Why I Leave DU

[abester]

I have actively followed DU for several years and much enjoyed its rich community and diverse discussions. However, recent events have sadly led me to decide to leave DU as an active participant and community member. Its not my intention to point fingers and accuse anyone of wrong doing, but I find the moderating mood prohibitve and the tunnel vision of the responses discouraging.

There are two main themes that concern me dearly and on which I have expressed my opinion here and there. The progressing corporalization of society and the vanishing of the seperation between Chruch and State and the institution of Christianity as a state religion and relegation of non-believers as second class citizens. (Overreacting? How come no President in recent history has been an Agnostic or Atheist?)

I don't want to re-iterate my positions in detail regarding these issues. Suffice to say that I made a post where I wanted to express my concern about the rise of Christianity and the inevitable hijack by fundamentalists and purists. I centered that post on the recent Truthout.org article titled 'The battlecry of Theocracy' (http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051406G.shtml) where some Christians are contemplating taking up arms. In the course of that post I also mentioned that in my opinion Christianity is an odd belief. Apparantly, I offended some squeamish Christians and my post got promptly locked and sealed within 30 minutes which is pretty typical.

Dealing with my second theme, I created a post in which I expressed my concern that the core of the Democratic Party has lost its momentum and is just as deeply entrenched in Corporate lobbies and corruptions as their counterparts. Huge democratic support for the Iraq war, PATRIOT act, refusal to censure, Hillary's salsa with the right wing, refusal to take the voting problem seriously, etc etc amply justify this observation.

As such it was my suggestion in that post that the truly liberal and progressive forces of the Democratic party should combine perhaps with Nader to form a third party to bring about the change that is necessary to prevent this country from sliding into Christian Fascism, because that is what is happening my friends, and the current Dem mainstream will do nothing to prevent that, in fact the opposite, they have actively worked together with the republicans to accelerate the transformation.

Needless to say I got swamped with ill-thought out knee-jerk replies about how vile and hyprocritic Nader is, the rest of my message (predictably) ignored, and dissent squashed with a lock, again within minutes.

Frankly, I'm a bit disappointed, as a fellow progressive I had hoped to freely discuss important issues, but that proved to be impossible if your ideas are not in lock-step with prevalent mainstream ideas.

Good bye, I wish you all the best.

[trumad]

1. active participant

You've only got 71 posts.

I do that many on a Saturday night half drunk on my ass.


See ya.

[MADem]

20. Heh heh....!!!

Well, time to wave farewell to this guy. And even point him towards a forum more to his liking:

http://green.meetup.com/boards/

[CatWoman]

believe him. tis true.

:D

[Connie_Corleone]

2. What do you expect when you bring up Nader on a "Democratic"

message board?

Bye-bye. Take care now.

[Bluebear]

3. 'should combine perhaps with Nader to form a third party'

That is a clear violation of DU rules, and that is why your threads are locked.

[WI_DEM]

4. Dramatic announcements of leaving are often ridiculed around

here especially if for any reason the person decides to come back at some point in time. I wish you well.

[arwalden]

5. Oh! These Are Always Fun...

:popcorn:

[Bluebear]

7. Would you just ANSWER THE QUESTION?

:hi:

[arwalden]

27. You mean... for all INTENSIVE PURPOSES??

[Goblinmonger]

9. Scootch, buddie

I brought the sodie pop.

[Texasgal]

6. Good bye...

Don't let the door slap you on your backside.

Perhaps an I (heart) Nader board would be more to your liking.

[NYCGirl]

8. Next time, wherever you post, please read the rules in their entirety!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules_detailed.html

Constructive criticism of Democrats or the Democratic Party is permitted. When doing so, please keep in mind that most of our members come to this website in order to get a break from the constant attacks in the media against our candidates and our values. Highly inflammatory or divisive attacks that echo the tone or substance of our political opponents are not welcome here.

You are not permitted to use this message board to work for the defeat of the Democratic Party nominee for any political office. If you wish to work for the defeat of any Democratic candidate in any General Election, then you are welcome to use someone else's bandwidth on some other website.

Democratic Underground may not be used for political, partisan, or advocacy activity by supporters of any political party or candidate other than the Democratic Party or Democratic candidates. Supporters of certain other political parties may use Democratic Underground for limited partisan activities in political races where there is no Democratic Party candidate.

Do not post broad-brush smears against Democrats or the Democratic Party.

[Ksec]

10. You need a strong back to post here

And I nominate trumads post as the funniest ever.

[librechik]

11. Skinner, these posts deserve their own forum

they're more popular than Flame Nader threads.

For me, DU is like a tornado at the circus. You're intrigued, appalled, and frightened -- but too caught up in the excitement to leave.

[ohiosmith]

12. No fair coming back to read the responses.

[Jack from Charlotte]

24. LOL! (nt)

*

[derby378]

13. Concerning Nader, with all due respect...

This is not the proper forum for discussing creation of a third party - this is Democratic Underground, after all. Give us a decent chance to rescue the party we already have before we start talking third party.

As for Nader, one man peeing into the wind does not a third party make. Instead, you've got a guy who just managed to wet his own shirt.

I appreciate your frustration, but don't leave just yet. There are a lot of sympathetic folks here.

[Ian David]

14. You said "The N Word"? n/t

[derby378]

23. "Needless?"

:evilgrin:

[Nimrod2005]

15. Only 71 posts later?

Have a nice life...

[Rainscents]

16. Don't feel bad... My post gets lock all the time and I'm still here!

[Jack from Charlotte]

17. You are what I would call a....... quitter. (nt)

*

[RethugAssKicker]

18. On the Christian points you make I agree whole heartedly

I have had a number of posts locked when discussing Christianity.

and I agree the Moderators here are way too strict, and more like nursemaids !

However, stick around more, this is one of the best boards I know of and the format is easy to understand and use.... I noticed you only have 71 posts... I am assuming this is your second user id.

[rainy]

19. Where will you go? I feel the same way about most of what you

say. Even if some dems want to do well they are too few to make a real difference. I'd like to see us push the most progressive candidates and with the power of the internet growing I bet we could be a real influence. Especially if we do something about the media.
Do you know of any big progressive sites?

[The_Casual_Observer]

21. Nader did us all a fat lot of good, didn't he?

Salvation via half ass 3rd parties are a wet dream.

Good luck spinning your wheels.

[queenbdem87]

22. While I don't agree with most of what you say

But I do agree that they should not be blocking posts like that. These things should be discussed.

[RandomKoolzip]

25. I love it when those "leaving" DU make a big melodramatic stink about it.

Just LEAVE, ya big weiner.

[Mandate My Ass]

26. We've all been flamed. I've had posts deleted

and threads locked. It happens. I'm concerned by the merger of gov't and corps too but it's going to take all of us, of different ideologies to come together to put a stop to it because they're very good at dividing people who would be natural allies if they knew what was at stake. They're way ahead of us. There'll be many disagreements along the way, bad ones, about how to accomplish it.

I wish you well, too. Maybe you'll be back someday but in the meantime, so long.

[Bucky]

28. Not a disruptor, but not exactly a Democrat either. Mostly not discussing

It's a discussion board, friend. Pouting about people disagreeing with you is, well, pretty naive

[RoadRunner]

29. Locking

Questions or complaints about the moderation or administration of Democratic Underground should be sent to [e-mail] .