|
To: The moderators, members, and participants of Democratic Underground
I have had a bit of a semi-enlightened revelation this week regarding my
own participation on Democratic Underground (DU) as I have found several
of my posts deleted by the moderators in order to "maintain the peace"
with regard to the bulletin board posting guidelines.
I have no illusion that the moderators are just doing their job (for which
I am not even sure they are paid, thus raising the notion that they are
the final subjective arbiters of what material gets posted or not), and
are following what appears to be their own interpretation of the message
board rules.
However, it is my contention that they have overstepped their bounds
this time, and because it has come up in separate incidents, I felt amused
and interested enough to write.
To wit: The incidents in question involved my posts regarding the suicide
of Hunter S. Thompson and the frail state of the Pope (of the Vatican City
Popes). Browsing as I did through DU's LBN, I found a thread about Hunter
S. Thompson's death. Aware of his persona and his cultlike status among
the seekers of counterculture cachet, I decided to check out the thread.
Indeed the poor man shot himself, a tragedy, naturally. But after seeing
how extensively the thread had grown in a short time, all filled with
hyperbolically personal attachments to a man no one on this board, I daresay,
actualy knew in person, I hazarded a tart counterpoint by declaiming, in
effect, that I for one could care less about the man and his death, to which
I added commentary (as a former English student with a string of A+ grades
to my name, and spare-time writer, I might add, for credibility purposes)
that neither his writing, nor his life, were all that genius, and that we
should not celebrate him as such.
This instantly (i.e. within the hour) brought several replies I thought
were issued from Freeper types, about what various parts of people's
anatomies they wanted me to service, et cetera, et cetera. Also, there
were a number of posts filled with just sheer blubbering invective and
name-calling, which amused me and, sadly, I expected. I thought DU folks
were above that, but I guess not.
My main issues with getting deleted by the following morning were and
remain:
(a) Apparently one is not allowed to speak ill of the dead at all
(b) Apparently no one is allowed to disagree with a widely-held notion
(i.e. that a coked-out, boozed-up fast liver was somehow worthy of the
title of "genius" and that his life's work -- in his case, his writing
-- was fit to be called likewise)
My point in so posting was to say that, Guess what? Not everyone thinks
of him as a hero, genius, or some kind of countercultural revolutionary,
and that other, perhaps even *impertinent points of logical thought*
are supposed to be permitted on this supposedly liberal website.
In other words, not everyone thinks alike.
(I had follow-up posts which tweaked not only the illiterate name-callers
of dubious educational standing but also the moderators, posts which also
got canned forthwith. My capriciousness and amusement short-lived, I dropped
the subject and declared the situation "as I expected".)
The second incident involves another one of these periodic posts (they are
getting more frequent, don't you think) about the ill health of the Pope,
and of this patent silliness involved in constantly qualifying the Holy
Father's (or, as I like to say, The Mitre Guy's) condition as "vibrant",
"vigorous", "fit", "active", "not bedridden", etc. The guy can't even hold
himself up in the morning, so let's quit kidding ourselves as to his "vim
and vigor". And for anyone who is still so inclined to think of him as
"the holiest of Catholics", may I remind my fellow Catholics of which I am
one in name that he is no more holy than you or I, perhaps even less so,
considering that he is the CEO of what might be the world's largest pedophilia
ring. So I find this ironic and funny at the same time, and posted to DU a
short note (to tweak the Pope-worshippers) about his demise (which will be
soon, no doubt). Anyone with half a gourd would realize it was said in jest.
But, the mods were trigger-happy that day and deleted those posts as well.
Plus, no doubt, there were the Swiss Guards to defend me by hurling most
un-Catholic and un-Christian invective at me in subsequent posts.
(I am not claiming any sort of Freeper pseudo-martyrdom -- quite the opposite.
I just noticed two totally separate and totally unrelated incidents and thought
it amusing enough to point out the hypocrisy of a supposedly tolerant progressive
website.)
The point of the deletions -- and let me assure you I rescanned the posting
guidelines, violations of which I still cannot recognize -- made me think
that in a reasonable situation, the moderators would have allowed my posts
to stand but then deleted those who were so vicious and disgusting in the
follow-up posts. All I did was post unpopular (not murderous, mind you,
just unpopular) notes and ouch! Look out! Groupthink is alive and well
here on DU as well.
I am certainly not crass enough to suggest death for anyone (except for
members of the Bu$h cabal), but that we should stop romanticizing these
people and realize that (a) we all die, from prince to pauper; (b) no
one in my world is above being made fun of; and (c) no matter how noxious,
free speech encompasses it all.
All of this, on this very small level, reminds me of the Ward Churchill flap.
I read snippets of his speech, even the most "alarming" ones and I must say,
if you feel anger at him, perhaps you are misdirecting it, just as you misdirect
your venom at me. Don't be angry at Churchill; be angry at those whose vanity,
venality, mendacity and ambitions allowed what happened to happen. It is the
same thing I would tell the Ribbonheads when they, like the good little Bushbots
they are, yell, "Support the troops!" Really? Support the troops? What does
this mean? After all, we all know it means to "Get behind Bush and stop questioning
him, you pinko Commie cowards!" But their anger is not really directed at the non-
Ribbonheads -- it's deep down rooted and targeted at the man who puts their sons,
daughters, and family members in harm's way -- the number one criminal on the
planet, George W. Bush.
So save your energies for me, a lowly poster, and go after the big fish.
And by the way, here's twenty bucks -- Go buy yourselves a bottle of LIGHTEN UP.
Most respectfully,
Zerex71
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(692 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
