Posted on 06/10/2025 11:32:39 AM PDT by Jaysin
Dear Freepers
After almost 25 years of freerepublic.com being a rare bastion of sanity in this crazy world, I will be ending my time as a member of this once great site.
The quality of FR has degraded to the point that I no longer find much usage for the site that I can’t find on other platforms and sources. I have had multiple conversations with many freepers, both in the forum and privately and many of them agree with some of my points of contention:
A) The primary reason I am leaving is the failure of FR to address the rising and blatant antisemitism on here. Yes, a vast majority of freepers call them out and see right through it but the failure of the FR leadership to deal with this issue is not acceptable. There are a few dozen of these posters on here who have a very clear track record of posting their jew-hatred over and over again. Of course they will mask it under the cover of “I’m criticizing Israel, not Jews” or “I’m an American Firster” label or my favorite one “I’m an Appalachian Christian”. But if you look closely at what they comment on and how they do it, it is clear they have a JEW problem. These posters will ignore the atrocities committed by the same types of people who committed 9/11, killed RFK, blew up the USS cole, the marine barracks in Lebanon, shot up a club in Florida and countless other horrific acts that have killed and maimed thousands of people, orphaned many children, and left multi-thousands of grieving loved ones behind. The moral compass of these posters is quite shocking to say the least. And they always use the same tropes–foreign aid, the USS Liberty incident, war-mongering BiBi, AIPAC controls xxxxxx, and my favorite one is when they link to sites like the UN and Amnesty International as their “proof” that Israel is violating some international “law”. Some are more blunt and vicious than others, but it’s come to the point where much of my time is spent responding and commenting to the crazies on here. And of course most of them will deny they hate Jews, they just don’t want American foreign policy dictated by Israel etc….. FR is not twitter and is supposedly a tightly monitored site of like minded conservative individuals. Most of these loonies should be formally warned or banned, but they are not. Whatever happened to zotting?
B) Another significant reason I’m leaving is sadly, the quality of the discourse here. This was a website that was once feared as a threat by the left and helped expose the Dan Rather scandal. Those days are long gone. There was a time when I would come on here to get genuine and insightful opinions on politics and world events from intelligent people. Many of my political understandings and positions over the years were molded from what I read on this forum. Nowadays most of the comments to the real issues facing the USA are nothing more than silly venting comments in the vein of “we should lock up everyone of these rioters and throw away the key” or “Trump needs to fire these judges ASAP” or “It’s time for public tarring and feathering to return” level of quality. I can read through multiple threads without finding a useful insight to glean from it. It is really nothing more than venting and wishful thinking but not really practical–the same level of commentary can be found on a foxnews comments section. The personal assaults and attacks levied against each other don’t bother me so much and are often a natural response and I do sometimes like seeing someone get slammed down. I know I have been guilty of some crude and impolite commenting over the years. It’s the overall value of the content that has declined.
C) As a follow up to B, A vast majority of the articles that are being posted nowadays are from very mainstream fake news sources such as the NYtimes/Reuters/AP/DailyMail/MSNBC/CNN/SFGate etc… with a solid supplement of other almost useless sources such as foxnews/nypost/breitbart. Any halfway intelligent freeper on here KNOWS darn well that there's NOTHING useful published on these websites or articles so the comments turn into nothing more than “this article is such fake news” and similar style comments. It’s the same story over and over and over again and we all point it out. But real thought provoking ideas are not to be found. And of course we have the endless BOMBSHELLS and BOOMS and BREAKING headlines from the gateway pundit and dailymail posted on a daily basis that never amount to anything. Sites like American Thinker / townhall / Sultan Knish and some others are the only ones with real content worthy of real discussion If anyone dares to post some thought provoking article from some small blog or some less-known unfamiliar site, you’re instantly accused of blog-pimping. As a lead on to my next issue, the same news event is often posted multiple times just from a different source.
D) Leadership–I know I’m going to get flamed hard for this but who is steering the ship here at FR nowadays? I have much respect for Jim and what he’s built but I really feel like he only appears when appealing for money. He certainly is not actively involved in leading and guiding the site into the future. Perhaps it is time to pass the torch on to someone else who can keep the site as a useful and relevant place on the internet. Sadly, I feel that there is no one clearly calling the shots and no leadership here anymore
E) My final issue with FR is the functionality of the site. There hasn’t been a single update to this site since I joined. Not a thing. No, we don’t need flashy profiles and avatars and other silly bells and jingles but it’s 2025 and simple features like the ability to edit your comment or even delete it would be nice. A like and dislike option to a post would also be a nice feature and save a lot of the commenting issues I mentioned above. The ability to respond inline to comments would also make the flow much easier–If someone makes a comment at #12 and I dont join in until comment #93, I’m forced to copy/paste what they wrote so my comment can be understood in context. And no in 2025, I shouldn’t have to use html to post a picture. The breaking news is often hours behind an actual event happening. The search features are primitive at best. The site can still be very basic looking but can still be user-friendly.
I would love for FR to become a political powerhouse again that it once was but it will need to look in the mirror and decide what it wants the future to be. Or it can bury itself in the sand pretending that young 27 year olds are jumping on here and using the site (they aren’t!) I’m in my early 50’s and I sometimes feel like I bring down the median user age by 10 years. That’s not a bad thing per se, but what's going to be in 5-10 years? I really wonder how FR is going to make it into the next decade without some type of overhaul.
I truly wish FR the very best going forward and I wish only the best. I genuinely hope something good will come out of this final post. I will not be responding to this thread but will probably read direct freepmails sent to me regarding the thread before I log off for the last time. Some of you will tell me good luck and some of you will me good riddance. I understand.
GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL FREEDOM LOVING PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.
My beepers are also stuned!
“ almost useless sources such as foxnews/nypost/breitbart…”
Well, let’s not forget that the Hunter Laptop story was led by the New York Post. Yeah, it’s Murdoch and very often wrong and annoying but it’s still more useful than many other sources. And personally, I think Breitbart is quite valuable.
The Ukraine arguments every day are useless due to certain of the participants, but they, like all other postings, are easily skipped over.
I remain grateful to American Hero Jim Robinson and his family for creating and running this great site.
*** As far as the religion stuff, be glad you aren’t LDS. I felt sorry for them. ***
The only time in 25 years on FR I received a 3 day suspension was for defending the LDS/Mormons on this site. Not a LDS, nor have I ever been, but the banning, and vitriolic actions visited upon them was intolerable to me.
I just looked and the main anti LDS hater is still posting on FR after 27 years on this site.
I hit the abuse button on your comment yesterday in which you posted to another FReeper, “hope your fat pig of a wife gets raped “
Your post was removed, so I can’t cite it, but I am not sorry you are leaving FR.
“ Antisemitism? I also have ZERO tolerance for that hideous evil, but I have never seen anything even remotely like that on Free Republic!”
I have and reported it. I let the mods take it from there. Where I am frustrated is with blog pimps. Mods don’t seem to care about that, as we see almost everyday from Nextrush.
“The quality of FR has degraded to the point that I no longer find much usage for the site that I can’t find on other platforms and sources. “
I saw it like this during the Bush years.
whaat? are you kidding?!
Many good points, although there’s not cost to stay as a “member” and just ignore postings to the site. But this way you get to tell us why and suffer the slings and arrows of those who are responsible.
lol...
There are replies after you so you’re off the hook!
:P
WOW thanks for saying what i have been thinking for a while now
I’ll try again
Take some time to get a different perspective. No gold in a silver mine. No future for chilonim.
Try listening to a few different rabbis:
Yosef Mizrachi
Mendel Kessin
‘Machon Shiloh’
Rafi Mollot
Lawrence Hajioff
Uriel Vigler
sample!
My biggest complaint about FR is that the quality of opuses has declined dramatically over the years.
youre just not “Cool” enough to talk to!!
Good response
I hate the paid Russian trolls that stick up for Putin, and I agree an edit button is long overdue.
.
This Jew here says bye and shalom.
“I get most of my political news from X nowadays”
I spend some time on X also. It’s entertaining, but it can be hard to separate what is real and what is not. Just the same, some good FR readers/contributors may have diverted their attention to X.
Some of my posts (or comments) get the attention that I think they deserve, some not. That’s the way it goes.
I have made my share of knee-jerk responses, so I cannot blame others for their knee-jerk responses. Sometimes I’m fortunate that a poster provides a really knowledgeable response.
I like many articles from American Thinker, and I think it’s a good sign when someone posts from AT. They just put up a pay wall and I think FR will be degraded as a result.
It would be nice to edit one’s comments. In principle it should not be necessary but, try as I might, I often spot a mistake after posting.
I’ve noticed a few mild anti-Jewish comments. I wish these posters would expand so that I could understand their thinking.
I tune out the few that are not mild. “The Jews are committing genocide” is stupid regardless of the identity of the speaker. Good luck avoiding that kind of comment.
Some Christian religious leaders and denominations have been criticized too. So what? I think the last Pope was a disaster. The leadership of many mainline Protestant denominations are about as bad. The problem is leftism in each case. Jewish conservatives should see a problem with Jewish leftism, much as Catholic/Protestant conservatives should see a problem with leftism among Catholics/Protestants.
I never got around to it but I strive to be less dramatic than others. Instead, I just hang in the shadows.
I’ve been here longer than today’s exiting member.
Nobody cares about that either.
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