Free Republic: glass ant farm for zealots

Globe and Mail ^ | 10/27/06 | IVOR TOSSELL

[conservative in nyc]

The Dixie Chicks have a movie, Shut Up & Sing, coming out today, and, to keep things lively, they're staging a grudge match with the worst site on the Internet, political-rhetoric division.

"The fat chick will only drive traffic to this site," writes one poster to the site.

"The Frenchy Chix can't get a gig in a gay bar in Ithaca," writes another.

Others chime in with more corruptions: Chubby Chicks, Ditsy Twits, Vichy Chicks.

"Yep typical liberals," says someone else. "No character."

This is Free Republic, an exercise in political extremism that, despite being and something of an anthropological train wreck, keeps popping up square in the mainstream.

Most recently, it has resurfaced as a villain in the Dixie Chicks movie, which traces the fallout from lead singer Natalie Maines's infamous 2003 London declaration that she was embarrassed that George W. Bush was, like her, from Texas.

It was a bad time to be anti-war, and Americans are touchy about being criticized on foreign soil at the best of times. The "grassroots" backlash that followed -- orchestrated, in part, by the people at Free Republic, who mobilized their large and largely disgruntled membership -- saw the band savaged in the press and at the box office.

The site is a venerable and storied Web forum for American arch-conservatives. Funded by member donations, it was founded in 1996 as an anti-Clinton grandstand, and soon became a place where members could post news stories and discuss them -- though "discussion" might be the wrong word. More often, it's a kind of pantomime, where the name of the game is to cheer the good guy and boo the bad guy every time he creeps on stage.

Freepers, as the sites denizens are known, are the good guys. The bad guys, according to site founder Jim Robinson, are practitioners of "liberalism, socialism, fascism, pacifism, totalitarianism, anarchism, government enforced atheism, abortionism, feminism, homosexualism, racism," and "wacko environmentalism."

So it is that, day in and day out, Freepers attempt to outdo each other in posting the most pungent, juvenile reactions to stories. Articles containing an opposing viewpoint have the words "BARF ALERT" appended to their titles. Slurs are encouraged. When the first same-sex Canadian soldiers were married last year, the story garnered 73 angry responses, ranging from "Disgusting and despicable" to "I'd resign my commission before performing a ceremony to marry a couple of bone-smugglers" to "Let's see what happens when the Canadian military has an AIDS epidemic on its hands."

It's a hateful place that, if the world was working as it should, would be relegated to the Internet's endless fringes, where conspiracy theorists and pyramid-power believers roam the wasteland. But what's interesting about Free Republic is that, despite having attracted a crowd of the most paranoid, xenophobic and reactionary characters the political landscape has to offer, it continues to find itself in the news.

For instance, during the 2004 U.S. presidential election, it was central to the network of websites that uncovered the forged memos about Bush's Vietnam service that appeared on CBS News and ultimately cost Dan Rather his job. (Paranoia, in this instance, paid off.) Later, and less admirably, Jerome Corsi, the co-author of Unfit for Command -- the hatchet job about John Kerry's military service that crippled his campaign -- was found to be posting racist, sexist diatribes on the site.

And then there was the flap about the Dixie Chicks, spurred on by zealous Freepers. Thanks to their movie, Free Republic is getting another moment in the sun. Not helping things was the band's manager publicly calling Robinson "a coward" for refusing to be interviewed for the film. ("I am jealous of you Mr. Robinson," declared one Freeper in response. "You have been singled out and attacked by America's premier Entertraitors.") These, ladies and gentlemen, are grassroots at work. There are a lot of organizations out there that are in the business of whipping their members into a lather and unleashing them on corporations and politicians alike.

But if Free Republic has a virtue, it's that, unlike other pressure groups, it's transparent: You can see the cogs turning, the anger mounting, the members joining the half-baked me-too condemnations that will surface on tomorrow's news agenda. It's like a glass ant farm for zealots. It's a little stomach-turning, but man, they're diligent little things. It's hard not to stare sometimes.

[beckysueb]

Liberals are going to criticize us and call us extremests no matter what we say. I find FreeRepublic comments to be witty and funny and mostly true. Its a great website and if we give in to them, it will not be the same anymore.

[beckysueb]

My sentiments exactly!

[EternalVigilance]

...people have stopped posting here is because of the increase in one-sentence non-substantive comments over time

Huh?

with certain one-issue posters chasing people away while giving this website a bad name.

So, I take it you're a pro-abort?

[conservative in nyc]

Not true any more. Canada has a Conservative Prime Minister these days. On the fiscal side, he's probably more conservative than President Bush and many of our pork-barrel-loving RINOs.

[Recovering_Democrat]

The "grassroots" backlash that followed -- orchestrated, in part, by the people at Free Republic... saw the band savaged in the press and at the box office.

When the hell were they "savaged in the press"?? Yes, their stinkfest fell flat at the box office, but "savaged in the press"??? That never happened. They were on covers of magazines and praised as virtuous "free speech" advocates.

[Jeff Gordon]

Does anyone here really care what some barking moonbat thinks of F.R.?

I do. I like to hear stuck pigs squeal.

[bd476]

EternalVigilance wrote: "Hmmm...wonder what's up with that? ;-)"

My theory is that some people look for and find in print just about anything they want to believe.

[FairOpinion]

Who is this guy?

2002-10-23

Ivor Tossell was an intern at the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. He holds a degree in English from the University of Toronto, and put in some hard time at the University of Guelph along the way. He is currently in Canada, plotting his next move.

Irrespective of what continent he's on, Ivor maintains a small software business, peddling a program that generates websites like the one you're looking at now. In another life, he edited a couple of student newspapers at U of T, but he's trying hard to leave the past behind.

Ivor doesn't like writing about himself in the third person, but would love to hear from you at ivor.tossell@utoronto.ca .

[Lorianne]

The Dixie Chicks need all the publicity they can get apparently.

[beckysueb]

He looks like Al Franken. Must be something in the water up north.

[EternalVigilance]

Makes sense.

[bd476]

How do you feel about finding and posting two articles published a year apart, both articles highly critical of Free Republic, and both articles were written by the same writer in the same paper?

Sometimes if you seek after the negative, that is the only thing you will find.

[beckysueb]

See? I'm such a nice Conservative, I corrected his article for him, free of charge.

Good job! I was doing that mentally when I read the article.

[conservative in nyc]

Please read the entire thread Bob J posted, if you haven't already. Traffic is down at conservative websites, including Free Republic. Commenters on that thread are trying to figure out why. Some think that in the good old days, there was more discussion of issues and fewer one-sentence posts. One FReeper even suggested a minimum word limit for comments.

So, I take it you're a pro-abort?

Absolutely not. I am pro-life.

I wasn't thinking of abortion. Nor were most on the Bob J thread. Immigration, the Giuliani/Hunter threads, and anything to do with Muslims were probably the most mentioned.

[bd476]

Thanks Lancey.

[EternalVigilance]

That was a joke.

[JOAT]

Wow, a new Acronym for FR-haters: G.A.F.F.Z.

Glass Ant Farm For Zealots Unite!

[Enduring Freedom]

when the 'globe' prints an article, or other liberal rags like the nytimes or latimes, it always comes down to a twerp like ivor tossell.

the power of the media is an illusion, much like the wizard of oz. the face behind the curtain is just an ugly little punk.

never buy into it, submit to it, or lament about it.

the mainstream socialist propaganda media can be destroyed by doing exactly what we are doing.

[MoochPooch]

Articles containing an opposing viewpoint have the words "BARF ALERT" appended to their titles.

This journalist doesn't get it. The reason an article has a "BARF ALERT" is not because it's an opposing viewpoint. Rather, the thinking is ridiculously distorted. Usually I can't get beyond the 3rd paragraph without running to the nearest open sink.

To say there is no room for debate here is absurd. On many threads I have read intelligent arguments on certain topics (i.e. Social Security, history).

The worst articles aren't the ones that are obviously stupid (Zot bait). It's the ones that sound intelligent, until you read up close & realize the person has the logic of a cactus.

[Eddie01]

His message is simple: Don't go there an see for yourself

Groupthink mind guard.