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.
Yea, but that was back in the day when the entire thread would load - not just 50 posts at a time, IIRC.
Regards,
TS
I never thought of you as the crybaby type looking to draw shameless attention to yourself as you have revealed yourself to be today here. Well, I guess you learn something new every day. Farewell, have a happy life.
Unless you're the guest of honor.
Party still dead.
I'm not far behind you; I've got four grandbabies under five stuffed into a king size bed in the next room who will be up at the crack o' dawn.
Night.
Too cute!
Pathetic.
True -- bet he wasn't expecting this but he can see how fun it still is on here! :)
LOL
Nam Vet
Thank you..I could not find that one..got it bookmarked now!
Don't forget Jesse Jackson, Ralph Nader and Lanny Davis.
okay, okay......you forced ONE story out of me.
We were coming back from dinner tonight and I had the 3 year old girl with me; she says "Mimi, is this an old car?"
And I said yes, and she said, "So I can put my boogers back here?"
The child's a genius.........LOL.
Or Mark Steyn
"Glad to see you go. Hope you never come back. You are obviously better suited to other forums, passionless forums, where your opinions are never challenged. Why don't you start your own forum and only allow yourself to post.
But I do hope your tender feelings heal within the next 4 or 5 years. Poor baby."
I haven't been here as long as most people, but I'd suggest that the above post is a wonderful example of why the guy's leaving. It's obnoxious, dismissive and it demonstrates that some people can't distinguish between challenging a position and denigrating the person who holds that opposing position. Nor do they understand that there's a real difference between being passionate and being rude. In short, they're of the same ilk as DU posters.
I'm upset that Poohbah picked this time to move on. They had promised me the winning lottery numbers for tomorrow's 70 million dollar super lotto in California.
FIVE, yikes,...yeah to bed for me also,...my son is flying home from Bucky Dent's baseball camp,and I've been workin' on the apartment,...looks like burglars were here
Move to the head of the class, Mona.
You definitely need to rest up! Have fun with those grandbabies.
*giggle*
Very cute.
I've relied on FR for so many years.....
After the Terri saga.....I've vowed not to post while emotionally distraught. Looking back on some of my posts the past few weeks, I'm sad to say I was practically hysterical and lashing out at posters that I have admired for years. Made me wish for an erase feature....
My favorite threads are the live threads. Except I can't keep up!
ping for coffee 5 hrs from now
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