"There I have you! Your completely dished. Do you not know that in the service one must always choose the lesser of two weevils!"
Posted on 12/14/2013 10:33:19 AM PST by The Bat Ladys Husband
First of all, let me say that I have been a lurker on FR since 2000. My wife (The Bat Lady) has been registered and a poster since the same time. I generally use FR as a news source and in years past as an info source for FR organized protests/demonstrations. I don’t generally comment on articles because I mostly agree and don’t need to preach to the choir. However one article fired me up and I finally register in August 2013.
That being said, I recently commented on an article regarding Steve Stockman running against John Cornyn. Knowing a lot about Texas politics I said Stockman was not a viable candidate. OMG! You would have thought I said I pissed on Reagan’s grave. I was called a troll, a Cornyn plant, a GOP-e (if my friends had heard that they would be laughing their asses off.) With all the name-calling I had to look to see if I was on FR or DU. Conservatives pride themselves on the quality of their debate versus liberal knee-jerk name-calling. I guess some here on FR can’t raise themselves above that level.
Sticks and Stones! But more disturbing to me is the rise what I like to call the FR-e. Those are the posters that think that because they have been on FR for a long time that they are some kind of royalty and that newcomer’ comments and insights have no validity if they do not parrot their particular perception. I was called a noob “prattling"
(prat·tle talk idly or childishly: to talk in a silly, idle, or childish way silly, idle, or childish talk)
Just because someone has recently discovered FR or recently joined after lurking they prattle? Oops, my bad, I guess they don’t prattle if they agree with the pompous long-term freeper. Maybe we could cut back on the fundraisers if we encouraged new members rather than drive them off or turned them off with vitriolic discourse and vicious name-calling
(vit·ri·ol·ic adjective - filled with the intention or desire to do evil.)
If you haven’t looked at the Home page (click Free republic at the top left of the browse page) I invite you to look again: Jim Robinson states: “Believing that the best defense is a strong offense, we (myself and those whom I'm trying to attract to FR) support...”
Jim is trying to attract people to FR. How does denigrating a new reader attract them to FR? Being a victim of a verbal knock-out game by a supercilious FR-e certainly does not encourage a "newbie" to participate or even hang around
(su·per·cil·i·ous adjective 1. behaving or looking as though one thinks one is superior to others.)
Certainly all long time members don’t fit this category but those who do know who you are (or maybe you don’t) and so do we.
You said ... “But I don’t think FR is capable of dealing with much dissent anymore ...(if it ever was)”
It was better in the past, but it’s devolved in the interim to the kind of stuff described here. And as soon as that “starts” with me - I jump right in on it - as there’s no use talking any sense to those particular kinds of idiots.
Dreck. There are plenty of freepers that still engage in activism and work to get conservatives elected.
/johnny
Prepare to be branded a blog pimp. Also, how is Stockman not viable? He’d be a great senator!
Another typical response ... y’all never come up with anything new ... :-) ...
“I’ve never seen anything like that happening.”
HAHAHAHAHA
Angle’s problem is shared by many good conservatives in this country: When they win primaries against the establishment office-holder, their funding dries up as revenge. Angle could have won if she had the money, as with other TP candidates. The NRSC threw those elections on purpose, to serve as a warning to the others. A lot of seats were lost in the House because of the same principle.
Akin had stupid mouth disease, so he probably was a mistake. Same with Mourdock. If you’re (R) you can’t say anything that sounds stupid. If you’re a (D) you probably OK unless it’s *really* stupid. Each (R) candidate for public office should be handed a manual with page one reading: “If you are a male, don’t talk about rape. EVER.”
This thread is a perfect example of the point that you are making.
You said ... “Some of the people here don’t really specialize in rational debate. They’d rather fire off quasi-educated semi-witty put downs and drive you off the site.”
Yeah ... a significant portion, for sure. It’s devolved that way over the years as it wasn’t so much that way in years past.
Pretty good observation, provided one knows what a “cargo cult” is. (I do, you don’t have to explain)
There are, what? 300,000 people registered here since 1996, so the number of old guard FReepers you've heard from isn't representative of what a statistically valid sample of us would have to say.
Here's some background you should know: every primary season we get concern trolls showing up from various campaigns trying to shape opinion. They always say "I've been lurking here since 1997" and "I'm a really big fan of X, but we have to be realistic. He just can't win!"
Invariably, when you investigate the posting history of these alleged long-time lurkers you discover that they really don't post anything except stuff that aids a particular campaign and damages his opponents. You don't find them on the sci-fi threads, the rock band threads, the "not guilty" threads, the Crevo threads, or even the chats (except for vanities like yours.)
So ... if you fit the profile of a seminar caller, you will be called out. Your sole recourse is to backup what you have to say with facts. X can't win!? Prove it. Or at least make an argument.
For being an agnostic I'm taking vicious flak here on certain threads all the time. I actually like it. I don't believe in what I don't believe in just as strongly as the Christians do, and I don't criticize them simply for their passion. We exchange fire. That's the way this forum is.
As for calling old timers FR-e? Please be serious. You're advocating the tried and true position of the GOP-e in this vanity, and trying to jiu jitsu that against solid conservatives who're apoplectic over the current state of our party isn't going to be helpful to your likability quotient.
Remember pissant?
He always seemed to be in the middle of the flame-wars here.
Was quite entertaining actually...
Thanks ... in all my time here, I haven’t seen that thread. BUT, there are probably 95% of the threads I haven’t seen either ... :-) ...
I don’t remember the Florida version, but Debbie Schussel (from Michigan, I believe) used to threaten to sue anyone who criticized her, including Freepers. I don’t know if she still does it, but I do believe that a couple called her bluff and sent her running. She still has a 30 year old picture of herself on her blog.
All, well said; and AMEN to ALL SAID!
Hubby's commenting to other posters so if you don't mind, here is what I have on Cornyn that makes US NOT want to vote for him. Granted I copied this off FR and other freepers gathered the work.
John Cornyn claims to be the 2nd most conservative member of the Senate.
Yet, as Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee he hand-selected these "Republican" candidates:
• Arlen Specter - Democrat
• Charlie Crist - Democrat
• Lincoln Chafee - Democrat
• Lisa Murkowski - Independent
Also, when he had a chance to stop ObamaCare by supporting Ted Cruz' filibuster he FAILED and hid behind a meaningless vote later.
That right there makes us need a new Senator.
He didn't fully back Ted Cruz in the filibuster and that REALLY pissed me off. I'm sure more will all come out before the primary.
While in DC after the 2000 elections I drove by Kristinn outside Gore’s casa and yelled “Go Freepers!”. Does this mean I get to post?
You said it! ... :-) ...
I’m all for getting rid of Cornyn. He has not been a positive influence on the body politic.
You said: "“NO KIDDING! You took the reins from Dubya? So when exactly did Rick Perry come on board?" :-)”
I worked for the party to help elect Dubya, plus husband was a Republican County Chair, so we were in Austin with Dubya on a number of occasions while he was governor, we were with him, and also he came to the area where we lived. When he became president, I was on Perry's campaign list of workers and we met with him in Austin before the campaign started and I was with his mom all day that day and she is quite a lady. So, I worked in that campaign.
We were also working to turn our county from Democrat to Republican as husband was Republican County Chair, and I became an expert in Texas Election Law and I traveled Texas instructing county chairs in the law and also instructing many hundreds of election judges and clerks. My husband and I wrote a law that determines the process every county in Texas has to follow in counting votes on election night. That law passed both the Texas House and Senate without a dissenting vote and is in effect still today and always will be. We did turn our county from Democrat to Republican, electing the first Republican ever elected in that county and that was the District Attorney and the next election, we elected more Republicans to offices in that county. Husband was county chair for ten years until his health failed.
The above explanation is why I humorously said I was running Texas and couldn't devote time to FR.
Here is a story: We had an election judge in our county who looked exactly like Bush's mom, Barbara Bush. There was NO difference in their looks. We were with Bush one time after he made a speech and a man said to him there was a lady who looked like someone he knew - our lady stepped up and Bush threw his arms around her and said, “This is my mom!”
We were at a state Republican convention and our lady and some of us were going up an escalator to our district meeting. I heard a man several steps up on the escalator say to himself out loud, “Barbara Bush is here!” Well, unknowing to us, he rushed ahead of us into the huge room where all in the district delegates had gathered, and when we walked in, everyone stood up and started clapping for Barbara Bush! Our lady had to tell the large group she was not Barbara Bush.
Our lady told me one time that because she looked so much like Barbara, that she stayed aware of that when she was out in public in case people thought that and she wanted to purport herself as the lady Barbara was.
They eventually met and I have a picture of the two standing together and you cannot tell which is which.
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