Posted on 05/03/2011 4:46:53 AM PDT by Huck
Yesterday should have been a glorious day around here. There should have been fireworks and celebration. There should have been somber remembrances. There should have been patriotic tributes. There should have been shared joy at the news that our guys had finally gotten Bin Laden.
Instead, when I visited the site, what I found was a lot of carping. I found people focused more on the political spin than on the great news. I found people transferring their birther mentality onto this event, talking about Obama faking this news, photoshopping information, etc. It wasn't everybody, but it was a LOT of people. It made me sick.
Yesterday Free Republic seemed like DU. It makes me wonder what the hell is going on. Are Freepers getting younger? I always assume that DU is so pathetically immature because they must be younger. Free Republic has always been a place dominated by great class, and wit, and decency. Not this time. What I saw yesterday was a pathetic embarrassment and totally unworthy of this great forum.
As some of you may know, I was in lower Manhattan on 9-11. I was just across the street from the WTC when the first plane hit. I still remember the beautiful clear blue sky that day. I remember walking in between the towers just a minute or so before 8:46am, on my normal route to work. I remember my co-workers screaming in panic when they watched from an office window as the second plane hit the south tower. I remember women crying and screaming hysterically. I remember not being able to contact my wife to tell her I was OK. I remember people jumping to their deaths. I remember seeing the north tower go down with my own eyes, hearing it with my own ears. I remember fleeing Manhattan. I remember it was a Tuesday.
I remember returning to work the following Monday, riding the ferry passed the site, noxious smoke still billowing from the wreckage. I remember armed troops on the sidewalks. I remember wearing a breathing mask inside my building because the foul odor was seeping in through the ventilation system. I remember thinking we'd really gotten kicked in the teeth. They had killed innocent people, they had traumatized our women and children, and I really wanted revenge. I hung a picture on my wall of the American eagle sharpening his talons.
It has been a long time since that day. It's hard to believe how fast time flies. Then again, if you lost your loved one, I imagine time hasn't gone so fast. I love my wife so much, I can empathize with anyone who has lost the one they love. I can't imagine how that would be, and don't want to know, but I can cry for those people because I know what it is like to find your one true love.
I'm not an Obama fan. I hate socialism. But I am so happy that Bin Laden is killed, and that we have exacted some real revenge. It's about time. The politics don't even play into it for me. I still have the little flag, now tattered, that I flew on my car antenna after 9-11. I want to take it out of storage and put it on my car. I want to see American flags on cars like we saw back then. But it's not going to happen, and partially because the normally patriotic conservatives such as the ones here on Free Republic are instead focused on the politics and the fact that a socialist Democrat was president and will get some of the credit.
I guess you all would have been pissed on D-Day too. FDR was as big a socialist as anyone. I guess VE day and VJ day would have chapped your hides, since Truman was a DEM. I don't mean to paint with a broad brush. I know it wasn't every Freeper acting this way. But when I went on the board, that was the general impression, and it was really disappointing. It should have been a great day here. Instead, I saw a lack of patriotism and a lack of class. Free Republic should be better than this. If conservatives lose their patriotism and class, then what will happen to those virtues? I hope we can get them back soon. In the meantime, thanks for reading.
Respectfully,
Huck
The other problem I see is that through the various purges and opuses, we’re left with a large number of Bible thumpers and conspiracy theorists, and not much else around here.
Interesting, yes Trump’s Chumps and not happy about this.
I understand where Huck is coming from - I did not post yesterday nor did I read much. I agree with you. Glad that
he was killed. Love our troups and the Navy SEALS.
Not surprised that Obama claims the fame.
But, celebration .... Sorry, I don’t feel that yet.
I agree. I once couldn't stand to be away from Free Republic for more than a few hours each day, but FR seems to have become a haven for conspiracy theorists and nut jobs.
There are still a few level heads around, but almost invariably they are harrassed when they express their opinions. I'll bet I'll probably get a reply along the lines of "don't let the door hit you on the way out" before this thread is done.
Probably the only reason I continue to come to FR is because it is the best news aggregator on the web.
I guess peaceful dissent on FR should now be viewed as a problem. Apparently, no peaceful dissent means no problem. Mixed messages, anyone?
There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit. Ronald Reagan
The WH said they will release the video of the burial at sea and may release the corpse pictures. But it could be anyone buried at sea and pictures are easy to doctor. It’s all a big lie to take the heat off the birth certificate, right?
Free Republic is well known to gather million of viewers, its a fertile field for anyone to manipulate should they chose to, and that applies to both sides of the coin.
And its no secret an organized group has indeed been posting such forums to divide FR, mostly its petty instances like who hates red, who loves blue, and if you love blue you will live in paradise and your pet lions will sleep with sheep peacefully.
In as such as conspiracy theories FR actually does pretty good, or pretty bad depending on what you are led to believe in.As long as one can see the picture clearly its always apparent when an invasive forum appears, one that creates the impression of reality through repetition, through “verified” statements, through enough soft intimidation to force a new thought process to follow through, after all most people on the web are still herd animals.
I pretty much don’t bother posting as yes the style of threads are becoming more like the DU derogatory style. Thats because those at the DUmp are so heavily censored and controlled they have left, and have taken up residence in FR like termite ants.
That's pretty hard to separate much of the time; but in times like this country clearly comes first.
I am disturbed by the conspiracy mentality that I am seeing far too often on FR by some posters.
For some posters everything is a conspiracy. I really don't have a desire to engage in conversation with that type of thought pattern.
Should it result that this was your opus, you’ll have the consolation of knowing you were right.
Intermittently throughout the day, I would check FR, and it was a seemingly endless stream of political complaints, spin, conspiracy theories regarding the news. There was little or no actual celebration. That's what I saw. It never seemed to abate. I started to comment on a thread, but the whole thing really made me ill and I just skipped it. I thought about it on my way home and this morning decided to write down my thoughts.
Me too. I've been posting less and lurking more for that reason.
LOL, she must have a different problem in mind. I am not asking :)
“I found people transferring their birther mentality onto this event,”
I stopped reading right there. What in the heck is a “birther mentality” and how does it relate to bin Laden assuming room temperature?
Is a healthy skepticism about the eligibility of the person in the Oval Office because his father was not a US citizen now a mental disorder?
Are you for real!!! I feel great about our military taking out Obama. They did it in such a competent way. I give Obama zero credit. He just had to sign a piece a paper and he is so doggone stupid he had to be persuaded to do even that much “heavy lifting”. He wanted to bring Osama back alive for a trial. You obviously missed this showboating POS trying to hog most of the credit and BTW he never gave a bit of credit to GW Bush
So puhleeeeeze! My patriotic enthusiasm is reserved for those who made it happen. Navy Seals, CIA and our military
Oy. Don't get me started. What the hell has happened? Trump is popular here? De-evolution has hit FR hard.
I stopped reading right there.
Well they should release the info and stop treating us like children.
What would change if they release the pictures?
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