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.
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.
1st - What a post. Good on ya! Upvote for the effort alone !
2nd - Sure .win saw everything that happened at the reddit subs so it wont happen here. Just as the reddit subs, saw what happened to reddit proper, so it wont happen there - but did. Just as Reddit proper saw what happened to Digg so it wont happen there - but did. Just as Digg saw what happened to slashdot so.... Get my point? And this claim that it wont happen to .win, while it is happening is a bit much - no?
I am well aware of Omega Canada and Hamsandwich, which was a problem on Reddit, long before any .win transfer.
The problem is always people trying to control others. One group is doing that, one is arguing against it.
You really do NOT understand. .win was created by the mods of r/The Donald. .win didn't just "see" what happened, it was created because of it. And brought other communities here intact, as a haven.
I don't know the order of which subs were harassed on Reddit nor which groups sought refuge here, but TD was first and c/Conspiracies was early here.
What you're suggesting is comparable to the survivors of the holodomor welcoming communist rule by USSR. That's so far removed from reality that almost 100 years later their descendants are fighting against impossible odds even though the USSR no longer exists and isn't communist. Except here you're talking about less than a 5 year time span. Yes NPCs have the memory of a goldfish, we do not. And that's why keeping the signal to noise ratio reasonable is important. Same with basic civility.
No. It's not happening.
Not comparable at all. This has nothing to do with the type of ideology you're looking at, only keeping the peace. Anyone interested in FE could (hypothetically, because the proposed change isn't happening) discuss FE to their heart's content. It'd also be good for those individuals because that head mod is sincere, knowledgeable, and passionate about the subject. He's also great at staying calm, and redirecting irate people towards facts and away from emotions. The predictable result is those people discussing it there would become more able to have quality discussions. That hasn't happened here, quite the opposite.
Btw those interested in FE as a topic could still do this. If they came back here better informed and more skilled at having decent discussions it'd help everyone.
Why do you think that would be a bad thing?