I disagree there. Some might even wish it to be irreversible, but I've been reading a little FR history. There's been all kinds of drama in the past, and breathless obituaries written for FR, but it always comes back.
Maybe we disagree and that is okay. But this is not a breathless obituary. I am sure FR is not going anywhere anytime soon. It will continue to exist in some form. However, the wounds are deep and the scars will be permanent in that so many long-time posters are now gone. Posters with sign-up dates of 1998, even 1997, have been culled from the herd. Some have been among the most insightful posters FR ever had and perhaps ever will.In my view, the most harmful participants are those who gang up and encircle a person, drive them to the ground and then claim they failed the purity test of the moment. All while professing to speak on behalf of the owner.
And then what do they do? They send sappy, glittering pictures to one another with expressions of friendship.
Well put. I haven't had the energy or the seemingly suicidal impulse to respond to any of the recent (past year) drama, but I will say I'm one of those who has seen one purge too many around here... And that was three, maybe four purges ago.
This place used to be really important to me, and I used to donate every month. It was a place I was happy to support, where you had to be smart and learn to form an argument that could hold up, or not, under vigorous debate. Beyond that it was a place where I met many good friends and even my husband. I still have those, but I have left this place, for now.
Debate here has given way to tattletales with ping lists and I'm a little too independent to want to live according to the whims of increasingly capricious "purity tests of the moment".
This is a forum, which means it's only as good as it's people. I want to meet, debate and learn from people, not just be told what to think 'or else' by them. Life's too short and there are already too many people trying to control me and my thoughts, to willingly look for more on my free time.
This place has to become a fertile ground for free and intelligent conservative thinking, not just threats and pesky swarming bullies, before it becomes again what it once was. We'll see. As Lando said... Many are already gone.
Very well said. While I have an impulse to add more, that post in its entirety really says it all.
BRAVO!
You said what I have been TRYING to say and said it VERY well!
Needless to say, I couldn’t agree more!