A Comment on the Atmosphere of FR

A concerned FReeper | December 30, 2004 | K1avg

[K1avg]

For the past several months, fate has conspired to keep me away from the computer. I haven't posted nearly as much on FR as I used to. With the holidays, though, I've had an opportunity to catch up a bit.

What I found on my return is a bit disconcerting. While there's always been an element here that refuses to reason and does little more than insult Democrats and RINOs, it seems that this mentality has taken over a large portion of our membership. I've encountered more shrill, radical nonsense in the past couple of days than I had in the months before my absence.

Certainly it's acceptable to gloat a bit after our enormous gains on November 2, but I do believe it's about time to get back to normal business.

Referring to Democrats as “Rats” or some variant thereof may be somewhat amusing, but seeing the reference in nearly every other post really gets annoying at times. Pet names for Democrats and RINOs may be funny the first time, but quickly get old. It's one thing to respect someone, and it's certainly acceptable to not do so for one reason or another, but it's never alright to be downright incivil.

Just the other day, I was in an argument here with some other members who were supporting Yanukovych over Yushchenko because Yush had pledged to remove Ukraine's 1600-some-odd-strong force from Iraq and was *gasp* more liberal than Yanukovych. Seriously, that's absurd. I'd be happy to debate with you here, but anyone can tell you Yushchenko as president will be much better for the Ukrainian people, our interests in Iraq be damned.

But I'm getting away from the subject at hand. These are just a few examples of the devolution of discourse here. While everyone is certainly allowed to have their own opinions, there is a certain level of civility that should be maintained, regardless of the context.

This is the sort of stuff you find at DU, not here. I recognize there's plenty of good, civil users here, and I'm thankful for that. To those guilty, though, it would be nice if you could tone it down a bit.

I love being here. Things like the Undead Thread, Daily Dose, and crushkerry's Lib Pundit tournament, along with the usual daily banter of normal news, makes FR like no other political site on the web. Let's keep it that way. Thanks for your time, and have a lovely day.

[unbalanced but fair]

Sheesh! If you think we're uncivil when it comes to politics you should try posting something about Walmart and see what happens. Just kidding...a little.

[7.62 x 51mm]

Y-a-w-n. Was that an *adios opus*? Or just a vanity opus taking-up precious bandwidth?

Contents may settle during shipping. Your mileage may vary.

[kcar]

I love Boortz's line on his website:

OH! YOU'RE OFFENDED? IMAGINE HOW UPSET I AM!!

[Sam's Army]

"I love this forum, but I wish that we were all more civil."

I love this forum too, I just wish it could make a good Cabernet.

[frog_jerk_2004]

Posting a vanity to chastise an entire forum for the perceived incivility of a few is destined to provoke flames, ridicule and zot bait.

BUMP!

A most excellent statement...the descriptive power of that one sentence is surreal, as well as informative and motivating!

Zot bait...I gotta work that term into a few of my posts.

Kudos go to lonevoice. I merely regurgitated the statement.

[general_re]

[varon]

Klavg:I just dashed this off real quick, having been meaning to do so for several days.

Sam's Army: Why the delay?

Methinks Klavg is either a sloooow thinker or a sloooow dasher ;-)

[zoobee]

Hi.....are you from England? I'm being serious here.....

[Tacis]

Hey, Senator Frist, nice to have you back!

I must admit that I am not at all as ensitive as you. I prefer to follow the McAuliffe school of political discourse rather than your Rodney King School.

They have stolen the election in Washington, Kerry is still hiding something terrible and the crapweasels in the Senate are about to launch another program of hate and obstructionism. NOTHING HAS CHANGED!!! Most of us would be in camps if they had their way!

And, if you want to see how the scumbags continue to operate/speak, spend a few days in San Francisco! The battle may be over but the war continues. You may be superior enough and liberal enough to call it now, but I KNOW there is a lot more to come and, so long as Leahy, Schumer, Conyer and the step-n-fetchits in the Congressioanl Black Caucus are still in office, they will not change!

[lugsoul]

"on occasion there's no difference between an insult and the truth"

You mean like "all democrats hate America" or "liberals are anti-Christian"?

[alienken]

I'm with you.Two groups throwing insults will never accomplish anything. Rep./Conservatives are usually the ones that are civil because we have logic on our side and can refrain from using emotion. I think most Rep./Conservatives get aggrivated and they vent on this sight.

[Freebird Forever]

Typing "rats" instead of "democrats" saves bandwidth

May the gods of literary expediency smile on you.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Despite the election results, there's a lot left to do."

And I'm agreed with the poster that we won't accomplish anything if we stay at the level of insults and slogans. I've seen many instances when a thread posted news that was disconcerting to conservatives, and rather than seeing factual refutations or clarifications (or - in the worst case - confirmations), there are dozens of comments along the lines of "She's ugly" or "What do you expect from the NYT?" We won't make any inroads with the general public if our positions ultimately aren't based on facts and if all we can do is trade insults with the Dems.

[Howlin]

You can help out by learning the posting guidelines:

Vanities and General Interest.

General Interest (Chat)

All non-sourced non-news threads are posted here. This doesn’t mean your one thought is a thread by itself. Lately, we have been seeing articles posted that should be comments made on the main article. Your comment/vanity article will be pulled or moved to General Interest (Chat). Vanities should be limited to the mission of Free Republic.

Bloggers & Personal

For all of you who have blogs or personal web sites or personal news or opinion or forum sites that you would like to discuss or promote on Free Republic, here's the place to do it.

Our new Bloggers & Personal forum is for:

• Posting from your blog.

• Posting from other peoples blogs.

• Posting your from your personal web site.

• Posting from other peoples personal web sites.

• Promoting your blog.

• Promoting other peoples blogs.

• Promoting your personal web site.

• Promoting your favorite web sites.

• Posting from your favorite outside forums.

• Posting from your favorite lefty forums or sites (DUh and the like).

Click on the "Bloggers & Personal" forum link on the Forums sidebar of the latest posts pages.

Hopefully, this will become a very popular forum for promoting and or discussing blogs and personal opinion/news/forum pages.

---

[cwiz24]

In case you missed the 2004 election results, we HAVE made inroads with the general public. ;-)

[Bushforlife]

Gee, although I only recently registered, I have lurked here a while and I thought FR had just the right mix of rational discourse, camaraderie, and emotional venting. Sort of like real life. Real life without liberals, that is.

My suggestion is that you continue to engage in rational discourse and ignore the rest. However, WE will now be watching you VERY carefully now, and if we see any "devolution of discourse" in your posts, we will be very "shrill and radical" about it.

Have a nice day! :)

[longtermmemmory]

We have been getting quite a few seminar trolls here lately.

[buccaneer81]

See post #110. Good advice.

[jimbo123]

How many American people "dash things off"? Klavg is probably a limey.