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
First of all, there is not an extraordinary level of censorship on Free Republic. It's natural that those who get booted and have their posts removed will feel that way, but it is not an extraordinary level overall. The vast majority of FReepers have never been banned, never been suspended, never had a post pulled, and never had a moderator send them a warning message.
Those who get booted are usually posters who post racist materials, posters who post anti-Semitic materials, posters who post Holocaust denial materials, those who spread the "Protocols" nonsense propaganda, those who post Marxist propaganda and attempt to pass it off as truth, those who deal in tinfoil hat conspiracy theory, those who condemn others based on race or religion, those who condemn religion itself, those leftists who pose as conservatives or right wingers but constantly trash conservatives or conservative policy, those who call for armed revolution or other violence, those who blame America for 9-11, those who excessively bash our president, our war effort or our military, those who post excessive profanity, those who agressively engage in personal attacks, feuds and flamewars, those who register two or more accounts and use them as straw men or try to pass themselves off as different posters, those who post vulgarity or pornography, those who continually post off topic items, spammers, advertisers, trolls, liberals, anarchists, skinheads, nazis, communists, defenders of abortion, gun control, gay rights, peta people, etc, etc (Free Republic is not a liberal debating society).
In addition, people who were banned from FR for the above reasons but come back with a new account will usually get booted when detected and all of his posts removed, regardless of what he posted or whether he broke any rules under his new nom de plume.
Some of these very same repeat offenders will proclaim innocence and complain the loudest, like our friend Vallandigham here. Most of these people have swallowed the black poison pill of the darkside and are now doing all they can do to speed along the "imminent demise" of Free Republic. Some of them have registered and been banned dozens and even hundreds of times from Free Republic (no wonder they feel so mistreated and censored).
And, yes, scores of them have organized and are engaged in anti-Free Republic activities. This has been going on in the background for the last four years. These groups of the banned ones, "Great Ones" they call themselves as in "All the great ones have been banned" band together, create forums, scan FR all day long and bring back to their mouse holes little tidbits from FReeperdom and they post these little morsels on their forums, scurry around excitedly and condemn the FReeper or FReepers whose posts they find amusing. Then they proclaim "Free Republic will die at 9:30 on February 8th" and so forth.
This goes on and on until they get bored and then start feeding on each other (mainly because they love to hate, doesn't matter who, hate anyone even each other, I mean we are really dealing with the dregs of life's losers here). Soon they splinter, kill off their forum and start two or three new competing anti-Freeper forums and the cycle begins anew. And Free Republic lives on.
The most recent of these forums is the LibertyForum:
Peruse these pages. This forum is home to many banned posters and many posters who feel for one reason or another that Free Republic no longer meets their needs. That's fine. You will find on this forum unabashed racists, anti-Semites, Marxist propagandists, angry (and I mean very angry) people who bash everyone and everything, whackos, sickos, you name it. If any of our current posters think this would be their cup of tea, then I welcome you to it. Please. I'd love nothing more than to be boycotted by the denizens of these anti-Freeping forums.
Now, back to our writer, Vallandigham's complaint. This guy can't understand why he and his cohorts get banned every time they register new names on FR. Can't understand why Jim and his crazed moderators ban them over and over. I mean it's not like they've declared war on FR or anything. Quoting from some of their dialogue:
Gotcha beat on the bannings, ho ho ( Welcome Robnoel...been trying to get on your radio show, but you ain't answering my mail...):
...& a couple others I forget now, were all banned. As soon as I began bringing up the Council on Foreign Relations and Trilateral Commission, the Spooks & Gubm't apologist (Poohbah, CommonTator, sinkspur, bayourod, Torie, etc.) wd swarm, en-masse, on the threads, and, within minutes, I'd get the punt.
- "fargone"
- "greatspectacular"
- "sevendust"
- "kindsir"
- "gobshite"
- "whatif"
Finally gave up. Suckers is born every minute, and if the sheeple want to contribute to RimJob's new home addition or whatnot, that's their business.
Welcome, patriot!
And another answers:
Well Hey, in the last month I was banned asBut, I have an endless supply of screen names and a desire to be a thorn in those asswipe's sides for a long time to come...
- Central Scrutiniser,
- Peter Torque
- Son Raw,
- Estimated Prophet
- Dotbomb
- and Penasco
Yup, and we will watch the abuse reports pour in when they start posting, then a little comparison through our logs and, yep, a match. Damn, Robinson banned me again.
Well many of you are receiving these emails or FReepmails, so please, go visit their sites. If you are the kind that finds them attractive, by all means, stay and enjoy yourself. I'm sure FR will manage somehow without you.
Well, they've reported and I've reported, you decide.
Huh? Some of us have done that and better in 18 minutes.....
What about those who propose genocide against certain religions?
I have no great love for Islam, but I do not believe anyone should propose slaughtering 1000's or millions of Muslims.
Thank you for FreeRepublic, but did you have to make it so addictive?
So to make themselves feel better, these disruptors set out to tear down FreeRepublic.
If these guys are so smart, why don't they invest the time and resources to start their own site? The answer to that, of course, is that they aren't so smart, because the bile and vitriol in their souls has overwhelmed their entire being.
Thanks again, Jim for creating FreeRepublic. As usual, you're doing the right thing.
Well, I'm shattered ... not even an honorable mention as a "government shill" or anything.
I thought I could have been somebody ... I could have been a contenduh!
I guess I'll just have to settle for my distinction as a "known Arab-basher", given to me by Byron-the-Aussie.
Der Elite Møøsenspåånkengruppen OberKømmååndø
Geez, I thought the black helicopters finally picked them up.
What an eloquent response.
I read the opus of one person who was banned recently who vociferously complained "I have been a member since 1998!!!"
Well, good for him. But that does not constitute a license to steal, does it? Nor does that mean that new posters are somehow lesser human beings, unfit morally, and lack the same access to this wonderful forum than anybody else.
I quit going to the drug threads because of the temper tantrums. You can't talk to those people rationally.
I still like the moderating-down method. Instead of deleting the message, you knock it down below the level of the standard reader. They see their message but everyone else has to drop a level to see it. Ignorance is bliss.
I've never had any complaints with this forum. I was never a member of an online discussion group before I joined FR and I lurked FR for a long time before I was certain that I wanted to join and get posting privileges. I emphasize privilege because there has never been a doubt in my mind that that is exactly what it is- I don't have a right to post here. Even though I donate money on the Freepathons I am still under no illusions that I could be banned and if I were to be (banned) I'm pretty sure I would have nobody but myself to blame. Plenty of times I've been just about to post a nasty message and then just stopped and censored myself- sometimes just logging off and taking a time out for a couple hours before I respond. That's just the basic rules of civility.
One rule I try to use myself (loosely) in my everyday life is "If my mother or father would be ashamed to see me doing this or hear me saying this or if I would be ashamed for them to see me/hear me-- what I'm doing's probably not a good idea". Strictly speaking, there are plenty of instances that fall outside those guidelines but it's a pretty good rule of thumb to use in most situations.
I use a lot of these self made rules of thumb and they help me out. Like the issue of rights. On whether it's something I (or somebody) has a right to or not, I figure that if I could exercise this right, alone, on a deserted island off in the Pacific, it is indeed a right and not some privilege that I perceive as a right. For example, right to speech, religion, pursuit of happiness- all these things can be exercised on my desert island. Rights to medical care, cheap energy, a half hour slot on national TV, right to a job or a "living wage" or the right to post on an internet forum- these could not be "exercised" on my island and thus do not exist as rights. Now, obviously some of the rights I might take for granted on my island may not apply in polite society (open nudity, spending the daylight hours howling at the sun etc) but so far this rule of thumb has worked for me.
D'oh! Starting to ramble. Gotta go. Thanks for posting this.
My big question isn't this silly e-mail.
What I want to know is how this person got my e-mail address, because it was never published on the forum!
There's another thread going on now where it was just pointed out that only at most 100 out of millions of Muslims have tried to attack us here. I like to debate solutions but I don't like mindless "nuke them all" statements being liberally tossed into threads.
I believe this little phrase explains it all.
What's that? You say that you're an officer of an elite moose-spanking group? Or perhaps I'm merely thinking in Germlish.
Jim, You must feel like you're herding cats, sometimes.
Same here (although I occasionally lurk in them, strictly to observe the pathology). I'm already hip-deep in flamewars in Usenet - I use FR to take a break from them.
Hey Jim, can I have a ride in your black helicopter sometime? (snicker) Judging by the shrill and hysterical accusations of the tinfoil hat crowd banned by you and your yoeman staff, you must be doing something right. "You can judge a man by the quality of his enemies."
Keep it up.
Interesting how that also decribes the DU forum.
BTW, keep up the good work.
What's a Freeper to do?
I have made my share of controversialposts. I have seen some yanked by others, but only 4 of mine, and 3 of those at my request.
While I wish some of those that I saw yanked of others remained, I do not see the major censoship people speak of. I myself have made some hot comments, off the cuff at times, that could have been considered personal, attacking, or whatever, and JimRob never banned me, nor did he ever give me a warning.
While I am of a different opioion from some conservatives regarding our president and the state of the GOP, I have been allowed to openly state so, cite references, make demanding accusations against GWB, call him as I see him (A LIBERAL in disguise), and not once has the moderator or JimRob ever bannedme or pulled any of those comments that i am aware of.
Jim, you got a lot thicker skin than I sure do! :-)
Sorry, but that is a mindless statement.
There were many more than 100 that were involved in training and funding of just the 19 that went down with their flying bombs. If you think Al Qaeda has only 100 members that planned this then your living in another world.
When Muslim countries scream over and over "Death to America" you think they are just crying wolf?
bin Ladin declared war on America back in the mid 90's and nobody listened. Not listening is the mistake.
Yes, like the Freedom League (or, as some would say, the Powerpuff Girls) we are the ultra-secret combat arm of the Israeli Amen Corner and He-Man Women Haters Club. It is our mission to fight for truth, justice, and the right to spåånk elite Møøses.
Don't knock it if you haven't tried it.
PS ... now that you know of our secret existence, we shall have to kill you. Please let us know the time that would be convenient for you.
Regards,
Der Elite Møøsenspåånkengruppen OberKømmååndø
Total and complete F***ing IDIOTS!!!!!
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