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
Jim, I've had one post pulled that granted me a week in the cooler; you graciously told me why, and on reflection you were right. I may well have the right to say anything; no one has any obligation to listen or to abide a statement made in anger that could prove harmful to the forum.
Keep on keepin' on, FRiend.
Into each life, a little rain must fall.
Of those you've mentioned, I think Eschoir is the only one committed to the downfall of FR. Of course he doesn't participate on LF.
Arator isn't such a bad guy. He's passionate about what he believes in (which isn't all that different from most of us), and he got a little wrapped in petty squabbles here. The result was banishment and bitterness. I suspect if tempers were a bit less intense (and the moderator crew could manage to tolerate dissent), Arator would still be posting here, and his contributions would be valued.
Todd... well what can I say.... he's Todd. He isn't happy unless there's a controversy, and he's at the center of it.
jj... he's just a troll (but a funny one at times). His participation consists of choosing one side or the other in an existing argument (for no particular reason) and egging on the participants until a fight breaks out. Classic troll.
Any freeper who goes there today will see only a fraction of the anti/Jewish vituperation that was there just a few weeks ago when the Israel/Palestinian conflict was much hotter. Such as when the IDF moved into Jenin.
Would you propose killing some minority group if some of them are shown to be racist and homicidal? I'm trying to be morally balanced and practical. I understand the need for a war against terrorists who are Muslim. But I believe that killing large numbers of innocent Muslims will have very little practical benefit and I know it is highly immoral.
Here's a proposal: first you offer a "deep intellectual" argument for the "biblical" basis for the "genocide" of Palestinians, and I'll counter.
I'm assuming you will start with a close exegesis of the pertinent passages in the Greek NT, and we'll go from there.
Otherwise, you proposed killing babies in the name of Jesus with no exegetical support, and that makes you-- not an idiot -- but a world-class idiot.
But I'm a busy person, and don't have a lot of time to waste. These people need to find something constructive to do with their lives.
I guess it saddens me that so many are so frustrated and indoctrinated that these are their only responses or offerings in a discussion. I hope we can always have a forum like this for people in the world to discuss issues and come up with solutions. I imagine leading a nation can be the loneliest job in the the world. Sometimes talking through these things could be of benefit. Observing the whole gambit of opinions could be of immeasurable benefit.
One of the things that impresses me most is the level of education, study and intelligence of the posters. Surely all of us will benefit from the sharing of knowledge, faith and ideas. This is a wonderful forum, and I am so proud of the men and women of good will who post. When I start to lose faith, I come here and read and learn. My vision is restored and my energy renewed. The dedication to and love of country and world of the Freepers is, I'm sure, the reason God has spared this world.
It starts off talking about scores of disgruntled Freepers and ends up referring to hundreds.
I was wondering if they are calculating all the various screen names or just applying Million Man Math rules!
OH don't you know STT??? there are FRillions of them...so many...whatever shall happen to FR if they leave???
I mean seriously, how many actual Freepers have you seen chime in at how uphappy and disgruntled they are??? 20? 50?? FRillions???
To each his own, I guess. Personally, I'd much prefer a nested-type display, a la Slashdot - it just makes it easier for me to follow the flow of a post and the replies to it, and the replies to the replies. And Slashdot does give you the option of having a flat display, in chrono order, like FR does.
Although, I'd imagine that sorting all the posts requires a fair amount of server-side work on a busy site, so I can see why there might not be much of a push to implement it.
?
I wasn't criticizng FR, so much as explaining LF.
But if I did have a criticism to level at FR, it would be along the same lines. FR's stated purpose is to advance conservative ideas, and return the government to it's constitutional cage.
That used to be the prime force at FR. But in the last year or two, it seems to be moving more and more toward a GOP cheerleading site. And if that were owing to a simple shift in the balance of posters, that'd be one thing. But it isn't. It has much to do with a shift in the character of moderation and control. Dissent (even dissent in affirmation of conservative and constitutional ideals) is becoming increasingly untolerated. And suppression of those ideas, is met with cheers and hallelujia's from those who were prefer control rather than discussion.
Certainly this is Jim's site, and he's free to do with it as he pleases. And if he and his staff of moderators don't want to spend time rebutting statements which dare to affirm conservative and constitutional principles, even if it means they happen to be challenging the GOP staus-quo... then that's his choice.
But I think it's exacting a price on a once great beacon of freedom.
Will FR continue to have good numbers of devoted participants? Sure it will. Will it stand for ideas rather than men? That remains to be seen.
Well, tyranny is always found in those whinning and worshiping themselves to the point they believe they should not be stopped in their madness. They can post and hurt people but they cannot be told to shove it and be hurt. It's the socialist hypocrisy.
As for them believing all should join them, why should we? I am not at FR because I particularly worship FR (G_d, that is), but if that were the requirement I would go, and I do not see such requirement from FR, while these very people ask for a worship of their views to the point of some kind of sick action leading down to Lord knows where.
Grow a thick skin?
I get hammered just as much--if not more--for my conservative religious beliefs. I ignore it.
Anyway, there are far, far more of you in post-modern, welfare state, dope and porn-adoring, Hollywood worshipping America than there are of me. You ought to take satisfaction in the "enlightened" and "progressive" state of our popular social culture.
Some folks are never satisified.
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