Harbl you're going to have to humour me as I seem to have gotten myself confused. CGN has "limited" the discussion on their forum of so called "tin foil" issues. You listed a number of "authors" in the alternative media that you follow elsewhere. I believe you suggested a possible forum (or sub-forum) for discussion of those "alternative/tin foil" topics on this web site.
I'm missing the tie-in to GOC somehow. I personally don't follow the alternative media nor other theorists but do know that the discussions are out there on the web. IF interested, I could track them down on their own "turf" I imagine. Not all of my "needs" are met by GOC or CGN but I manage to sift through these sites as well as a host of others for the firearm/hunting/restoration information and news that interests me. If it's available elsewhere as you have mentioned, is it necessary to also have it available on this site? A narrow niche sub-forum doesn't appear to be a big draw in my humble opinion and this is where my confusion probably stems from.
Not flaming, just trying to follow the discussion.
I believe a thread rename is in order to clarify
... and done.
The thing about the alternative media is it absolutely epitomizes free market capitalism.
In a free market, word of mouth among consumers speaking positively or negatively about a product or services creates (or removes) demand for the product or service. If I read something I find useful and share it with others - if they read it and find it insightful as well, we have a discussion about it (building community). If more people find it useful they share it, and the supplier of that product/service sees increased demand for and appropriately increased profit incentive to continue to provide more of that same quality of service/product. The opposite is true as well - if someone finds something useless and share it - the supplier pays the price with the decreased reputation hurting their ability to bring their product to market as they take losses from the decreased demand.
Why do you think Feedback scores are so important? Because it's word of mouth about your reputation as both a producer and consumer.
As it relates to alternative news media - the same hold true. If I post something from Alex Jones or Glenn Beck that turns out to be total BS and I fanatically support them, my reputation is damaged but so does their reputation as well. Conversely, if I post something from The Dollar Vigilante or Sovereign Man - and what they say turns out to be true and helps people create value for themselves - my reputation improves as does those suppliers.
The thing is - when it comes to e-Commerce pushing tangible products is very difficult with razor thing margins and extraordinarily competition among suppliers. Where the big and eas(ier)y money is at is in generating ad revenue through increased traffic - this revenue being the very lifeblood of communities like GOC/CGN. That being said, all the cards are in the hands of users.
No users means no traffic means no ad revenue means no market to move tangible product.
Saavy young internet user does't think the way Boomers or older Gen-Xers do. They don't want to be told what to do and they want to test the boundaries they are in. Why do you think there's an enormous resurgence of young gun owners? I worked at a retail gun shop for 2 years and the VAST majority of my clients were young kids, 16 years old to early 30's. The reason being they have the tools to allow them to be amazingly well informed and they know how to use those tools to accumulate and aggregate information in a way their parents could never imagine.
They're not scared by the myriad of rules and regulations from 20 years ago - because they have the tools at their disposal to read them and the desire to try to understand them. Unlike their parents who were intimidated by the volume of inaccessible laws thrown their way into giving up their guns, young gun owners today simply shrug at those same laws because they have tools at their disposal to navigate through them.
Incidentally, I believe the vast majority of consumers of Alternative news media are people in the same demographic as these young gun owners - for the very same reason. Alternative news pushes boundaries the corporate main stream media NEVER will.
Ultimately, that's why I feel very passionately about the alternative media and why I think forums that are tailored to this kind of audience (gun owners) should not regulate alternative media AT ALL. It is a vast externally unregulated, internally self-regulating free market of information.
Moreover and most importantly, I think it represents the future and the best hope western civilization has at recovering from the fascist, debt-induced economic catastrophe that is on the brink of destroying the standard of living it enjoys.
