"DITTO! If you leave, you let them win! And since when did this forum become for the purpose of wrangling with obstructionists anyway? That's why they're obstructionists: they are here to get in the way of a forum meant for a think-tank like environment for progressives, etc. to share ideas and information. What's really sad is to observe how often the obstructionists' tactic works: they know that their mere presence is enough to raise the hackles of us progressives here and make us want to take them on. And it is hard to ignore them after all: they know how to flood a thread and the board itself. So it takes some work to maintain the space, but people here (including myself), if they want to spend the effort, in my opinion need to spend more time debating which ideas are better, sussing out where we agree and disagree, how we can compromise if necessary and what kind of agenda we might look for, how to assess Obama and the democrats, which groups and individuals are doing good work, etc." —Nimblecivet
Well, Nimblecivet, I was going to let you have the last word here, but no, I’m ba-aa-aack... :-)
Needless to say, I agree with the spirit of your comment, with its advocacy for hanging in there on behalf of the “think-tank like environment for progressives,” even though I personally often come here just to schmooze with simpaticos and defend my worldview against the not-so-simpaticos. Nevertheless, I did think it was good of you to add your “DITTO,” and encourage Ulysses to stay.
I understand Ulysses’ reaction to the rules-enforcement edict, as spelled out by Polycarp2, as much as I also understand the need for certain civil parameters, which might discourage real abuse, bullying, and the degradation of this forum away from the thinking environment you’d like to see. But I understand, because I haven’t seen anything from any of us that would warrant banning. Instead, I’ve seen disputes that to my mind can only be categorized as either salubrious, educational, or funny, and any reactions to any nonsense always seemed warranted to me.
Seriously, though, the rules enforcement edict ruffled my sense of liberty, perhaps not as strongly as it did for Ulysses, but for sure. I don’t know how U. would speak to this, but for me it asks me to tell lies and to believe something about myself that is untrue, i.e., that I am devoid of hostility, and disgust, and aggression, and anger, and that I am only capable of confronting BS with silence, the kind of silence that I and my sex have been told is my/our only recourse in the face of injustice and wrongheaded belief. For what is the moderated response, if not silence, when the vexation demands a merciless, unequivocal repudiation? Speaking less formally, to be nice in the face of crap is to be stupid and enslaved twice, isn’t it?
Well, these thoughts are wasted on those who have been indoctrinated in the establishments of authority. It’s as though the concept of peace has evolved into a tyranny of quiet acquiescence. Is that what peace is all about? If so, I want none of it.
[Comment #1307, page 27]
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