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Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Someone Needs to Spend a Little Time on FreeRepublic.com

posted by on November 7 at 13:39 PM

A new Slog reader is very, very, very angry. No, not angry. Disappointed. Just like mom. Anyway:

I’m new to looking through the SLOG (as in only a couple of days) and I’m already disgusted by you people. Permit me a little diatribe here:

For all the uber-liberal claims and pompous “we’re the most open-minded people around” speak I hear out of the vast majority of you I have yet once read anything even remotely approaching fair or balanced (yes, I chose those words purposefully for their irony).

I am truly disgusted by the unabashed filth, slander and hate-speak out of your collective mouths. There is no intelligent discussion or legitimate criticism on here at all—it’s complete trash. And by trash I mean exactly that; majoratively untrue garbage slung at anything resembling moderate or god forbid, Republican. Partner that with the absolutely blind defense of anyone whose politics you agree with and I see the most stunningly closed-minded people I’ve ever encountered, and I’ve lived in many places in this country you people would claim to be backwards.

Has it not ocurred to you all that your hate for others and your unwillingness to accept other viewpoints (or even listen to them without screaming obsenities) is exactly what you claim so vehemently of the other side of the political spectrum? You should all be ashamed of yourselves for perverting the world with all of this bile.

This was tacked on to my post about Pat Robertson endorsing Rudy Giuliani because, I’m guessing, I called Robertson a “Talibangelist.” Robertson, of course, calls me & mine the bringers of hurricanes, the causers of 9/11s, the offenders of God, wocka, wocka, wocka. Imaginary God forbid that I should suggest that Robertson is an old, withered, corrupt religious bigot.

RSS icon Comments

1

Majoratively?

And she wants intelligent discussion? How about if you start, lady, by not making up words?

Posted by Souki | November 7, 2007 1:49 PM
2


He forgot to add that we're all America-hating terrahist traitors and that Hillary Clinton's vagina is giving aid and comfort to the enemy. And Jesus was nailed to Bill Clinton's penis which is why the wrong-wingers can't stop thinking and talking about it.


He's got to fight us here or he'll have to fight us over there or something.

Posted by Original Andrew | November 7, 2007 1:52 PM
3

SNAP, Dan! Way to call out the hater, yo.

Posted by Michigan Matt | November 7, 2007 1:53 PM
4

translation: "I'm shocked and terrified to learn that you Libruls are allowed to believe things as passionately as Us Good Xtians."

Dear anonycomplainer: please drink a nice, tall glass of STFU.

Posted by el ganador | November 7, 2007 1:57 PM
5

No one Needs to spend any time on FreeRepublic.com

Posted by The Baron | November 7, 2007 1:58 PM
6

Pat Robertson is the anti-Christ!

Posted by Merlin | November 7, 2007 2:03 PM
7

I hate everything you stand for and I'm offended by everything you write so I wanted to let you know how much I hate your writing and that I've been reading it for days. How dare you.

Posted by pox | November 7, 2007 2:07 PM
8

They forgot not only that we hate America but that we have several abortions a day (even the guys and I had three at breakfast) we burn the bible and koran than piss and shit on the ashes. We use the American flag as ass-wipe and we cheer on the defeat of US soldiers wherever they are stationed around the world.

Posted by Just Me | November 7, 2007 2:13 PM
9

While that poster is mostly just bitter that his or her worldview isn't being validated by the cool kids, I have to say that it's not as if Slog presents a reasonably diverse ideological discussion. Additionally, it's not as if everything Republican is bad and everything Democrat is good, despite many posters' wishes to the contrary.

But who says Slog needs to be "fair and balanced"?

Posted by bma | November 7, 2007 2:13 PM
10

The Stranger is a low pressure area of progressive thought. Okay.

Posted by superyeadon | November 7, 2007 2:17 PM
11

@9, 'it's not as if everything Republican is bad'. It's not? George Bush has us on the edge of World War III (his words). His 8 year legacy is No Child Left Behind? They've torn up the Constitution, the dollar is in the tank, they've stolen all they can steal, left people drowning in New Orleans, have set up a paid Christian miltia and probably have no intention of turning over power in a year. And I fucking hope "fair and balanced" was in quotes out of a sense of irony.

Posted by left coast | November 7, 2007 2:19 PM
12

Well, even a broken clock is right twice per day.

Pussy.

Posted by NapoleonXIV | November 7, 2007 2:19 PM
13

Basically the message is: quit complaining about being second-class citizens, it's hurting my ears.

Posted by The Gay Recluse | November 7, 2007 2:22 PM
14

i feel...so...

chagrined.

cheesus...what a dumbass...the SLOG is as fair and balanced as FOX News!

Posted by michael strangeways | November 7, 2007 2:24 PM
15

If the Slog was fair, balanced, and open-minded, I wouldn't read it.

I love you, militant liberal atheist gay Stranger people!

Posted by Hernandez | November 7, 2007 2:28 PM
16

What the hell? I had to Slog my black little heart out for months and months before I got quoted on the front page, but this "Tom" character waltzes in and gets the spotlight on his FIRST DAY? I call shenanigans.

I don't think our boy Tom is a Republican, or a Freeper. I think he's just a misguided Schumer-Feinstein style "why can't we all just get along" Democrat who doesn't understand what he's looking at here.

Posted by Fnarf | November 7, 2007 2:31 PM
17

I did read that original e-argument and although it was pretty damn funny I never got the impression it was a response to the post it was tacked onto. I think it was just a general drive-by venting.

Either way, good job all of you for shunning him/her out of slog. theres no room here for those not like us.

Posted by vwfrank | November 7, 2007 2:32 PM
18

Why would anyone of sound mind spend time on a freeper site?

They are consistently wrong.

Period.

Posted by Will in Seattle | November 7, 2007 2:48 PM
19

Andrew Sullivan is a "friend of the Slog" (and interestingly, Michelle Malkin is on his "daily read" list). Wow, the world is so connected!

Also, my experience is that most people in Seattle who I would characterize as left wing extremists pretty much hate the Stranger (and presumably the Slog too).

Posted by Peter | November 7, 2007 2:49 PM
20

I'm happy to have a forum representing worldviews similar to mine. It’s certainly easy to get insulated and prejudice toward people holding bass-ackwards positions but that’s what makes this a community. The Stranger/SLOG and its contributors are certainly fringe and the venom of the above string illustrates the anger from our disenfranchisement. The mainstream generally makes us sick so the right-wing makes us militant. It’s exceedingly difficult to tolerate intolerance, especially as intolerance towards our views is the norm.

Posted by Gabe Global | November 7, 2007 3:00 PM
21

He's got a point, guys.

Posted by Gomez | November 7, 2007 3:00 PM
22

Hillary Clinton's vagina is giving aid and comfort to the enemy

Christ. The terrorists have won.

(or would that be "the terrorists have lost"?)

Posted by Wolf | November 7, 2007 3:04 PM
23
Posted by slog | November 7, 2007 3:08 PM
24

In my experience when a new person uses the phrase 'you people' in their first paragraph, the rest of the post will be a boring diatribe. This one is no exception.

Looks like a drive-by trolling to me.

Posted by Xopher | November 7, 2007 3:27 PM
25

Jeez. You guys aren't super-liberal-evil commies. Your politics are remarkably moderate.

She should come watch the news at my house one day, and get her self an education in just how angry and liberal people (and by people, I mostly mean my political sci phd holding mom) can be.

Posted by Rebecca | November 7, 2007 3:29 PM
26

ummm this one I get!
I totally agree with Tom, the Stranger has some good pictures towards the back, and lets us at the house know about the kick ass shows down in Pioneer Square, but the political bent of its' writers leaves much to be desired.

Pervs and Degenerates rule here, and not the good upstanding people like we have in congress in Oly and D.C.

I also get the feeling that the Stranger and its readers think that women, the gays and minorities should be treated like all equal and shit with us white dudes. Yeah Tom, Whats up w/ that Bra????

Posted by clueless frat boy | November 7, 2007 3:31 PM
27

Okay,here's fair and balanced...the Republicans/conservatives are right:

1. About the uselessness of tax & spend liberalism (this, at least, used to be a part of the Republican platform, before they became all glassy-eyed and war-mongering). Sometimes fiscal "accountability" is necessary, especially with trendy causes that just get social activists all wet and sticky.

2. The irrational bias of liberals against religious people, southerners, and dead white males. Yes, there are hateful, ignorant, and spiteful liberals out here just frothing at the mouth to take a bite out of the nearest evangelical, even though they know next to nothing about religion, the south, or the dead white males whose graves they like to spit on.

3. The hypocritical liberal bias of the media and academia. I work there, I know. I hear my colleagues preach their politics in classrooms on a daily basis, without any acknowledgment of their own bias or the unfair power-dynamics of that setting. I'm sorry guys, but communism really is dead, and you, my SUV-driving, latte-drinking, middle-class friend, were never a communist...

4. About the death penalty. Some people deserve it, and we, collectively, have the right to impose it. (That presupposes that we can do so without racial or economic bias...right now, that's not the case.)

5. Dennis Kucinich being a kook. Yes, he's a lovable kook, but a kook nonetheless.

Hmmm...okay, that's about it...oh yeah, and "strategery" is a perfectly good word!

All fair and balanced now?

Posted by jack | November 7, 2007 3:48 PM
28

The writers at Slog are "the most stunningly closed-minded people" this person has "ever encountered"?

Doesn't get out in the world much, does s/he?

Posted by Irena | November 7, 2007 4:12 PM
29

@ Gomez

If the Stranger and/or Slog was claiming to be fair and balanced, he would have a point. But as far as I can tell neither The Stranger nor Slog are claiming to be fair and balanced. It's obviously a left-wing blog.

Posted by arduous | November 7, 2007 4:23 PM
30

Anyone who bases their opinion of a site primarily on their judgment that the site's commenters are "foul-mouthed" can blow me. Get over yourself. This ain't Sunday School and you ain't my momma.

Posted by Geni | November 7, 2007 4:37 PM
31

Writing tip...

When utilizing word selection to specifically convey a sense of irony, it completely nullifies the effect to make a point to expose the fact that words were chosen to fit that purpose.

Further research topic: Why is it no longer funny if you have to explain a joke's punchline?

Posted by cunei4m | November 7, 2007 5:19 PM
32

@30 - freepers are still in their wrong mind, no matter how hurt your feelings are about that basic truth.

Posted by Will in Seattle | November 7, 2007 5:35 PM
33

Haters? Us? Hell, I don't hate anyone . . . Except maybe the scum-sucking, shit-eating, piss-drinking spawn-of-Satan Republicans who have been raping our country and murdering its citizens for years. And, oh yeah, the twisted Christian fucks and corporate power-mongers who have them in their pockets.

I'm pretty cool with most everybody else.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | November 7, 2007 5:38 PM
34

@27 - Nice try Jack, but I'm afraid it just can't be done :-)

"1. About the uselessness of tax & spend liberalism (this, at least, used to be a part of the Republican platform, before they became all glassy-eyed and war-mongering). Sometimes fiscal "accountability" is necessary, especially with trendy causes that just get social activists all wet and sticky."

That sounds good, until you ask the question "And Republicans have been for fiscal responsibility (other than rhetorically speaking) when?" Bush? (no way). Reagan? (ever hear of David Stockman?) Nixon? (stagflation - here we come and crooked yes, conservative not really) (Goldwater (no, wait, he lost), how about Eisenhower (also a moderate by modern standards) - No I'm not really seeing this one at all....

"2. The irrational bias of liberals against religious people, southerners, and dead white males. Yes, there are hateful, ignorant, and spiteful liberals out here just frothing at the mouth to take a bite out of the nearest evangelical, even though they know next to nothing about religion, the south, or the dead white males whose graves they like to spit on."

My family is from the South and the Caucasus. We have a long list of horror stories about the wages of fundamentalism. Those who really know fundamentalist movements (who aren't already owned by one) generally fear them with good reason (and the insiders, of course, generally hate and fear all the others). Sure, it may be fun and rewarding for the insiders, but the cost to everyone else ends up outweighing the benefits. Think of all that hate they produce as a form of spiritual pollution....

"3. The hypocritical liberal bias of the media and academia. I work there, I know. I hear my colleagues preach their politics in classrooms on a daily basis, without any acknowledgment of their own bias or the unfair power-dynamics of that setting. I'm sorry guys, but communism really is dead, and you, my SUV-driving, latte-drinking, middle-class friend, were never a communist..."


Even in academia, communism's been dead for quite awhile. Modified versions of democratic socialism, on the other hand, seem to have ended up with a might strong currency :-) (And Sweden's standard of living is now higher than ours as is their *level of social mobility*!!!! So much for Horatio Alger...)

"4. About the death penalty. Some people deserve it, and we, collectively, have the right to impose it. (That presupposes that we can do so without racial or economic bias...right now, that's not the case.)"

Right. We aren't/can't so it's irrelevant whether it'd be a good idea on Planet Republican.


"5. Dennis Kucinich being a kook. Yes, he's a lovable kook, but a kook nonetheless."


I actually agree with that one. But bet the repubs don't agree with the "loveable" bit...

Posted by bakfiets | November 7, 2007 6:13 PM
35

bakfiets,

In case it wasn't apparent, all of my "agreements" with Republican ideas were "in principle," not necessarily in fact. I don't believe that the Republicans typically manage to put their principles into action any more than Democrats do. That doesn't mean there isn't room for discussion of those ideas. But liberal extremists do, in fact, close down the discussion by exaggerating and mis-representing conservative, or even moderate, positions. The original poster, incoherent as he/she was, has a point there.

As for religion, I didn't say anything in support of "fundamentalists." But, in fact, fundamentalists are a very small minority even among conservative Christians. The fact that most liberals, like you, tend to equate the two and dismiss them all as religious zealots just goes to prove the point that there is, in fact, a bias towards religious people on the left side of the political spectrum. I, too, have spent most of my life in the South, the Bible Belt in fact, and I work with young, conservative, religious folks on a daily basis. I think that most liberals would be surprised how increasingly open these kids are to progressive cultural attitudes towards gay people, abortion, single parenting, sex education, and a host of other topics that "fundies," as you call them, have railed against so publicly. Just because the zealots scream the loudest in public doesn't mean that they're in the "moral majority." Religion and conservative southern culture are NOT inconsistent with progressive values or social justice. I myself am not religious, but I've spent my career studying and teaching about it, and not from the safe distance of east and west-coast liberal enclaves.

Posted by jack | November 8, 2007 6:06 AM
36

@12 - OTOH, a broken digital clock is right zero times per day.

Posted by Brooklyn Reader | November 8, 2007 7:07 AM
37

29. So you admit the writers and readers here aren't open minded?

That's good to know and keep in mind, the next time anyone here tries to attack someone for being closed-minded.

Posted by Gomez | November 8, 2007 10:25 AM

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