I agree with you that some objection is to the double-standard. I don’t defend the double-standard, but as I said several times earlier, two wrongs don’t make a right, and no person can justify bad behavior by saying that others are doing it. And the fact that one person is bad and doesn’t get banned doesn’t mean it is WRONG to ban someone else for being bad.
I wish nobody would call anybody any names. The official rules of the site say nobody should personally attack other freepers, and I think that’s a good rule, even for obnoxious people. That’s what the abuse button is for, so you don’t have to get into a personal attack battle.
Obviously the abuse button won’t help if you are being “abused” by the owner of the site. But a smart person would realise that and not launch personal attacks at the owner. You come into my house, and call me names, my reaction might be a little different than if you do it on the street corner.
I don’t want anybody banned, but if someone IS going to get banned, and there are two people who are equally offensive, and you have to choose one to ban, I would agree that we should choose the one who is being offensive to conservatives in support of a liberal, rather than the other way around.
It’s a double-standard, but if you are going to have one that’s the way it should be on a conservative site like this.
I hope the bans turn into simply suspensions, but frankly I think a lot of the “banned” have been planning this for a while, have been agitating to get banned, have been complaining for weeks that a “purge” was coming so that they could claim to be attacked for their support, because tehy all want to go somewhere they dont have to defend their statements.
That’s just a personal opinion, and I hope it is wrong.
Some time back I was quite agitated about the leadership (or lack thereof) displayed by the Bush Administration and GOP. I was running all over threads blasting them for CFR, the Farm Bill, Prescription Drug Plan, etc.
Then Jim posted a thread stating that this forum would be used to support the GOP in that election cycle. At that point I had a choice: continue to post my views or respect his wishes. Well, I wasn't arrogant or deluded enough to think that I could get defy his statement and stick around for very long. Nor was I about to post things I didn't believe.
Since I happen to enjoy participating on this site, I opted to limit my comments to threads that didn't relate to those issues. It's a shame the pro-Rudy folks couldn't manage to do the same. And it's ironic that many of the people now banned were cheering Jim on when he made those comments.