Poohbah's Opus

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, sayeth Qohotoleth... | 01 April 2005 | Poohbah

[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:

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To: Old Professer

Is being a christian identity sympathizer, a white supremicist, a neo-nazi, a racist or an anti-semite illegal activities in themselves?

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.

212 posted on 03/17/2005 11:05:13 AM PST by malakhi

[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 211 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

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To: malakhi

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Terri's fight being associated with Christianity. That is unless someone is a radical leftist.

229 posted on 03/17/2005 12:02:29 PM PST by Diva Betsy Ross

[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 212 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]

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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.

[malakhi]

Is being a christian identity sympathizer, a white supremicist, a neo-nazi, a racist or an anti-semite illegal activities in themselves?

[Diva Betsy Ross]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Terri's fight being associated with Christianity. That is unless someone is a radical leftist.

[Dog Gone]

If you think that he left because you won the intellectual debate, I think you sadly misjudge the situation. It wasn't about that at all.

I think his point is that you've out-insulted him without much of an intellectual argument that finally drove him to leave.

I'm not his lawyer. That's just how I read it.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

See? Ya had to go and start something, didn't ya? lol

[PhiKapMom]

Sounds like my experience on here! Unreal is all I can say.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

LOL

[St. Johann Tetzel]

Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, described Terri Schiavo's death as a homicide, in face of which one cannot be indifferent without becoming an accomplice."

What a lunatic fringer. Can we drive him out of the Vatican next?

[MrDem]

I've lurked here for a long, long time and I'm glad that all of the moderates who really belong on RinoRepublic or ORileillyRepublic are running like scalded dogs.

Good riddance!

[Askel5]

=== Guess what.....in a month, nobody will even remember this episode.


Gosh ... I sure hope so.

I'd hate to be branded an "extremist" ever after just because I thought a drink of water was in order as the State lawfully starved an alert and responsive disabled woman to death.

Here's hoping everyone forgets the whole thing post haste. After all, we need to stay united and focused as we bring the rest of the world up to our standards.

DID YOU KNOW THERE ARE HUSBANDS IN THIS WORLD WHO MAKE THEIR WIVES WEAR BURKAS?!?!?!?!

[justkillingtime]

HAHAHA!!!........I agree,its the internet people....cmon..get a life will ya

[Hildy]

Also, I doubt there are other conservative forums with as many posters as FR.

Well, not yet.

[DCPatriot]

Don't you mean I can kiss your reasonable, logical, sane, witness-protected arse?

Yeah...you can kiss that one too! ;^)

[Coop]

Checking back, I found the thread you are talking about. The abuse report page was absolutely clean, that is no one filed any complaint about the thread. If you believed they defend a racist ideology, why didn't you complain at the time instead of taking a cheap shot on your way out?

Oh, that's sweet! Another round of applase for the AM!

[visualops]

The next post down (by someone else) clarifies unequivocally:

To: freespirited; Jim Robinson; Dolphy; All
Starving a living, breathing creature, to death, is cruel and inhumane. There are *no* BUTS or overriding factors about it.

Take away guardianship.
Take away stated or otherwise wishes.
Take away brain condition.
Take away doctors' evaluations and labels.
Take away hospital/hospice care received.
Take away family dynamics.
Take away politics.
Take away law, lawyering, and judges' rulings.
Take away any and all debate.

An innocent, defenseless, living, breathing human being is purposefully being starved to death. They are not pulling any true life support *plug.*

Any member of a decent society rightly considers death by starvation to be cruel and inhumane. There is simply no way around that very base, simple, naked statement.

[patton]

get over yourself, bubba.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

and they might hold their breath until they get it.

I hope they have living wills.

[Coop]

And some applause while we're at it. [blushing]

[thoughtomator]

They did, in fact, form cliques before they got expelled, and these clique members were either ejected, or self-ejected, en masse.

[NeoCaveman]

and they might hold their breath until they get it.
I hope they have living wills.

I hope those DNR's are signed and notarized.

[Tribune7]

I pretty much abstained from posting on those threads, or at least tried.

I stopped too.

[k2blader]

"Scholarly discourse"? Hm, only place I've seen that is on the "Religion" forum, and most of the time I don't understand what at least half of those good folks are talking about!

[lilmsdangrus]

thank you.