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but when free speech is set upon as being trivial, then the Republic suffers.

I don't think free speech is trivial. I think people who irresponsibly exercise their right to free speech are the ones who trivialize it.

You have been here much longer than I. Should you not promote rather than denigrate the site you visit?

I don't denigrate it. I'm pointing out a very serious problem that has cropped up here in the past year or two, which is doing injury to FR.

Perhaps you do, but I am dismayed you believe there are Klansmen, or those sounding like Klansmen on this site.

You're looking through the eyes of an insider. Try looking at some of those posts through the eyes of an outsider, and see if you understand my point then.

There are plenty of folks out there who want to tarnish FR's image, and lately we've been making national TV in a rather undesirable way. Why should we help them do it?

One of the beauties of the internet is that you can speak your mind. And one of the pitfalls of the internet is that you can speak without thinking. There's too much of that here -- people need to be more responsible in what they say, and how they say it.

I think you’ve got it all wrong.

This is how it works.

Someone sees something on this site that they don’t agree with or disagree with strongly.

They tell their like-minded friends and/or eventually go to the media and whine “this site is a hate site” (simply because they disagree with the views here and are too lazy to challenge them with any real substance).

That’s all this is about, really - people who are ruled by their emotions find it much easier to just slap negative labels on stuff when they can’t argue their own point effectively.

I mean, c’mon, it’s soooooooooo much easier to just say a forum is a hate site than to actually, gasp, take the time and effort to debate the issues.

Try looking at some of those posts through the eyes of an outsider

Excellent idea. Let's see FR through the eyes of the Media Matters hacks out to shut us down. If only we can appease them, maybe they'll learn to accept our existence.

Where have I heard this before?