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.
It's a two way street. Catholics give it back good and hard.
If nobody is harder on Catholicism than Catholics, then why kvetch about what non-Catholics have to say?
I don’t ever recall seeing any antisemitism in the Christian churches I’ve attended, which are Evangelical, though, and not mainline Protestants.
It appears that Jaysin’s RANSOM DEMANDS of only yesterday were not met; hence the opus.
Help Jim Robinson and Free Republic
6/9/2025, 8:03:32 AM · 2 of 38
Jaysin to starflyte1
well perhaps Jim needs to step up in his leadership here at FR because this site as turned into a toilet of uncontrolled antisemitism lately.
FR isn’t getting a dime from me until the mess is cleaned up
(and sadly, as I’ve had private chats with freepers, I’m not the only one wondering if this site will even make it into the next decade without some drastic changes all around)
Just to let you know, I have found Russians living in the USA to be wonderful people and more conservative than your average American.
They do tend to be a bit materialistic, wanting the best of the very best.
I dislike blog pimps as well and ESPECIALLY the ones who only post and NEVER reply. They have NO posting history in their comments section . It’s only posting.
I refuse to even click on their threads.
That's generally a banning offense, although they'd just sign up again under a new screen name.
Yeah, there are a couple public school drones who HATE homeschooling and homeschoolers and I've had my run ins with them.
In the case of all wars, it’s not the people. It’s the leaders.
Overall, most people just want to live their own peaceful life and earn a living and be left alone. They’re just not the ones you hear about.
IMO, there are no good guys in the Putin/Zelensky conflict. Both are corrupt and have their issues and I don’t know what a good answer is.
Full disclosure here.... Ukie on my dad’s side, but still not taking sides in this war. And the wanton destruction of so much beautiful, old buildings and stuff is heartbreaking.
God bless you for your work in Russia.
Been on here since 1998 and can’t disagree with any of your points. The biggest one is the level of discourse, which has devolved considerably since the early 2000’s. It used to be that you would read a variety of conservative opinions on here, but today if you don’t toe the party line you are flamed. I got suspended back in 2016 for two weeks for making a statement that was not deemed pure enough about DJT, a man I’ve voted for three times. When that happened, I cancelled my monthly contribution and have never reinstated it. As I said to Jim, who personally suspended me, “I know it’s your site and you can run it anyway you want, but I don’t have to pay for it.” I was eventually reinstated, but that left a really bad taste in my mouth.
Sorry to see you go, but I can understand why you’re leaving.
True.....
If FR was a powerhouse it would have been because the trajectory of the debate was at a far different point to today. FR would back then have attracted a high percentage of people who were paying attention, who had an understanding of the Constitution and American history and many of whom had been places and done things, in some case interacting with government itself.
Then the internet and that trajectory advanced until today when it’s at a point where far more of the public knows what’s what politically and their views are hardened. We’re in a political standoff today. There’s no debate anymore; there’s us and them. And that’s true on both sides What was insightful analysis 25 years ago is understood today by people who couldn’t have named their congressman or the Secretary of State twenty five years ago..
Way back when, I was the political ranter at work. The guy who’d amuse the fellas with blasts of conservative argument. I’d see the elbows nudging and the suppressed smiles as I talked. Those guys didn’t even vote. Then one day not long ago the usual circle formed and someone in tones of extreme aggrievement let fly with a conservative tinged political opinion and as I drew in breathe to amplify his observation someone to my left beat me to it and added data and factoids I knew to be spot on. As I began to speak with the idea of buttressing his arguments someone to my right glided in with with a surprising number and command of facts, all of which I knew but a few I would have had a problem pulling up at just that moment. The conversation went on for another five minutes and tempers were running high…and I never uttered a syllable.
It ain’t twenty five years ago anymore. There’s nothing left to analyze really, the worst has happened. There are millions of religiously political monsters in this country who hate it with their blood and fully intend to pull it down. There are professional conservative columnists and commentators today who write with a vicious and literary but sophomoric snarl that would have precluded publication years ago. But we are where we are now and they are morally and intellectually outraged to a point that they just don’t give a damn anymore. Analyze that. Well… we all do in opining on when the conflagration will come and what it will look like. Be seeing ya, I guess…
Same here but can't say as I blame them considering the conditions they left.
The Ukrainians I know seem to run the same.
Very true - not in person - but at least I post.
At about 5 pm it starts raining. Hard. Still raining. Can't believe I stood in the hot sun wasting water.
Anyway, what's this thread about?
Not kidding on Jaysln rape comment. It was comment #35 on this thread.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4321839/posts
FWIW, Jaysin sent me a FReepmail with his (failed) justification for his comment. FR etiquette precludes my posting the FReepmail he sent me..
With one of his other screen names. Of course.
I have
if ya think this is your “magnus opus” moment
this is beyond weak, try leaving taking a breather
and coming back in to try again!
HA! No.
It is comments I have seen people make when some “important” story appears.
I couldnt even remember the beebers quote let alone remember the origin
Funny. I dont recognize your either.
Ooooppssss....wrong rank.
She’s had a few great promotions, since first signing up at FR.
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