If I may, the reason why it has come to this is that the all-important yet intellectually vapid "buzzword" has completely taken over. Couple that with defeatism and here we are.
It's a race to see who will be the first to use a buzzword on any thread, no matter what the subject is. I mean, who cares what the posted article says?
Just buzz, buzz, buzz...
Jesus Christ: You can’t impeach Him and He ain’t gonna resign.
Free Republic has become just another version of social media, with most posts self limited to 140 characters. I do have a bit of nostalgia for the early days when the poster would be able to post the entire article, and the discussion ensued with several responses exceeding the length of the original and often more insightful. Anyone who bothers to compose a lengthy and thoughtful response these days are usually met with silence, no one will bother to read it.
I even recently encountered a Freeper who apologized to those on a thread because he posted a response longer than two sentence fragments.