Posted on 04/01/2005 4:26:00 PM PST by Poohbah
First, this is NOT an April Fool's joke.
I am leaving Free Republic.
Over the past two years, civility and thoughtful discourse has vanished from this site, replaced with demands for ideological conformity that are straight out of Stalinist Russia or China's Great Cultural Revolution, and unrelenting uncivility if said conformance is not forthcoming. This trend began with the California recall election, where certain posters were allowed to flame the living beejezus out of those who didn't wholeheartedly support Tom McClintock, or thought that he wasn't running a campaign capable of winning. It extended into the Keyes campaign last year, where any critique of Keyes' campaign strategy was shrilly flamed, despite the obviously flawed execution of his campaign.
(Aside: one person who flamed me during the Keyes mess later said that he hadn't intended to start a fight with his remarks that accused me of homosexuality, pedophilia, and other evils; I was instantly reminded of the time I had to bail one of my Marines out of the local lockup. "Honest, Sarge," this Marine told me, "I didn't mean to start a fight when I called that Army Ranger a faggot." My response was not [and still isn't] suitable for public consumption.)
Since then, the Terri Schiavo case has pushed FR over the edge. We had posts calling for people to ensure that "accidents" to befall Schiavo and Judge Greer. We had posts praying that Iran would soon develop nuclear weapons, so that they could destroy the United States. And until the FBI started making arrests, those posts were allowed to stay up, completely abnegating Free Republic's standards.
We had people on both sides of the issue point out that the Schindlers were associating with some people of extremely low character, and that our uncritical embrace of these parties would not rebound to our favor. Rather reasonable attitudes to take, actually; but the loudest of the loud were in no mood to think.
My personal favorite was the following exchange:
The issue is not legality, but public opinion. Which will not be helped in this case if the pro-Terry side becomes associated in the media with Christian Identity, white supremicists, neo-nazis, racists and/or anti-semites.
Diva Betsy Ross made a valiant attempt to...ahem...whitewash Christian Identity, but it didn't work.
To top things off, we had people embracing as some sort of conservative icon, to the extent of posting a fundraising link.
I always thought that conservatism valued thinking over feeling, careful contemplation of facts over wild-eyed repetition of every damn rumor to come down the pipe, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. For a while, Free Republic met those criteria in spades.
Those days are long gone, and I have serious doubt as to whether or not they're coming back.
I know that many of the usual suspects will cheer this on, as their longtime nemesis is leaving them the field.
Be careful what you wish for; you are in the process of getting it. You may succeed in driving the folks who disagree with you from the site; but you will end up being just another collection of shrill voices in Bedlam. When everything is an over-the-top scream, no one will be heard.
Farewell.
Well, that would be generous provided you can find any honor in Pooh.:)
So let me get this straight -- you basically don't like pro-lifers for being narrow-minded, yet you refer to them as being "insane" and accuse them of being a cult? If you want to be treated with respect, perhaps you should treat others the same way in return.
SO I will make a donation in Pooh's honor. I think he would like that.
We will keep the home fires burning until he comes back. :]
I mean he must want to read the thread-since he ran it.
I must go now- I have a freep a thon to attend!
Farewell X! I am not sure if I will be back or not.
No,our first computer was the original IBM PC and still works.
Oh my goodness, that WAS a typo, he bought me the WebTV in 1997, not '87!
Bert was a WWII and Korean war Navy vet, and he did like to drink. Drink and post on Sundays mornings particularly, because that was before the mods and he knew the Robinsons tended to sleep in late on weekends.
Lord, did he love inflamatory one sentence vanities! And it was always 5pm in Dublin for him.:D I liked the old buzzard, he was a real character. Last I heard he was hanging out at Liberty Forum, which isn't a place I'd care to register with but each to their own.
Thanks for posting that link. It proves what others have surmised and posted to this thread.
Then again, some points of view don't merit any respect. None, zero.
Death's a part of life.
All living things die. Sick things
sometimes die sooner.
Person, animal,
plant -- everything dies. Jesus
died! The Apostles
didn't drag Him down
and stick a tube in His gut.
Live in the real world.
Choosing Life also
means accepting death when death
is the proper thing.
I'm not murdering
a bum if I refuse him
money to buy food.
A doctor isn't
murdering me if my spouse
tells the doctor that
I don't want to live
if I can not feed myself.
Get grown up. Right now.
Never doubt that they dwell among us..and don't be fooled by date of sign up. They love to agitate..fuel the flames and cause more division.
You're trying to say Terri's dath was "proper"???????
It never ceases to amaze me that the people who love to say they are more "compassionate" than me are the nastiest, meanest, cruelest posters there are. I live my compassion, I don't just don't talk and write about it.
And these are the people who get bent out of shape over the Supreme Court declaring it unconstitutional to execute children.
You have no understanding of the difference between murder and killing. Hence your confused state of mind.
God bless our armed forces for that.
(Just thought it should be said here.)
Thanks for listening.
DBR
death..
Thank God for that!
AMERICA..HOME OF THE FREE BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE.
This is the first time I've been able to read all their comments on one subject ever.
All about us and Poohbah's Opus. Fortunately most of them seemed to have trouble stringing a few sentences together, so it only took a few minutes.
Whaddya talkin' about??? My account's still here!
And I'm still gonna kick yer ass!!!
You!
I'm 'gonna throw your sorry arse into a wood chipper!
I actually printed out that thread when it started. I attributed it to some bad bathtub moonshine that A+Bert had drank...
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