Replies

"Are you kidding? You post an Opus like that and nobody's supposed to say anything? Is that your MO? Here's a thought: Screw You. We're from Texas: Screw You
How dare you come swooping in on a day like this when everyone is focused on their grief, on a day when we feel like we're on a deathwatch that's gone on for a month, during an Easter that hasn't been much of a celebration at all, and sh!t all over everything with a stupid demand for attention. GROW UP! Don't come back till you do.
Get out of here! Who needs you? This forum is not for the faint hearted.
In the immortal words of the demon general arafat: bye-bye."

I would like to enter into evidence the above comment as an example of the level of discourse that appears more often than not on too many threads here at FR. This one is all too typical. Having just gone through multiple attempts by Schiavo supporters to hector me off of the Schiavo threads by those who wanted no debate, just a monologue, I am still patching up my battle scars. I simply refused to leave those threads to those who wanted only one point of view. I felt it important to not let that happen, just for the principle of the matter. If this is a debate forum, on too many a thread lately, there are serious efforts to make sure there is no debate at all.

I totally sympathize w/Hutch. I too thought of buzzing off FR entirely, and maybe one day it will come to that. However, my hackles are up now at this site's takeover by the hardcore religious zealots (whom by the way, are now infiltrating many other threads on FR). You can spot them in two seconds, as a Schiavo comment will show up out of left field in a totally unrelated thread. When the balance swings to where this site bears no resemblence to what it was when I first started freeping in 1998, that's when I will take a powder. It's starting to get closer to that I sadly say. What I don't understand is why some of the most egregious comments aren't zapped. On the Schiavo threads, there were constant death threats being made, name-calling, insults, downright hatred, intolerance, etc. etc. etc. and it totally amazed me. I understand the concept of freedom of speech, but some of those posters went so over the top with threats of violence, that I couldn't understand why they weren't zapped. Amazing.

What I fear is that the casual reader from the outside, checking out the Freeper website, will read some of the comments and forever take a powder, or in the alternative, they are a kook and will be attracted to the site so that they too can spit out their venom. This, to my mind, is not good. I don't think FR wants to be put in the same category as DU, but lately, it's not been that different on some of the threads. Well, I'm in watch and wait mode now. Time will tell which way the wind blows on FR and whether it's a site one wants to be associated with. I might add, over at another website, comments were not allowed after a Schiavo article was posted, because they figured out that nothing good would come of it and all too many of the irrational and delusional would post nasty comments if it was allowed. Maybe FR would have been a lot better off doing the same. But again, I don't understand why some of the more hateful and threat-ridden comments weren't zapped by the moderators. I'm off of those threads now, because I don't want it to rub off on me and I become just like them. Ghastly thought.