It's not wrong to ask questions, right? [View All]

[Zhade]

Please understand I am not trying to be a pain in the ass, and I'm not trying to be pushy. I fully accept that the decisions of the moderators are final.

I've been informed that my newest poll on resistance was deleted because it "could be construed as advocating harm or death to the president, or that could be construed as advocating violent overthrow of the government of the United States."

I don't think my question advocates violence. It asks if the elimination of our right to vote would result in some people, somewhere, theoretically might decide to use armed resistance. This is not the same as my endorsing violence. I am, by and large, a pacifist who only holds the ability to commit violence as a last life-and-death resort. Like if, say, someone threatened my five-year-old son.

If the test of acceptable debate is "what may be construed" by the government, where is the line drawn? To many, such as Ashcroft, even disagreeing with the administration can be construed as treason.

Again, I am not advocating armed resistance (if I did, I would never put it into the public record!). I do think, though, to ignore a question that I know others have asked themselves is to do everyone a disservice.

I'm not going to bitch about the post being removed, or demand it be reinstated - the mods' decisions are theirs to make. I just wanted to bring up the larger issue of self-censored speech. You know, to turn this into a positive discussion, instead of being annoyed that my post was deleted.