Posted on 06/25/2002 3:42:21 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
The following email is being circulated to our members by various disgruntled former FReepers:
Subject: The Future of Our Free RepublicDear 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
I agree with what you say. But people I have enjoyed reading are banned now.
I have not been here as long as most. But I sure think this is turning into "Bush or Bust" like L.com did.
I am still allowed to post at Trixie's site, at least I think so. Haven't tried in a couple of years.
I just hate what has been happening here.
I found FR after Luci banned a lot of posters.
I didn't understand why. I did see why she banned MHGinTN. It was because a post he made about the evils of abortion had been deleted. He did it over and over.
Good man! He was mad. I was too.
I can see why she banned him. It was evident she didn't want his post on there. So she banned him.
I can understand that.
So one of the banned posters registered with a new name and posted about pipebombnews.com. I saw it before it was deleted. I went there and found a lot of the L.com banned there.
Some were bashing L.com but the owner said to knock it off.
Anyway, someone posted FR's website and I was home! It was better than L.com!
It seems after the attack FR changed. Oldtime freepers I loved to read were banned.
Remember a year or so ago when all the L.com people came over here? I do.
I love FR, but what is happenning here now is as though I am still on Lucianne's site.
I bet FR didn't have much more than 15 or 20 posters when it was first started.
President Bush is doing most of what we were afraid Gore would do. But few are having a fit about it.
You didn't ask me but I am "carping" about what is the stated principles of this site and what has been happening.
My gosh! Posters that have been here from the beginning have been banned. I don't want to be banned or I would nane them.
Now if lifelong Republicans can see the light, we are in business.
Though I wasn't a republican back in 94, when the 70+ freshmen were elected to clean it up, I was proud of them. They took it serious, were willing to take the heat, and get some stuff done that needed doing.....they had all generally taken pledges not to be life-timers, but to serve a handful of terms and go back home and live under the rules they promulgated for we peons.
Helen Chenoweth of Idaho, a whiz kid on private property issues and in general the Constitution, was one of those representatives--though she wasn't mine.
And then came the time to get down to THE nitty gritty and the GOP caved....totally....I knew they lost the whole thing--surely the Pervert did. We got the traditional 'whine' from the GOP and he got the budgets he wanted and at least in education a hell of a lot more than he even asked for....Republican Senator Pete Domenici, New Mexico, chairman of the Finance Committee stood in the sacred halls of Congress and bragged about it.
I still haven't found the difference, nor have I seen anything incrementally walking the country back....but then I wasn't expecting to.
But, Dang it PK. If we say what we really think we will be banned.
Not me though.
Long live "HeartLand Security"!
Hey Blues, don't say that here.
The Rs really messed up in '93 didn't they? They didn't keep to thier contract. So they were fired.
Looks like it is going to be an overwhelming win for the Dems this time.
Dadgumit! Why don't the Republicans do what they say they will?
If they had they would have won more seats in the house and senate like we all thought in '96.
No, not that I can see. I've beaten up on Bush pretty heavily lately, over his ME stuff. I'm still here. For that matter, I've screamed at JimRob, the moderators, the site et al (I'm not always very polite), and I'm still here. From what I can see, you have to work at it to get booted from here and the folks who DO get banned very often make a conspicious beeline for the nearest Jihad/Nazi site where they immediately are greeted by happy cries of recognition by their fellows and go into a huddle about their "rights" being trampled, ZOG, the excellence of Saudi culture and how to sneak back onto FreeRepublic :)).
Demidog, I may make it a quarterly tradition to donate to FR with "please delete Demidog's account" as my only request. It may not matter or change anything, but sure will make me feel better.
But it did happen. Republicans had the House and the Senate and wouldn't even bring a bill to the vote because "Clinton will veto it".
They wimped out then.
Maybe I will vote for a Republican next time if I think one will have the backbone to make a President veto something.
My e-mail is on my page too.
It doesn't just belong to Jim anymore, it belongs to everyone who donates their hard-earned money to keep it afloat.Sort of a cyber-populist version of eminent domain, and coming from a libertarian no less! I think I have seen it all
Let's consider the example of a college. Let's say the school accepts some scholarships given by the federal government. You know what happens eventually? Of course you do. The government eventually starts putting conditions on the money. Many schools decide they need the money and capitulate. But you know what? Colleges that decide to not accept any of the money don't have to.
But you want to take it one better! You want to be more oppressive than the federal government even. If ever money was accepted, forever forward the strings bind!
Sheesh.
Any donation given was given to help run the site for the next quarter. Having the assumption that somehow ever having contributed gave you a right to say how the site would be run forever is just plain whacko. It is looney tunes. Frankly, the assumption that making a donation gives you any say in the running of a site like this for any length of time, even the subsequent period is absurd.
You all claim to be proponents of liberty, wanting the freedom to say or do what you want. You have it over there, yet that isn't good enough. You want to force your vision on Jim. You claim to be advocates of liberty but strive to deny Jim the right to use his private property in the way he sees fit, and for Jim to choose to associate with who he wants on his site.
No, what those who are over there but come over here to recruit or badmouth this place want is to deny others their liberties and to try to take Jim's audience. I guess by your bizarre way of thinking, since you participated for a while it is no longer his audience but yours.
Deep down, you know that if you had that audience, it would leave. But that's beside the point.
I look at what the Liberty Forum is, and I see almost an example of demonstrating absurdity by being absurd. I believe if most people were to be shown that site and be told "this is a microcosm of what liberty is like", they would be forever repelled by the idea of liberty. Our founding fathers understood something that appears to have gone right over the head of entirely too many over there, namely that liberty isn't enough. Responsibility and respect are equally important. You guys are poster children against libertarianism with the way you conduct yourselves.
So you and whoever all are cutting down Jim's forum because it isn't more like the Liberty Forum, go there. Do everything out in the open. And those planning on some sort of exodus, if you are planning to go, stop talking about it. Do it! Put your ideas to the test. Walk out and go somewhere else and see what happens. See which way of doing things works better, both in growth and in influence on our governance. The cyber equivalent of federalism. If your way is better than the way Jim has chosen, then more power to you. Forgive me if I don't participate. I don't believe in giving my validation to racists, anarchists, neo-nazis, and general malcontents by my participation in a group with them.
But when you do go, just keep this in mind. The Nazis came to power in Germany not through governmental edicts, but rather by behind the scenes schemings, intimidation tactics (while accusing others of using them), infringing on the property rights of others, and plenty of propaganda. One "side" in this is acting that way. One side isn't.
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