Actually, here at FR we can control people, and we can look at every little thing said, and we can delete any comments that make FR look bad or hurt the conservative cause. It just takes the owner of the site deciding that is what he wants to do, and telling the moderators to do it, and getting other Freepers to help by hitting the ABUSE button when they see anything untoward.
Whether we want to keep such things off the board is up to the owner, and I'm just expressing my opinion as to what I would do. I have no say in what is actually done.
But I do not support the "good for the goose" argument, especially when we are not talking about specifically "attacking back" someone who attacked another, but instead doing what other people did, to other 3rd parties.
Anyway, practically speaking we can't get away with what the liberals get away with, because the media covers for them and exposes us. And since we are the ones who stand for something better, it makes us look like hypocrits.
You have been here long enough that you should know that what you describe is EXACTLY the way this site is run
Even with 10 times more mods some things will slip through, but if you watch close enough and push abuse on every post that breaks the rules it will help.