Et tu, Brute?

[Daveparts]

Et tu, Brute?
By David Glenn Cox


It cannot help but be noticed that DU has installed a new ratings system allowing readers the option to recommend or un-recommend a given piece. Whether intentional or not this is a system of self-censorship. Since recommends convert directly into readership controversial pieces will be relegated to the cellars of readership.

Anyone who speaks ill of Obama or Clinton no matter how justified or impassioned the reasoning will be liquidated by the imperial thought police. This form of censorship is not unlike C-span, which frames its questions to presupposed points of view. Are corporations good for the economy and the over all work force or are corporation a benign force on the economy? It eliminates true dialog and constricts the level of thought to which household chemicals are most dangerous and stories of my dog Rusty.

There are posters on DU, which I do not read, one in particular because I don’t read DU for political satire. I have no qualms with his work one way or another except for his damn catchy titles that sometimes lure me in before I read who the author is and now I have a means to disqualify his work. To deny it to those of you who might enjoy political satire. Not that I would do that because if I don’t like something I move on if I do like it I will recommend it.

Censorship is an ever-tightening noose, strangling opinion until there is only one. The one that pleases most by offending the least, by dividing into good thought and bad thought. Pro-party, anti-party, pro-Limbaugh, pro-Fox news, Pro-Bush administration. The strangulation of new ideas comes from those who believe that they already have all the answers making all others unnecessary. Or the false belief that we can work our way out of crisis by circling the wagons legislating from the center. Or as Mark Twain once remarked, "Whenever I find myself in the majority I immediately reconsider my position."

[Hugin]

1. "Man bites dog."

Welcome to the Brave New World.

[MineralMan]

2. Well, another country heard from...in yet another OP on

this topic.

[Bicoastal]

3. Has it ever occurred to you...

...that the "Either support Obama or leave this site" threads will ALSO no longer make the Greatest Page?

Besides, how it can it be censorship when non-troll, non-flamebait OP's never get deleted no matter HOW many positive or negative recs they get?

I don't think you've thought this out completely.

[Buzz Clik]

6. Indeed. I don't think this was thought through very carefully.

[HughMoran]

9. I agree

Seems like just another poorly thought out angry reaction without a lot of thought put into it.

[rucky]

4. Au Contraire, Mon Frere:

Posting the highest *net* recommendations on the greatest page has eliminated the problem you describe.

[Buzz Clik]

5. Censorship? No one is being voted off the island.

jeebus.

[Sinistrous]

7. "liquidated by the imperial thought police"

A tad hyperbolic, perhaps.

[Laelth]

8. The admins made it very clear that they knew what the function would do.

And it is working as designed.

I, like you, am opposed to the design, but it's doing exactly what the admins said they wanted.



-Laelth

[jakeXT]

10. So this has 6 recommends and it's on the greatest despite showing 4 in this forum ?

[bemildred]

11. Maybe, to be fair, we could add an un-greatest page.

Find out what pisses the most people off.

[bvar22]

12. Controversy BELONGS on the Greatest Page.

No great solution have ever come from the middle of the herd.

DU was forged in fire and debate.
Great ideas are spawned by those who think outside the box.....by definition, the minority.

The unrecommend button is wonderful for those who prefer nothing but vanilla,
and the DU Greatest Page mirrors that today....nothing but Vanilla.

I LIKE Jalapeno, and want Jalapeno back on the Greatest Page.

[dbonds]

13. Not being on the Greatest page is in NO way censorship.

It only means it is not the greatest. You have to look in the appropriate forums to read them, or see them as they are new on the Latest page.

[Daveparts]

14. A Final Word

I would like to thank those who un-recommend this post; you’ve made my point far more eloquently than I could. I questioned an idea and for that I was un-recommended. It was Will Rogers who said, “I am not a member of any organized political party, I am a Democrat.”

In 1948 a group of Southern Senators visited the White House to tell President Truman that if he would only soften his views on civil rights all would be forgiven in the up coming election, Truman refused and split the party. Truman chose to alienate a large block of voters rather than cave in on his core principles, should he have been un-recommended? It was an unpopular move.

When the Southern delegations walked out of the convention Hubert Humphrey ordered the band to play and waved good bye to them from the podium. Being a Democrat requires us to put up with ideas we don’t necessarily like. It means division, agitation and consternation but look at the alternative.

The Gay rights wing of the Republican Party was led by Larry Craig, the decriminalize recreational drugs wing was led by Rush Limbaugh. The family values wing? You get the picture.

Being a Democrat all most demands tolerance as a prerequisite, Civil rights, Gay rights, drug decriminalization and the anti-war movements were all unpopular at one time and pissed large numbers of Americans off. But as Democrats we listened and we learned, we allowed our rational mind to overcome our emotional side. We should expect that the world is not a perfect place and people with different ideas might belong to the same political party. There is only room in this country for one political party with monotheistic views. Where we all goosestep in unison and we all agree on everything 100%. The Republicans have cornered that market and as for me, I am not a member of any organized political party, I am a Democrat and I recommend that the un-recommendors be sent packing because I have tolerance for most anything but intolerance.

[bertman]

15. Off to the Greatest Page with thee. At least for a while, anyway.

Well-stated argument, Daveparts.

Recommend.

[LWolf]

16. Well said. nt