their hair stand up, underwater studios (unless you believe in air bubbles in space)
You might say "but these items have better explanations than FE". Well let's hear those theories also. Let's not shoot down those who are proposing an outlandish, yet mostly comprehensive, theory, one that explains these anomalies as well as a plethora of others, like how did they use radio frequencies that don't even purportedly bounce off the ionosphere to communicate hundreds of miles during WWII, how can the horizon be seen above an item whose entirety should be hidden behind it, why is Antarctica, aside from a tiny portion, entirely off limits to most civilians, how was Felix Baumgartner able to slowly float up to nearly 30 miles without drifting a thousand or more miles because of the earth's rotation, etc.
Suggestions that these things are not even worthy of discussion, on a forum dedicated to conspiracy theories, have to be disingenuous.
Original Research
Let's not also forget that FE researchers are literally the only conspiracy theorists doing original research. These people will buy lasers that cost thousands of dollars, cameras, etc., and go to some large body of water (large lakes, bays, etc.) where they can test their hypothesis with an actual experiment. Everything else I see on here is pure speculation, or videos of interviews involving various professionals with dubious backstories (Malone, etc.).
Does it Matter
Pertaining the "would it even matter" argument, you honestly don't need a lukewarm IQ to imagine how much it would matter, if FE was real.
Principles
Most of us are here because we couldn't speak freely elsewhere, because "hate has no place on our platform" type communist bullshit. Now we're going to make the same kind of rules, especially banning arbitrary content that is desired by a clear majority, on a platform with already-existing mechanisms for getting rid of low quality postd (downvoting, hiding)? If FE posts are banned, this place is no better than TGA, and don't even pretend to be pro constitution when you can't even stand up for free speech about a conspiracy theory in a conspiracy theory forum.
I'm out of here, for good, if FE is banned. Aside from spam, illegal, doxxing, banning has no place on our platform.
Chomsky? If you have to bring a commie into the picture, you're going to a very bad place.
There's an entire .win dedicated to the topic of FE, moving it there isn't censorship. By definition. That point is moot anyway, voting is over 61 to 44. There are 105 active people here left.
I think a much more salient issue is how many active contributors were here in October 2020, and how many of us left because FE was brought into everything unrelated, with its attendant shit show? This would be one very likely place for those from TD disillusioned by politics; huge numbers of people left which is understandable. Why no spike here after that?
A broken clock is right twice a day - and only a fool gets caught up on who says something, over what is said. Which really underlines the point I have been making here in regards to the importance of questioning your own bias and the issues with censorship.
If Biden said 2 + 2 = 4, do you abandon math? How very silly, IMO.
Ohh, so there was a vote? Well then, that shows free speech. Democracy for the win!
Those of us old enough online have watched this exact thing play out. Whether it is slashdot, or boingboing, or Digg, later we watched the same thing happen to Reddit, then spread through Reddit subs, and FB and Twitter... the dividing, siphoning censoring..But apparently we haven't learned enough from history yet.
Finally, to answer your question regarding how many people left Vs stayed/came.. that is just another deflection IMO, because - What difference does that make? Is this a place to be popular, or share conspiracy theory ideas?
If it isn't a popularity contest(and it isn't) then your point is moot. Its about the ideas, not popularity. If people are offended at some truth - does it cease to be truth?
Those "truth seekers" who cant be bothered to sift through the noise to get to the signal - aren't ready for the journey yet, they are tipping their toe in, they will come and go until they themselves are ready, not when there is no more craziness around crazy conspiracy theories.
Watch what happens this time, as it has happened everytime - and then hopefully next time, those that are pushing for this(in good faith) are smarter next time. Of course, next time there will be all the new ppl that will not have learned this lesson, and you will be forced to watch on in disgust as we make the same mistakes all over again, and again, and again..
The most pertinent lesson in history, is that men don't learn the lessons of history.
Im off to the country side. Good luck to you all.
Your entire "point" is that you don't know the first thing about .win. Your fear is misplaced.
Why dont you tell me about .win, and why this doesnt go the same way as it always has?
My point is censorship is bad. History is quite clear on this - and those refusing to see it, I have to wonder why they cant see it?
.win was created precisely because they CAN see it. And will make sure it doesn't happen here. Admin / devs / owners (all the same people) cannot and will not micro-manage every little action by mods, but if they see anybody doing what you (collectively) fear they will squash that with a vengeance.
Mods are given a certain amount of latitude to run their own communities. Hypothetically, moving one topic that's always problematic to another .win purpose built just for that one topic would be well within what admin allows. Turning that into one topic after another being disallowed (exactly what you fear, both personally and collectively) would be EXACTLY what admin is adamant about not allowing: "reddit style power mods," in their own words. Of course fixing that would not be automatic or immediate, mods would have to see it first. c/Meta exists partially for just such a purpose, to bring it to admin attention.
There's some history with exactly this, too. OmegaCanada.win is a standalone site, on this network. One mod bought it. He has ruined it. This is out of admin's control because of ownership issues. Several other .wins were created for Canada; not being Canadian Idk how that went but not as well as hoped. All this went south before admin tightened up ownership and what they delegate.
IP2 has always been a problematic community here. They chew up more resources than anyone else. They describe themselves as being drunk 14 year old boys. In one of their many episodes of drama they were given free reign over c/General, originally created as a catchall for topics that don't fit anywhere else. That was designed to be temporary until they got over whatever their hissy fit was. c/General has never returned to its previous function, everyone abandoned it
Again, this experience makes admin both wary and resolved not to let "reddit style power mods" ruin things. There's lots admin has stated they won't do, but this is the main thing they'll clamp down on.
What this means is your Chomsky quote simply doesn't apply. Whether FE is discussed here or on c/FlatEarthResearch doesn't matter in terms of censorship. In either case it's here and can be freely discussed. Same login, no issues with access. And that .win was created long ago, this isn't some conspiracy to funnel people. FE has just historically devolved into monkeys flinging poo in this .win, making productive discussion all but impossible.
Hopefully the recent attention will get people to reconsider, and only a few will stubbornly remain juveniles and can be weeded out, but that's a constant drain on mod resources since anyone can just create alts to evade bans.
People voted on the false precept of free speech vs censorship instead of content. Nobody wants to resort to banning anything, but so far this has been an ongoing problem. And to be clear, both sides have resorted to basically "is too, is not, you're just a doodoo head" spilling over everywhere.
The best solution is for people simply not to stoop so low.
That's textbook gatekeeping. Other paths to truth exist that don't involve turning the signal to noise ratio as low as possible.
We arent turning anything, that is just the nature of truth seeking. There is always more noise than signal. Those that want you ignorant, can always increase the noise - only those willing to walk through the noise to get to the signal will find truth. That is the simple truth, and always has been.
I dont think that fits the definition of gatekeeping. Gatekeeping is telling people what they can/cant find, what is/isnt dumb, etc...
Out of the two sides - one IS gatekeeping, but it isn't the ones trying to stop the censorship.
If censorship had any application in this situation you'd be right - but it doesn't.
You're saying there's only one way to find truth. If you don't like that being called gate keeping what would you call it? It's bs either way. And no there isn't always more noise than signal, a mod's job is to make sure of that. Memes and other jokes are a welcome preserver of sanity, not noise.
Mods just don't want to have to constantly clean up the same pile of shit. You previously compared it to a popularity contest, that comparison fails. Traffic is a valid metric. The creators have worked tirelessly and thanklessly for no pay since at least the first quarter of 2020, maybe longer. They have plainly stated they need to generate some revenue this year. I'm not suggesting this topic was handed down by admin, but the proposed change would have helped towards that goal. Your stated ideas and values will either go the way of the dodo bird, or the platform as a whole will. Something's going to have to change because there being more noise than signal and constant verbal abuse over an issue people aren't interested in resolving (FE) will prevent revenue from being generated.
Btw admin doesn't even need a lot of money, this platform runs in a shoestring. I've brought up the idea of classified ads because there's an incredible talent pool across .win, plus the desire to create a parallel economy and society. This could be a win win but hasn't gained traction. It might produce a substantial fraction of the needed revenue. And it could easily be confined to its own .win so we're not all bombarded by ads.