Infowars.com?? Really?

Story: Google Warns Users They May Become Collateral Damage in Cyber WarTotal Replies: 27
Author Content
rsquires39

Jun 07, 2012
1:06 PM EDT
So, LXer decided to take a trip into crazy town for the day by linking to the nutjobs like Alex Jones at InfoWars. (For those of you who haven't yet come across him, he's like Glenn Beck, except with none of the sane, rational thoughtful debate and willingness to compromise.)
caitlyn

Jun 07, 2012
1:27 PM EDT
Quoting:except with none of the sane, rational thoughtful debate and willingness to compromise.
When has Glenn Beck shown any of those traits?
JaseP

Jun 07, 2012
1:52 PM EDT
More worried about CISA and the various bills like it than I am with a "cyber-war" hurting me in any way...
jdixon

Jun 07, 2012
1:58 PM EDT
> When has Glenn Beck shown any of those traits?

The same occasions Keith Olbermann has.
Bob_Robertson

Jun 07, 2012
2:11 PM EDT
Funny funny. :^)
rsquires39

Jun 07, 2012
2:37 PM EDT
Caitlyn, that was kinda the joke ;)
caitlyn

Jun 07, 2012
4:59 PM EDT
Quoting:Caitlyn, that was kinda the joke ;)
OK.
Quoting:The same occasions Keith Olbermann has.
Olbermann is rational and sane. The rest, regarding debate and compromise is a fair comparison. In that respect the two are effectively different sides of the same coin.
jdixon

Jun 07, 2012
5:15 PM EDT
> Olbermann is rational and sane.

So is Beck, If you accept his premises.

> In that respect the two are effectively different sides of the same coin.

Exactly.
kennethh

Jun 08, 2012
12:59 PM EDT
I felt the article relevant due to the fact that google did in fact make an announcement it was going to start warning it's user's.. And to what extent user's are affected I have no clue but its relevant and user's should be aware--whomever reports it.
Scott_Ruecker

Jun 08, 2012
2:08 PM EDT
If LXer is now in "crazy town"..its been there for a while..;-)
caitlyn

Jun 08, 2012
4:47 PM EDT
Quoting:So is Beck, If you accept his premises.
If it weren't for the TOS I think I could come up with plenty of examples where even the most conservative LXer readers would agree he went off the deep end. Let's put it another way: there are lots of people I disagree with strongly who are sane and rational, who make intelligent arguments for their views, and who have both the credentials and intellectual heft to really be worth listening to. Mr. Beck is not one of them.
number6x

Jun 08, 2012
5:00 PM EDT
I haven't been sane since I took quantumn mechanics in grad school and actually started to understand things.

Haven't used it in the real world, but it is nice to work out why the sky is blue every now and then.
caitlyn

Jun 08, 2012
5:07 PM EDT
@number6x: LOL. I was a physics major but never went to grad school. A company through money at me to write code and build an IT department from the ground up and I never looked back. I don't know which is to blame: physics or IT. I know a lot of people don't exactly consider me sane :)
gus3

Jun 08, 2012
7:27 PM EDT
@caitlyn, there's a difference between "insane" and "crazy."
kingttx

Jun 08, 2012
8:00 PM EDT
Or Rachel Maddow, eh? Eh?

;-)
BernardSwiss

Jun 08, 2012
9:28 PM EDT
Quoting:Quoting:So is Beck, If you accept his premises.
Quoting:If it weren't for the TOS I think I could come up with plenty of examples where even the most conservative LXer readers would agree he went off the deep end. Let's put it another way: there are lots of people I disagree with strongly who are sane and rational, who make intelligent arguments for their views, and who have both the credentials and intellectual heft to really be worth listening to. Mr. Beck is not one of them.So is Beck, If you accept his premises.

If it weren't for the TOS I think I could come up with plenty of examples where even the most conservative LXer readers would agree he went off the deep end. Let's put it another way: there are lots of people I disagree with strongly who are sane and rational, who make intelligent arguments for their views, and who have both the credentials and intellectual heft to really be worth listening to. Mr. Beck is not one of them.


Very nicely done, Caitlyn.
jdixon

Jun 08, 2012
11:01 PM EDT
> If it weren't for the TOS I think I could come up with plenty of examples where even the most conservative LXer readers would agree he went off the deep end.

Well, you don't accept his premises. So of course you would think so.

It's entirely possible though. LXer attracts a more literate audience than most political blogs. But since I'm not a conservative, I couldn't say for sure.

> ...there are lots of people I disagree with strongly who are sane and rational, who make intelligent arguments for their views, and who have both the credentials and intellectual heft to really be worth listening

Suffice it to say I doubt we would agree as to who those were. Our views on both credentials and intellectual heft are probably far too divergent.

> Mr. Beck is not one of them.

I never thought he was. As you said, different sides of the same coin.
Bob_Robertson

Jul 03, 2012
11:23 AM EDT
Like religion, whether or not a pundit seems "worth listening to" has far more to do with whether you agree with them or not, than it does on anything they're actually saying.

Except for entertainment purposes, I try to avoid pundits.
BernardSwiss

Jul 03, 2012
7:14 PM EDT
@Bob_Robertson

You are, I'm afraid, in large measure pretty much right. However, their is the odd pundit (or politician or religious figure) who proves by demonstration that this is not inherent quality.

Then we get to see the spectacle of an audience who in large measure is incapable or unwilling to hear anything the disagree with, quite regardless regardless of the speaker or the merit of their presentation.

When I'm feeling down, I am certain that this phenomenon has been getting significantly worse in recent times. When I'm really, deeply depressed, I suspect that it's actually not gotten that much worse.
tuxchick

Jul 03, 2012
9:49 PM EDT
When a TV/radio personality is easily provably wrong time after time after time... he may be worth listening to as cheap entertainment. But not worth believing.
helios

Jul 03, 2012
10:59 PM EDT
I had the opportunity and pleasure to work for Glenn back in 2002 and 2003 as his sound board guy during his Rally for America tour. I personally don't get involved in anyone's politics unless it physically threatens me. Of course, after watching him on Fox, I can see where many would think him a loon...and maybe he is, but in the 8 cities I traveled during the tour, he treated me like family and was most gracious....as well as the rest of his family who accompanied him.

It's a shame we don't have the opportunity to know the person before we get to know the pundit or politician.
tuxchick

Jul 04, 2012
12:36 AM EDT
Ken, if your day job was getting rich telling crazy whoppers and whipping gullible dunces into angry frenzies, I wouldn't care how cool you were off the job. I would flip you off and throw dog doo at you, I would.

OTOH I don't think much of gullible dunces....
HoTMetaL

Jul 04, 2012
6:07 AM EDT
I'll be supplying tuxchick with the dog doo. There's plenty of it here to go around.
gus3

Jul 04, 2012
1:03 PM EDT
@TC, why would you throw Windows PC's? Give them to Ken so he can rehabilitate them with Linux!
tuxchick

Jul 04, 2012
1:07 PM EDT
Good point, gus3 :). They should be liberated, not catapulted!
caitlyn

Jul 05, 2012
3:53 AM EDT
Quoting:Like religion, whether or not a pundit seems "worth listening to" has far more to do with whether you agree with them or not, than it does on anything they're actually saying.
@Bob_Robertson: I don't agree with this. There are any number of commentators, columnists, analysts and what have you that I generally do not agree with but whom I can still respect. They are still worth listening to at the very least to understand where the opposition (from my perspective) is coming from.
Quoting:Ken, if your day job was getting rich telling crazy whoppers and whipping gullible dunces into angry frenzies, I wouldn't care how cool you were off the job.
@tc: That sounds like a fair description of Mr. Beck. My means of responding to him would not be as... um... physical as yours. I certainly wouldn't work for the man.
Bob_Robertson

Jul 05, 2012
9:46 AM EDT
Caitlyn,

Being that my "opposition" is both "left" and "right", Olberman and Beck as it were, maybe that is the source of your and my disagreement on the pundit issue.

There's simply no way I can avoid hearing from the opposition, as they are there which ever way I turn. One reason I don't own a tv.

Those I do not consider worthless pundits, such as Glen Greenwald, Alex Jones, Ian Freeman, Noam Chomsky, Lew Rockwell, to name a few, are worth listening to for what I can learn from them, regardless of my opinion about every one of their opinions.

What's funny, and I hope you can overcome your own dislike of me to see the humor, is how the worthless pundits will excoriate someone with one particular letter after their name for one act or another, but will completely ignore the same act by someone with another letter after their name. For me, it's hypocrisy like that which define "pundit" rather than "reporter", "commentator", or other label.
helios

Jul 05, 2012
10:25 AM EDT
I certainly wouldn't work for the man."

If you are two house payments behind with no other opportunities available within a tight time frame, I doubt anyone would dismiss the opportunity offhand. Besides, he had not exposed his basement full of crazy back then...he was just a neo-con radio talk show host. His money was as good as anyone else's and almost obscene in amount. Besides, can you think of a better job than working in an outside venue in Toledo during February? And, it was a cause I firmly believe in.

I don't remember being that cold anytime else as a civilian....

Posting in this forum is limited to members of the group: [ForumMods, SITEADMINS, MEMBERS.]

Becoming a member of LXer is easy and free. Join Us!