More miles on the chassis, but hangin' in there, thanks.
Btw, gotten any better at that cake bakin' thang ?
(chuckling)
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.
That was my initial reaction ... as to why the mods did not reign in the vanities and the insults. I concluded that this was the party line at FR.
Have to disagree...for a while you could count on someone showing up on almost any thread and posting a TS reference, even if the thread was about motorcycles or cats.
I had a bet with myself that it would take less than 15 posts before it occurred...I took the under, and I'm sorry to say, I won...if you consider that winning.
roflmao
I wish you wouldn't leave but I understand completely. I have wondered myself why I am still here for the same reasons.
Some Freepers wouldn't even take into consideration that those were bad pleadings by the Schindler lawyers to the Federal Court. When I said I agreed with the rulings of the Federal Judges not being activist but ruling on the law that was the wrong thing to say. I haven't changed my mind. All of a sudden we had people on here wanting activist judges and cheering on Jesse Jackson who turned out to be lying about flipping two Florida Senators. That was almost the straw with me.
Have spent my day watching events unfold from Rome on CNN, yes CNN has far better coverage. It has brought a calm from the anger of the last few weeks when I realize what this Pope has meant to people of the World. It has been so nice to be on threads with Freepers talking to Freepers and no name calling.
Will now go back to those threads and enjoy the interaction with other Freepers in a very pleasant manner.
Take care and keep in touch!
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Semper Fi, Poobah.
Well said.
"The trick is to make FR work for you, rather than against you. Mine the good, and eschew the bad."
Well said Torie. I have many disagreements with others on FR, but even those I strongly disagree with have taught me another way to look at something. If a forum is getting really raunchy, I move on. We all have the choice not to participate when it gets out of hand.
Sorry to hear you're leaving Poobah. Though I don't really know you.
I have enjoyed you postings,and the well reasoned thoughts you shared with us.
Take care. I may follow you soon enough.
Till then, We'll leave a light on for Ya.
Pax-Aye Pompah.
Sorry to see you go. Maybe after awhile you will change your mind and come back. As for me, I'm going to stick around because I think it's important to have voices of sanity and reason on FR. All the best to you.
CM
Three things happened this past year that drew increased membership:
Reagan's death (around Dem Convention season)
Buckhead shooting down CBS in the memo scandal
Bush and Republicans winning the election
Were people led here because they were of like-mind, or were they led here to propogate dissent and divide? With so many, how is one to know? Either way, the culture is different.
LOL. Ahem...:-)
Btw, gotten any better at that cake bakin' thang ?
(chuckling)
You're part of the problem.
I agree with you, and from the beginning I said McClintock and others were unelectable, that we should not split the party and have to win California back in small steps.
Nothing happens overnight and I was very disappointed in the McC people for willing to split the conservative vote and for McC for staying in.
IMO, McC has ruined his future in CA politics.
Well, I posted all through that process and those that wanted to split the Republican party would not stop.
Lots of bad stuff said. Some went who frankly were more willing to elect Democrats, so that didn't work out too bad at all.
I haven't felt the pressure to conform. And even someone(s) did try to make me conform ... well let's just say, I know what to say.
Well...
Maybe not quite. I stayed off most of the Schiavo threads once they started getting completely crazy, so I guess they didn't hit me all that hard. I try not to get too personally invested in other people's stupidity. Being far from perfect myself, I have plenty of my own to go around. I have views that probably agree with some of the crazies, I simply chose to keep them to myself since there was no value to be added by expressing them.
That being said, I haven't seen a lot of difference between the Schiavo furor and the Bush-bot Blitzkriegs last fall. FR has always had her extremist factions. That's part of what makes her so much fun. I have friends and colleagues who think I'm a complete right-wing nut-case for just typing in the FR URL.
I have little more patience with cry-babies and quitters than I do flakes and nut-balls, so I can't say that these self-serving swan-songs stir up much sympathy in me. If you are fed up, then step away, do something else, go your own way, have a nice life. These dramatic "I've had it with you kooks and I'm leaving" posts serve no purpose. As you can see from the responses, they really change nothing and they make the poster look over-egotistical and more than a little bit silly. It's the stuff of which Jerry Springer is made.
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