Reply #58: This is quite true [View All]

[BlueDog2u]

I have read your other posts, Geo, and you have always set a very high standard of politeness and thoughtfullness. But what you may not be seeing here are several facts:

1) Some of your predecessors in the attempt to discredit or downplay research into Cybernetics Group and Accenture were grossly insulting not just to one, but to many of those who had a sincere interest in the subject;

2) For some as yet unexplained reason, a major thread of material (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=75595&mesg_id=76096) was deleted without comment by forum administrators. Many participants were interested in this thread. Whether or not the thread met your high standards for relevancy is, I submit, hardly a rationale for this removal. If there was a problem with one post on the board, why didn't the administrators simply follow the usual procedure of tombstoning that post? The wholesale removal, particularly in the absence of any coherent justification, smacks of the worst kind of censorship and will only have the result of inflaming further interest in a topic you say is not worthy of our consideration

3) Even on this thread, some of your fellow debunkers are using offensive language. For instance, it is implied that anyone with an interest in this topic must be a racist, because they don't take a more active interest in voter suppression. That's ridiculous, and it is also insulting. I happen to teach at an African American University in the middle of a slum in Baltimore. I'm profoundly outraged by the theft of African American voters right to participate in a free, fair, and open election. I've posted many comments to these boards in recent days about voter suppression. I've sent emails to Mr. Blackwell expressing my outrage over his mistreatment of Ohio voters. I've contributed extensively to calls for volunteers on the Vote Fraud Board, joining in the effort to compile lists of media people who have given thoughtful coverage to BBV. The fact that I am also interested in following what is happening with the Cybernet bust, or researching Accenture's involvement with worldwide electronic voting in no way diminishes my concern over these other issues, and I really wish the individual who made those thoughtless remarks would apologize for them.

4) You say that you need to take a look at the (now tombstoned) thread to form a judgement about whether the material contained on the thread is worthy of DU discussion. Again I submit that your own personal standard relevancy is not the appropriate issue here. Relevancy is in the eye of the beholder, and if Administrators wanted to question the relevancy of the thread to this particular board, and move the thread to another with a request that the discusion be held in that venue, I doubt that anyone would have objected. I certainly wouldn't have. Instead what has been done is a chilling reminder of the power of certain individuals to control a discussion they don't like by destroying all evidence that the discussion ever took place. Now, I am quite willing to admit that probably the intentions of the adminstrators were perfectly legitimate. I don't really think there is a conspiracy to prevent discussion on this topic at DU. But I do think that a serious mistake has been made, one with lasting negative consequences to the moral integrity of this forum.

Now I'll shut up and go away. I doubt I'll be participating much in future discussions here, however. I'm deeply disappointed by the whole experience. I expected a more mature leadership.