It’s time to leave Free Republic after 25 years

vanity | 06-10-2025 | self

[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.

[mass55th]

"I’m staying just to piss them off."

Good for me. Anyone contemplating leaving FR because of a few dummies should ask themselves: "What would President Trump do? He'd stay in it, to win it.

[old-ager]

Goodbye. I don’t think your post deserved the 259 responses so far. But I encourage you to read them if you think there are no thoughtful commenters here.

[HandyDandy]

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/135600.html

[parmamenian]

Is it that much work to check out a website now and then?

[old-ager]

To mgmt: please DO NOT update FR. Every web app provider thinks they have to do this and they rarely actually improve. Instead, things get blockier and slower and features are removed. Anyone who doesn’t appreciate the bare-bones nature of FR doesn’t get it. Thank you.

[jjotto]

You might be interested in YouTube ‘Live with Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi’ tonight Tuesday at around 8:15 EDT/7:15 CDT.

Israeli born and raised, specializing in outreach to the non-religious, and isn’t afraid to use verbal blunt force trauma on Jewish and Israeli politics and culture.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY_RXl0nXVp4w3VpEwsNhUg

https://rumble.com/c/DivineInformation/videoshttps://rumble.com/c/DivineInformation/videos

[MayflowerMadam]

You have some good points.

I don’t notice the antisemitism that you mention. Maybe I’m just not paying attention well enough.

It’s true that civilized discourse has deteriorated here over the last 25 years. But that is the case EVERYWHERE. Sometimes you have to go with the flow. Wanting things to be like the good ol’ days is fun, but it won’t change anything.

I’m 50-50 on the functionality. It would be nice to be able edit or delete your own posts, to include images more easily, and to “like”. Search is terrible, but I can more quickly find what I’m looking for on FR via Google search.

I do like the layout for Reply, Private Reply, follow back to posts being referred to, checking to see if there are replies. It makes sense to whatever half of my brain is calling the shots. I’ve never figured out the flow of the “threads”/comments on X and similar sites.

Anyhow, I get where you’re coming from. I visit other conservative sites and always come back here.

Best to ya!

[vpintheak]

I’m not a crazy. I am sick of people that pontificate about things because it doesn’t match their purity test and make sure that every knows.
If you get your info elsewhere, fine. If you don’t want to banter anymore, fine. Beat it honkey!

[ohioman]

We won’t miss you. Calling FR anti-Semitic is the biggest load of BS I have seen in a long time. This is the most Pro-Israel news forum I have found and is one of many reasons I have been here since 1999.

[Pollard]

Agree on most.

FR’s days are numbered by the days left in the lives a bunch of 80-90 year old big donors. Those are dwindling as is evident by the dropping of the donation goal.

Just keep it running for as long as they can for the income seems to be the real goal.

[ohioman]

If you agree with this loser, why don’t you leave as well.

[rollo tomasi]

Bad Opus I must say, what a female reproductive body part you are; get over your victim-hood. Again this is just an internet forum. Are you just lashing out because you can't control the situation?

Antisemitism, was called that /fired for annunciating my Christian faith, you think you are in a bad spot on an internet forum, lol. Maybe you should man up and stop using the word antisemitism just like leftist calling everyone else a fascist because they feel like a victim/hurts their world view. Conspiracy theories are engrained with free speech, just ignore and grow thicker skin. I would rather live in a world of warped banter than get regulated under some oppressive sanitized BS. Sorry you can't handle that, God Bless.

[HandyDandy]

From encyclopedia.com:

“In the post–World War II era, "fellow traveler" became a term of derision, applied by conservatives to people who were communists in all but party affiliation.“

I might sound antiquated. But words matter. See my tagline.

[crusty old prospector]

Don’t be a douche.

[ohioman]

None of his points mean squat.

[metmom]

Please don’t name the name of Christ and post garbage like that.

[HandyDandy]

From encyclopedia.com:
“In the post–World War II era, “fellow traveler” became a term of derision, applied by conservatives to people who were communists in all but party affiliation.“

I might sound antiquated. But words matter. See my tagline.

[jjotto]

‘Fellow travelers’ was popularized by John Bunyan in ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’. I believe the communist reference was intended to mock Christians.

[Hot Tabasco]

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:

I understand your disappointment in how this site has devolved, and I agree wholeheartedly.

In some respects, one would think that the once banned Storm Fronters returned.

One only has to look at the many negative responses you get to your post to verify everything you are citing.......

Take care and hope you find a more practicing Christian site, rather than a site filled with angry hypocrites.......

[Ciaphas Cain]

I'm class of 1998. I left posting for awhile and came back nine years ago. In my opinion there is no news aggregator/discussion site like Free Republic. It's the very first site I visit whenever I go online. It's reliable. I trust the people here. I wish I could contribute to it more, unfortunately Biden's economy took out a very good career that I had and I've been scraping for money since (and even reduced to asking for contributions on GoFundMe). My life has gone through a lot of hard times. But one of the few constants in it the past twenty-seven years has been Free Republic. It's an indispensable tool for keeping up with the world. It has helped me keep my sanity, my good cheer up.

I hope you will reconsider. The issues that you have raised, have been adequately addressed by others better than I could. Stick around. We need you.