Posted on 04/03/2007 7:24:18 PM PDT by Reaganesque
It is always disappointing to be reminded that there are people in the world who do not like you so much that they are willing to debase themselves and others in order to get their way. We, as conservatives face this from the Left on a day to day basis. But when such action comes from another supposed Conservative, that is truly disappointing.
The posters at DU think nothing of swearing and posting the most filthy, perverted and twisted things about their political rivals. We here at FR are, for the most part, better than that. At least we try to be. Unfortunately, there's always someone who proves that both sides have their ugly side.
I have posted a number of pro-Mitt Romney threads recently as have many others. I discovered this afternoon that several of them have been the victims of childish and down right purile dirty tricks. Now, political dirty tricks are nothing new and nor are they uncommon on either side of the aisle. But some simply cross the line of decency. Such is the case with whomever played their little game of messing with the Keywords on these Pro-Romney threads. Here are four examples:
Romney Tops Republicans in Fundraising
KEYWORDS: ANTICHRIST; CULT; FUNDRAISING; MITTRAPESCHILDREN; ROMNEY; Click to Add Keyword
Why I Think You Should Vote For My Dad
KEYWORDS: 2008; ELECTIONPRESIDENT; ELECTIONS; MITTBEATSHISKIDS; MITTISTHEANTICHRIST; ROMNEY; Click to Add Keyword
Parsing the Polls: Answering the Mormon Question
KEYWORDS: CULT; JOEYSMITHDELUSION; Click to Add Keyword
KEYWORDS: ELECTION; FRED; FREDTHOMPSON; MITTISTHEANTICHRIST; ROMNEY; THOMPSON; VP; Click to Add Keyword
People, campaigning can be a hard and painful thing. You have to have a thick skin to run for office and heaven knows, all candidates take their blows, some more than others. But there is such a thing as decency. And this little prank doesn't just cross that line, it obliterates it.
Disagree with the thread? Fine. Present your arguments. You don't like the candidate? Great. Tell me why and make an attempt at intelligent conversation. That's the way this place is supposed to work. But, resorting to such sophomoric, vulgar and quite frankly bigoted childishness is beneath contempt. If you can't manage a reasonable level of maturity, then there's a whole bunch of like minds over at DU you can have fun with.
Bump
No, I am asking for reasoned debate. Accusing someone of pedophilic rape is not debate. It is childish. It is puerile. It’s verbal bullying. How can anyone have any kind of a reasoned debate when one side insists on such childish, rhetorical tactics? If anyone wants to quash dissent it is those who use such tactics. Who is more censorious then, the person who points out the verbal bullying or the person doing the bullying?
I hope the moderators can tell who did this and remove them from FR, we certainly don’t need such people on FR!
Well said! Here is one of my favs:
President Lincoln, 1863: ...We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. “It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the Offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”
An incitement to anger. An incitement to conflict. Neither of which are conducive to reasoned debate.
It won’t get removed until some hits the abuse button.
Gone now.
Those are the original Keywords that I filled in when I started the thread. Please note the time stamp on them.
Just post something critical of Michael Savage and watch DU tactics on steroids.
More power to you, FRiend. But a republic isn’t just dictated by an internet forum. Get out and work for your supported causes, preferably within the party. Yes, it’s imperfect, and, no, you’re not going to get everything you want.
The fact that you think keywords... WORDS themselves quash dissent shows how little faith you have in the reader’s ability to discern what the writer meant.
Without using words, no point can be made.
Can I see a FULL list of the words you disagree with? If you DO write them out for me, I’ll know which words YOU are censoring. Thanks.
Well, while certainly not of the egregious type you were primarily complaining about, technically it's still "keyword abuse."
See, the thing is, the management doesn't have a hard and fast policy on keywords. Enforcement has been on a pretty much common sense basis, since some of the best comic relief on FR has appeared in keywords, and they couldn't track it all with a thousand mods anyway.
A more insidious problem, IMO, has been the dilution of dialog over the past few months, with the emergence of sleaze/"entertainment" threads that get posts up in the 10s of thousands. Examples are the dead blonde and other celeb gossip; today it's Keith Richards. This trash is readily available in so many other venues, but it's emerging as almost one-third of the content on the Latest Posts page at any given time.
Maybe it's just me, but I find this depressing and discouraging.
I have already mentioned this to a few people, but here goes again.
THIS IS A GAME.
The object of the game is this: drop into any thread and unload any bomb of information you can think of. It doesn’t matter if it’s about Rudy or Mitt or Duncan. What matters is the GAME. After they drop their bomb .. they begin to attract some attention. Pretty soon others begin to arrive onto the thread in order to bolster the claims of the bomb dropper or to add their additional bombs - always with the accompanying 2 or 3 others who will agree with the bomb dropper.
Then .. something magical happens .. all the bomb droppers shut up .. why ..?? because they’re too busy ROTFLTAO while we are going ballistic. They have accomplished the intent of the game .. watching us go ballistic!
The lesson of the GAME. We don’t have to play. If we don’t answer .. the thread dies. If we don’t respond to their insults and their threats and their stupid childish antics .. THE GAME IS OVER!!!
My favorite response .. ROTFLOL!!
This is nothing new .. these same groups were doing the very same thing during the 2000 election. Then, it was Bush is bad, Bush is a drunk, Bush is this and Bush is that. As soon as we all caught on to what they were doing .. the game was over.
REMEMBER .. IT’S A GAME!! They just want the opportunity to laugh at you .. don’t give it to them.
I totally agree with your opinions. This has to stop. Where else can adults share ideas, discuss candidates strengths and weaknesses, but here on FR.
A Rosie O’Donnell thread was hijacked by one of FR’s premiere Rudy bashers today. Now I’ve supported Rudy in the past. I think he’s a great guy. Then I find out his consulting business has Hugo Chavez for a client???? NEXT!
Your “vanity” has a lot of merit, and I hope it will lead to less acrimony on this board.
I do and have.... not necessarily just within the party. There ARE political organizations outside the parties, you know. If conservatives are outnumbered and outshouted in this party, then the party will have left us, not the other way around. There are quite a few "Republicans" who believe that they'd be better off without us.
The Republicans don’t own the NRA, for instance.
“Yes, it’s imperfect, and, no, you’re not going to get everything you want.”
Oh, come on, son. I don’t expect “everything” I want. I DO expect a nominee for the Republican Party to somehow reflect the party’s platform. The platform IS why we peons pull the lever, you know. Without that, the party is just a club.
I will NEVER vote for anyone hostile to the United States Constitution. To do otherwise would, in fact, be that “shunning” you mentioned.
“I will NEVER vote for anyone hostile to the United States Constitution. To do otherwise would, in fact, be that “shunning” you mentioned.”
I have to look at the man in the mirror every morning. A vote for Rudy would break the mirror!
Yes, the thread is about abusing the Keyword function, hence the “keyword abuse” keyword.
I will not be contributing this time even though I have written a nice check every quarter for years because I thought this was a place I could support. Instead, in the name of all the hateful, ugly people on this forum, I donated the money to Rudy. I’m not even sure that I will vote for him but I figured he deserved the contribution for the abuse he was taking from fellow Republicans. Had I known what was going on with Romney, I would have donated the money to him in the name of hateful people on FR.
—
Maybe you can put a stop payment on the check.. if that is how you donated ;-)
seems like an emotional response that in the end, only punishes the forum and those here at FR that do play fair, or try to anyway. jmo
Concepts like “honor” and “integrity” and “duty” are lost on the political types...
I’d venture that the gallantry Adams referred to would be a vain and showy, rather than a humble and serving, form of chivalry.
An eagerness to box or duel at any tiny slight, for example.
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