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.
You're the one doing all the whining and sobbing here, but it's my feelings that are hurt? O-tay 'Panky! :-D
You mean you actually do something about the complaints? What about the several 100 vilifying long term FReepers for being "death mongers" and Nazis?
LOL!
FR was by far the most "pro-life" of any of the other forums, both in the percentage of those opposing the removal of her feeding tube, and in the voiciferousness (sp?) of those calls.
The only logical reason I have to explain this is as follows:
Quite a few posters have been banned here for being critical of Bush on many issues from the "war on terror" to the budget to illegal immigration and so on. Many libertarians were banned also. Countless others left on their own accord for various reasons.
So basically 3 groups remain. The first group is the GOP party folks that believe the Republican Party can do no wrong, and use this website to advance that agenda. The second group is the hard-core "religious conservatives" who is the only group that Bush hasn't alienated yet (well, at least until last week). The third and smallest group consists of us old-time posters that are still hanging around.
What you saw in the last couple of weeks was Group #2 venting their frustration over this issue. And for that reason, Group #1 was relatively silent on the issue. The country clubbers didn't want to go out of their way to offend what remains of the party base.
And I as recall, you were one of the more obnoxious posters here that butted heads with the libertarians and anyone else that didn't tow the party line 100% (If my memory is failing me, please accept my apology).
So in a way, you've contributed greatly to the reason that you are giving for leaving.
No kidding! :-(
Glad I could help.
LOL! And it's not even a clean hit to the head. It's a long, drawn out Hollywood and Vine swansong or a Brando-like "I coulda been a contender."
How about whenever you are going to accuse another Freeper of racism?
You're just not particularly bright, are you?
It's no fun when ya gotta 'splain 'em.
it seems they will not be happy until there is some official pronouncement that they were right and the rest of us were wrong. and they might hold their breath until they get it.
Ya'll have sure had your hands full. In my experience the past 2 weeks you've been remarkably fair. I've pushed the abuse button on pictures of the bodies of Holocaust victims, as well as bigoted posts about "knuckle-dragging Bible bangers". In all fairness to the mods, they've been as likely to delete either type of post upon request.
Same here -- it has been an experience today.
The indignation is over letting someone make decisions about a woman as if he is her husband after he has already moved on and begun a relationship with another woman. I don't blame Michael Schiavo for moving on. If he really believed that his wife had died and that death had sundered that marriage, his finding another relationship was fine. However, if he believed that death had sundered the relationship, then he shouldn't have been making decisions for Terri Schindler S. as if he were her husband. He shouldn't have been allowed to have it both ways. Either he should act as her husband and be faithful to her or he should move on with his life and let others make decisions for her.
I had a grandmother starve to death because of stomach cancer. It was tough seeing her that way, and I only saw her for a few days. Others in the family had to take care of her for more than two months as she passed slowly. She was hurt, but she was still in her right mind enough that we knew that we were doing as she wished. It would have been tougher if she hadn't been able to state her wishes. However, I had the comfort of knowing that the right people were making her decisions. I don't have a problem with letting people go. I have a big problem with the wrong people making one's medical decisions.
If there are thousands of other people who've had these decisions made by people who were as inappropriate for the responsibility as Michael Schiavo was, then there should be uproar over them too. I suspect that there are very few corresponding situations.
Bill
I've been here long enough to know the "Statist-Boot Licker" monicker fits.
I guess some Freepers who get outgunned and outmanned on Border issues, immigration issues, RINO issues needed an alibi to leave. The Schiavo issue happened to serve quite well in this capacity.
But then, why walk into the teeth of a hurricane in any case, only to complain it was too windy?
No, this Opus was about losing debates. And taking his ball and going home.
If you disagree with my opinion, I promise I won't post an Opus.
freepmail
Don't you mean I can kiss your reasonable, logical, sane, witness-protected arse?
I think the point was that many participants at FR are not in the religion forum. FWIW, I took sinkspur at his word when he said the religion forum had been "cleansed" (my words, I'm not going to go back and post what he said, and hope you get the drift). So, it was helpful to me that you piped up in this thread.
Why not stay and struggle for civility AND freedom??? FR has played a very good role in the conservative movement- including Buckhead's nailing CBS, exposing John Kerry as a silly liberal wacko, and many other scoops here.
Defending freedom from tyranny is still worth the struggle.
Guess what???
IM STAYING!!!!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1375865/posts?page=24
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