Posted on 08/30/2004 10:05:23 PM PDT by ChicagoHebrew
I enjoy this forum, but lately I've noticed a troubling tendency for posters here to descend into horrible and immature name-calling. Such name-calling, and extremism without reason does nothing but harm our cause. It turns off casual lurkers and readers of this forum. It provides fodder for this forum to be demonized and non-respected elsewhere. Below I provide a few examples. I call on Freepers to stop using such terms voluntarily. If that doesn't work, I call on the moderators to warn, if not censor, posters who use such terms. I realize that Democratic Underground uses even more ridiculous terms sometimes. However, your opponents' choice to frolack in waste does not provide an excuse to do likewise. Rather, it provides an opportunity to rise above, and show one's intellectual and moral superiority. Without more, I present a few examples of the type of garbage I'm talking about. I call on fellow posters to add their own.
1) "Hitlery" -- I dislike Hillary Clinton's politics, and what I know of her personality. However, nothing she has said or done (including her love-fest with Suha Arafat) justifies comparing her to one of the worst monsters in all history. Doing so not only demeans the Holocaust, and all the war dead of WWII, it makes a mockery of this forum to allow it to be posted.
2) "Demorat" -- This is just stupid. Calling your opponent a rodent does nothing to promote conservatism or libertarianism. It does everything to make posters and this forum look like intellectual infants, prone to tantrums and incapable of rational debate. We disagree with Democrats. We should not dehumanize them, or think them so below us that we need not engage them in debate and triumph.
3) "McInsane" & etc. -- John McCain is a conservative, loyal Republican. Indeed, in some areas -- such as controlling spending -- he's far more conservative then Bush. However, he is also a mavarick who doesn't tow the party line -- and, in my opinion, sometimes perhaps puts his principles below his desire to win applauds from the media. That being said, his ACU rating is strong, and he has put legitimate personal disagreements with Bush behind him to support what's best for his party -- and, more importantly -- his country. Feel free to critique McCain. Feel free to disagree with him when he criticizes fellow Republicans or takes an odd liberal stand. However, do not resort to petty name-calling -- especially not name calling that implies he lacks mental faculties, and/or is evil. It's just not right.
So I have written. I hope that a silent majority of Freepers agree with me here.
I guess the blood of millions of murdered infants
is just not serious enough evil for calling a devil a devil!
Thanks for taking the time to run for the FR Minister of Culture. I believe the post is taken, however.
RANTING ABOUT THE EVIL ENEMY
IS
NOT
WHAT THE ABUSE BUTTONS ARE FOR!!!
Sheesh!
Where's your sense of propriety and properly ranked values!
LOL!
Dittos!
FOR VERY BLOODY SURE.
Her unroyal lowness, her hideous heinous Bwitch Shrillery de Antoinette de Fosterizer . . . de Sade
is EXCEEDINGLY BAD NEWS. No evil cheeky sophomoric label does her evil true justice.
LOL.. Yeah, that's what I meant when I said I found the fence line.
If I had taken time to reread it i probably wouldn't have posted it. :-)
In keeping with the high-minded decorum of this political convention season, and in deference to the many calls for civility which have been made on this thread, I will refrain from such epithets, and refer to Skerry only by his worthy and proper title: "the Senator from Cambodia."
Yes, in the best of all possible worlds,
such a point might be more worthwhile and at least more sensible.
Alas, we are in a very, very, very, very crazy world driven by literally demonized traitors at the highest levels.
Yes, the labels are well over the line of decorum, sophomoric, etc. etc. etc. AND THEY ARE STILL MILD compared to the reality in the dark hearts of most we use them on.
Actually, I think sitting in the middle of the busiest NYC intersection in sackcloth throwing dust and ashes in the air on one's head screaming the worst of these epithets would
STILL
be mild compared to the reality these idiots are working eagerly to bring down on all our heads.
NOTHING will compare to the outrageousness of that time. The Bible makes that clear. The Bible declares that the evil and horror will be worse than the world has ever known or ever will know.
I don't mind much at all that outrageous people doing outrageous things and planning more outrageous things in outrageous times
trigger some
precious few outrageous labels.
Other labels are simply inadequate to express our outrage at their outrageousness.
Excellent point, well made.
Very apt comparison, imho.
I suspect the Democrats are probably panicking. Good! They nominated that single-issue clown, so I don't blame them. LOL
Actually,
I think there's a rather large sandbox full of
grains of truth in such terms.
And RAT or demoRAT is a reference to that famously clever subliminal ad from the last pres. campaign. What could be wrong with that? Golly.
Very well said, imho.
How about 'Hill'? Or is that too familiar?
If Hitlery had the presidency, we can't imagine the nastiness that would ensue.
ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.
THX.
I do think that they are.This is going to be an extremely bad week for them and it's NOT going to get better any time in the future. hehehehehehehehehe
YEA!
LOVE IT.
I disagree a bit.
I believe Shrillery's past VERY CLEARLY
classes her in the camp of those who would enslave, mass murder and control the planet from a very arrogant, demonic position extremely brutal to all the 'lesser creatures.'
And given their denial of God, there will be no bounds to their evil.
GREAT BELLY LAUGH.
THX.
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