What were alt news sites like pre/post censorship era?

submitted by [deleted] from self.censorship

At one point 'alt news' became the go to source for alternate stuff the media covered up or would maybe give a blurb for a minute then disappear. Or be on 'The Second Section' of a newspaper as a byline. Now these sites do the same shit that CNN does focusing on if a left/right celebrity/figurehead sneezes too loudly or breaks one of the 100 invisible elite rules: The comments often only enforces the stereotypical images the MSM press pushes.

I only found these sites after the 2015 take over so I don't know how different it was before hand:

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[–]puppy528 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

They were just news sites. Yeah; some had biases or political leanings in what they chose to report on and discuss, but that's as far as it went. There really wasn't "fringe" news other than a few shock-jock/clickbait sites and way-out-there places like Time Cube. As "MSM" got more extreme and polarized, those that no longer fit in fractured and split off, and for a while, it was just as you said. But then the "Us vs Them" mentality began to affect those split-off places just as thoroughly as it did MSM, and the result is what you see today.

For an extreme example, look at Reddit and The_Donald. All those users were originally happy Reddit users until Reddit turned into, well, you know. Eventually the rift drove them further down their rabbit-holen and Reddit ever more extreme in punishing them for it until finally banning them altogether, and on their alt site, they can't even voice constructive criticism of their "God Emperor Trump" without being accused of being "not one of them". The whole thing is like some website version of The Dark Crystal, but Jim Henson is still dead and can't fix things between them.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

What's Dark Crystal? Sounds intruiging. I don't get why Reddit despite being heavily left bans users who question 'The Donald' as you'd think they'd not only allow questioning the Donald but that's all you'd be allowed to see. It seems weird on Reddit you're banned if your not a full on Marxist but on the Trump places your banned if your not worshiping him same goes for alt news comments: You get downvoted if you ask about whatever the subject headline is:

[–]Node 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

TDS comes in two opposite and incompatible variants.

[–]puppy528 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

What's The Dark Crystal?

Imagine if the main guy behind creating things like Sesame Street and The Muppets (Jim Henson) was suddenly given a blockbuster-level movie budget and carte blanc to do as he pleased, and used them to make a rather slow, incredibly immersive fantasy movie about the dichotomy between light and dark, etc. It's obviously an older movie, but it aged at least as well as movies like Labyrinth (which I believe he also had a hand in). Worth a watch, especially if you've got younger kids around to watch it with you.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

What's their alt site?