Censorship

[Texas74]

This is highly anecdotal so bear with me.

I went searching for a nice forum community where I could rant a little and discuss politics. Something that drove me toward this was the fact my wife had found something and is turning into a little closet politico.

She is an artsy/crafty kind of person and has been a contributor to a forum community for quite a while that is based upon those sorts of thing but the community is massive and the discussions have branched out to all sorts of things. Leading up to, through and now beyond the election, politics has been a hot topic there and apparently, its decidedly one sided....which is not really surprising as the left has risen to power in the wake of the ascention of a cultural icon - a pop culture icon.

At any rate, a few people got set up an alternative sub-forum for conservative discussion and it was dubbed "the Bunker" Members of the community who had conservative leanings congregated there while several other forums carried on.

In addition to people interested in discussion, it also attracted alot of trolls. their forums have a rating system (agree/disagree) and heavy moderation and bascially anything conservative was bombed with "disagree" marks and every post reported, even though it was set up in a special subforum segregated from the rest.

Last night my wife read the message that the board would be closed in 24 hours because it had recieved too many moderation reports.

Understandably, people are pissed off. My wife was pretty angry last night.

Why? Why shut it down? These are a bunch of artsy/crafty people, not political hacks. This was a set aside forum specifically for discussing these things from certain points of view. I suspect the moderators just took the easy way out and shut it down rather than deal with the constant complaints..it is a crafting community, after all.

It concerns me because anecdotal as it is, it correlates with much larger issues. Free speech is free speech as long as you agree with me, right? Otherwise its hate speech or divisive or predjudiced or any other number of stigma carrying words and labels.

This is the same school of thought that can justify the mention of the 'Fairness Doctrine" and evidence of how in such environments as college campuses people have busted their ass to control speech and cow the ideological opposition.

Some days I lament how big the advantage in fervor and ruthless pragmatism the left has over the right but believeing in the freedoms we do, in these type situations, holds us back.

So I invited her over here but I think on politics, her and I need to come from different angles and compare notes. Needless to say, we have some interesting pillow talk.

I fear this sort of thing is going to happen in many more places and only get worse as this thing runs its course.

[Texas74]

Completely unrelated but I thought this kinda funny in a sad way:

One Dutch MEP, Maria Martens, welcomed the decision.
“The film has nothing to do with freedom of expression. This freedom does not give the right to offend,” she said.

[Texas74]

Michelle Malkin Thou shalt not mock Obama

An Iowa State trooper who was investigated after it was shown that he forwarded an e-mail showing mug shots of people wearing Obama t-shirts has been suspended for 30 days.

Sgt. Rodney Hicok was at home and off-duty when he forwarded the e-mails, said an official with the Iowa Department of Public Safety Bureau and Professional Standards.

The e-mail made disparaging remarks about 15 people in the photos and referred to Obama as having “quite a fan base.”

Hicok was not making a racial statement, the official said, but, rather, a political statement.

In a statement, Hicok said, “I am deeply sorry for my actions … I apologize to anyone this e-mail may have offended, as well as my family, citizens in my community and Iowa taxpayers.”

Hicok ended his statement by saying he guaranteed “nothing like this will ever happen again.”

bold added for emphasis.

[NewC]

that pic of the obama mugshot people is in my photobucket. i love it.

[Bullseyed]

I dont know about the trooper thing, Id have to read more about it, but the forum thing with your wife, free speech only applies on public property. Whoever owns the message board can moderate it in the way they please.

Myself personally, I take that idea alot further in a way that pisses alot of people off, especially liberals. If I can be banned from a forum for being a conservative, and its their right as owners, why can I not establish a store and ban black people? Is that too not my right as owner? Im not racist, but I believe people should be free in their thoughts and their actions on their own property. Someone who is racist should still have full rights that everyone else has. If people really had a problem with it, they would stop going to that web site/store/whatever.

That being said, I would advise your wife and her conservative friends from that site stop visiting that site, which generates ad revinue for the censorist liberals.

Or you can post a link to it and Ill go troll the crap out of it as just retribution. Lol.

[Texas74]

Yep, she and I both know its their right to ban whomever they like for whatever reason. That said, those views on censorship aren't exclusive to private message boards.

[Trance]

Yeah the more Liberal/Lefty forums seem to frown upon differing opinions. They want everybody to be a 'stepword wife' where you're supposed to even nod your heads, in unison.

Go over to Democraticunderground.com if you want a prime example. Even if you say something even remotely in favor of Conservatives (even in a respectful fashion) you will be banned

[Texas74]

In as much as message boards are private forums where moderators can do as they like, the kind of behavior described is acted out by people who are eligible to vote and I have serious doubts that they draw the distinction between free speech in different formats.

[tperkins2009]

Liberals, believe in free speech! Your free to feel exactly the way they do any time you wish. Their websites do have the same lifespan as their radio talk show hosts.

[Rightwing Nutjob]

If I can be banned from a forum for being a conservative, and its their right as owners, why can I not establish a store and ban black people? Is that too not my right as owner?

Absolutely you have a right to do this -- Texas is right as quoted near the bottom, but liberals and conservatives fail to understand this about speech and property. Failing to understand this leads to and "justifies" almost every intrusion into personal lives that liberals or conservatives hate.

It's time to stop regulating thought, values, racism and hate.

Yeah the more Liberal/Lefty forums seem to frown upon differing opinions.

Actually I see a lot of dissent among the lefties on their forums, all of it leftwing dissent; but one of the problems with lefties is their wide-ranging and inconsistent philosophies. Near as I can tell from folks who've spent time on other conservative forums, they're about as bad. I know we're extremely tolerant of dissent here based on comments I've read here and elsewhere.

I have serious doubts that they draw the distinction between free speech in different formats.

Some folks have difficulty drawing distinctions between private property and public areas -- It's deeper than free speech issues. Some folks, liberal and conservative, maybe most, actually believe privately owned grocery stores, for example, are "public areas" and should be subject to public rules, such as smoking bans.