Mutiny on the U.S.S. Free Republic -- MineralMan's take on FR's Captain Bligh (JimRob)

[Ferret Annica]

MineralMan was one of a vanishing species; the long time FReeper who is educated, thoughtful and an asset to FR. Here is his now deleted Opus, and his opening post at his new forum, ClownPosse.Org:

Words:

After 4 years and a little over 23,000 posts on Free Republic, I'm taking my leave, probably permanently. The recent election, and a number of other things makes this a good time to quit posting on political topics and devote my time to pursuits that actually have identifiable results.

I've made a lot of friends, and more than a few enemies here. I've tried, with varying degrees of success, to post in a reasonable way about subjects that interest me. I've had many people post kind words. I've also been called a troll, a liberal, a DUer, and much, much worse. I'm none of those things. I've even had one death threat sent to me via FReepmail, which I dealt with in my own way.

I agree with many people here, and disagree with many more. It's been interesting, to say the least. As a parting post, I have some suggestions for several groups of Freepers. Members of those groups may, or may not , see this post...depending on whether it is left up. Those who see it should take it for whatever they think it's worth.

To Younger Libertarians: 1. Move out of your parents' house. 2. Give up your abortive career as a Linux consultant. 3. Recognize that not everyone has as limited a view of society as you do.

To "Water the Tree of Liberty" Buffs: Nobody's impressed with your bravado. Those who do things don't sit around posting that someone should start a new revolution for years on a web site. You're not going to start any revolution, so quit pretending.

To Creationists: You have won your battle here on Free Republic. All the folks who take a scientific view of the Crevo debate are gone, either voluntarily or involuntarily. There's no further reason for endless threads full of quotations from creationist websites. Just recognize that the theory of evolution is a scientific discipline, not a religious one.

To Religious Zealots: 1. Learn to get along with each other. 2. The Roman Catholic Church is not the Antichrist. 3. Those who claim Christianity and accept Jesus ARE Christians. All of them. 4. Christianity is the religion of less than 1/3 of the world's population. Learn something about the others. Most have similar moral values. 5. Read the book of Matthew frequently.

To All 20-something Freepers: 1. Not all people over 50 are your enemy. 2. Consider joining the military. "Let's you and him fight" is not a suitable slogan. If you think the war in Iraq is a great idea, join up and help. 3. The worth of a person is not based on whether you'd "hit it" or not.

To Freeper "Activists": 1. A successful rally involves more than 10 participants. 2. Freeping worthless online polls is not activism. 3. You want to be a real activist? Join the military.

To 2nd Amendment Zealots: 1. Not everyone needs, or wants, to own a firearm. 2. "Out of my cold dead hands" may be a prophetic, not a practical slogan. 3. Gun porn doesn't entice people to your cause. 4. Threats are rarely a good means of persuasion. 5. If you're under 35 and a non-veteran, join up. The military will supply you with weapons and targets at no charge.

To Terri Schiavo Thread Denizens: Terri is still dead. There are worthwhile battles out there, but they have nothing to do with Terri. Not everything is related to Terri. Visit some other Free Republic threads, please.

To Rabid Bush Supporters: George W. Bush is not a deity. He screws up, sometimes. A slavish dedication to a single politician is not productive.

To Bush Haters: George W. Bush is not Satan.

To Photo Buffs: Not every thread requires a photo of a woman in a swimming suit. Equally, not every thread requires a photo of Helen Thomas. Life's more complicated than that.

To The Language Challenged: Language matters. Spelling matters. Grammar matters. Capitalization matters. Punctuation matters. You may be the smartest person on the planet, but if your posts look like they were written by someone who never got out of elementary school, they won't matter. If you want to make a point, try to make it well. Use the spelling checker. Proofread your posts before clicking the Post button.

To The Don Quixotes at FR: Diana Irey had no chance of winning. Neither did Katherine Harris. Both were lost causes and used up valuable resources. Not everyone who pointed that out to you is an enemy. Alan Keyes is not a viable candidate for anything. Newt Gingrich cannot win the Presidency, nor can Tancredo. Pick winners and work hard for them. Don't waste your time and other resources.

To Jim Robinson: A forum where no dissent is allowed is not a forum. It is just a place where people post. It's your forum. Don't let it disintegrate by eliminating everyone with whom you disagree. I see a real danger here that Free Republic will become more and more insular as time goes by. That will diminish its influence. Still, it's your forum, so what you decide is what it will be.

To All Freepers: Get along. Free Republic, in the four years I have been an active poster here, has fragmented more and more. It has devolved into little groups, each with no tolerance for other groups. I've mentioned some of them above. Free Republic could become a useful forum, if it was not broken up into cliques. This is not High School. It is the real world.

Not everyone who disagrees with you is a liberal. Not everyone who shows up here as a new member came from DU. Not every newby deserves being Zotted.

See you all. It's been interesting. Who knows? I might be back someday.

MineralMan

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1735580/posts

URL currently shows:

This thread has been pulled.
Pulled on 11/11/2006 4:18:42 PM PST by Admin Moderator, reason:


Anti Freeping.

Here is his not censored for Free Republic Clown Posse entrance:

It occurs to me that some people here don't know anything about MineralMan, so I'll take a little bandwidth and explain myself...a little.
I'm a 61 year old married guy with no children, living in Minnesota. I'm a USAF veteran from the late 60s. I'm an atheist, but, as my old FR tagline said, an un-evangelical atheist. I don't care what anyone but me believes and figure they shouldn't care what I believe.

And that's essentially my reason for finally opusing out. The culture at FR, always bizarre, has taken an even uglier turn. Jim Robinson has recently gone way over the top in his declarations regarding religion.

Along with my comments on many threads on FR, where I generally tried to put forward an alternative view on many issues, I commented frequently on threads where evolution was being discussed. As most of you know, there are a bunch of very strange YECcers over there, who represent some of the most intolerant people on the site. Robinson's recent equation of evolutionists and socialists just struck me as way more bizarre than I could handle.

That, and the cliques that make up the bulk of active FR members, finally became too hard for me to tolerate. My private slogan for participation at FR was: "Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." It became clear, recently, that it was no longer possible to do that in that venue.

Free Republic is finished. All that remains is for the cliques to destroy what remains. The recent election is the turning point, and will lead to the utter disintegration of that website, as the factions there attack each other.

Oddly, the replies to my opus surprised me. They were mostly positive, and many came from unlikely sources. I guess I generally managed to provoke without being provocative, or something like that.

I'm tired of the effort necessary to post to people who will never change their minds. There are now not enough lurkers at FR to make the effort worthwhile. If you look at the number of views of most posts there, it's clear that there are less than 2000 actual active Freepers left.

The total number of posts per day has dropped precipitously during 2006. Yes, Robinson is still raking in his quarterly goals, but that's it. Nobody else bothers to go there.

I don't believe that Free Republic ever really had any influence on anything more that its little audience. Now that the bulk of lurkers have abandoned the site, there is no reason to ever go there again.

I can't say how much I'll have to contribute here. I'll just have to see what comes up that catches my interest. If I can contribute something I think is worthwhile, I'll sure be happy to.

Thanks again for the warm welcome!

http://www.clownposse.org/colloquy/showthread.php4?t=683

I had posted it at Freedom4UM, therefore here is the URL of that thread too:

http://freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=39145&Disp=14#C14

[MidwestTransplant]

1. Pulled. They are such pusses.

[damntexdem]

14. Oh thank goodness!

Maybe not many Freepers will have seen the good advice. Of course, even if many have, they likely lack the mental capacity to benefit from it, anyway.

[Sapphocrat]

77. Oh, they'll see it here.

They've got a total boner for DU.

[Old and In the Way]

22. Pulling the thread only reinforces the OP's point.

Given today's events, I think FR is going to see an acceleration of people like Mineralman exiting that echo chamber for the deluded. If you can't take a little self criticism, how can you expect to be taken seriously?

[trotsky]

2. Fascinating posts.

Thanks for the info.

[Ferret Annica]

6. You are welcome, it in fact is my pleasure.

When that barge of bovine waste product of a forum finally goes the way of the Titanic, I will be very very pleased.

[exlrrp]

86. And I will join you in being pleased....

when, not if, that event happens. Anything that rotten will fall down over time, its just nature

[RoccoR5955]

3. Sounds Like

One of the smarter "rats" abandoning a sinking ship.

[reichstag911]

4. That's what he gets...

...for presuming to question the mighty RimJob! :crazy:

[Mythsaje]

5. Huh...Freepers being freepers

got on his nerves. Go figure.

[AzDar]

7. WHAT , in Jeebus' name, is ' Gun Porn ' ?

[progdonkey]

23. Edit: Ah, JHB's response makes a whole lot more sense... O:-) n/t

[JHB]

26. Overly laden with details that non-affecionados have no interest in

(restoring an inadvertent deletion)

In English: "a pistol". In Gun Porn: "a Smith & Wesson 38 Magnum Highway Patrol revolver with a snap holster and..."

It has equivalents: Martha Stewart stuff is "doily porn", the Food Channel is "food porn", etc.

[Shipwack]

34. From the Urban Dictionary

1)Gun Porn as a term meaning photos of guns that display them in the same carefully posed and lighted manner as the models in traditional pornography, has been around for a long time in firearms and shooting cultures.

The creators of the game Black were using the term with this meaning as an example of how the guns were the stars of their new game.

did you check out the new issue of Guns & Ammo? It's got some great gun porn.

2)Used to describe entertainment that is of an unrealistically gory and gratuitously violent nature.

Originated with the XBox 360 First Person Shooter "Black". Jokingly insinuates that guns would readily use the game to fuel their "pornographic" fantasies.

Did you play that Black demo? It's like freakin' Gun Porn.


http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Gun+Porn

I personally associate the term with pictures of big firearms and examples of destruction they can cause... shooting up cans, bottles, melons...

::on edit:: Actually, I like JHBs definition better...

[Brazenly Liberal]

42. I associate the term with

men who have great big guns and teeny tiny little..............................



minds. :evilgrin:

[blue sky at night]

52. naked women with guns.........

what else?

[Porcupine]

73. I've seen video of naked women firing Ak-47's on full auto.....

shot at high speed and played back slow.

All I could think of watching them was "Hot Brass! Hot Brass! you idiot's!!"

I've been hit by hot brass from a large caliber rifle; not funny when it lands on skin.

[blue sky at night]

95. I can't get excited by the guns......

it is funny how the mind works when it comes to sex, must be an extension of the male organ eh?

[quispquake]

8. One piece of this letter that stood my hair on end:

<quote>I've even had one death threat sent to me via FReepmail, which I dealt with in my own way.</quote>

You know, over here at DU, we may occasionally have raised voices & major disagreements, but I don't think we're well known for death threats...I wonder if that's a common thing over at FR???

[progdonkey]

27. well...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2701099

Seems to be the popular method of conflict resolution over there....

[zreosumgame]

55. one could state with only slight reservation and few exceptions

that the whole of Freeperland is a death threat. Death to their brain-cells if nothing else...

[Supersedeas]

62. Yep, death threats by Freepmail -- there's a marketing tool for ya

[symbolman]

74. I got death threats over there from them

after I did the O'Rielly show, or it may have been Scarborough..

They threatened a Black Op, with the camos and all, so I posted HERE, since I know they read here, and were talking about me.. They Posted all my Public info there as well.

So I posted that I was an ARMED Veteran who has been trained to KILL and who would protect my family and self, that any one of them who messed with me needed to remember TWO WORDS.

Kaiser Sose.

(From "The Usual Suspects" film. Kaiser Sose, killed wives, children, people who OWED money to the perpetrator, their pets, their parents, etc.)

I thought that might let them know I was serious about protecting my family.

Now I find out they are a bunch of fat ass cowards living in LA LA land in Mommy's basement, huntin' peckers on the keyboard, unable to get a job in Bush's economy, which THEY LOVE. The saddest part of all is that they don't even KNOW what hypocrisy IS. Hate is a Mental illness.

As long as they don't threaten me, I feel somewhat sorry for them. But this is how the Brownshirts came to be, let's not forget that.

[Swamp Rat]

79. I doubt if half of those clowns could even put on a shirt, let alone a brown one,

without momma's help.

Also, the 101st Keyboard Warriors are under the wrong impression that liberals do not own and use guns. HA! My uncle is a gunmaker who had a professional shooting range where military and state troopers came to practice.

[symbolman]

84. I still think we need to start an NRA only with Dems

call it something else of course, but show the Americans we're not a bunch of sissies scared of guns.. hell, there are plenty of Vets who are progressives who could probably kill someone with a THUMB :) You never know who you're talking to in this world..

Funny about your Uncle, sounds like a cool guy :)

Look at that little Bush Nephew SHIT. He is the Spitting IMAGE of that MONKEY in the White House as a young Naked Table Dancing drunk cocaine addled FREAK!

I saw that interview and wanted desperately to reach inside the tube and slap the shit out of that kid. He obviously has NO training in social skills, nor needs them.. Born with a silver spoon up his ass.

That guy would last about 25 seconds on a battlefield, there would be nothing left but a PISS SPOT.

[matcom]

9. "A successful rally involves more than 10 participants."

:rofl:

[AlCzervik]

10. hilarious-To Freeper "Activists": 1. A successful rally involves more than 10 participants.

[toddaa]

67. s/d

s/d

[Richardo]

11. I want to marry him

:loveya:

One could easily address the same letter to DU. Lots of excellent points.

[pauliedangerously]

44. Right you are...

I was thinking that quite a few DUers could learn from that post myself. Though the tone may be a little different here, DU has its fair share of knee-jerk reactionaries--I guess in our case, it's knee-jerk radicals. I think we ought to move on from all of the gloating too. We won an election, not a basketball game.


:toast:

[damntexdem]

12. Oh, what a shame this was posted there.

Too much good advice. Much better that they continue jousting against windmills.

[Oreo]

13. Nice

If you look at the number of views of most posts there, it's clear that there are less than 2000 actual active Freepers left.

Freepers are as irrelevant as the repubs in the lameduck congress

[LilyLibber]

15. Ahem...

To The Language Challenged: Language matters. Spelling matters. Grammar matters. Capitalization matters. Punctuation matters. You may be the smartest person on the planet, but if your posts look like they were written by someone who never got out of elementary school, they won't matter. If you want to make a point, try to make it well. Use the spelling checker. Proofread your posts before clicking the Post button.

With this one alone, most Freepers are "screwn". B-)

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

16. Sounds like a smart guy to me. I'll gladly be friends with a conservative like that.

[sarge43]

36. Yup

Wouldn't mind if he joined DU. We could use a thoughtful, intelligent counterpoint. I wonder if he's one of those cast out New England Republicans.

[lildreamer316]

72. Thirded..

...if that's a word.
Very well written and good points. I salute him as a worthy and intelligent opponent (although I just don't see how we all are that different, really. Wow, that's scary!)

[twilight_sailing]

17. Look at the points MineralMan makes.

I am so old that I remember when Republicans & conservatives were not insane. They were wrong on many issues, but they were not batshit crazy. MineralMan does an excellent job pointing out the EXTREME positions the Batshit Party has taken over the years.

It simply amazing. And repellent. That's why we won and why we will continue to win.

[KitSileya]

39. Yeah, and any government needs opposition.

Any political systems without opposition party/ies are pretty much non-democratic. How can you choose freely when you only have one alternative? The point, however, is that the opposition must be, as must the party in power, honorable, willing to cooperate across the aisle on issues, be factual, not lying, give constructive criticism, rather than demonize, treat each other respectfully, and work for the people rather than themselves, and at the same time recognize that the other side also works for the people.

We've seen how British politics have lurched from one side to the other, with the result that for many years, there's been no viable opposition to first, the Conservatives, and then to Labour. Not healthy.

Reading Mineralman's post, I thought he had many really good points - he seems like a decent fellow (well, he is a USAF veteran :)) and I can understand that they weren't well-received at that self-adulating site. However, I would have no problem engaging him in debate - it seems it would be a constructive debate, where neither side had their opinions set in stone, unchangeable, and where, at least, one could end up to agree to disagree, and have gotten one's arguments sharpened and one's convictions challenged. Those are the kinds of debates I have with one of my best friends, who happen to be a Republican.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

18. We need to make that guy an honorary DUer.

"A successful rally involves more than 10 participants."

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[janx]

97. I once went to see one of their "rallies."

This was in Colorado some time ago. They used to "rally" (yell and wave flags) outside of a restaurant that had a patio. The restaurant people HATED it; patrons sat down on the patio to have lunch and were subjected to five or six people yelling and waving flags. One guy brought a bullhorn periodically. I sat on the patio and ate lunch, just watching.

Crazy. Really crazy.

[Crankie Avalon]

19. This kind of stood out to me:

"To All 20-something Freepers:...2. Consider joining the military. "Let's you and him fight" is not a suitable slogan. If you think the war in Iraq is a great idea, join up and help. 3. The worth of a person is not based on whether you'd "hit it" or not."


Point 2 and 3 of that par were true and pretty funny. :D

[Marnieworld]

20. illuminating

Thanks. :hug:

[conscious evolution]

21. He forgot to forward this to screwn guy

To The Language Challenged: Language matters. Spelling matters. Grammar matters. Capitalization matters. Punctuation matters. You may be the smartest person on the planet, but if your posts look like they were written by someone who never got out of elementary school, they won't matter. If you want to make a point, try to make it well. Use the spelling checker. Proofread your posts before clicking the Post button.

:evilgrin: :rofl:

[acmavm]

24. Anybody understand the parts about religion and evolution and

whatever it was Robinson was supposed to have said/done/posted (whatever). It must have been a doozie if it pushed this guy to such a verbose exit.

[Minnesota_Lib]

64. I was curious about this as well so I visited and read through a few...

...anti-evolution threads over there and if you click on the names of many of those whom posted anything at all that questioned ID and/or creationism you will find they are now banned.

For instance....
_______________________________________

"The site; www.evolutionsucks.org is designed with students in mind, "

Yeah, the large bolded title "EVOLUTION SUCKS!!" is really what I want my kids using for "educational purposes".

The entire site was filled with misinformation and questions that are unanswered by Creationism.

In short, that website "SUCKS".

6 posted on 12/30/2005 7:49:30 AM PST by Blzbba

_____________________________________________

To: kcpriest

The great break in the organic chain between man and his nearest
allies, which cannot be bridged over by any extinct or living species,
has often been advanced as a grave objection to the belief that man is
descended from some lower form; but this objection will not appear
of much weight to those who, from general reasons, believe in the
general principle of evolution. Breaks often occur in all parts of the
series, some being wide, sharp and defined, others less so in
various degrees....

20 posted on 07/23/2006 10:37:55 PM PDT by budlt2369
________________________________________________

Both Blzbba and budlt2369 were subsequently banned.

Over the years, there was a lot of debate over evolution and religion over there, but if you look at recent anti-evolution threads you now see almost no dissenting opinions.

JimBoy probably purged most of the "heathens."

[Hugin]

25. Good luck to him.

I bet the collective IQ there in Freeperland fell 10 points on his leaving...

[hfojvt]

28. he said he's made many friends, but only talks about his enemies

Sounded like a DUer too, telling all those war supporters to enlist and proclaiming his atheism, and he's not pro-gun. He must be staying with the Republicans for economic reasons then.

As far as Don Quixote's, some people might say Lamont had no chance of winning. In fact, Republicans did say so, and were proven right, but it would have been different if Lieberman had done what was best for his party, his state, his country, and his world, by dropping out after the primary. Instead he did what was best for Lieberman and the Republicans by running as an 'Independent'.

FR has devolved into groups with little tolerance for the other groups. That sounds like human nature, and Republicans are not that big on tolerance anyway, are they?

[johnnie]

29. Oh well

He just sounds like another internet poster who isn't getting his way and is angry his "team" lost so he is taking it out on an obscure website that had nothing to do with the elections. In the 4 years I have been coming to DU, the threads pointing to Free Republic point out the same shit they do now.

[Tatiana]

30. Wow! An honest, intelligent, eloquent, literate republican!

I was beginning to think they were a dying breed.

[meisje]

31. You could change some of the words and post the same thing to DUers

To All DUers: Get along. Democratic Underground, in the four years I have been an active poster here, has fragmented more and more. It has devolved into little groups, each with no tolerance for other groups. I've mentioned some of them above. Democratic Underground could become a useful forum, if it was not broken up into cliques. This is not High School. It is the real world.

Not everyone who disagrees with you is a Freeper. Not everyone who shows up here as a new member came from Free Republic. Not every newby deserves being accused of being a Freeper.



DUers are a lot more like Freepers than they think.

[Patiod]

35. I had the same thought, meisje

Never hurt to think about the parallels.

But at least most DUers can spell, so we have that going for us.

[tavalon]

43. Yep

I had that same thought.

[zbdent]

32. Well, your original assessment was right ... thoughtful, educated

and thereby alienated from FR ...

Any evidence he posts over here? Sounds like he'd blend in well, and not be totally alienated ... unless by his own hand ...

[Jed Dilligan]

33. So they are a lot like DU,

except that they are universally fundamentally wrong, rather than universally fundamentally right.

I'm happy if the internet is fragmenting both parties. Fragmentation is good.

[progressoid]

37. "Freeping worthless online polls is not activism"

Have to agree with that one in a big way.

[SoCalDem]

53. AMEN.

When I see a poll, I usually just send an email to the "host" to remind them that some people vote multiple times and deliberately skew the polls..

I always wonder what the employees of a local paper with a circulation of a few hundrwed people, must think when they see an online poll of theirs with thousands of responses :)

[kmla]

38. I disagree with "To Photo Buffs: Not every thread requires a photo of a woman in a swimming suit."

Should be required posting in every thread...

[girl gone mad]

45. As long as...

there is balance.

[Catherine Vincent]

60. Amen, sister!

:)

[NorthernSpy]

40. I don't get it. How does what he wrote constitute "anti-freeping"?

We read and write far harsher criticisms of the various factions of the Left and Center right here at DU everyday, and no one sees anything amiss with that.

Every forum has rules intended to keep order. I accept that. But how is what this man said so disruptive as to be absolutely intolerable, worthy of banning and erasure?

[EvolveOrConvolve]

61. Because it raises real questions about FR

that Jim Robinson doesn't want answered. He's riding the gravy train right now, and a mass exodus from FR could mean the unemployment line for him.

[HughBeaumont]

85. A mass exodus could mean no more Freeper cruises . . .

What WILL the drones do?

[tavalon]

41. Wow

If all or even many of the posters at FR were like this guy, they would be worthy and admirable opponents.

And as an aside, I saw a lot of what he was talking about happening at Free Republic as things that happen here. Since he wasn't talking about us, maybe we could take some of his advice without feeling picked on. A lot of what he said was good advice overall.

[Harper_is_Bush]

46. His advice about getting along and allowing dissent is good advice.

[Taverner]

47. "Give up your abortive career as a Linux consultant"

HAHAHAHAHAHA

[YOY]

48. I feel for the guy...not for FR though

Mineral Man sounds like the kind you could actually debate with...FReeptards chased him off.

[crispini]

49. Wow, that was some good reading.

To be perfectly honest I think that the thoughtful intelligent folks on the right, and the thoughtful intelligent folks on the left, have a LOT in common.

Conversely, the knee jerk partisans and the internet smartasses and flamebaiters of the left AND right have an awful lot in common with each other too. ;)

[lectrobyte]

50. What's a YECer?

[Archae]

54. Young Earth Creationist.

The Earth is less than 10,000 years old, in their beliefs, based on "da Bibble."

[lectrobyte]

57. thanks both of you.

[Irreverend IX]

81. I can't believe "the Creationists won."

A few years ago someone linked to a creation vs. evolution thread on FR, and it was one of the only times I'd seen quality material posted over there, as a pro-evolution poster put up some of the best arguments for his viewpoint I'd ever seen. The creationists' only response was to paste entire chapters from Genesis into the forum. I guess freepers aren't really allowed to disagree with each other on anything; any disagreement will result in RimJob choosing a side to support and banning proponents of the other. It's funny; I remember reading that he was a vocal atheist in the early days of the Internet. Now all that's left to him is a long, steady slide into obscurity.

[kestrel91316]

56. YECer = young-earth creationist

[ck4829]

51. How is JimRob getting his money you ask

He's being paid off by Republicans.

[mcking]

58. He sounds a lot like my grandfather

who died in the 70s. A lifelong Republican, atheist, scholar and retired Navy officer. Pops would have been horrified by the neocons, and especially by the religious right. I like to think that if he were still around (he'd be well over 100), he would have voted against the shrub. MineralMan doesn't mention whether his voting preferences have changed recently. His post seems so sensible, I wonder how he could continue voting for them.

[Minnesota_Lib]

59. I used to enjoy reading MineralMan's posts when I lurked over there...

He always seemed (well, most of the time) to be a lone voice of reason in a desert of insanity. He reminds me of some of my more sensible conservative friends.

And I hope his Freeperville farewell post serves as a warning to us DU'ers as to what can happen when a group becomes intolerant of dissenting views within its own camp.

[tlsmith1963]

63. Why Would He Even Want to Post There (Free Republic)?

It seems like he might be happier over here, from what I have read. I guess he's a moderate.

[jwdeviant]

65. We can learn much from this man

Some irritating habits on DU that I see as worth mentioning:

1. Religion is not our enemy. Fundie Christians ARE our enemy, but most religions preach brotherhood and caring for your fellow man. Democratic leaders need to reclaim this sort of general morality as the general response to religious attacks. No, I'm not religious.

2. The South is not our enemy. It is not made up of inbred, gap-toothed, bible-bashing, drunken, gun-nuts. It is a place with lots of intelligent people as well as many more average people (just like everywhere else) that tends to be more conservative. Just like everyone else they don't like being talked down to, which doesn't help our cause. No, I'm not from the South either (but I've spent time there).

If a user talked about any other group (ethnic or sexual minority) this way on DU we would call him or her a racist and scream for admin action.

[Carni]

66. That was frickin hilarious!

But I can't believe that guy was a freeper...they just aren't smart or witty.

[Marie26]

68. Nice post

I think some of his recommendations could describe DU as well.

[merbex]

69. What struck me as I read this was how

the "former" freeper nailed his what is happening in Republican land and not just Free Republic:they can't handle defeat or the truth

"Free Republic is finished. All that remains is for the cliques to destroy what remains. The recent election is the turning point, and will lead to the utter disintegration of that website, as the factions there attack each other."

Unless members of the GOP who consider themselves moderates a la Chafee, Snowe, Collins, hell Eisenhower or even Nelson Rockerfeller Republicans wrest control back from the crazies who inhabit it currently, and revitalize their party then it is truly a dead party.

I don't see any who call themselves Republican in my neck of the woods (Souh east MA) willing to do what Democrats did this last election - namely- knock on doors, phone bank, visibilities; they have outsourced their party to paid consultants and just like the homeowner who has a lawn service the idea of mowing his own lawn soon becomes an anathema to the homeowner.

If activists Democrats can keep the pressure on through '08 and be willing to engage in the processes of democracy while the Republicans sit at home and think participating is just writing a check we'll win.

It also helps tremendously that we have the issues on our side and the vast majority of Americans when asked agree with the Democrats on those issues.

[Erechtheides]

70. he's wrong about only one thing

Every post requires a photograph of Helen Thomas in a swimsuit.

SERIESLY!

[Laelth]

71. This shows why modern neo-conservatism must either fail ...

... or turn America into a fascist state. A democratic state must embrace (or at least tolerate) dissent in order to function. Modern conservatism brooks no dissent. As such, it is incompatible with our system of government, and while it was in complete power between 2002 and 2006, it moved us rapidly toward fascism (Unitary Executive, rubber-stamp Congress). We remain on the brink of fascism, but on November 7 the American people took a big step away from the abyss.

Free Republic is now incapable of taking that step with the American people. For it, only the abyss remains.

-Laelth

[Ferret Annica]

78. Good post.

Free Republic is now incapable of taking that step with the American people. For it, only the abyss remains.

People like Jim Robinson or Goldi-Lox at libertypost.org need to be told point blank, to their fact why they are ate the hell up; why what they are trying to do is substitute form for substance by restricting ideology in order to get a harmonious chorus of like minded people.

It is the full spectrum of light all views in American political dialog that makes the sunlight that is the light of day. I am banned from Liberty Post for posting an anti-Minuteman article from Bob Avakian's rag which used to be called the Revolutionary Worker. I annoyed her with my constant criticism of the right wing border boobers and Bush that was the last draw for her.

I discovered free Republic when I discovered a thread there from a dedicated disruptor had taken his flame bait there calling for a FReep of Time.Com /Politic's forum the AOL/Time merger killed in April 2001. I was in Free Republic as 'ferret' from 1997 until April of 2001 quite openly liberal and forthcoming of my views.

I still have friends there, but I agree with you; the abyss is all that remains for Free Republic unless they re-invent themselves and return to the road not taken and free the stranglehold on ideology and beliefs expressed by people who go to their forum.

I know you and/or your people are reading this and very annoyed by me Jim, but it is you who make being on you forum a miserable experience always being on the defensive least you offend, always looking over your shoulder for the blue screen of zot to let you know you wandered into Jimmy don't agree with you land and had to be offed.

If you are so dysfunctional to see your 'private property' of a forum has to serve and facilitate the group think of a virtual community and allow inventiveness and all it's rhetorical mis-steps even if it irritates you. When you try to get them to serve you and your belief system alone, you have become the very enemy you once said Free Republic was set up to fight and do battle against.

Your forum has a synergy with it's users whereby they actually do own a degree of intellectual property in it's form and substance. Your holding the soft and hardware keys gives you no ethical right to use your prerogatives involved in managing their financial and investment in your place to enforce a "my way or the highway" policy.

They will only give you the leap of faith that you serve their best interest only so long. And if they finally send you to the Internet's Davy Jone's Locker, you only did it to yourself. With any luck may be you will get a flash of insight that will make you see this, but I absolutely have zero faith that you can do this.

FReepers will eventually hit the hundredth monkey effect and flee you and your place and find another virtual vehicle and interface to live that virtual community. They will discover the intangibility group think entity is them can manage their own budget better and cheaper, and that they can truly become a formidable and respected entity far better without a nanny like you constantly sticking the phallus of your moderator's screen and all it's functions and keys up their ass.

Just as you can say who's in or out, they can say you are or aren't the owner and governor of their virtual community if they migrate away from you. And they can flee as an entity just as easily as they can be bled dry by you with your banning and culling games slowly but surely like you do now.

And just because they haven't done this yet, doesn't mean that they won't. You miscalculate the power of the river you try to harness, eventually the levees of intolerance you build to contain and control the flow will breach.

It is only just a matter of time until this happens, not if it will.

[NMMNG]

75. "3. You want to be a real activist? Join the military. "

rAmen!

[Sapphocrat]

76. Well, which is is to be?

Allow dissent, or complain that FR is fragmented? :shrug:

One line I do like: "To Freeper "Activists": 1. A successful rally involves more than 10 participants. 2. Freeping worthless online polls is not activism. 3. You want to be a real activist? Join the military."

[Judi Lynn]

80. He is light-years beyond them. They were lucky he spent some time there.

I learned a lot about their site from reading these posts shared by Ferret Mike, as I never read there.

People who see a parallel here among DU'ers just might be freeps pretending to be DU'ers who are steamed seeing someone criticize their home base. There's quite a HUGE difference, simply in intelligence, quality, in tone.


They don't hide as successfully as they imagine.
They lost an intelligent and righteous friend.

[Judi Lynn]

82. Kick!

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[trumad]

83. Oh fuck this ex-freeper!

He soiled his soul with 23000 plus posts and I hope he's haunted by it the rest of his life.

[AngryOldDem]

87. Interesting side note

On the Clown Posse site, people are saying that those who posted in the FR thread in SUPPORT of MineralMan were also banned.

A sure sign to me that FR is ultimately doomed. And these people think they have the answers to all the world's ills.

[Toots]

88. "Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

A freeper's sig line...I don't believe it. Either this guy is a plain fool or is not a freeper. Freepers vote straight Republican and Republicans vote straight for making the comfortable even more comfortable. Like Bush* said his base is the "haves" and the "have mores". How is that possibly afflicting the comfortable?

[alcibiades_mystery]

89. Now THERE's a guy I'd like to have a beer with!

Seriously.

[DemonFighterLives]

90. This guy makes too much sense for them anyway

He ought to be true to himself and be a progressive. He is not a knuckledragger.
And from MN as well. :hi: Mineraldude- welcome to the light!

[FredStembottom]

91. Is this at all true????

I've rarely peeked at FR. Is this figure true: >>>> "it's clear that there are less than 2000 actual active Freepers left."<<<<<<<:wow:

[janx]

96. I'd like to know also.

The place has definitely slowed down--just how much is uncertain.

[AngryOldDem]

92. Stupid question, probably, but I'll ask it anyway

What is the ideology of Clown Posse? Is it the thinking man/woman's Free Republic?

[Ferret Annica]

94. Clown Posse has changed

They used to be far more geared to very caustic anti-FReeping in all the satellite forums as well as the Free Republic before they lost their last interface when enemies got them evicted. It is where FReepers first land after getting voted off the island. It has moderated into a mix of old timers and newly defrocked FReepers mainly focusing their aggravation at the Free Republic.

Many go to Freedom4UM.com, or Liberypost.org who's owner is in the process of forming a Minuteman Party as she is most upset about illegal immigration; the issue I got banned there for opposing her on. There are a couple of much smaller forums associated peripherally to the Free Republic but they are generally a waste of time. (Freedomunderground.org,www.libertysflame.com).

[Ksec]

93. Drowning in a sea of ignorance and fear

Gotta hand it to these nutcases. Theyre consistent in the hatred. All those death threats sent to the Dixie Chicks and Michael Moore came from sites like this and lilgreenapples. Theyre disgracing themselves and dont even care, let them wallow in their own waste. I wont waste my time even thinking about these types because they are destroying themselves as we speak. We need do nothing but wait .

[ComerPerro]

98. the guy is still a tool

[Marr]

99. Interesting that religious zealotry seems to be the faultline on

Free Republic, just as it is in their wider movement.

I hope that the ills of Free Republic are representative of a broader, party-wide fragmenting.