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.
Maybe Jim Rob ought to appoint some Etiquette Police? You wannabe chief? Just what do you suggest, ol feller?
Well, based on the way he's being treated, I'd say it's quite the indictment of what's been happening on FR. Rational thought and civility have departed, and "facts" are no longer important.
Therefore, I think I'll follow him out the door.
I don't agree with posters at times. Emotions run very high here occaisonally. That is the nature of this forum.
I suspect you battled with this decision for a period of time. I will miss you and your comments here on FR.
"I am a fighter .. Not a quitter!"
Isn't that special.
You just said a mouthful.
It's like a car wreck, and at least I was able to get a decent one liner off.
Even my yearly April Fool's News Story was weak today.
You've got that right.
Yeah I second that.
Back in the day, an opus would be a 5-page treatise on political philosophy and why the opuser, being the more principled than the opusees, could no longer debase himself by continuing to labor under such oppressive conditions. Well... that, or a long, inadvertent confession of mental illness! Either way there'd be a good 2000+ highly entertaining words involved and a raucous thread.
Now its just a license to whine if you've got a cool signup date, I guess.
You know, there's been a heck of alot more on this site than the Terri threads. If that's all you folks saw then you're in a rut.
I'm a pro-lifer. Is this a bad thing?
I'll donate double to make up for the loss.
Admittedly I am not up on the lingo.
Owk thought us....the plural of opus is opra.
I couldn't agree with you more. Sounds like another voice of REASON leaving FR. (leaving more unReasonable voices than Reasonable).
Is there anyway to campaign the management here for an 'ignore user' functionality? It would really help a lot of people I think.
Great to see you again.
Wish she could take us with her!!!
Hey Sarge, you should at least stick around the military threads. Discussions on base closures, new versus old equipment, training methods, etc...all of that needs insight from people like you who've been there, rather than mere armchair guessers.
That part of FR serves as useful brainstorming...flushing the bad ideas and highlighting the good.
Lol.
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