A Call To Action: Ending The Political Game on ATS

reply to post by Dock6

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As much as I WHOLE-HEARTILY agree with the new policy I'd have to agree. No anti-Obama tripe currently (which, quite honestly, is a refreshing change of pace) but plenty of anti-Palin crap.


Although, there doesn't appear to be many mods around right now [bottom of this page. Mods in bold]

I imagine, assuming this new policy is to be even-handed in its implementation, that they will be shut down asap.

I sure hope so anyway.

reply to post by dgtempe

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I don't understand why that Keith Olbermann thread was closed either. It doesn't make sense. Seems like blatant censorship to me.

"No! Not here. Not in this place. Not on our board."


.... will continue to read the rest now...

This isn't 'Denying Ignorance', its sticking your fingers in your ears and chanting 'la la la la' over and over again.

Simply deleting topics doesn't reveal the truth between the lies/gossip/misconceptions that the threads are based on.

Simply deleting topics doesn't allow a discussion about the reasons behind such rumours etc. appearing.

I'm all for cleaning the political debates up, but simply having a blanket 'post X and die' warning is not the ATS I've come to know.

And as many others have stated, why close the Keith Olberman thread? It was discussion on political commentary by a journalist. It wasn't related to the current election or slandering either of the candidates.

So much for freedom of speech.

I agree with you 100%. The tactics the site owners have chosen to employ are nothing short of censorship, and judging by the amount of anti-Palin stuff that keeps getting through, it seems fairly one sided. Site owners, cut this kind of crap out if you wish to retain a diverse group of individuals. How can one deny ignorance when one is ignoring and censoring the opinions of others?

I am so puzzled by the references to "post x and die" or "like living in communist North Korea". Last I heard, the owners and moderators of AboveTopSecret.com have never killed anyone over a post, or even sent them to prison. Take it easy, folks. This is not about your life -- this is about whether you can post inflammatory rhetoric on one particular Internet forum.

I checked out two of the closed Keith Olberman threads today, and both of them descended almost immediately into partisan bickering and ad hominem attacks on Olberman (or Olberman's conservative equivalents) rather than addressing any substantive issue. I'm not a mod and I don't know what was going on in the mind of the mods who closed them, but I'd have to say it was a good call.

Obviously the PTB here felt that they had to make a very clear line in the sand and take the risk of limiting some topics in the regular forums so that the garbage wouldn't drown us all. How about taking the Bully Pulpit pledge and discussing why these vicious rumors appear and how they are spread and what might be done about it?

reply to post by americandingbat

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The Olbermann thread I posted was on the 911 Conspiracies board had nothing to do with the election or candidates. So why was it locked??
Just askin??? No insults or candidates mentioned.

What was mentioned in the thread is the fact that on the 7 year anniversary of 9/11 Keith Olbermanns special comment was the first time a mainstream media personality in the US has accused the Bush administration of "allowing the attacks to happen".

This is just my interpretation, but ...

The video is specifically about "the current administration and the Republican nominees for president and vice-president" and how they have used 9/11. In other words, about one of the candidates without being taken from their platform.

Within what, 5 replies? Olberman had been called a piece of excrement.

I agree with the video, myself (except for one word which I think was in very bad judgement). But today of all days, on the anniversary of 9/11 and with the new political rules, that thread was going nowhere nice, fast.

I think it likely that you will get a better response from a mod sometime, but keep in mind that it was one of many threads closed today and the mods are volunteers who have lives outside of ATS. I don't think the mod responsible for closing that is online right now (as someone pointed out, you can check the bottom of the board home page to see who's online), and it may be that the others don't want to speak for them.

Not being in any way official, I feel more free to give my opinion

I'm hoping it was just the bad judgement from only 1 mod to close the Olbermann thread. Probably just trigger happy after being briefed on the new policy changes. Otherwise ATS has joined forces with the dark side.

Remember all the threads here on ATS about the War On The Internet regarding all the American government/military/spy agencies wanting to restrict and control the internet, well thanks ATS for doing the work for them. Zoinks!

You say this and yet you continue to post here.

Nice logic pal!

reply to post by ZombieSlayer

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Well yes but the same attacks that appeared on the first thread started to appear on the second. I was ready to rant about how Olbermann had a point, that saying "you have a plan" to catch OBL, but will only reveal it if elected, is very questionable. Of course, I hadn't researched McCain's exact quotes, and the thread was closed before I could respond.

Oh well, if I had approached this particular issue before, I would applaud the decision as 'eliminating useless divisiveness'. Doing so, pre-emptive to my rant, only made me reevaluate what I'm spending my time concerning myself with, so that's not bad, either. Ahem.

I understand the whys and what for about this... but I hate being told to keep my opinion to myself.

Sad day for this forum when opinion no matter how they are brought forward are censured to a degree which reminds me of eastern communism newspapers.

Oh come on now, that's just over-blowing the situation. Posting "thread closed" on a topic, even though it may have been valuable to continue conversation, is very different than what 'eastern communism' censorship connotes. The prior discussion is still there for everyone to see. In fact, one of those threads in still linked as 'top-flagged' in the banner at page-top.

Let's keep things in perspective.

I wrote "reminds me of"....

Censorship on political debates on an open Internet forum stink to high heaven, if you take it, don't come crying when you are censured to hell and back when you just try and express your opinion.

BTW. I can not emphasize too much, or over-blowing the situation, as you put it.
Freedom of speech or expressing your opinion should in no way be tampered with.

Read that beautiful work called The Constitution, or have you trashed it by the deeds of a Mr. Bush?

reply to post by jam321

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Again, only one type of poster is against these rules change. Isn't it amazing they all hold the same position?

Anyways, if you support Obama, or Ron Paul, Bob Barr, Kucinich, you and we are happy with these new rules. But... apparently if you support someone else you hate these new rules. No more "Kucinich is an alien!" posts I guess.

Edit
Also, what if... the Keith video is posted, and the topic maker clearly states "No attacks on Keith, dispute or debate his comment"? ANd if they still attack Keith, delete their post, not lock the subject?

[edit on 12-9-2008 by Krieger]

Interesting reading, this thread makes.

Is it only me, or does anyone else seem to notice that the members objecting most strenuously to this new policy aren't split between the parties, as you would expect if both parties were offending equally, but are mostly voluble supporters of one side? A quick glance down this thread proves it.

Makes you think, doesn't it? Makes you think.

Maybe there is a moral issue here as well as a political one; by which I mean that, when you Americans cast your votes in November, you will be making a moral choice as well as a political one.

Will it be a vote for good, or a vote for evil?

Edit to add: I see the person above me has noticed it too. Doubtless others have, too.

[edit on 12-9-2008 by Astyanax]

exactly, i had a thread closed and still don't know why. i was questioning why my local news at noon went from a obama lipstick story into a "africanized" bee story. it seemed suspicous. i stated the time and date and even the channel. i was just wondering if anyone else was seeing that kind of stuff. but uh.... no, thread closed... move along... nothing to see here... HA! i can back everything in my post up and it was closed. but some of the ufo crap on here that gets to stay up is just laughable. you see everything i do seems censored now. it started when i was on another site discussing my belief that the election this year would be suspended because of something to do with iran. now i was drunk and may have violated my non disclosure agreement a little. for which i am truly sorry! because now my posts get closed. my paperwork gets lost. there are accidents at the VA now during my ect treatments. "you may be a little sore you seized a little longer than we would have liked. we try to keep it under 10 seconds and you siezed for over two minutes" god i really hate that dick cheney!

[edit on 12-9-2008 by skrowcam]

HEHE


Whoops, I think I may have contirbuted to this new ruling. I created a thread called "Palin sex Tape" just to grab the attention of some. The idea behind it was to see who else thought she was a VPILF. And who may have had some hot pics of her or any other hot politians. Obviously it was just created to get some good ol'testosterone flowing conversation going. But unfortunatly it was shut down and all of a sudden this thread started.

Sorry guys, I thought it would be fun. Apparently my definition of fun differs that from the mods.

Clearly the common sensible thing to do would have been to place the boards that cover political topics under closer examination like the 9-11 conspiracy forum is . The issue has nothing to do with what side of the political track you lean towards rather it has to do with the breath taking hypercritical nature of the nature measures .

Remember that it is drummed in to us that speculative discussions are at the heart of conspiracy theory's on ATS . Now political rumours cannot be discussed .

You would have to be a right fool not to see the hypocrisy at work here . I don't want to make any rash decisions so I am still weighing up if I will bother to post regularly any more .

When some one who has defended ATS from those who don't grasp the "freedom of speech " issue , from the accusations of ATS being a CIA front e.t.c and excluding warns for over quoting and one liners hasn't had a T&C violation is in danger of being alienated that should tell the people upstairs that there is something seriously wrong .