Google stormfront "free republic" and you'll find a thread on stormfront about the racist whackos "infiltrating" Free Republic. There's no doubt that some of them are regular posters right now and that's who every other FReeper is "rubbing shoulders with". Should Free Republic be banned from other sites? Should my internet filter suddenly start blocking Free Republic as a racist site? No. You can't practically control that kind of thing and can only make decisions based upon what a poster does once he's here. The same goes for the Minuteman Project (with which, by the way, I have no involvement.)
Google "minuteman project stormfront" typical results:
And since some racist whacko on Stormfront decides to mention the Minuteman Project a few times, all of a sudden the entire Minuteman Project is racist? Since some racist white trash posts a list of links or two that include minutemanproject.org that makes the whole thing racist too? So, if they linked to Free Republic, would that make FR racist? If they linked to a planned FReep or rally, would that make the FReep, rally, or Free Republic somehow racist? I'm sorry to say it, but your logic here is faulty, Jim. I totally understand your need to protect FR from becoming a racist website polluted with racist threads. That's why you have a long-standing policy against such things and very rightly have the threads deleted and the racist posters banned. But this? This is not right.
I had only seen a few threads even mention the Minuteman Project and your typical race-baiters showed up and told their lies, but not much more than that. Suddenly you're banning people, pulling threads, and causing a real disturbance that is not making FR look good. I just think you've jumped to a bad conclusion or were mislead by someone and the action you took wasn't wise. I was hoping that you would see some reason and find a way to fix this while saving face. Instead the only post you've made to this entire thread on the topic was another weak attempt to link Stormfront to the Minuteman Project. (The link is one way - some nut from SF likes MP, yet MP isn't intentionally having anything to do with SF.)
What a mess. It pains me to see the division this thing has caused on Free Republic. It hurts to see so many other sites (and possibly media) jump on this to damage Free Republic. I've seen FR survive worse stuff than this. But this time the wound is self-inflicted.
I've taken a lot of crap for two and a half years precisely because my concerns were similar to Jim's. For that, I've been labeled as one of those "typical race-baiters" you have gone after.
I have little sympathy for yoru pains at this point. These conerns have existed among a number of Freepers, many of whom have been attacked for raising those concerns here - trying to avert the damage that is being inflicted. The division would not have occured had the concerns been addressed in a rational manner as opposed to what amounted to personal attacks.