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
You would have been distressed and wringing your hands during the First and Second World Wars too, then. When a nation is under attack or at war, the popular sentiment of the people tends to become very aggressive. The enemy is demonized, e.g., "Huns," "Japs," etc, and many voices are heard demanding the annihilation of the enemy and everything associated with the enemy.
It just so happens that this particular enemy defines itself first and foremost in terms of its religious core. Therefore, it is understandable and natural that the popular sentiment of the people who have been targeted would also engage the struggle at the level of religion.
What you see as prejudice and bigotry I see as a rational survival mechanism and response of a people under violent attack.
Will Mecca be nuked? Of course not. But the enemy must be engaged and destroyed. In the heat of that effort, hyperbolic comments such as "nuke Mecca" from ordinary citizens are to be expected.
But that isn't what this thread is about. This thread is about the whiny, snivelling anti-FReepers who pout like three year-old children because Jim Robinson won't alow them free access to vandalize his home. Invariably, when they run away to form their own "completely uncensored" political debate site, it ends up a disaster as they begin to turn on and devour each other. The amusing thing is, they are wholly unable to see that they are the problem, and that's why there are no longer at FR.
I've said before that these dipwads would be incapable of setting up a workable government that allows liberty while maintining essential order. Their anti-FReeper sites prove it, albeit at the level of words. May their failure rest at that level forever. Chaos and cannibalism in the realm of words is of no great consequence; chaos and cannibalism in the realm of life is something else entirely--and not to be desired by any rational person.
Anyway, with that one exception, in all the years I'ver been here, that was the only time I felt the system was abused........And as any of you who know me, I have not been shy expressing an opinion.
And for those of you who want to know the Detective's first name.....I will answer you in a private reply
Hang in there. There are more of us here than you might think. You WILL get a lot of whiners making complaints about you,though.
OK, now you're the idiot.
Gee, what a blow to my self estemm to find out I'm not highly regarded by this bunch.
I'm not sure I'd disagree with you.
(and some of us aren't exactly thrilled with that)
But the fact is, the website is established on libertarian principles, and therefore makes a sincere effort not to censor posts at all, and rarely if ever for content which does not pass with the approval of thought filters.
Such content is rebutted rather than sanitized. Yeah, it takes a little more effort to rebutt rather than hide, but the site's founder has enough confidence in the value of liberty, to know that putrid and unsound ideas are easily rebutted (and rebutted soundly) by anyone willing to put forth the effort.
If ideas are sound, they withstand challenges, and are upheld on their own merits. They don't need a panel of folks to protect people from themselves.
"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."
--Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XVII, 1782. ME 2:222
But occasionally I find a seemingly unoffensive thread, read it, and attempt to post a comment, only to find "This thread has been deleted" or similar message.
On occasion I sure wonder why.
Perhaps it should say: "This thread has been deleted due to copyright issues," or "due to xxxx" whatver xxxx may be. In other words, I think a reason for pulling a thread might help--at least innocent bystanders who land in the middle of the train wreck and don't have a clue as to why.
--Boris
That's right. Kill their babies in the name of Jesus.
Yes.... I'm sure it's just what Jesus would have done.
Ditto. The Hobbit Hole is a much more pleasant place to unwind. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.