Posted on 04/01/2005 4:26:00 PM PST by Poohbah
First, this is NOT an April Fool's joke.
I am leaving Free Republic.
Over the past two years, civility and thoughtful discourse has vanished from this site, replaced with demands for ideological conformity that are straight out of Stalinist Russia or China's Great Cultural Revolution, and unrelenting uncivility if said conformance is not forthcoming. This trend began with the California recall election, where certain posters were allowed to flame the living beejezus out of those who didn't wholeheartedly support Tom McClintock, or thought that he wasn't running a campaign capable of winning. It extended into the Keyes campaign last year, where any critique of Keyes' campaign strategy was shrilly flamed, despite the obviously flawed execution of his campaign.
(Aside: one person who flamed me during the Keyes mess later said that he hadn't intended to start a fight with his remarks that accused me of homosexuality, pedophilia, and other evils; I was instantly reminded of the time I had to bail one of my Marines out of the local lockup. "Honest, Sarge," this Marine told me, "I didn't mean to start a fight when I called that Army Ranger a faggot." My response was not [and still isn't] suitable for public consumption.)
Since then, the Terri Schiavo case has pushed FR over the edge. We had posts calling for people to ensure that "accidents" to befall Schiavo and Judge Greer. We had posts praying that Iran would soon develop nuclear weapons, so that they could destroy the United States. And until the FBI started making arrests, those posts were allowed to stay up, completely abnegating Free Republic's standards.
We had people on both sides of the issue point out that the Schindlers were associating with some people of extremely low character, and that our uncritical embrace of these parties would not rebound to our favor. Rather reasonable attitudes to take, actually; but the loudest of the loud were in no mood to think.
My personal favorite was the following exchange:
The issue is not legality, but public opinion. Which will not be helped in this case if the pro-Terry side becomes associated in the media with Christian Identity, white supremicists, neo-nazis, racists and/or anti-semites.
Diva Betsy Ross made a valiant attempt to...ahem...whitewash Christian Identity, but it didn't work.
To top things off, we had people embracing as some sort of conservative icon, to the extent of posting a fundraising link.
I always thought that conservatism valued thinking over feeling, careful contemplation of facts over wild-eyed repetition of every damn rumor to come down the pipe, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. For a while, Free Republic met those criteria in spades.
Those days are long gone, and I have serious doubt as to whether or not they're coming back.
I know that many of the usual suspects will cheer this on, as their longtime nemesis is leaving them the field.
Be careful what you wish for; you are in the process of getting it. You may succeed in driving the folks who disagree with you from the site; but you will end up being just another collection of shrill voices in Bedlam. When everything is an over-the-top scream, no one will be heard.
Farewell.
The situations are different and one can argue the weight of the issues, but Elian was as bad for FR as Terri is now.
You can throw in the CA Recall as well -- that got really nasty in the middle of the night on here more than once.
Elian was just as bad if not worse.
Me thinks you've confused Poohbah with Pooh Fan...two different people..."Poohbah" is a very smart poster and quite pithy, and "Pooh Fan" is a Christopher Robin fan who visits daily but only occasionally feels inclined to post.
Poohbah: I know the feeling but don't let the knuckleheads get you down. FR needs reasoned discourse, and family is forever.
We should have said that we wanted to send Terri to Cuba, then the liberals would have been okay with feeding her again.
Nobody on this website has condoned the murder of a disabled woman.
So it went downhill after 9/11... and after Dubya got nominated and won in 2000... and after the impeachment...and after Elian... and during the Terri tragedy...
So when has it ever gone uphill?
Was there any "winning" side to the Elian case? Did most FReepers think he should have been allowed to stay?
It amazes me to.
They're gone, so you needn't worry about them.
And, no, I am not a "soul brother" to someone who despises the Mass at which I worship.
Poohbah most likely would agree."
The next time you carry his books home from school, you can tell Poohbah himself.
We've been fighting for radical religious people for 3-1/2 years.
They'll cut your head off in a New York Minute.
When somebody feels their view of the Almighty is the "true" one, watch out.
That's all I meant. It's the opiate of the masses. Just because Marx stated it, doesn't mean it's not true.
JimRob has the patience of a saint.
And they're still expecting Jim Robinson himself to what....suspend you? ;^) Brown nosers......
Right. Facts don't matter. We get it.
840 posted on 04/01/2005 7:39:53 PM PST by Peach [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 806 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
Both of you are awfully brazen and cocky and full of yourselves. You openly mock the founder of the site for what he posts! And then mock again, as if you can't be touched?
What a complete display of stupidity.
What was that Edmund Burke quote I saw posted at least several times this past week.. (not that I'm complaining)..
Most of the "Nazi" remarks I saw were about the incident itself and not name-calling hurled at other FReepers. I DID see, however, a few "fringers" (is that what conservative-Christians" are now?) resort to that in the face of disagreement. What I noticed about many of the posters who supported the starvation death was that they went ballistic when the "process" was compared to Nazism. IMHO, something else is going on here besides hurt feelings.
Let's not even talk about the Dec '98 "Night of the Long Knives"...OneWhoKnows and Daus (and the libertarians) pitted against Clinton's a liar, Mojo and navigator(the establishment). whoo hoo.
There really is such a thing as mass hysteria and it feeds off itself.
When a poster uses HITLER or NAZI or even GOOD GERMAN against another's reply, they have already lost the debate; usually. This was NOT the case on the Terri threads.
Once these words were used by one and not called on by the rest, more and more people used them on others.
Then there was the escalating blame game and trashing of every single member of the Bush family and by extension, every member of the GOP,past,present,and future.
Each poster would ratchet it up a notch, feeding on the mass hysteria.
And then there were the really insane posts claiming that Terri was just like CHRIST, that she will be made a saint, and that people should pray TO ,not for her! Not to mention the vilifying Jeb and/or President Bush with Pilate parodies.
It was the madness of crowds and not a pretty sight.
This has NOTHING to do with anyone disagreeing with me,because YOU don't even know WHERE I stand on the Terri mess.
No, you're just continually whining about posters who disagree with YOU and those who refuse to take your guff.Which amounts to the same thing.
A+Bert is from Earth?
I agree. What the poster pointed to him was not the gospel truth. But then agian, neither is some of the info from those who support reinserting the feeding tube.
There are elements of truth, lies, and unclear, evidence, on any side of any debate. Some issues are clear cut (eg "Are American troops baby murdering thugs?" Answer: NO) while others are murky ("Is the WoD justified/good for America?" Ans: Umm... I'll get back to you on that... eventually...)
To me this issue is pretty clear but there is certainly room for debate. Where you choose to stand on any debate is based on what you believe.
Unless it's absolutely irrefutable truth that JR ignored, I wouldn't lose sleep or ditch FR over it.
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