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Free Republic losing its impact
Alamance Independent ^ | Unknown | Matt Maggio

Posted on 12/01/2002 1:23:55 PM PST by BraveMan

What a long way Free Republic has come! From its birth in 1996 as what began as just a place where hardcore conservatives to post the latest news and analyze it, Free Republic two years later had a significant role in the neutralization of the Clintons - as it became the organizing point for enormous protests ridiculing Bill Clinton over Monicagate everywhere he went in the U.S. early in Monicagate throughout 1998. Some top liberals even blame Freepers for Al Gore's defeat.

Very early in Monicagate, Freepers brought Free Republic out of just being a sort of giant cybercafe for dissidents to talk things over - and made it into a very-effective organizing point for giant protests against liberals and liberalism, like the one in Houston at a Clinton fundraiser that not only like most greeted Clinton with hundreds of dissidents ridiculing him for his adultery and perjury, but even found a fire engine to hang a giant sign on that read "Bill Clinton Is A Four-Alarm Fraud." Freepers in Florida hung a giant sign on a cabin cruiser to float in a strategic position just offshore a fundraiser of his there. And here in North Carolina, about 30 Freepers picketed an Al Gore fundraiser in Raleigh's Volvo district in May 1999 - some dressed as Buddhist monks. The Clintons/Gore Regime just couldn't escape the conservatives from hell.

Other liberals were no luckier. The "Rosiecott" that ended Corporate America's willingness to indulge leftist politics was in large part organized on Free Republic. Freeper-organized boycotts were to Rosie O'Donnell's career what a later gay boycott was to advice-talk radio host Dr. Laura's.

But - just six years after its founding, just four years after the height of its power - Free Republic today is largely a total waste of time. As a reader commented, it isn't accomplishing anything anymore - with the giant protests against liberals formerly organized on it by Freepers over; as he agreed last week, the sole positive things it now does are to provide rapid dissemination of news, even from small-town dailies, to dissidents everywhere - and to guide dissidents to the various dissident newspapers that really are hardcore.

Some social issues are almost unmentionable on Free Republic today. More than one Freeper has griped that posted articles on immigration often just disappear. Other Freepers have been just blacklisted from Free Republic - for offending the sensibilities of founder Jim Robinson or the small clique under him that largely actually runs Free Republic now.

Today, Free Republic is every bit as handicapped as founder Jim Robinson - but by another problem. To all too many Freepers now, anyone calling themselves a Republican is God's brother - and cannot be criticized, no matter how Clintonesque their views on many social issues may be. And to all too many Freepers now, Pres. Bush really is God - uncriticizable, no matter what.

To make Free Republic great again, a number of things have to happen. First, all involved - from ordinary Freepers to "JimBob" himself - have to accept that having an (R) next to one's name doesn't make a politician beyond criticism. Second, all involved must also accept that Pres. Bush isn't God. And then, all Freepers must commit to doing again what made Free Republic great - hounding any politician at odds with Red Nation's masses on social issues; if that means picketing Pres. Bush everywhere he goes if he hints at amnesty for illegal aliens or tacit support of racial quotas, that's what it takes.

Free Republic didn't become great by being a Chinese-style "Democracy Wall" for dissidents to post articles from "mainstream" newspapers to and then discuss them. It can only became great again the same way it originally got great.


TOPICS: Editorial; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: antifreeper; opuslist; tos
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To: dwills
I haven't noticed any PC discipline on FR at all, especially with all the bigots suddenly choosing our forums to come out of the closet with blanket condemnations of Islam and those whom they identify with it.

If that's your definition of "bigot", or if you are compelled to keep using the word in lieue of thinking, perhaps you would be more comfy in www.IslamRus...

181 posted on 12/01/2002 3:15:26 PM PST by Publius6961
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To: FreeSpeechZone


A liddle cheese wit you're whine?

182 posted on 12/01/2002 3:15:40 PM PST by Cultural Jihad
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To: FreeSpeechZone
Y not?
183 posted on 12/01/2002 3:16:12 PM PST by Cultural Jihad
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To: Cultural Jihad
he was the best fr should back on
184 posted on 12/01/2002 3:16:15 PM PST by FreeSpeechZone
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To: deport
He got band on the run.
185 posted on 12/01/2002 3:16:16 PM PST by Ms. AntiFeminazi
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To: BraveMan
Attn MATT MAGGIO:


186 posted on 12/01/2002 3:17:02 PM PST by HighWheeler
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To: FreeSpeechZone; Admin Moderator
Got Band? Sounds like a bumpersticker for a HS band fundraiser.
187 posted on 12/01/2002 3:17:22 PM PST by CARepubGal
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To: FreeSpeechZone
no i am not t-shirt ,but he was the BEST debator on fr you guys could not challenge him so he got band

Into music, is he? When he isn't debating?

188 posted on 12/01/2002 3:17:29 PM PST by Cachelot
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To: BraveMan
More than one Freeper has griped that posted articles on immigration often just disappear.

Yep, I can't recall ever reading a vanity or blog-source blaming everything from ingrown toenails to the setting of the sun on immigrants. < / extreme sarcasm >

189 posted on 12/01/2002 3:17:30 PM PST by Diddle E. Squat
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To: shiva; ALOHA RONNIE; goldilucky
I am so proud of you freepers, including myself. And am so happy that we are being criticized. Do you know what that means? Do you know what that means? Well let me tell you....that means that they are scared of us just like they are of Rush, Fox News, Drudge and others like them. That we have impacted the political scene and taken the prize from the liberals and put our claim on it. Yesssssss sir! Give yourselves a pat on the back. Just go back and read the article again. We are being blamed for turning things around and they hate us. It's great!!!! Remember when we thought everything was lost but we persevered and kept on keeping on? Well, this is the fruit of our labour. WE CONTROL NOW ! Don't you just love it? They are scared of us. WOW!!!

Exactly what I was thinking! First Daschles attack and then Gore attacking Rush Limbaugh and Talk Radio! This article is designed to plant the suggestion that FR is powerless, so that we all log off and stop coming here!!

Keep it up, Freepers!! The LIBERAL LEFT is freaking out that they lost the Senate and House and are blaming AMERICA for daring to tell them NO!!

190 posted on 12/01/2002 3:17:35 PM PST by Joy Angela
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To: Cultural Jihad
why did t-shirt get band ?
191 posted on 12/01/2002 3:17:53 PM PST by FreeSpeechZone
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To: FreeSpeechZone
are you afraid of FREE SPEECH

Of course not, although I do have an aversion to reading ALLCAPS.

You need to learn what free speech truly is in America. There's only one entity that is forbidden by law not to censor. Do you know who that entity is?

Lastly, who were you before? You're no "newbie."

There shall be no mercy.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.

192 posted on 12/01/2002 3:18:21 PM PST by rdb3
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To: sneakypete
I agree, Bush is no conservative. Look no further than our open border "free for all".......
193 posted on 12/01/2002 3:18:23 PM PST by Joe Hadenuf
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To: Ms. AntiFeminazi

194 posted on 12/01/2002 3:18:29 PM PST by Cultural Jihad
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To: BraveMan
Free Republic losing its impact

Did it ever have any out in the real world?

195 posted on 12/01/2002 3:19:48 PM PST by advocate10
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To: FreeSpeechZone

Too many spelling errors.

196 posted on 12/01/2002 3:19:58 PM PST by Cultural Jihad
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To: FreeSpeechZone
Apparently you dislike modifiers as much as moderators.
197 posted on 12/01/2002 3:20:09 PM PST by eddie willers
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To: Cultural Jihad
lol
198 posted on 12/01/2002 3:20:21 PM PST by Ms. AntiFeminazi
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To: Cachelot
lol i am not a good speller
199 posted on 12/01/2002 3:20:33 PM PST by FreeSpeechZone
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To: SamAdams76
I suspect that THIS is the composer of this screed........and if you read its posts, you'll know why it's not happy here.
200 posted on 12/01/2002 3:21:54 PM PST by Howlin
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