Lew Rockwell has not been welcome on FreeRepublic for a long time. Anti war or conspiracy propaganda like antiwar.com, Alex Jones, Prisionplanet.com are not the type of sites we want representing us. If you want to read about black helicopters, chemtrails, trilateral conspiracies, then Google is your friend.
At the risk of being banned for not showing sufficient obsequious deference, that looks to the rest of the world like arbitrary censorship and intellectual cowardice. If you can think of a more accurate term, I'd appreciate hearing it.
A forum supposedly representing the pure strength of freedom of thought and the value of exposing falsehood really shouldn't have anything to fear from the occasional screw-ball post. It and its poster will be derided to death anyway. And frankly, it makes a humorous contrasting background to the overwhelmingly excellent quality of the other posts on FR.
Allowing flaky free speech in a forum called "Free Republic" hardly means "we" (in fact, Jim Robinson, because "we" have no say in what is or is not allowed here) endorses it or its source. It just shows certainty in the unalienable value of free speech and confidence in truth being triumphant. Frankly, I think a dismissive response (or flurry of them) is far more damning than a story spike or black out.
After all, a screw-ball conspiracy theory about Clinton having an on-going sexual tryst with an intern turned out to be true. Nobody is sufficiently pre-cognitive to determine beforehand what "crackpot" theories will turn out to be true, and thereby proactively filter so that only valuable content gets through.
I don't expect this to change your mind, but in the interest of intellectual honesty, I feel compelled to supply a counterpoint, because nobody else would dare.
If I disappear, it's because I've been banned for expressing this view.
You forgot David Icke and the Reptilians. LOL