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My first reply to you was a little too short, so I want to add this.

I am a rabid believer that doctors are absolutely the worst thing for your health. They kill more people than almost any other one thing, and that would be automobiles. I believe this with all my heart. So much so, that I did not have my children immunized when they were young, I bore my last two children at home with a certified midwife, and I haven’t been to a doctor since 1989. I’ve gone through every single health issue since that time on my own and I am as strong as an ox.

Now, if I were running for President, I’m sure most people would be really interested in my POV. In fact most Americans would think I was down right daft!

On FreeRepublic, if I posted this belief, I would suspect that most would disagree with me. They would probably post articles and links attacking my belief. It wouldn’t change my mind, it might make me feel bad - but and this is a really huge BUT....They have the right to question me. Just because it is a sincere belief of mine, it doesn’t take all discussion off the table!

You may claim that only a small percentage hold the same belief I have - that would be correct. You may post statistics proving your point. You might call me stoopid. JimRob would absolutely let you say this.

That is how we learn. That is how we keep our freedom - by speech. This is a vital fact our founding fathers recognized and memorialized in the first amendment.

Just because someone doesn’t agree with me that doctors are dangerous, doesn’t mean they hate me. That is a leftist tactic of trying to squelch discussion. People like me were once put to death - accused of witchcraft. That still doesn’t mean we can’t discuss it.

We welcome dissenting views and beliefs at FreeRepublic, that doesn’t mean we agree with them all - OR that discussion of those beliefs are off the table. That would be just plain stupid.

I hope this hijacks the thread to a discussion of Doctors (or Judaism or Catholicism or....) because that is what has happened on this very thread. I am not trying to hijack. I’m trying to make a point.

Using your viewpoint as an analogy, let’s say you started a website for folks who dislike doctors and attracted a sizeable following. Let’s call it FReefromdocs.com Pretty soon, a bunch of other people joined your site and thought.... slightly differently but they all perceived that the original owner & followers of FR were stoopid and lacked pragmatism because sometimes it’s okay to see a doctor. Wouldn’t all those people who sign up to the site and don’t see it the same and try to separate the doctor-dislikers from their doctor-disliking belief every few years when a major doctor issue came up... wouldn’t all those people be trolls? And what do you do when you have more trolls signed up than originalists?