[Vision2020] Liberal Moscow (and Dear Ted)

[Joan Opyr]

On Jun 12, 2006, at 11:21 PM, Ted Moffett wrote:

> All:
>  
> Look in the mirror, chasuk at gmail.com!
>  
> So chasuk at gmail.com thinks he has not engaged in conduct similar to 
> trolls and flamers on Vision2020?  I disagree.  Everyone read the post 
> from Chasuk at gmail.com forwarded below.
>  
> While some Vision2020 participants represent viewpoints I disagree 
> with vehemently, and I feel like attacking them with no restraint, the 
> following post by chasuk at gmail.com should not, in my opinion, have 
> been sent to this public list, regardless of how much he found his 
> opponent offensive and/or morally corrupt.  Send this sort of crap 
> privately, please!  Your post below does not contain one significant 
> element of reasoning or fact, but solely aims to use derogatory 
> language and images to vilify an opponent.  While I agree with chasuk 
> at gmail.com that the person this post was aimed at has posted hate 
> speech to this list (at least I think chasuk at gmail.com would agree 
> with me on this point), this does not excuse returning hate for hate 
> with no significant ideas or reasoning.

I have to admit, Ted, that your continued posts attacking Chasuk puzzle 
me.  (And, yes, I use the word "attack" advisedly.)  Why focus on him?  
You have wide selection of genuine trolls to reprimand, and yet you 
choose to berate a man who will freely admit that he has quite often 
lost his temper around here.  At this point, who hasn't?  Why ask 
Chasuk to look in the mirror?  Why continue to provoke?  We have one 
and all lost our equilibrium on Vision 2020.   A few bad apples have 
managed to rot the barrel.  We've seen that it takes only a few posters 
committed to endless, juvenile provocation to turn a valuable forum 
into a wretched pissoir.  You are not a troll, Ted, and Chasuk is not a 
troll.  I therefore ask that you please stop beating him over the head 
with his intemperate posts gone-by.  I see no point in it.  Worse, I 
see one decent man spoiling for an online fight with another.

I know Chasuk somewhat better than I know you, Ted, but you both have 
my respect.  Chasuk I know to be a decent, kind, and personable man.  
And you?  You have terrific taste in music and make the most elegant of 
arguments: logical, coherent, and thought-provoking.  Why did Chasuk 
and I band together to create the Liberal Moscow blog?  Precisely 
because we have grown tired of having the worst elements around here 
bring out the worst in us.  Neither of us wants to be unpleasant, and 
yet that's just what we have been.  Vision 2020 has turned into a 
bullies' playground, and we are faced with the choice of continuing to 
hang around here and bloody noses or find somewhere else to carry on a 
reasonable conversation.  Will Liberal Moscow be as freewheeling as 
what goes on over here?  No.  And I never said it would.  But many 
self-identified Republicans and conservatives (and Republican 
conservatives) have already joined Liberal Moscow, so the charge that 
we've created a one-sided echo chamber is patently false.  That's not 
our intention, that's not our goal, and that's not what we have done.

Do I want to walk away from Tony Simpson and Doug Farris?  Yes.  I want 
to walk away from the constant temptation to shoot fish in a barrel.  
It's harmful to this list and of no particular good to me.  I have 
counseled many Vision 2020 detractors over the years to use their 
delete key and their Bozo filter, but I now find that I have over 
thirty names on block, and I'm adding new Bozos every day.  If I were 
invited to a party with thirty guests I liked, and thirty I couldn't 
stand, I'd make my excuses and go to the movies instead.  I've gone to 
the movies, Ted, and I've invited the fun folk to come along with me.  
We'll carry on over on Liberal Moscow -- and some of us will carry on 
here -- and we'll hope that the trolls get tired and find another 
sandbox.  (Too many cats using this one.  Someone's going to get 
impetigo.)

Of course, the disadvantage of Liberal Moscow is that it is decidedly 
not "anything goes."  The advantage is that you won't find yourself 
flung off the Tilt-O-Whirl, feet first into a pile of crap.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.joanopyr.com

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