Do we allow dissent?

[coloradodem2005]

I talk to a friend who is not partison about the Berg thread yesterday. I emailed it to him. He said if you're going to believe conspiracies you should do it from a site that allows dissent. I said that we do and that we debate things and even have flame wars and that the thing that we all agree on is that we hate Bushco. I said, don't judge a site that you do not spend any time on about this. If you want an example of a site that does not allow dissent, go check out www.freerepublic.com.

[ForrestGump]

1. No. So shut up.

:P

[corporatewhore]

2. Not when it comes to our glorious leader who could do no wrong

[Radical Activist]

3. Not after the convention

From reading the site rules it looks like any bitching about Kerry will not be allowed. I wonder if that will apply after he is elected and does things that aren't liberal enough for some people on the board.

[coloradodem2005]

4. Well...

...I am talking more about conspiracy theories. Yes there are regulations, but we have had free reign on some things.

[physioex]

8. As far as I am concerned...

Things are as conservative as they can get, just look at all three branches. A little bit of liberalism on the federal level would be refreshing, I won't be complaining. I think there will be enough to work on as far as the media, and the other two branches.

[Speck Tater]

5. Did you get your free stack of pre-paid postcards from Ashcroft....

for rating out disenters? Just fill in the particulars and drop it in any mailbox. The authorities will take care of the rest.

[madmax]

6. Hell, no.

Well, maybe a little :evilgrin:

[ForrestGump]

7. Actually, if you're going to equate it to the FreakRepugnant forum,

then (as I understand it) DU allows as much dissent as they do. I gather that they toss out non-Freepers, recognizable by perceptible neural function...in turn, DU tosses out Freepers. DU does allow a degree of dissent in some matters but it does not allow for true dissent in that neocons and the like are not tolerated here. Of course, these people are typically here just to disrupt, I'm sure, and I'm equally certain that the mess resulting from allowing hardcore conservatives to debate hardcore progressives here would be considerable and probably ultimately counterproductive. Still, I don't think it can be said that DU is truly a dissent-friendly environment.

Ditto with ongoing and periodic constraints on subject matter, brought to bear because we do sometimes get carried away with certain things. Still, some of the banned 'sex' threads are anything but out of control...the question is, where do they draw the line? The bottom line here is that this is a private forum and the moderators ultimately have the say on what is discussed here and how it's discussed. It's not a democracy and nobody here has the right to expect it to be so (well, they do have the right to expect that, but in pretty much the same way that they have the right to hold their breath until they get their way). It can be frustrating, yes, but overall I think it's lurching along about as well as it can, not always pleasing everyone but generally fostering a (slightly) more civil tone...except in the GD forum, of course, that's almost a permanent quagmire of fear and loathing.