You have to have tough skin to put your opinions out there for others to see. Some will agree, some won’t. I’d at least like to think on a forum such as this, that even some disagreement over a given subject would not descend into burning acrimony or threats of violence.
I was visiting leftist forums when I first got online 25 years ago, and ugly/profane exchanges were the norm (even amongst leftists - it’s remarkable their ability to stick together has managed to endure, despite the fact they’d knife a fellow leftist in the back at the drop of a hat). FR used to be a more adult forum for ladies and gentlemen, but over the years has slipped. Often times we would recover, but something would be lost in the process. It became more tolerant of troublesome individuals.
I’ve seen good people head for the doors because they expected to be able to voice an opinion - a Conservative one - without being personally attacked or threatened. Now we see a small group inflicting a disproportionate amount of harm and hate, and their agenda is explicitly at odds with the mission of this website. Now after making their actions known and their boorish behavior a premier fixture here, almost nothing is done to curtail it. They arrogantly cite the rules of Mr. Robinson, while flagrantly violating them - often in the same post (the irony is lost on them, or maybe not, perhaps laughing at what a joke things have become).
We can perhaps get a single n00b troll account zotted, but what of the other 100 or so troublemakers that have contributed to diminishing this website and undermining its foundation like a colony of termites ? That’s a question only the owners of this website can answer. But, so far, it’s not one that posters in long, good standing here can take comfort in.
Here’s just a typical example of one of the problem people, whom, when failing to get their way in trying to enforce the Soros-globalist position (and after reiterating their genocidal glee in wishing for the extermination of Russia and Belarus), they’re reduced to exchanges such as this:
“Piss off you mindless tool.”
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4180620/posts?page=219#219
Yes, although I could match their level of intelligence with a like-minded reply, it’s still really a competition in a manure-filled pig-sty. In the end, it’s just hate that seems to occupy their every waking thought. Again, no wonder why so many have quietly walked away from here when they have to contend with such exchanges from paragons of virtue and magnanimity.
My skin is tough. It is becoming my experience that using many citations with accompanying URLs is a decided advantage, when debating another who can only assert, assert louder and then assert again. Realpolitik grounds one in what is, and often chases ideological emptiness away. So has it seemed to me.
“Piss off you mindless tool” is as to sourced discussion as is flatulence to a garden of roses in bloom. It is a measure of the individual commenting in that manner, and an indication of the frustrations likely felt.
One thing is sure. Nothing -- nothing at all -- which comes from any of these debates and arguments actually makes a difference in the hall of Congress in DC, or the EU parliament, or the Kremlin, or Beijing. Nothing.
This forum seems to me to be 1) a way of speed reading though a great many titles and accompanying articles, and 2) making some comment with perhaps resulting dialogue and disagreement as it may come. The notion that conservatives must march in lock step on all issues is just so-o-o progressive and fascist, in the end.
Stay your course. Be well.
; )
Ah, yes, their finger-wagging at others as they simultaneously sling their insults. One of the hallmarks of a FRUkazoid. Seriously, who *are* these people? What a blight on this site they are.