Posted on 03/08/2007 11:40:55 PM PST by conservative in nyc
The Dixie Chicks have a movie, Shut Up & Sing, coming out today, and, to keep things lively, they're staging a grudge match with the worst site on the Internet, political-rhetoric division.
"The fat chick will only drive traffic to this site," writes one poster to the site.
"The Frenchy Chix can't get a gig in a gay bar in Ithaca," writes another.
Others chime in with more corruptions: Chubby Chicks, Ditsy Twits, Vichy Chicks.
"Yep typical liberals," says someone else. "No character."
This is Free Republic, an exercise in political extremism that, despite being and something of an anthropological train wreck, keeps popping up square in the mainstream.
Most recently, it has resurfaced as a villain in the Dixie Chicks movie, which traces the fallout from lead singer Natalie Maines's infamous 2003 London declaration that she was embarrassed that George W. Bush was, like her, from Texas.
It was a bad time to be anti-war, and Americans are touchy about being criticized on foreign soil at the best of times. The "grassroots" backlash that followed -- orchestrated, in part, by the people at Free Republic, who mobilized their large and largely disgruntled membership -- saw the band savaged in the press and at the box office.
The site is a venerable and storied Web forum for American arch-conservatives. Funded by member donations, it was founded in 1996 as an anti-Clinton grandstand, and soon became a place where members could post news stories and discuss them -- though "discussion" might be the wrong word. More often, it's a kind of pantomime, where the name of the game is to cheer the good guy and boo the bad guy every time he creeps on stage.
Freepers, as the sites denizens are known, are the good guys. The bad guys, according to site founder Jim Robinson, are practitioners of "liberalism, socialism, fascism, pacifism, totalitarianism, anarchism, government enforced atheism, abortionism, feminism, homosexualism, racism," and "wacko environmentalism."
So it is that, day in and day out, Freepers attempt to outdo each other in posting the most pungent, juvenile reactions to stories. Articles containing an opposing viewpoint have the words "BARF ALERT" appended to their titles. Slurs are encouraged. When the first same-sex Canadian soldiers were married last year, the story garnered 73 angry responses, ranging from "Disgusting and despicable" to "I'd resign my commission before performing a ceremony to marry a couple of bone-smugglers" to "Let's see what happens when the Canadian military has an AIDS epidemic on its hands."
It's a hateful place that, if the world was working as it should, would be relegated to the Internet's endless fringes, where conspiracy theorists and pyramid-power believers roam the wasteland. But what's interesting about Free Republic is that, despite having attracted a crowd of the most paranoid, xenophobic and reactionary characters the political landscape has to offer, it continues to find itself in the news.
For instance, during the 2004 U.S. presidential election, it was central to the network of websites that uncovered the forged memos about Bush's Vietnam service that appeared on CBS News and ultimately cost Dan Rather his job. (Paranoia, in this instance, paid off.) Later, and less admirably, Jerome Corsi, the co-author of Unfit for Command -- the hatchet job about John Kerry's military service that crippled his campaign -- was found to be posting racist, sexist diatribes on the site.
And then there was the flap about the Dixie Chicks, spurred on by zealous Freepers. Thanks to their movie, Free Republic is getting another moment in the sun. Not helping things was the band's manager publicly calling Robinson "a coward" for refusing to be interviewed for the film. ("I am jealous of you Mr. Robinson," declared one Freeper in response. "You have been singled out and attacked by America's premier Entertraitors.") These, ladies and gentlemen, are grassroots at work. There are a lot of organizations out there that are in the business of whipping their members into a lather and unleashing them on corporations and politicians alike.
But if Free Republic has a virtue, it's that, unlike other pressure groups, it's transparent: You can see the cogs turning, the anger mounting, the members joining the half-baked me-too condemnations that will surface on tomorrow's news agenda. It's like a glass ant farm for zealots. It's a little stomach-turning, but man, they're diligent little things. It's hard not to stare sometimes.
But it can where Ivor lives and writes his collectivist drivel. Canadian Christian pastors can get in trouble with Canadian law if they tell their congregation the truth of how God hates the sin of Sodomy but loves the sinner enough to have died on the cross for him or her.
A quote from the Canadian Association for Free Expression website:
Sadly, freedom of speech and freedom of belief have never been under such attack as in the 13 years since the Charter of Rights and Freedoms became the law of the land. People have been sent to jail solely for the non-violent expression of their political beliefs. Human Rights Commissions have run amok. The Mayor of Hamilton, Ontario, was recently fined $5,000 by an Ontario Human Rights Commission tribunal for refusing to proclaim Gay Pride Day in 1991. Telephone messages across the country have been suppressed in a million dollar campaign by the Canadian Human Rights Commission to shield privileged minorities from views they find offensive. Ontario and B.C. both have draconian laws preventing pro-life Canadians from expressing their views outside abortuaries.
Either that, or he's trying for a "Jabberwocky" effect. "Where a few remnant curios bite" is rather evocative, although I'm not sure of what.
I am still gloating over the WOLFPACK'S win over DUKE last night.
O frabjous day! Calloo! Callay!
Congratulations to your team. Seems like a lot of people don't like Duke!
We save our true disdain for Carolina.
The Duke win was so impressive to me, and even more so in light of our naysaying Athletic Director's statement in '05 when everyone was pushing to get rid of our former coach, Sendek:
“Our fans are comparing ourselves to Duke and North Carolina…I understand that our fans want to be able to compete with them; we all do. But you can be real good on a daily basis and not be better than those two programs.”
Lee Fowler
NC State Athletics Director
March, 2005
ESPN.com
Sometimes, we need to remember that anything we post anywhere on the Internet can be read by anyone anywhere in the world - even those in the MSM who want to tarnish this website's name.
I understand your concern. But should FReepers be held responsible for the distortions and misanthropic views of liberal pundits?
As you point out, this writer's interpretation of FR's role in the Dixie Chicks kerfluffle is borne of ignorance.
Now, if the writer had been interested in the workings of a truly toxic ideological ant farm, he would have studied DU or Daily Kos. The exchanges on FR are (generally) more polite and reasoned than anything I've seen on left-wing fora.
My life for aiur
I see that the whole thing is much more complex that I realized :-).
Not even on a whim?
Nope.
And to think that, In Canada, the Globe and Mail is considered to be a bit to the right.
I've never been bitten by a curio. I hope never to be bitten by one, either. Heck, I wasn't even aware that they had teeth. I guess I'll steer clear of the Gay Dolphin when I'm in Myrtle Beach this year.
Dang. That's cold and windy.
Well the Zot with the Russian-sounding name got his wish - we all know him for what he is and how "powerful" is his keyboard lol....
Back to the recipies now and the latest American Idol results..... bah
You old 'phobe, you. Just hateful, lol.
Hmmm. It sounds like FR is a guilty pleasure for this liberal. But he fews so vewy, vewy ashamed about it.
Trolling for PC, are we? Get a grip.
The Globe and Mail is the agit-prop arm for Canada's whacked-out Left. I can't imagine why you would care what they think. It's not like they will be printing a searing indictment of the Daily Kos, is it?
By the Leftists, Freepers, are hated almost as much as the Swiftboat vets.
Congratulations. An accomplishment to be proud of.
Just avoid the shark-tooth curios.
Yes. The thermometer says 50, but I think it's faking. I can hear the windows rattling!
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