Posted on 11/21/2002 12:16:16 AM PST by Marine Inspector
PALEOCONSERVATIVES often refer to "the limits of permissible dissent" in describing the struggle to hold on to their views in the realms of the media and academia against the censure of both the left and the "mainstream" right. Now, this struggle has been extended into the realm of the internet, the supposed last frontier of unregulated speech and capitalism. Indeed, we may be witnesses, as Frederick Jackson Turner would say, to the closing of this frontier, not just because of the collapse of the dot-com economy but because of the new limits imposed on speech and content, which will only become more pronounced as the War on Terrorism progresses.
In 1996, Fresno, California, resident and internet surfer Jim Robinson had a problem: His posts on Prodigy message hoards and chat rooms, particularly his strong criticisms of President Bill Clinton, were being censored by Prodigy's administrators. So he started his own web site—Free Republic (www.freerepublic.com).
Free Republic was more than just an ordinary message board in the early settlement of the internet. Surfers could post whole articles from publications and make them topics of discussion and debate. And it was more than just another chat room. Free Republic’s likeminded members could be connected from across the country to organize activist projects and events. ln 1998, when many Republicans wanted to ignore Kenneth Starr’s report on the Clinton scandals rather than deal with its charges, Free Republic members (or "Freepers," as they call themselves) lit up the congressional phones and organized demonstrations that influenced Republicans in the House to vote for articles of impeachment. And it was the Freepers, not the GOP, who organized the demonstrations of conservatives down in Florida during the 2000 presidential vote recount.
Over 60,000 people have been registered members of Free Republic, the largest conservative-oriented website in the world. Members are a diverse lot: independents, Republicans, libertarians, (large "L" and small), neocons, paleocons, Buchanan Brigaders, Keyes supporters and everything in between. Even such prominent pundits as Justin Raimondo, Ann Coulter, Barbara Olson, and Lucianne Goldberg (known by her Freeper handle, "Trixie") have made frequent posts.
As in any frontier boomtown, however, with rapid growth came predictable problems. Some of the articles posted on the site came from racist or antisemitic web sites. Conspiracy theorists also made use of Free Republic. Leftists began to infiltrate the site, posting articles or posing as conservatives to act as agents provocateurs. "Vanity posts" became more frequent, and flame wars among members became more intense, as the site split into factions during the 2000 presidential election. Overall, civility degenerated. Some members became concerned that Free Republic had become a virtual hangout for kooks. Matters came to a head in early 2000 when Robinson (or "JimRob") speculated on George W. Bush’s connection to the airport in Mena, Arkansas where drug and gun-running allegedly took place during the 1980’s. Matt Drudge then dropped Free Republic’s link from the Drudge Report, and Goldberg took 2.000 members with her to start her own Lucianne.com.
Robinson decided to clean up his website and, like any good sheriff, deputized a posse of site moderators to remove offensive posts, threads, and articles and to ban those who posted them. But they did not stop there. Soon, they had banned the posting of any articles from certain websites that they deemed taboo, such as VDare.com ("too divisive"), LewRockwell.com, DixieNet.org (the League of the South’s website) , and the Free State Project’s website (www.FreeStateProject.org)
It would be easy to conclude that Robinson and his monitors simply went overboard in an effort to clean up the excesses of Free Republic, but there is more to it than that.
Because of its significant growth, Free Republic costs $240,000 annually to maintain. As a non-profit, Free Republic depends on donors, large and small, for its survival. No doubt the embarrassment of being dropped from the Drudge Report and Goldberg’s public break with the site concerned Robinson, and lie feared that funds might dry up if his site were perceived to he on the fringe. In addition, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times sued Free Republic for copyright infringement. The case was settled out of court. It was only natural for Robinson and his site administrators to want to look good for prospective donors.
With so many posters banned, the diversitv of thought on Free Republic has been reduced to the musings of neoconservatives, Zionists, Republicans who act is if Free Republic were an annex of GOP headquarters, those who consider George W. Bush a demigod and offer daily prayers to him, and other sycophants and cheerleaders, Robinson has made it clear where he stands: "I see that the only Party capable of blocking arid defeating the evil Democrats is the Republican Party. I see that many races are so close hat as little as a one percent siphon of conservative votes to a third party could be the difference between success and failure. I see allowing a Democrat to remain in power when it could have been prevented as a triumph of evil."
Many banned Freepers have turned to such sites as Liberty Post (www.libertypost.org) and Liberty Forum (www.libertyforum.org) where members can post articles from anywhere and comment without interference from the thought police or fear of Siberian banishment. But Free Republic will still remain the 800-pound gorilla of conservative websites for some time, just as National Review has been for conservative magazines, despite being watered down. Frontiers, whether on land or in cyberspace, cannot survive when developers start plotting out the fencerows.
—Sean Scallon
And we did it in spite of the fact that we still have some naive, unsophisticated, bull-headed posters here who would rather cut their noses off to spite their faces (withold their vote or vote third party) if Mr./Ms. Perfection isn't running for office.
Their narrow ?thinking? prevents them from being able to see the big picture, and/or know what "setting the stage" must entail.
As the politically smart, street-fighter DemocRATS know, INCREMENTALISM WORKS EVERY TIME IT'S TRIED
This forum would not be attacked unless it was effectively standing in the way of KOOKS / cynical opportunists and naive, single-issue voters.
God bless America, and God bless you, Jim, for all you have done and all you're trying to do for the ultimate good of our country. Together --- WE will accomplish much and wake up more and more Sheeple/FROGS in the process!
EAGLES UP! For FREEDOM, the CONSTITUTION and THE RULE OF LAW that undergirds it!!!!
BTTT!!
I have no idea. What does Arator think?
Yes, what is your point? Go over to the Chronicles magazine site and take a look yourself. If you click on "Latest Issue", you'll see that it is for November 2002. The Sean Scallon column for this issue is entitled "Letter From Canada: A Pocket Full of Sovereigns". For October 2002 it is "Letter From Minnesota: Holding Onto a Culture". For August 2002 it is "Letter From the Upper Midwest: Micro-Farming". Obviously none of these is the article posted above. Since LP hasn't been around very long, this must be a recent article. So the only logical conclusion is that it must be from the December issue.
The author of this piece is a regular columnist for that magazine. I looked over their web archive and he has articles published in almost every issue this year.
Yes I would .. and I would also make sure I covered me butt before doing so ..
I also have to question the reason she is sueing Paul O'Neil and not the Airport that she worked for in 1999 ..
Some how I get the feeling there is more to that story then what was reported in that article
See #201
He's had several letters published.
some of the postings on the site came from...antisemitic websites...
the diversity of thought on Freerepublic has been reduced to the musings of neoconservatives, Zionists...
So in other words, folks, we appear to be posting on an antisemitic, Zionist website. Um...yeah, okay...
Is there a single whisper of "antisemitism," now that the Left is taking the part of the most virulent Jew-haters since Hitler--the islamofascists? Nope. Oh, but those of us who are outraged by said muslims' murderous threats to Jews are "Zionists?" Ok...I see.............? But I thought the Left routinely branded all non-leftists as "antisemitic?"
Gosh, this is confusing. I'm not sure anymore just WHY they hate me...
The whole point is there's no way to cover your butt in some agencies. The TSA is one and Customs is evidently another.
Afraid not. I've known about Kotmair for years, but I didn't realize that LP was part of his scams.
That and because their guy lost ...
I never said everybody was. The worst ones all seem to hang out there though.
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