I don't think Mr. Grumpy has been back onthread to defend his little rant. What a surprise!
Posted on 05/27/2011 10:36:25 AM PDT by Dr. Zzyzx
Freeper Friends,
I was saddened by JimRob's imperious pronouncement yesterday, and the ensuing comments & zots. Here's why. One of this site's primary pillars is the Bill of Rights which calls for Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Right to a trial by jury. We believe in those things. We believe in them to the point of being willing to sacrifice our lives for them. And yet on this site, when a JimRob cuts people off for what they say or believe Freepers cheer him like Baghdad Bob would cheer Saddam Hussein! That's not America folks!
"He owns the site!" you say. Tell that to Steven Jobs who got dumped a few years ago from the company he started because he created an IPO to get financial support from others. Once JimRob started taking YOUR money, it became YOUR site. YOU provide the content, YOU provide the financing. Without YOU, Jim would be a lonely guy staring at a monitor in his den.
How can we say we want freedoms out one side of our mouths, and stand by and cheer as Jim zots dissenters in a way that would make medieval Europe's most dictatorial tyrants proud?
John Stuart Mill had the right approach--let all the ideas fight it out in the arena. If they're foolish ideas, they will eventually be seen as such. We don't have anything to fear from hearing someone else's point of view.
Now. In case you're wondering:
My membership date is actually one and a half years earlier than the November 1999 date shown. (Had to re-enlist because of computer and email trouble)
I was raised in Arizona but live in Utah. I fly the Arizona flag on my profile because I'm proud of their stance on immigration.
I’ve told anyone that will listen that I think Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman are shifty weasels.
I served on the city council and as the mayor of my community.
I played a part in the grassroots effort to throw Bob Bennett out of office, and hope soon to do the same to Orrin Hatch.
I waged a pitched battle in the newspapers and amongst my fellow teachers against the president, officers, and organization of the Utah Education Association, an arm of the NEA.
I became disenchanted with the Republican party after some of the things George Bush (though I admire his courage and determination) did that I felt were harmful to the financial well-being of America.
In other words, I'm not a newbie troll. I just have a genuine concern with how members are treated here, and you should too.
To save you the electrons of posting replies, I'll post them for you:
Jim owns the site, he can do what he wants.
ZOT!
Put on your asbestos suit.
Put on your tin foil hat.
Viking Kitties!
Don't let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya!
A cheese-eating moose bit my sister.
Amen to that.
We are where we are *now* because “absolute moral standards” have become ‘unfashionable’ and ‘politically incorrect’.
It’s good that Mr Robinson takes absolute stands against questionable morality and leads by example.
Now, if the druggie/tyrant in our White House tried the same stunt, that is a totally different story. Our rights give us specific legal protections against government overreach. JimRob is not our government (unfortunately), so our First Amendment does not limit his control over his web site. Note to JimRob: Thank you for being a great host and a great American; my kids will grow up in a better and freer country because of you and your site.
OMGoodness, I own a BP station.
I agree with Jim the Boss here 100%.
I don't think Mr. Grumpy has been back onthread to defend his little rant. What a surprise!
The braindead leftist don’t debate, yet they whine for debates.
How about the Freedom to Vote? In the final election,
it will be Obama vs a Republican. I REFUSE to vote for Obama, and I REFUSE to sit out any election and not vote.
I will vote for the Republican nominee.
Have you ever been to a country that doesn’t have the Freedom to Vote? You would never want to give up that Freedom.
Personally, I can’t take another 4 years of the Joker-In-Chief. He’ll make the Depression we are in last that much longer, and we will be drowning in Socialism.
Our rights according to the Constitution are to protect us from the government, not a private enterprise like Free Republic
Jim Robinson’s site, Jim Robinson’s rules.
Yeah, a lot of people here at FR come up with similar explanations. Personally, it shouldn't matter a bit. It's what you say not when you found this place.
That said, Mr. Robinson is free to control his site as he wishes. However, I think he does have tolerance for opposing views, there are just some basic crimes against nature (abortion) and egregious political behavior that do not have to be tolerated on a private forum (RINOs). If you don't like it, you can go to another forum and start your signup date all over again.
“especially the pro drugs people.”
amen amen amen, if you aren’t a Libertarian, you aren’t a conservative, in their opinion. I get so tired. :(
So, you live in Utah, but you “think Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman are shifty weasels.” And yet you take offense that Jim Robinson doesn’t want leftists promoted on his site. Why am I having a hard time believing you’re being honest about this?
Dear Dr. Zzyzx; I refer to your post of 31 OCT 2009 where you recommended that people be kicked off this site.
You’re right, of course.
Your First Amendment argument will be valid when you can show me where the Bill of Rights says that “Jim Robinson shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech ...”
It also calls for the Freedom of Association. We don't want to associate with child killers and gay activists or their promoters/enablers. That's why we meet here.
I agree; many of us new conservatives still have a lot to learn. I would have liked to debate that guy or gal who called all Republicans bigots before he or she was zotted.
Would you mind if people joined your effort with a view toward defending and keeping Orrin Hatch or at least seeing that someone with views similar to his is his replacement? In other words, people who join the effort and undermine it?
A very apt anology. Jim isn't banning or asking people not to use the internet. He has a personaly owned website that he has run where he has tons of posters joining in discussion and interaction oriented around his understanding of conservative activism with set goals in mind for it.
Hundreds of threads get started every day and he simply wants to outline that these discussions aren't going to become promotion for an agenda his site wasn't meant to support.
Don't show up at the Washington Day Parade he organized and want to turn it into a Parade with other agenda. Hold your own parade two hours later or two blocks over. When I come over and walk along in Jim's Parade, it isn't the total makeup of all my thinking -- its just a parade -- why get frustrated with Jim that his Parade wasn't crafted around just what I wanted to do each day?
Damn - didn't we just post "bail" for him last year?
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