Proposal for additional FR capabilities

Cubicle Guy | December 18, 2001 | Cubicle Guy

[CubicleGuy]

In light of recent events in Sacramento, it has become evident to me that popular sentiment requires the addition of new capabilities for all those who choose to participate here.

On Saturday, an employee of the Sacramento Bee (a "liberal" newspaper) was invited to speak during the commencement program for the graduating students at California State University in Sacramento. Before she was able to complete her speech, the crowd in attendance shouted her down, perceiving her message as a liberal whine about the way the Bush administration has chosen to conduct the war on terrorism. A review of the entire contents of the speech reveals that the true main message of the text was a call to the students, as the future leaders and citizens of the United States, to protect the rights enumerated in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, particularly the right to a free press, in order that government corruption and the restrictions on rights might not go unreported to the American people.

It would seem that the majority of those participating in the discussion of this event stand behind the rights of the students to respond to the speaker by shouting her down. In other words, censorship is seen to be a valuable tool in protecting the rights of U.S. citizens to not be offended or be made uncomfortable by what someone else may have to say, whether the perception of what is being said is correct or not.

Given the evident public sentiment, I propose that FreeRepublic.com should adapt to the demands of an ever-increasingly informed citizenry by doing the following:

1. Any and all capabilities at FreeRepublic that can or are granted to a minority of individuals should be revoked. The ability to remove individual posts from any given thread, for example, at the present time is granted to a few, select (should I say "elite"?) individuals. This is clearly establishes a duality of class here and, in light of the demands of those who feel that democracy ("mob rule") should hold sway, is clearly out of line with this thinking. Why should an elite few be able to decide what the rest of us should be permitted to read here? This is obviously un-democratic.

2. The ability to remove any and all comments appended to threads by any participant at this site should be immediately granted to all who participate here, posters and lurkers alike. Since the ability to shout down others is evidently seen as a necessary evil good in the pursuit of democracy, why should FreeRepublic.com be any different?

3. Since the very existence of a free press has been called into doubt (we all know that every media outlet in existence is just a manifestation of a single liberal medium, don't we?), the ability to delete entire threads should also be granted to every participant, posters and lurkers alike. Any story posted here which might betray any kind of leftist slant that could end up causing offense should be elegible for immediate removal. Anything from the liberal media is suspect, you know?

4. A list of acceptable (non-liberal) media sources (if there is such a thing!) should be maintained. Of course, any and all who participate here should be able to add to and delete from the list at any time. This, too, is just in keeping with the invaluable principles of democracy. This should help new participants in determining when an article they find interesting and worthy of discussion may or may not be more likely to be subject to the desires of others to delete the article.

By adopting these new measures, and by the free distribution of these capabilities to all who participate here, surely this will eliminate the possibility of giving offense to anyone who might otherwise misunderstand a communication by their fellow travelers, and will (in the view of many) promote the cause of freedom, liberty and justice for all, and make FreeRepublic a much more influential voice and force for good in the United States of America, and, indeed, the world.

[CubicleGuy]

What do you say, JimRob? Surely, you can see the obvious value in this suggestion. It's what the informed majority evidently need and want.

I must say that I'm excited and looking forward to the future version of FreeRepublic, which will be a vast improvement over the current limitations imposed (benevolently, of course!) by you, our beloved moderator.

[sinkspur]

FR is not a democracy, any more than your house is a democracy.

JimRob owns it, and sets the rules.

Your lame attempt at an analogy falls flat.

[Rodney King]

Ho Hum. Nobody cares about your whining rant.

[tet68]

Are you STILL here?

[tet68]

Hmmmmm.Things slow up in Harlem?

[breakem]

One small aside, I think she was much higher up the food chain than "an employee" of the Bee.

Good luck to ya. We seem to be caught in a cyclical argument. liberals are bad when they shout conservatives down, so we should shout them down in return. I read the other threads and it seems we easilly justify acting like lioberals.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Hey, it's your website. Straighten this guy out, will ya'?

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Dude, this would have been a wise use of FReepmail.

[Darth Dan]

Why should an elite few be able to decide what the rest of us should be permitted to read here? This is obviously un-democratic.

We don't live in a democracy, but a republic. And this site is called Free REPUBLIC

[Dog Gone]

You're right. She had every right to tell the graduates that the Osama tape was probably a government fake, and they should have politely applauded her.

GET REAL.

[Publius6961]

There are many reasons why one might celebrate the comeuppance of a righteous controlling twit.
Sermonizing as a means to intimidate has a time and place. This sad excuse for a business person chose the wrong time and place, And incidentally...

You are one pompous ass.

[TomServo]

I don't know what you're on, but could you pass it around?

[Stentor]

Too snippy for a guy rant. JMO.

[Dan Nunn]

the ability to delete entire threads should also be granted to every participant, posters and lurkers alike.

Hmm. Too bad I can't try it out.

[AZLiberty]

I, for one, appreciated your ironic post. Perhaps you need to put one of those </irony> thingies at the end for the many literalists attending today.

[Dan from Michigan]

Start your own board.

[Lazamataz]

This ain't my website. It Jim Robinson's website.

I just visit.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

I was referring to your FR Fundraiser thread last summer...something about how you would run the website... :)

[RightOnline]

You don't like it 'round here? Get lost. You like the lady from the Bee? Don't read it much, do ya? I did for years. I've also been around here for years. Your mewling is pitiful.

[Lazamataz]

Midol.

Works wonders for those days when you have cramps.

Listen, I'm the first one that jumped down the Moderators s**t when I felt they were too heavyhanded. But they make a good point: There will be people who bitch no matter what. If they police too much, they will be bitched at. If they police too little, then you have the "Britanny Spears/Severed Penis/What's Your Favorite Music CD" threads dominating the board.

I told them that, when you are bitched at equally by the Puritans and the Libertines, then you know you are at balance.

[Lazamataz]

I was referring to your FR Fundraiser thread last summer...something about how you would run the website... :)

I'd run it into the ground. ;^)

Nah -- on second thought, I'd hire JimRob, then things would run okay. ;^)

[TomGuy]

Your agruments are based on a false premise.

Yes, you have a right to free speech. However, FR is a private endeavor (like many web/internet forums) and as such, does not have to be the forum for you to express your free speech rights. It just happens that FR (like many web/internet forums) allows people to post.

Being a private endeavor gives FR the right to censor. If you feel that infringes on your free speech rights, you have the right to establish your own web forum from which you may speak.

Posting in forums, such as FR are privileges, not rights. FR does have the right to restrict your (or anyone else's) postings here--because FR is a private endeavour. That does not restrict your free speech--it only restricts it in this forum--which FR has a right to do.

[VRWCmember]

fightforfreedom - member since - December 18th, 2001

Duration at FR: 0 days.

[contessa machiaveli]

i love FR just the way it is (to paraphrase the billy joel tune). why fix something if it isn't broken?

[xm177e2]

If I was invited to give a commencement speech at a historically black college, and started droning on about the benefits of Apartheid, and they shouted me down, would you consider it a dark day for democracy? What if I was invited to Brandeis and started screaming "Heil Hitler" into the microphone?

This lady was invited to CSU Sacramento to give a commencement speech. She basically said all of the students who supported the president were too ignorant to see what was going on in America, and that they were all lazy fascists who didn't care if their rights were stripped away. She accused them of being racists for supporting racial profiling. The students didn't like this, so they booed her. Get over it.

It's not like they shouted her down when she was at a political rally. They didn't steal copies of her newspaper and burn them. They didn't threaten to physically attack her.

[TomGuy]

why fix something if it isn't broken?

I did that with my keyboard last week--cleaned it.

I don't like this new keyboard.

[VRWCmember]

If your post was an attempt at humor by parodying liberal whiners, you came across a little too genuine. If however, you were serious, then you really are a strange and sad little man.

[codeword]

I, for one, appreciated your ironic post. Perhaps you need to put one of those thingies at the end for the many literalists attending today.

Right, AZ.

The post was obviously an irony along the lines of Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. But most of the people who replied just didn't get it.

What does this say about the average IQ around here?

[VRWCmember]

How long do you think 'fightforfreedom' (post #15) will last?

[tet68]

I read the other threads and it seems we easilly justify acting like lioberals.

That is because,while we might not like it,we extend civil liberties to liberals(Who rant and shout conservatives down.)They however,(as evidenced by CG)do not feel they have to extend those same liberties to us.

[Saundra Duffy]

What in the world are you talking about?

[IowaHawk]

I want Moose and Cheese emoticons.

[randog]

Where in the 1st Amendment (or The Constitution, for that matter) does it say that we have the right to polite free speech, all other speech banned?

[wooly_mammoth]

I would like the ability to ignore what is said by certain posters. Kind of like a personal black list button. It would only apply to what I see when visiting FR not what anyone else can see.

For example, I no longer have any interest in reading any of the posts of the people that condoned or cheered at the burning of St. John The Divine Cathedral. For example, Kevin Curry and many others. Some posters even lamented that certain priests that they hated didn't get scorched. There are some real nutters that post here.

Recently there have been a lot of people that seem barely literate. I don't want to have to wade through all that gibberish to find interesting replies. It's gotten to the point where I'll often just read the recent articles one after another without even looking at a single reply, simply because I don't feel like reading 100 insipid posts to find 5 interesting ones.

A personal black list button would be great.

[Libertarian_4_eva]

I have heard people on radio shows who were there stated many times it had nothing to do with her being a liberal and more to the fact that they felt like she was spoiling their day. It was supposted to be about their lives and what they accomplished at college. All of those who have called both the liberal and conservative radio shows that I have listened to stated that.

[CubicleGuy]

Thank God somebody gets it.

To the rest of you: thanks for proving my point.

[Libertarian_4_eva]

This, too, is just in keeping with the invaluable principles of democracy

I don't want this site to be about democracy. This site is about a FREE REPUBLIC. Go to hell Anti-War liberal dirtbag hippie scum.

[don-o]

Your lame attempt at an analogy falls flat.

If that post was not dripping with irony, I will eat my keyboard. Mr. Sink, I believe you have been had.

[tubebender]

CubicleGuy, ask your boss for a window seat. You need some fresh air. Rush Limbaugh spoke at Humboldt State in the late 80s on one of his two "Rush to Excellence" tour of the North Coast and the socialist professors and agitators went nuts. The show went on any way to a packed house. I am quite proud to have been one of the Sponsors of his two appearances here. Now the tide is turning and it is about time. Jim Robinson can do any thing he wants here. It's his site.

[Freeper john]

Makes me wonder if some posters think "irony" means your clothes look smoothed out

[CubicleGuy]

What does this say about the average IQ around here?

It ain't complementary, that's for sure.

[breakem]

My comment was directed to those ho said the liberals shout and hoot our speakers so it's okay to shout theirs.

I do believe the views she espoused are liberal and the fact that she is a big deal at the bee further supports that contention.

As for why people were hooting, I support the stand and turn the back silently method.

[fightforfreedom]

Duration at FR: 0 days

Of course.

But don't kid yourselves that you are proponents of freedom and defenders of the U.S. constitution.

You don't represent America and God is not on your side if you are against freedom of speech and the right to protest against those whom govern.

Such individuals are authoritarian and more characteristic of the types whom are appreciated in the Communist East.

Many of you would simply like everyone here to tout the Party Line.

That's most sad...


I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death. - Patrick Henry

[breakem]

I agree, but no excuse to act like them. I prefer the silent stand and turn technique.

[fightforfreedom]

Who cares?

God. And believe me....He's watching...

[LarryLied]

liberals are bad when they shout conservatives down, so we should shout them down in return. I read the other threads and it seems we easily justify acting like liberals.

There is a difference. Liberals have their little brown shirt groups which plan the disruption of conservative speech at colleges across the nation. This was a spontaneous outpouring by students, many of whom, I suspect, would not even describe themselves as conservatives. I not advocate the right create groups such as the Mumia crowd to shout people down. But I don't have a problem with an audience turning on a speaker.