Email: The Future of Free Republic

Email | 06/25/02 | Jim Robinson

[Jim Robinson]

The following email is being circulated to our members by various disgruntled former FReepers:

Subject: The Future of Our Free Republic

Dear Fellow Free Republic Member,

Many of us at Free Republic are distressed by the extraordinary level of censorship that has been so obviously going on. It is very obvious that individual posts, entire threads, and the entire work of members who have been highly regarded are disappearing into a Memory Hole.

Scores of us have organized an e-mail network that is independent of the communication controls presently, and sadly, being used at our Free Republic. We have carefully documented the unmistakeable evidence that most of the posts, threads, and posters that are vaporized completely are overwhelmingly targeted for their political stance on the Right. These are not Leftwingers. These are not even Middle-of-the-Roaders. These are not disruptors. These are not foul-mouthed delinquents. These are fellow patriots on the Right who disagree with the controllers of FR on specific issues that are now hotly debated by the Right. We have documented that FR will parade before you, as if to hide all of the great posters whose work has been destroyed, a straw-man delinquent that has been banned. This is deceptive.

Treating these fellow patriots on the Right so shabbily is not right. As shabbily as those banned into the Memory Hole are being treated, the most shabbily treated of all are all of the good folks on Free Republic themselves. We came here for honest debate. Free Republic advertised itself as a Forum for honest debate. Without that honest debate...everything at Free Republic becomes shabby.

We can do much better. As a measure of how intense the simmering feelings have gotten among members on this unjustifiable use of deleting, censoring, and banning please link to the following thread. You will notice that one simple and sincere plea from one of our finest members has spontaneously touched off a prairie fire of approximately 500 posts in a mere 18 hours. If it isn't Memory Holed this thread may shoot into the thousands.

If you would like to receive anonymous updates of information concerning the hundreds of Freepers who have networked via e-mail to restore the wonderful honest debate to Free Republic, just drop an e-mail of just one or two words if you like for extreme brevity to:

StopCensoringUs@hotmail.com

And, here's that link back to the snowballing thread at FR:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/704701/posts

Thank you so much for giving your thought to this vital matter for our Internet home.

Sincerely, StopCensoringUs@hotmail.com

[carenot]

What you said.

I wish I could have posted that.

I mean every word you said.

Thanks.

[Tymesup]

Nogbad - She apparently posted from left wing sites. My notes/freepmails seem to have a hole in them.

McGavin999 may have more info for you.

[George W. Bush]

First off, thank for banning "Central Scrutinizer", a constant disruptor. Your list made a few things clearer about infiltrators and multiple IDs.

I've had posts and threads pulled. I get indignant. And then, on other days, I wonder why I haven't been banned for being too courageously honest abusively abrasive. So, some days I think there's too much censorship. On others, not enough. On balance, I probably don't have much to complain about. Neither do most people who generally try to obey the rules. Generally, a poster has to work at it to get permanently banned.

It ain't perfect and it's never going to be. But FR is still the only forum I call home.

[Rebelbase]

This site is home, but sometimes when I need a perverted laugh and feel like slumming, I drop in and read at one of those antifreep places.

Parasites are the only word I can find to describe the mentality of the few that post there and quite honestly I can say the posters at DU have more on the ball intellectually than do the antifreep crowd.

[Nogbad]

She apparently posted from left wing sites

Who determines what is a left wing site?
Does that in include New York Times, Washington Post, etc?
Are we not allowed to link to them?
So does that mean that not only individual authors are forbidden,
but entire sites are off-limits to FR posters?

[carenot]

< /sarcasm >

Love ya. You didn't need the sarcasm tag.

Just don't say anything against Bush and you will be alright.

p.s.
Always vote Republican.

[Clara Lou]

Utterly disgusting. Nuke him.

[Cachelot]

Sure he/she did

I'm a he. I'm also magic, it seems. Gee, it's good to see that you crowd has a superstitious ph33r of me :))).

Seriously, what got your brother booted was probably that he made an a$$ of himself. Neither you nor your brother need any help with that.

[A Navy Vet]

So does this mean The Cave People (Consolidated Confusion) have a new blood infusion? I can here them now, "Goody, new genes to mutate!"

[hellinahandcart]

Shouldn't I have gotten a reply by now?

Aw, you heard her--they're short-handed on the set today (even though she's found time to make other posts since :D)

[carenot]

Dang Humid! I miss you!

[Rowdee]

Sweetie, I didn't write it, so I'd rather not give the definitive meanings to it. I will say I presume they thought everyone who received such an invitation would actually go there, look around, and READ at least FAQ, maybe ask a fw questions....ya can do that on those threads, too.

There was also a time when people had been invited but hadn't registered....so members were offering to write them to see if they were interested or not....I know the ones that I sent were not like this...but then I don't think they were like anybody elses' either....I just made my own letter up.

I know one person I invited made a point of asking me in private e-mail a little about protocol, and the workings. Matter of fact, when I nominated him, I had to agree to be a mentor for the first month....sort of like a big sister keeping an eye out so my kid brother wouldn't screw up.

I had nothing to worry about....this nominee was and is a real gentlemen, intelligent, able to define or defend his positions, able to provide documentation....not one to just run from thread to thread on a rant, a suck up,or a drooler, either. :)

I'm sorry you had what you consider a bad experience....I always sort of prided myself on taking care of my 'men' {ROTFLMBO--sorry, I'm a woman, and I just feel like lightning up some!}

[carenot]

A while ago I was approached by some denizen of that forum who told me I shouldn't mention LibertyForum. Seemed it was semi-secret and they didn't like being talked about. You know, like roaches and light :). So not only do they carefully select their clientel (and I've seen what hysterical recriminations that were directed at someone who had invited a poster that didn't toe the party "kill the jooos" line), but they try to keep in the shadows too.

Hmmm...That is funny!

[carenot]

I know. I love BlackJade.

[Steve Eisenberg]

There are a small number of Jews who equate today's Palestinians with the Amalekites.*** Is that what it is? Yes, I don't know any other spelling. See Deuteronomy 25:17-19. The painful verse that is used to justify the Jewish terrorists, and that was obviously being referred to by the poster I responded to, is I Samuel 15:3.

[hellinahandcart]

I would like to know why!

Don't know. I have a few theories; my favorite one this week is that there is a desire among some to minimize what the Nazis did by using the comparison inappropriately.

In other words, by saying "the IDF in Jenin were no better than the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto", they are also saying by contrast "What the Nazis did in the Warsaw ghetto was no worse than what the IDF did in Jenin"--you know, knock down a few hundred yards' worth of buildings and kill 56 people, losing 26 of their own in the process. Yeah, that's all the Nazis did in the Warsaw ghetto, just some IDF stuff.

Why they would wish to minimize it is another question entirely, but the possible answers all creep me out.

[carenot]

. Why, I remember when Free Republic was virulently anti George Bush.

Doesn't anyone else?

I wasn't here then. But I love reading the old stuff.

So, yes, I remember it.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

You are a patient and wise host. This is your place. Your rules have created a civil and lively website that allows us to be idiots...and get flamed, and learn. What a treasure.

Doing basic political research on Google shows us an America that frankly scares me....the number of Smirking chimp/ihatebush.com websites with grandmothers swearing and high school students repeating mindless Marxist propaganda parroting their current liberal teacher or TV shows puts FR and fellow Freepers in perspective for me regularly. Our squabbles are minor, truly, and unworthy when faced with the numbers of our dumbed down, single-brained opponents on the left.

Trust your instincts...you've created a civilized forum for political debate. That is awesome. Here, use when needed:

[Senator Pardek]

...I don't want speech stifled....you may have a problem with it....

Where have I claimed I want speech stifled?

LF has great potential, but the lunatics (like those who say Israel attacked the U.S.S. Cole) are destroying it. I feel sorry for the folks who put in so much work starting the joint.

And why do people constantly talk about FR there? What the Hell does that have to do with liberty? (yes - I'm aware I'm discussing LF here, but it's germane.)

My feelings on LF can be found here (I'll try the joint out again when it goes public).

[carenot]

you decide" is the rule.

It was in late 2000.