Why did you feel the need to end one of your first posts with that comment, unless it was to start an argument? The nuke 'em all crowd is blowing off steam. We have no intention of nuking Iraq, unless they try to nuke us. If we nuke 'em and turn the place into a glass parking lot, it'll be too hard to get the oil <G>
inquest signed up 2002-03-20.
Welcome to FR.
How about the "Deport all Muslims" crowd? (Or even the few that states "KILL all Muslims"?) How are we to take their comments?
I had one tell me that even Kareem Abdul Jabbar is evil (Just because he's Muslim, of course). He said that Kareem would stand-by and do nothing if a Jewish woman was being raped and/or killed.
How do we take these freaks? Personally, I'm at a loss...I try to defend the FACT that not all Muslims are evil, hate America and want to kill ANY Non-Muslim but it gets harder and harder every day here on Free Republic. I'm honestly quite surprised that the Moderators put up with it.
Thanks, I'm glad to be here (though I may have to visit an addictions specialist soon ;-) ).
Just a few responses I want to make. First of all, yes, my little question at the end of my post was intended as sarcasm, but believe it or not, I wasn't trying to start trouble. It was more a case of, I sensed that Trouble would already find me for posting my views, and I wanted Trouble to be aware that I was ready to meet it. In particular, I was aware of the tactics of a perhaps small but certainly vocal crowd on FR, who respond to any dissent with accusations of "Troll!", "Disruptor!", what-have-you. And sometimes their accusations carry weight with the powers-that-be. I think it's also true that there are those who say such outrageous things as a way of intimidating people into silence, and it looks to me like they do a pretty effective job. I wanted it to be known that I had no intention of being silenced.
It's possible that I was being too defensive, as you've said. You certainly said something wise when you said there's a difference between those blowing off steam and those seriously intending to kill lots of people. These things tend to cause a very visceral reaction with me, so hopefully I can learn to discern the two a little better as I become more experienced with these threads.
On the other hand, I do have to say that I think you may have overreacted a bit by saying that my comments warranted a push of the Abuse button. I wasn't attacking anyone personally, I wasn't making any racist comments, in fact I was standing up to what initially looked like to me was a violation of FR's ban on racist postings. The worst you could say about my post was that it engaged in a bit of hyperbole - but only a little bit: I wasn't implying that most people here don't care about innocents, but that too many remain silent in the face of those who don't care about innocents. And I believe that is largely the case.
But anyway, thanks for the thoughtful replies and the friendly advice (seriously). And just a side note: I may not be an old hat here, but this wasn't "one of my first posts"! Six months is still a long time, enough for an addict like me do plenty o' Freepin'. At least I like to think I've made the rounds around this joint. :^)