Posted on 10/08/2001 10:25:47 PM PDT by ouroboros
Anyone who has visited this once great conservative forum will by now have noticed a crackdown on certain opinions regarding this quagmire into which America’s military has so enthusiastically launched itself. Quite aside from the warmongering comments that now saturate the forum, opinion pieces that are strongly critical of our president, foreign policy, or sacred cows such as Ann Coulter tend to get yanked from their server pretty quickly. Admittedly, not all antiwar pieces that are posted get pulled, but they are predictably panned and trolled by these self-righteous armchair generals. Oh, there are still a few voices of reason and noninterventionism on the forum, but they number maybe a couple of dozen, at most, while the warmongering majority rank in the several thousand. Disheartening, to say the least.
Nor has the forum always been this uncritical of American foreign policy. During the Kosovo war and after, voices critical of NATO and U.S. involvement seemed to be in the majority. It was enough to begin to give one hope that real change for the better might be possible. And it illustrated excellently how the antiwar movement had shifted to the right. Of course, since Bush Jr. became president, none of the damage done to the Balkans has been undone, and the US is still involved militarily there even today. In this matter, Freepers now prefer to look the other way, or to think that it has no relevance to current events. And besides, it’s all Bill Clinton’s fault anyway.
Posting images of nuclear explosions are a particularly popular form of patriotic expression these days, often accompanied by comments such as "Lets Roll!" or "If only we had the will to use it!" Absolutely charming. They must be proud to be able to express such genocidal feelings so openly. If it took an attack on America's home soil to spark this kind of patriotism, one can only imagine the amount of "patriotism" abroad that decades of US military interventionism have succeeded in cultivating around the globe. I strongly suspect that in the case of FR’s nuke-‘em-all crowd, they have at least secretly harbored the desire to drop the big-one on the "ragheads" years before September 11th, and now feeling vindicated, they are able to come out of the closet.
In addition to the absolutely rabid warmongering, there is the new American-syle Hitler Youth/Gestapo mindset. For example, an article written by Justin Raimondo will often bring out the junior G-men on the forum with remarks like: "Who is this Justin Raimondo/Antiwar.com (or Lew Rockwell for that matter)? Has the FBI/CIA/IRS looked into them?" Geez Louise! No doubt these folks on the forum were never good friends of the Constitution and Bill of Rights to begin with, and were staunch supporters of the war-on-drugs. But now, with a new war (and the old one isn’t even over yet) to sink their fangs into and a potential police state just around the corner, they too, are able to come out of the closet.
To the credit of many Freepers, a good number of them (not necessarily a majority) are still questioning some proposals such as national id cards. However, I suspect that this too will get worse, as more and more decide that trading their liberties for security is worth it.
But now a brand new facet in the quest for self-censorship has appeared. One that would be laughable if it weren’t so sad: Under their new "Loose Lips Sink Ships" philosophy FR is now yanking breaking news stories regarding attacks launched on the Taliban, even though anyone can turn on the TV or go to one of the major news sites and get the information for themselves.
Oh, eventually FreeRepublic gets around to keeping the story up on their server. But darn, FR used to be such a great source for breaking news!
October 9, 2001
Malcolm Garris (send him mail) is in charge of web graphics for Antiwar.com and LewRockwell.com.
Copyright © 2001 LewRockwell.com
THE USA WAS ATTACKED WITH WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. The nuclear response is an appropriate option to consider, whichever way you slice it. Besides, our enemies do need some healthy dose of intimidation. They might get wrong ideas by just watching CNN.
Cheese .
Seems to me that the fine folks at LewRockwell would be surprised to learn that they're backing Osama.
I call them Bushmen, myself.
CATO
So we are supposed to not invervene and hope bin laden goes away?
>"To the credit of many Freepers, a good number of them (not necessarily a majority) are still questioning some proposals such as national id cards."
There are a lot of us questioning national ID cards. But there are also several liberals or at least sheeple who would support anything, whether it be ID cards or giving up a few rights if the words "to protect us from terrorists" are included. I think it's good to be debated, because you see things and pick up on things you might not have though of otherwise, and that helps reinforce your opinions or at least make you rethink them. Before those debates started, I had an 'uneasy feeling' about national IDs. Now I can clearly rattle off several reasons about why they are no good and would not be effective without massive government involvement in our personal lives, and how'd we'd have to give up some liberties for them to work. That's just one example (and a good one).
I will say this though, I think that the give and take, the disagreements are what make FR great. It'd be boring if we all agreed with each other. I've been reading and posting on usenet for years in the conservative groups, and %80 of the time it's "yeah, I agree". Here, people tend to have their own opinions. I could do without the statists, but they are entitled to their own opinion, it is a free country after all.
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