Is there any difference between advocating violence, and using the advocation of violence to make a point? If there is, and I believe there is, it is too subtle a difference for a machine to take notice of. But a human can, if they choose to. Is there a difference between mocking a morally superior position, and taking a morally superior position? Again, a machine might not be capable of detecting the difference, but a human could choose to notice the difference. Well, the powers that run the Daily Kos have decided it is easier to trust the machine So this, today, will be my final new post on this web site.
I felt a strong moral obligation to this site, because it and its members saved our home and our lives. And for that we will always be grateful. But the fear of offending members has reached a level that no voice can be heard unless it conforms not just in content but in format as well. From denouncing my postings for using capitals letters in the titles (What I present on this site I am proud of, else I would not use capitals - if you are not proud of what you say, why say it?) - to the blocking of my wife's postings, not for content but for the perception of content, for form, not for function, this site has fallen, like the NRA and the Republican party, into the hands of extremists who will tolerate no trouble makers, who by humor or by ponderous historical lectures, prod the members to question their own positions and values. The Communists called them fellow travelers, as justification for eliminating them from their party. So my wife and I are now fellow travelers on Daily Kos.
I am no libertarian. I despise those simpletons who pretend no solution is a solution to anything. I spend hours every week writing the material I post here. And long ago it became a burden. But, again, I felt an obligation to the members, or rather, to the memory of certain members. But it is evident those members are now gone, and the site had moved on to demand a unity of approach as well as purpose, a regimentation that is a choice, not an obligation. I will simply not accept that choice.
When you see both sides of a debate accepting the same rules for engagement, mirror restrictions on who can take part in a debate, it is evident that the debate is already over. The choice has been made, and there is no difference between the sides any longer. The choice being offered is not a choice, and I and Sam have wondered why that is? Don't you? What is guiding the false choices being offered? And why are we accepting these false choices? Any actual solution to a real problem must begin by wondering why these are the only choices available.
You must not cry "Fire!" in a crowded theater. Unless there actually is a fire. And you should not mock true believers by pointing out their Emperor has no clothes. And if you choose to mock those who believe, those who cry fire when there is no fire, you must do so only in accepted ways, only with a number two pencil, which the machine can recognize.
This is tiring. This has become exhausting. Between the Republicans terrified we might be receiving $5 more a month in food stamps than we "deserve", and the liberals on this site who have decided we do not "deserve" to have our voices heard
(especially Sam, who was attacked constantly for either being a "new" poster thus having no "history" and, or supposedly "abusing" my name here by posting using my diary access: she always told you it was not me, it was her posting until she could create her own diary [she did: SammyK, and even that name ] and she could not have become an "older" poster unless she posts, and she explained that as well, so it astonishes me at your cupidity) I have reached the breaking point. You continue the fight, if you choose to. But never question the choices being offered. Because that will see you silenced.
I have a few items that will be posted in the coming weeks. I simply do not have the time or the energy to take them down. You will not let me wife remove her work from this site any longer, and that is unfair. Legally, it is not your property. It is her's. You clearly do not think her ideas have any value, so why hold on to them?
Good bye and good luck. You, and Daily Kos, are going to need it.