Posted on 09/01/2008 8:26:27 AM PDT by sam_paine
How many times have we seen this photo on FR?
How many times have we propagated the Huma/Hillary lesbian rumor mill with a wink and a nod and a [POST]?
The kids are OFF LIMITS.
PERIOD.
No matter the party, no matter the candidate.
I always hated that graphic. It serves absolutely no purpose in the battle of superior ideas.
I am a big Rush fan and cringe every time he decides to talk about Chelsea, or any other of the candidates’ children for that matter. (In this regard, the man is an idiot.)
Unfortunately, the left has not cornered the market on tasteless behavior.
1. it is not an "implied joke"
2. Chelsea was fair game here
The original poster's observation is correct (and I believe Chelsea was 16 years old, or younger).
Yet the most obvious plausible answer explains all of why Chelsea has no brothers and sisters, and why people wonder if Webb Hubble is her dad, and why people suspect Hillary is a bi-lesbian and why Huma may be her lover.
Having a hyperactive many partnered sex life -- which is a matter of state record for Bill Clinton -- carries a cost. That cost is disease that can led to sterility. That cost is in broken families, that cost is in spousal estrangement and a widening of the circle of brush fire known as adultery.
You asked a good question. This is your good answer:
We have to make judgments about the powerful when they go wrong, and hold them to public rebuke, or we lose our own mores.
The Clintons are notorious for adultery and lying, for abuse of power and office to fill their own wallets and sexual appetites. That MUST be loudly and brashly spoken against and mocked, lest people think it is normal.
Yet the Palin's what have they shown except honoranle behavior? Why the vile rumor?
You are foolish to equivocate the two cases.
Uh? I EXACTLY AGREE.
That's why I'm proposing we discuss in an open thread.... If I had some kind of wierd 'authoritarian' streak, I'd have gone through all the threads and hit 'abuse' or something....or done like the crazy leftists do by filing lawsuits.
Hell, I don't even discount the possibility that Hillary has actually done some of the accused having watched her on the scene for so long.
I just think we shouldn't be so outraged when we see the left grab onto something outrageous.
While I do think it’s objectively fair to call DU and Kos far worse, it doesn’t mean that this stuff doesn’t make us look bad, too. Jerome Corsi’s careless quips about Catholics and Muslims have been used to undermine his books by enabling ad hominem attack against him to dismiss his books. This sort of stuff is exactly what makes Kos and DU the cesspools that they are, but even in small doses, it doesn’t make us look good either.
Indeed, one has to expect that public pictures of Palin may be used to draw a time-line on her pregnancy to prove whatever it is someone wants to prove.
Instead, I think the ethical problem here is that the accusations being made are so far out ahead of what the observable evidence supports.
i agree, kids should be off-limits
hillary, as far as her sexuality and whatever else people wanted to criticize put herself front and center
I’ve been posting for a little over a year (lurking 5 previous) and have seen that morphing picture a number of times (5 - 10) here on FR. I have thought it a very mean implied slander for certain FR members to post. It can be argued that it’s posted with humor in mind or “in jest”, but in my mind that’s a bunch of bull. A slur posted “in jest” because of dislike of the mother is just as inappropriate, and doesn’t make it OK. There are a few mean-spirited people here on FR just as there on on DU or Kos. In my opinion, the comparison to the Palin daughter is valid. To argue otherwise just because Chelsea is older is, in my opinion, disingenuous and self-serving.
For those of you who are quick to shout “Troll” every time a longtime FReeper disagrees, feel free to check out my stats and past posts. I've been here awhile, long enough to know that the level of civility around here has taken a nosedive in recent years.
Self analysis and correction is a good thing. When we resort to gutter tactics, we tarnish the reputation of Free Republic. If we want people to view us as a great news and commentary site, we need to all be able to discuss the tenor of our own posts without being zotted.
That is the kind of self-regulation that keeps FR so much better than the lefty sites....
Even txradioguy's demand that I post examples is reasonable in my opinion.
So I did, and so have others, and clearly, it's obvious that the Chelsea/Hubbell rumor has been a common subthread throughout FR history. We can take away from that as we wish to make FR better, or worse.
It's just a discussion I thought was worth having, that's all.
ROFL! TRUTH!
I do...and had I chosen to start this kind of bonfire and get everyone here dancing around it like the Lost Boys...I’d have provided links...quotes and actual facts in my OP.
That way I present a rock solid case for what I’m talking about and makes it pretty damn hard to refute.
Try to compare anything on this site (usually said as a joke) to the day to day flood of sewage from Media Matters, Huffington Post, Daily Kos or DU. I dare you.
ok - sort of agree and sort of disagree but this ain’t my affair so I’ll just be moving along now.
I find it VERY difficult to believe any long time FReeper hasn't seen the Chelsea/Hubble morph. It was posted often, it was posted before Chelsea was an adult, and it wasn't a joke to the people who posted it.
Those people, and the ones who take Ft. Marcy park seriously, aren't worth the time it would take to argue with. They weren't going to be dissuaded, so I never bothered.
“with an honest man grabbing a broom?”
Come down off your high horse and take off your cape.
You’re not some superhero here to avenge the inocent and make FR “clean”.
The only one who has that kind of high opinion of you is you.
You’re coming in here accusing ALL of us of being guilty of this baseless claim of yours and haven’t provided a shred of proof.
Come back and try again when you’re ready to play in the big leagues.
I think you, I and RKV should be able to agree on that, as it is that self-regulated content that really seps us from the tenor of the graphic-laden kook DU hatesites.
If the only thing this thread did was to maybe discuss what we ought to just let pass and what we should criticize with a short post, then fine!
But I'm tired of proposing any complex topic and getting a damn kitten with a rifle pointed at me as a response!?!!?!
<-- Dumb, Tired, Graphic.
If you still believe the poster was correct, you are missing my point completely.
The Dem rumors vs. the morph.
One implies the 16, then 15 year old child, daughter of Sarah Palin, engaged in sexual behavior leading to bearing a child.
The morph DOES NOT imply Chelsea doing the same, nor does it smear HER reputation, it goes after the adult mother. See the difference yet?
The KOS is perpetuating rumors aimed at smearing children, not the parents. As I said, that's as low as one can go, and is NOT the equivalence of the “morph” at all.
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