RedState.com is no longer allowing Ron Paul supporters -- or those new to the web site, in any event -- to "pimp" their candidate. Some conservatives have disagreed with the decision on principled grounds ("There are worse impulses than libertarianism." Like censorship?*).
I have to wonder if it's a bad idea on practical grounds. The Paulines have shown themselves to be rather adept at playing the internet game, which means there's probably a few in that crowd with some hacking skills. You'd have to wonder if by effectively banning discussion of Ron Paul on the web site that RedState.com is basically asking to be hacked.
* Yes, I know it's not quite that easy, but the situation and the comment beg for that kind of response.
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3 comments:
The Paulies don't have freedom of speech in someone else's forum. They may have the right to speak, but they do not have the right to be heard.
I've banned 9/11 Troofer Moonbats at my place. Again, they don't have the right to be heard.
I don't have any problem with RedState banning them. I had a discussion about Ron Paul recently and told the commenters they were on a short leash, because they tend to be very much like the Troofer Moonbats.
I splashed six Zero-IQs for crossing the line into anti-American conspiracy rants.
Like I said, it's not that easy. RedState is a private forum, they can make their own rules. Paul's folks do have a tendency to dabble in the fringe elements of society (and I'm just trying to be polite here), etc.
We could discuss the morality of this decision until the end of time, but frankly I'm not terribly interested in that aspect of it. I'm more interested in seeing what happens to such a name-brand opinionating hub that decides to exclude a certain portion of the population from the discussion. If that leads to some kind of hacking retribution by Paul supporters (as opposed to his official campaign), that makes things interesting.
I truthfully could care less if the decision was the right one or not. Again, RedState's a private enterprise. I'm much more interested in the consequences.
Daniel Larison has some smart things to say on the whole issue.
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