It’s time to leave Free Republic after 25 years

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.

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.

Sympathize, as it clearly has declined, and with the rest of vulgarity and Putin promoting being part of it, but it is yet superior to any other new conservative forums an news aggregator. The primary reason I am leaving is the failure of FR to address the rising and blatant antisemitism on here.

True though often not so blatant, but one must read pertinent posts to see it. Along with this is the increased use of vulgarity. Like passing gas, it get attention but does not enhance quality.

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....this article is such fake news”

A decline in the quality of conservative news sites is part of it. Yet ti say "here's NOTHING useful published on these websites" is not objectively true, at least as regards the DailyMail, yet that is a soft porn site.

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.

No, it is when a blogger just posts a few words of his article to get hits by making readers go to his site that the charge is warranted,

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.

Not that one can expect he can due to his condition. And he has not responded to you here, But what he stated in the past many times has not been changed officially.

Statement by the founder of Free Republic 3/22/2004, 9:22:17 PM by Jim Robinson

I posted the following statement to our front page in response to the criticism I'm receiving lately as to not being fair and balanced and perceived mistreatment of trolls and assorted malcontents. Got news for all, I'm NOT fair and balanced. I'm biased toward God, country, family, liberty and freedom and against liberalism, socialism, anarchism, wackoism, global balonyism and any other form of tyranny. Hope this helps. ...

As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Constitution, pro-Bill of Rights, pro-gun, pro-limited government, pro-private property rights, pro-limited taxes, pro-capitalism, pro-national defense, pro-freedom, and-pro America. We oppose all forms of liberalism, socialism, fascism, pacifism, totalitarianism, anarchism, government enforced atheism, abortionism, feminism, homosexualism, racism, wacko environmentalism, judicial activism, etc.

One more time: FR's God-given Life & Liberty constitutional conservative activism agenda!! Edited on 12/15/2010, 10:09:46 PM by Jim Robinson

As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Constitution, pro-Bill of Rights, pro-gun, pro-limited government, pro-private property rights, pro-limited taxes, pro-capitalism, pro-national defense, pro-freedom, and-pro America. We oppose all forms of liberalism, socialism, fascism, pacifism, totalitarianism, anarchism, government enforced atheism, abortionism, feminism, homosexualism, racism, wacko environmentalism, judicial activism, etc. We also oppose the United Nations or any other world government body that may attempt to impose its will or rule over our sovereign nation and sovereign people. We believe in defending our BORDERS, our constitution and our national sovereignty.

Free Republic is a pro-God site. The one and only true Judeo-Christian God as taught to us by KJV with no additional editing or books of fiction. I have zero faith in Joseph Smith or his so-called Mormon religion and do not want it taught on FR as gospel. Joe Smith was a false prophet and his book is false gospel (look it up in KJV). Those who cannot live with that are certainly free to post elsewhere.
If you and your friends came back here to be troublemakers, I’ll show you the door. And this has nothing whatsoever to do with our beloved Religion Moderator so leave RM out of it. It is MY policy on MY website. Can’t live with it, do the adult thing and leave. Continue badmouthing FR, RM or our members here and you will be assisted out. posted on 11/30/2012, 4:20:20 PM by Jim Robinson

This is Free Republic. We're on a mission from God! [Judeo-Christian God Caucus] Posted on 11/9/2015, 5:29:46 PM This is Free Republic. Our mission here is to fight against the America-hating, God-hating, Christianity-hating, Jew-hating, capitalism-hating, abortionist/homosexualist, leftist revolutionaries and marxist/fascist totalitarians who are hellbent on destroying our constitution, our religious freedom, our economic freedom, our Judeo-Christian way of life and the America we love.

Confessions of a hypocritical sinner and confused soul regarding Trump, GOPcare and dodged bullets March 25, 2017 | Jim Robinson

Free Republic stands for God, family, country. We generally look to Judeo-Christian* guidance on issues of law, morality, justice, freedom, life, family and civil society. And we have a Christian self-governing, self-reliant, individual accountability & responsibility, you gotta work if able-bodied and want to eat attitude on cultural and societal issues. And a Christian pro-Constitution, original intent, pro-liberty, pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun, restricted government, small government, states rights, individual rights, free enterprise position on political and civil matters.

*Note: I say Judeo-Christian because Jesus was a Jew and referred to the Ten Commandments, Jewish law, beliefs and customs and the scripture he quoted was from the Torah, ie, the Hebrew Bible and basically today's Old Testament. If you believe in the Bible (Old and New Testaments) and the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, etc, then you believe in our one true Judeo-Christian God.

We take the Bible, the Declaration, the Constitution and our Christian founding and heritage seriously, though we are sometimes backsliders. We the people formed our original Christian states (and they were indeed Christian as the original constitutions of all 13 states openly declared it so), and after the revolution we the people of the original Christian states established and ratified the Constitution and formed the new national government.

Reminder: No profanity, no racism, no personal attacks, no threats, no violence, etc. Posted on 12/18/2018, 5:11:53 PM by Jim Robinson

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.

Overall, it is still far superior to any other forum I have ever been on. You would find the cynwoody. Free Republic Posting Form Enhancer useful: He disappeared, but some of use hosted the file under the warranted premise that he would want it to be freely available, by the grace of God.: https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4305239/reply?c=42

Also, you could use AutoHotKey in Windows to remapp Caps Lock to ctrl+c, Esc to ctrl+v; NumLock to Esc and the middle mouse button to crtrl+x.

AutoHotKey script:

NumLock::Esc CapsLock::^c Esc::^v mbutton::^x

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

There loss,and TikTok is now the Matt Drudge site for them, and what you lament here is a reflection of the general decline in worth context overall, and the rise of superficiality and crass content. The coming war will change some of that.

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