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.
You know, its kind of like my place at the Lake. The whole cove walks down to one particular guy’s dock every Friday night. We are all used to discussing and talking comfortably about almost anything.
His small dock is tremedous. He has propane fired heaters, a fridge and bar, a wide screen cable fed TV, (that’s right — on the dock) and all sorts of seating etcetera.
There are a few items that the owner doesn’t want to hear about and only those things will get him inhospitable, but every other month there is one of the neighbors that gets so comfortable that they forget they aren’t on THEIR DOCK or their deck and they end up in conflict due to their good comfort level and their brain just turning off the high functioning for a moment. A few sharp words and they are off in a huff. Generally a few months later (about when football telecasts start in late September) peace is made because we are all on the same body of water.
That's nothing! I own Busch Gardens, First Landing State Park, Farm Fresh and Colonial Williamsburg!!
You nailed it. As with all freedoms there is responsibility, otherwise the freedom is worth nothing. The internet is chock full of irresponsible sites and of the few that aren't, many of those are heavily censored.
Are you supporting gay marriage?
Are you supporting abortion?
Your vanity contains almost as many I’s as an obama speech.
Oh man. Laz was just making our point; you can’t just run your mouth here the way you want to.
Perhaps and hopefully it’s a temporary thing.
It should be obvious to everyone that RINOs have little in common with Freepers. To come on this forum hoping to get Freepers to buy the old "well, it's either the RINO or Obama", and insinuate that we will be responsible for an Obama win if we don't support your RINO, well, free speech just won't stretch that far!
If we get stuck with no other choice I don't doubt that some Freepers will hold their noses and vote for the RINO, but, promising to do so while we still have options and hope is foolish and counterproductive.
If you are too Damned obtuse to see this you are too Damned stupid to be a Freeper!
He’s been really hyper lately. Hope it’s just a suspension....
I didn’t see it, but, from later posts understood what he was up to. Thought maybe the moderator didn’t get it, but, folks who did see it said it was pretty bad. Hope its temporary.
Dr. ZOT
Show off! ;-D
So did you sell your account to Ron Paul, or what?
Cheers!
It does matter a lot, not that I agree with you, but why do you libertarians and liberals always choose Luciferian rebellion and couch it in the language of intellectual superiority?
And why do you autofellating libertarian moonbats always defend yourself by insisting (with liberals) that all opposition to you is rooted in either fear or hatred?
Cheers!
Yeah --- most of the LSM thinks Kristinn is a girl.......
I've met Kristinn, he's no girl :)
Jim Robinson’s birth certificate says Jim Thompson. :p
"If he Whom mutual league,
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope
And hazard in the Glorious Enterprize,
Joynd with me once, now misery hath joynd
In equal ruin: into what Pit thou seest
From what highth fall'n, so much the stronger prov'd
He with his Thunder: and till then who knew
The force of those dire Arms?
--Jim Robinson, Paradise ZOT
[g_w note]: yeah, yeah, I know it's St. Michael slaying the dragon, and Raphael lived in Italy, and predated Milton yada yada yada. It's still a way cooler picture.
Cheers!
To late already Zotted.
It's that trolls are dishonest and won't admit they've been beat.
Because they are interested in neither discourse nor wisdom, but disruption and their paycheck from Rove, Soros, or Sunstein.
Or even going off to brag to their friends on other non-FR sites about how well they've stuck it to us.
Screw 'em.
Cheers!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.