First foray into Freepdom in quite a while... I went looking for threads

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

on the torture pics, just HAD to see what some were saying.

Even though these type of sites are "safe" zones, the FRs definitely work much harder to have a fingers in ears, "lalalala", "I CAN'T HEAR THE BAD NEWS" bubble of unpierceable ignorance.

I actually read through a 150 plus post thread on this where a number of people had not seen the pics. A few asked repeatedly for links to the pics but no one posted any in reply. Of course the pictures themselves did not appear in any post, although one guy's post did have one pic, the "hooded" guy with the electrical wires.

There were a range of opinions.

Some were morally outraged and thought the perps deserved the harshest possible punishment (like most of us here).

There were many deniers (kind of like Holocaust deniers), trying to believe this was all faked somehow.

There were many rationalizers, i.e. not denying the truth of this, but, "yeah well look what they did burning those guys up in Fallujah", "we were taking it easy with them compared to Saddam" etc., justifying it by comparing it to some other, presumably more heinous, activity.

There was at least one guy (churchillfan) who was openly against the war and said he was against it from even during the propaganda runup, Iraq nothing to do with 9/11 or WMD. Guy says he's been on FR 6 years so I guess he has "street cred" with that site to not get banned for such heresy. Though why he bothers with them I don't get.

There were a lot of "blame the messengers", i.e. yeah well these guys were wrong but the media are sabotaging our whole war effort, CBS are traitors etc. Thankfully at least 2 guys basically said that blaming the media and not these soldier/perps was a wrong, dead end approach.

There was one guy (neutrino) who is out of the totally amoral position, essentially we should be as ruthless and brutal as Caligula because we have the power and we should make them fear us. I.E. no moral compunction about any behavior, just don't be stupid or get caught. A couple who agree with this.

I'd say that most fall under the "blame the messenger" or "rationalizers" camp. An interesting foray, and more debate and less censored posts than I'd expected (maybe the threads are too fresh). But the ones who wanted to see the pics were eventually convinced by some of the others that they DIDN'T really want to see. Too nasty. Interesting but I probably won't be going back there soon.

[calimary]

1. Brave of ya. Interesting to see the responses.

You've got more fortitude than I do.

[Harrumph]

2. You were very brave!

Have you taken a shower since visiting that place?

[usrbs]

3. Thanks for the report.- now I won't have to go in.

I was curious myself about their reaction. It's about what I would have expected. Contrary to their portrayal here, I've found Freeperville to be populated by a spectrum of opinion, with the leftmost fringe being quite reasonable, sometimes even approaching the views of our most moderate members. It isn't like going to a rabid hate site, except for their extremists. And you have to remember - the freepers are in at least one regard similar to DUers, and different from the American mainstream - we're all interested, informed, and passionate about our politics. We just come to different conclusions.


Just to make things absolutely clear - I'm in no way a freeper. I rarely even go there, which is why I'm glad you saved me a trip.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

4. By the way, virtually all, except a few of the most stupid,

recognize that this is a total propaganda disaster for the U.S.

I often wonder if some of the biggest boneheads like "neutrino" are 14 year old junior high kids.

[fishnfla]

5. I had a different take

1. some were claiming that this was not torture, but something like a prank. they argued there was no pain involved(?). They were making jokes about the "Pyramid of assholes" and John Kerry should be on top. One guy said he would do the same thing if he was there. (how they put up with this, i 've no idea)

2. some said that this was the result of "Clintons army' and allowing women and homosexuals in the army( ah yes, blame clinton...)

3. there was alot blaming the messenger,CBS as you said

4. I did not see any acknowledge shrub's harsh words about the photos today


this was 2 hours ago, so things may have changed

[brokensymmetry]

6. Kick n/t

:kick: