Posted on 06/14/2015 2:48:41 PM PDT by Isara
We heard the news about Hillary's fake Twitter and Facebook followers and her operatives pretending to be her regular supporters. Is it possible that it also is happening right here on Free Republic Web site?
Free Republic is a premier Conservative site. Most of us know who, among the presidential candidates, is the most Conservative. Our candidate happens to be effective in his campaigning also. Our enemies know that and fear him the most. Naturally, Free Republic is turning into a battleground.
We don't know who they are: other Republican campaign operatives, GOPe, Hillary's camp, Democratic operatives, union thugs, Castro brothers, ISIS, LGBT, ACLU, etc. But they all share one common goal - to take Ted Cruz out. Since trust is Ted Cruz's strong point, they are trying to erode our trust of him.
You may notice that they came in the threads about Ted Cruz in teams, 2 or more at the same time. No matter how much we gave them the facts, these same people went to the next thread and repeated the same misinformation over and over again. This is why I think we are under attack.
Their strategies are:
I've detected that some patterns of their posting were shared among these operatives. Is it possible that there are a few of them pretending to be a lot more, just like Hillary's Twitter and Facebook followers?
Do nothing about it. As long as you are free to counter their argument, what is the big deal?
I do think if they constantly disrupt and are pretending to be something they are not AND YOU CAN PROVE IT OVER TIME, ban them. Otherwise you might be banning a friend who just happens to disagree on one issue, candidate, or tactic.
FR gets many pretenders. I’ve spotted them. They pretend to be conservatives except that they think exactly like liberals. It would be great to weed them out, but you have to be careful. If posters must agree with everything then eventually you will have nobody.
Some people have been banned for getting overly emotional when we KNOW they are mostly solid conservatives. That is really too bad. Other calm speaking people who have NOTHING to offer regarding conservative principles are not banned. Then there are some cut-throat conservatives who are so difficult to get along with than even though they are conservative, I wish they would get banned. They do us a disservice. But who decides? So really you just have to put up with it.
I think it would be a mistake to demand support for one candidate over the others. Fight with words. The argument itself is valuable to those who come and only read the threads but don’t post. In political debate, the process is important. It equips everyone with solid arguments.
Did Cruz buy Free Republic?
Cruz did this ALL to himself. Stop blaming other people and start blaming Cruz.
SEE BELOW:
I really hate repeating the same arguments but here goes a quick summary:
1. We all agree that Obama is more destructive than any President before, so why trust him or give him more powers?
2. TPA takes away the Senate’s constitutional right to a 60-vote cloture vote. Why give that to Obama?
3. TPA takes away the right to filibuster from any member of Congress. Why give that to Obama?
4. TPA takes away the right to offer amendments from any member of the House or Senate. Why give that to the most destructive and lawless President we have ever known?
5. TPA gives Obama the authority to negotiate in secret and condones his COMPLETELY LAWLESS behavior in threatening anybody who has read TPP (which is almost done by the way).
So my questions is this? How could anyone possibly rationalize giving so much power to a horrible President while weakening the Congress at the same time.
It defies all logic. It does not make sense.
Some of you think Obama won’t be able to find a total of 50 Demorats and RINOs to force a horrible world changing agreement on us? You are crazy.
Whether you liked them or not, Presidents before weren’t absolute haters of our actual country. Obama is, so doing this is completely idiotic.
Cruz has nobody to blame here but himself. I have been here for over 10 years.
Which is why this should be a subscription site. At least then the trolls would have to pay for the privilege of irritating us.
And again.. no names.
Why is that?
Do bears crap in the woods ?
Yeah, I’ve seen an uptick in classic trolling. Even pointed out what I believe to be a “sleeper” troll to the admins.
Thing is, Free Republic is and has been CONSTANTLY subject to astroturfing and trolling. Mr. Robinson and his admins are used to it and deal with it effectively.
/What’s that I smell? Ozone from a coming Zot storm...
I said whether FR is under attack.
Don't worry! When your candidate is deemed a threat, he/she will be a target then.
Cruz made the wrong choice for the right reason: He is in favor of free trade. Of course a secret agreement with Obama running the show means it should have been voted no. 99/100 senators got this wrong and Ted at least tried to kill it when it had the greatest chance of being killed by voting not to end debate.
screen names please
Yeah but then we'd have to be Paid Republic, and that just doesn't hold much poetic charm.
Actually I doubt that we are under attack from the outside. I’ve been in the middle of a lot of the battle defending the Cruz position on TPA and TPP. By and large, the Freepers doing the attacking have been around long before Ted Cruz showed up in D.C. They are not Newbies unless they have managed to steal some long standing accounts.
And they are a passionate lot. I respect their passion but I just don’t think that Trade Agreements are the major element in our employment problems. Most of that is due to high taxes, over regulation, crime in Dem run cities and states, all the environmental baggage that we are being required to carry and a declining educational system. Jobs are being lost in Dem states and are bring gained in Republican states.
I suspect what we are seeing is a bit of the isolationists favoring Rand Paul mixed in with those Freepers who admire Pat Buchanan.
It’s going to be an interesting next 16 months.
I agree.
I see trolls as one more opportunity to defend an idea and have it appear in the “Latest Posts” list.
I happen to like Cruz, but I think it’s wrong to try to organize a witch hunt against those here who don’t like him - or any other candidate for that matter.
What happens next? The political equivalent of the Salem witch trials?
FLASHBACK
2011 thread about the candidates then, with 1300+ replies
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2733897/posts
"Look, you obviously don't know anything about intelligence work, lady. It's an X-K-Red-27 technique."
Its gotten ugly.
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