Don't let the door...
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.
Radical Catholics who trash other Catholics.
did the FBI really make arrests?
I admit it isn't good to call your spouse a nazi but sometimes it helps to consider that any time someone is intensely emotional they are also insane.
I am sorry that anyone treated you so rudely. I too saw some of the hyperbole and name calling flying around and thought it terribly inappropriate.
I still hate to see you go and wish you would reconsider.
You know it's like a kid who cries every night after being put to bed. If you go pick them up every time for every whine, they'll never be quiet and go to sleep. Same thing goes for those that spout nonsense or can't stay relatively on topic. Pay too much attention to hysterical people and you give their spew too much credence.
Right now I've of the opinion that an opus for leaving because 'the fringe has taken over' or 'it just isn't like it used to be' is rather self-indulgent and counter-productive. And this is coming from someone who'e read Poohbah's and many other "old timer" posts and feel they are a vital part of FR.
And as for the TS stuff, it pained me a great deal to see many people behaving in a very unChristian manner.
Not in the last two weeks. It's been at least 65% Schiavo tripe.
When I left the first time, that was not nearly as toxic and vicious as this time.
Frankly, saying it's always like this is not really a solution.
Click on your name under a post, then on the top section marked "In Forum." Your number is in the html link to the page. You are #1262 (though I had to translate it from Sanskrit *wink*).
Oh, dear God! [sniff] I cannot believe you just viciously, savagely attacked me!!!
What has happened to this place?!?! I remember back in '98 we never would have had this kind of personal language abuse!! [sob] JimRob and the mods are obviously aligning themselves with the grammar police. Goodbye, cruel forum!
Well the silver lining is that I learned a lot from all of that internecine bashing. But then I had much to learn; I'm not Catholic.
What the hell does that mean? You're a cat?
I stated quite clearly that I never saw the posts in question.
I've been working on another rant for you, but I've been too busy to finish it up. I did receive via email many kind messages while I was gone, and they helped a lot to improve my spirits.
As you can see, I still have my temper. I wish Pooh was still around to defend himself, but I respect his decision. Lets hope my temper does not get me banned upon my recent return?
Chad, you better not!
That should have been your first clue that it wasn't written by anyone with even a passing knowledge of Christianity (or ANY religion). That is someone attempting to appear to be a member of the religious right by acting according to their own personal opinion of how a religious person acts.
Funny!
No way, jack. You are staying right here. We all need to decompress from the recent Schiavo mess. I stayed off those threads because that was a no-win situation, top to bottom.
I hope poohbah and hchutch are going to reconsider things as well.
Yet you didn't let that stop you from responding witlessly.
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