Replies

Plenum HAS raised points of view which should be either soundly refuted or wryly acknowledged; simply banning all who post controversial or unpopular messages is nothing but the totalitarian suppression of free speech. If the other posters here can't debate then the value of this site is questionable.

I have enjoyed and learned from the dissection and refutation of various posts plus other impassioned discussions that are rarely seen anymore.

Blandness is not a good thing.

If you desire free speech for yourself you must be willing to allow it for others.

No thanks. If you want to "debate" these idiots, you're certainly welcome to do it on DU or elsewhere. They're not welcome here. If we allowed them here, FR would soon look just like DU--a hell hole. No thank you. FR was created to be a troll-free zone. And this in no way hampers their rights to free speech. I'd never dream of attempting to get their boards shutdown. Freedom of association is also part of the first amendment and is worth defending.

I may be over generalizing in this specific case. None the less, logically responding to Plenum's post reminds me of attempting to discuss issues with someone who has memorized some talking points and their mission is to put them out as fast and as loudly as possible. They are not open to contrary opinion. They do not hear. They are not listening. They are only waiting for an opening to regurgitate more talking points.

Here's another example. I have heard Terry MacAwful on various radio talk shows and on the Sunday morning news programs. His purpose is to shout out as much of the Democrat's line as he can. When challenged, he just raises the emotional volume to shout down any logical opposition. James Carvelle (sp?) is another example.

Your language is similar. "Totalitarian suppression of free speech." Yikes! High emotional content, but severely lacking in fact based, logical content. For what it's worth, Plenum's post wasn't pulled. Those ideas, my comment and yours were all available to anyone wanting to read them. Sounds like free speech to me.

I hope that you continued reading. A couple of people, with much more patience than I had yesterday morning, took the time to argue each and every point Plenum had so diligently cut and pasted. And they were reasonably polite about it, too.

There you have it: Free Republic = Freedom of speech with class. And that's a group I would like to freely associate with.

His posts are OFF TOPIC for this thread. Rather than commenting on Michael Moore, the Cannes Film Festival, his new movie, or France he has opted to bash Bush and conservatives instead.

If he wants to address these issues, he needs to discuss them one at a time on relevant threads or else post a vanity (think THAT one will last?).