Poohbah's Opus

Over the past two years, civility and thoughtful discourse has vanished from this site, replaced with demands for ideological conformity that are straight out of Stalinist Russia or China's Great Cultural Revolution, and unrelenting uncivility if said conformance is not forthcoming. This trend began with the California recall election, where certain posters were allowed to flame the living beejezus out of those who didn't wholeheartedly support Tom McClintock, or thought that he wasn't running a campaign capable of winning. It extended into the Keyes campaign last year, where any critique of Keyes' campaign strategy was shrilly flamed, despite the obviously flawed execution of his campaign.

(Aside: one person who flamed me during the Keyes mess later said that he hadn't intended to start a fight with his remarks that accused me of homosexuality, pedophilia, and other evils; I was instantly reminded of the time I had to bail one of my Marines out of the local lockup. "Honest, Sarge," this Marine told me, "I didn't mean to start a fight when I called that Army Ranger a faggot." My response was not [and still isn't] suitable for public consumption.)

Since then, the Terri Schiavo case has pushed FR over the edge. We had posts calling for people to ensure that "accidents" to befall Schiavo and Judge Greer. We had posts praying that Iran would soon develop nuclear weapons, so that they could destroy the United States. And until the FBI started making arrests, those posts were allowed to stay up, completely abnegating Free Republic's standards.

We had people on both sides of the issue point out that the Schindlers were associating with some people of extremely low character, and that our uncritical embrace of these parties would not rebound to our favor. Rather reasonable attitudes to take, actually; but the loudest of the loud were in no mood to think.

The issue is not legality, but public opinion. Which will not be helped in this case if the pro-Terry side becomes associated in the media with Christian Identity, white supremicists, neo-nazis, racists and/or anti-semites.

Diva Betsy Ross made a valiant attempt to...ahem...whitewash Christian Identity, but it didn't work.

To top things off, we had people embracing as some sort of conservative icon, to the extent of posting a fundraising link.

I always thought that conservatism valued thinking over feeling, careful contemplation of facts over wild-eyed repetition of every damn rumor to come down the pipe, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. For a while, Free Republic met those criteria in spades.

Those days are long gone, and I have serious doubt as to whether or not they're coming back.

I know that many of the usual suspects will cheer this on, as their longtime nemesis is leaving them the field.

Be careful what you wish for; you are in the process of getting it. You may succeed in driving the folks who disagree with you from the site; but you will end up being just another collection of shrill voices in Bedlam. When everything is an over-the-top scream, no one will be heard.

"You're pretty brave in cyberspace, flame boy."

A story to relate. I had a disagreement with a FReeper back in late 2000. Got some FreepMail that stated if the poster knew where I was, he'd promptly kick my ass.

Probably not the smartest thing to do, but I provided directions to where I work, how he could go to the Switchboard, ask for me, and we could sit down for coffee first, and if after that, if he was still intent on kicking my ass, we could go ahead and see where that takes us.

My rationale was that most Freepers are good folks at heart, and tend to get a bit puffed up behind the monitor. Never did hear from him, and noted a couple of years ago his account no longer existed.

Some other posters are correct - we sometimes have to just ignore some Freepers. There's nothing wrong with that.

Re the nihilsm . . . you may find the following from:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/1375834/posts?page=35

of interest:

GRRR. I had a multiparagraph post about ready to post. System hung.

Greatly appreciate your post. I strongly agree with every point.

PRAYING SCRIPTURE IS VERY POWERFUL.

PRAYING 91ST PSALM OVER THE PRESIDENT WOULD BE GOOD AS WELL AS OVER ONE’S OWN LIFE AND FAIMLY.

Lord, help me recall what you’d like recalled . . .

1) I think people fail to appreciate the importance of: Whatever degree President Bush authentically submits to Jesus The Christ and Almighty God in his life and office is crucial in this hour. Well placed people I know assert that he IS an authentic believer who earnestly seeks God an hour in his private quarters before every day. He does read OSWALD CHAMBERS’ MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST devotional. No one gets off the hook reading that. It is Holy Spirit penetrating.

To whatever degree President Bush submits to Almighty God is light years better than the . . . critters before him. Were they still in power, the horror of Florida would have greatly more and more overtly covered our land already.

2) There are lots of houses of cards all cocked ready to crash to dust related to our Nation. The Jihadi’s have made a lot of noises about decapitating our Nation as well as devastating it so much that the whole world’s citizens would suffer because of our crash. They have not just been blowing smoke out their dark places. They have been privy to plans hatched in hell. They are part of hell’s focused tool kit against our Nation which has been and still is so potent around the world for The Gospel and all that’s good. But we are not lily white as a ‘Christian’ Nation ought to be. And we will pay the price for that which giving God the finger entails sooner or later.

Were President Bush to be removed, the encroaching demonic forces so eager to shred our land to smithereens would flood in with greater force and immediacy than folks can imagine. Even were Bush more inauthentic than I think he is, the fact that he claims to be submitted to God in prayer and the fact that he acts greatly more Christian than . . . other critters and the fact that he engenders sooooo much focused prayer for him and for our country stands for a great lot.

In any case, I do not believe that most even sensitive believers realize the press toward chaos which would result from such an attack on Bush. It would not be a relatively smooth Kennedy Johnson type thing. Many more assaults would come in quick follow-on, if not simultaneously. This is not just liberal pique against President Bush out of normal human jealousy—which is bad enough.

LITERAL DEMONIC HOARDS SEEK TO SHRED OUR LAND TO SMITHEREENS. Their sole job is satan’s passion for theft, death and destruction. Prayer and right living; Spirit-led submission to God Almighty and loving actions and hearts toward one another is all that stands in the way. Terri in Florida was not a good sign. It was good that Congress made the effort. But the poll figures even with stacked questions were not wonderful.

I’m reminded of the audiences’ reaction to CLOCKWORK ORANGE 34 years ago in Hollywood. The audiences’ reactions proved the nihilism in the film. Fast forward. Terri in Florida. The culture of death and meaninglessness, destruction, has advanced wholesale.

PRAYER FOR PRESIDENT BUSH IS NOT JUST PRAYER FOR THE PRESIDENT. IT IS PRAYER FOR YOUR OWN SURVIVAL in any semblance of a normal mode for a while longer.

Things are looming in the spirit realm ready to break into our reality which the world has never seen in all of history recorded or not. And the world will never see again. Scripture is clear about this and some of us feel it in our bones.

PRAYER CAN BUY US YET SOME MORE LIMITED TIME TO DO GOOD WORKS; PREPARE OUR HEARTS; PREPARE OUR FAMILIES; PREPARE OUR LIVES.

Wake-up, people. The night is coming. The Sunday picnic is over. This is not a tiddldee winks championship.

This is growing issues of eternal life and death as well as the severe disciplining of our country for calling ourselves a Christian Nation while supporting such death, destruction and giving God the finger over His priorities, His values, His commands. . . . and His 10 Commandments.

You are welcome to laugh at Quix all you wish, if that’s what tickles your funny bone and you think God doesn’t care about these issues. But you might contemplate whether you will be laughing were you to suddenly stand before God to give an account of your life; of every idle word.

You're openning full shows that you haven't been paying attention. Even back in 1998 when you joined, this forum was loaded with lack of civility and lack of thoughtful discourse. The difference is, instead of being focused on Clinton and the democrats, it's now found focus on republicans and conservatives. Because they are in charge and not a whole lot has really changed. But now you've also got a group of republicans and conservatives who believe republicans and conservatives can do no wrong and will go to any length to show it and on the opposite side of the spectrum are the "purests" who believe that both Bush brothers should have personally donned flack jackets and swooped down in Pinellas County and rescued Terri and even that wouldn't have been good enough. Somewhere in between is reality. But even more important is that each of these polar opposite camps are trying to out Ann Coulter each other with all the zings and zangs they can get off at each other.

So spot on I had to repeat the whole thing. Boy you nailed the factions and the psychology in one fell swoop.

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