Posted on 04/01/2005 4:26:00 PM PST by Poohbah
First, this is NOT an April Fool's joke.
I am leaving Free Republic.
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.
My personal favorite was the following exchange:
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.
Farewell.
well said - there are more people to add to the chaos. So? there are therefore more people to add to the knowledge!
Of course you can't, that is a disruptor's mission.
There have been far too many attacks on FR lately and I'm guilty of it as well.
The word "ping" comes from an internet protocol (ICMP) used to check to see if another machine is at the destination address. One machine will send out an ICMP echo request to the target address, and if there is a device at that address that can use ICMP (and most do), it will send back an ICMP echo reply. The entire process of sending out the request and receiving the reply is known as a "ping".
In forum terms, the "ping" means that a request for your attention to a particular thread or post is being sent to you. To "ping" someone, simply reply to the thread/post you would like them to look at, and put their name in the "To:" field.
And when will you awaken and realize that each and every of your posts are divisive. I attack the poster I address, you attack and alienate a group. You! Think about what you are posting? How many times have you spewed on this thread? You don't understand about HEP, do you? Or you do and fail to acknowledge.
One problem I have found is that criticism tends to be taken more personally than it is meant. The words "you" and "your" are the triggers for this, they cause a defensive reaction in the recipient. I have taken to intentionally substituting the third-person pronoun "one" as an inocculation against being seen to criticize a person when I mean to criticize an idea. I've found it works well.
My post record stands open to public inspection. Maybe 10% of my posts are jousting with folks doing what you are doing, as opposed to your own 50%+. A good third of my posts are meant for humor (whether successful or not), another 10-15% are nostalgia, and all the rest are contributions to discussions of policy or fact. You may want to restrict the field to this post, because it contains an unusually high number of barbs, but the fact is that this post is designed for that, and I don't do so on serious posts, which stands in stark contrast to what you have been doing.
Take a look at your own comments and compare the rate of post-jousting to mine. My percentage is tiny, yours is most of what you appear to do here.
Hey Meek! Is that Chicken Little pic I saw on another thread part of an animated GIF?
Your posts will be missed.
You said.."I'm just getting tired of people who post attacks on other FReepers just as often as all their other posts combined. It's wearisome."
Amen.
I think this site can be an invaluable resource to gather INFORMATION...and to exchange IDEAS...thats what the heritage of this place is all about IMO. Weve seen it during the corruption heyday of the Clinton admin....the info flow was amazing.
I think its a powerful forum to get ideas and info out there...somebody else picks up on something...and goes with it. Its a snowball effect.
The 'farewell world' opii (?) are also part of this history...but when all is said and done...this site is bigger than any one poster.
Life on this site will go on just fine...without poohbah or any other single poster.
I mostly skipped all the in between stuff on this thread and scrolled right past the continuation of the argument/rants ..lest I notice that someone is over the cliff and should be ignored always..It did not work perfectly. ;)
In this very thread I explained my habit, and you reject my attempt to get you to act without rancor, you refuse the attempt and respond with deceit. Yes, your post's speak for themselves.
You'll have to forgive me if I question the sincerity of you alleged attempt (I must have missed it) to end rancor, since all the while you have been singling out other posters and labeling them "plants" and secret DU agents and the like. It's pretty disingenuous to do that and then turn around and say you don't want divisiveness, when your actions contribute more to divisiveness than anything else going on around here.
"Hate breeds hate."
That he did.
ROTFLMAO!!!
That is absolutely not true. I mean, that's proven to be untrue on this very thread. And every thread where anyone disagrees with him. I'm sure he doesn't care. But no need to say something that is so obviously not true.
Oh, let me give you some factual evidence to ponder. In the past few days you have:
- Joined a clique which defines all other FReepers as irrational, illogical, uncivil, and insane;
- Labeled at least three other posters as disruptors and plants (on this thread alone)
- Had a full half of your posts dedicated to personally attacking other FReepers.
Think about it.
AM's always acting the naive. Don't let him fool you....he's got ping oozing from every pore.....
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