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.
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.
This situation IS the application of censorship. By definition, and history shows this.
The question is simple - is this a place for the truth or not. All the rest is noise.
If this is a place for truth, then censorship(and yes, your sophistry doesnt change that it IS censorship) has no place here.
If the censorship wins out, as it looks like it has, then in short order this place will be no different than r/conspiracy - And for the same reason. Again.
When that happens and we all migrate to a new platform that promises Free Speech I will look forward to, once again, a certain type of person telling everyone how they have to remove the problem people, to clean up - and it isn't really censorship all over again.
The biggest lesson of history, is we apparently do not learn the lessons from history.
Damn you're a stupid faggot shill.