In the past week, two threads, one begun by me and another begun by Don Cardi were closed at the "request[s] of the originator."
My Thread which was intended to provoke replies decried Rush Limbaugh's attack on Michael J. Fox as well as what I considered a racist ad run in Tennessee against Senate Candidate Harold Ford.
DC's thread had to do with John Kerry's comments connecting a lack of education and getting stuck in Iraq. DC ran the AP story, and then added his own provocative commentary which included something about Kerry being a disgrace.
These are topics of great public interest, and they invite debate and disagreement. The pro Limbaugh people claimed he was taken out of context, the pro Corker people said the ad was not racist and disavowed it, and Kerry claimed he "botched a joke."
Frankly none of those explanations passed the smell test for me, but still there is a lot of room to go back and forth on these issues without the kinds of outrageous nonsense that some people insist on inserting into these debates. The Gangster BB is one of the more civil places to go on the internet, and the real shame here is that for some the intent is always to be abusive and over the top.
I have, as have others from time to time, become heated in my commentary, but that is the extent of it. After being criticized for calling right wingers "wingholes" I stopped using the word even though I did not deem it a personal attack on any member.
It is regrettable that we cannot have spirited discussions and arguments on controversial topics. In my thread someone posted a photograph of a disfigured black man and blamed slavery and the civil war on "democrats." In DC's thread the personal attacks got totally out of control, and I do not blam him for asking that it be shut down.
It is even more regrettable to see this has spilled over to the Godfather film threads when newcomers get ridiculed because they are asking questions that some long term members have already dealt with. Personally, I always enjoy it when some newbie brings up some question about the Tahoe hit because inevitably Turnbull will provide some really good insight into who killed the hitters, why Michael went to see Roth, etc.
I do not know what the solution to this is because we need to balance free speech with common sense. Until we come up with something, people, just cool down, make your point, and by all means disagree. Just cut out the personal attacks and the irrelevant and mean spirited nonsense.
