Since I am a social progressive, I supported democratic candidates most of my life. That all changed after joining democraticunderground (aka, DU) - a political web forum. Before joining DU, I believed that democrats were more open minded than republicans, but I quickly learned they're NOT. Both use similar fascist tactics to silence free speech.
I never really had any contact with organized Democratic partisan groups until I joined a web forum called democraticunderground. I was excited at first about joining democraticunderground, because I initially thought it was a web community where social progressives could engage in lively informative debates. What I thought would be an inclusive forum for airing differing points of view turned out to be anything but. I soon learned that democraticunderground was an intoleratant breeding ground of hate, with biased moderators and meanspirited posters whose tactics were just as bad, (if not worse), than those used by the Republicans they claimed to so despise.
I joined democraticunderground to discuss the Iraq War, the problem of widespread voter fraud (and my disappointment with John Kerry for refusing to address it after the 2004 presidential election), lax immigration policy, the widespread outsoucing of US jobs to cheap overseas labor markets, bipartisan passage of unconstitutional legislation, such as the USA Patriot Act, and to express my misgivings over the "official" version of 9-11. At the time, I was under the false impression that the democratic party (unlike the republicans) were open minded and receptive to many points of view. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
I initially had reservations about joining democraticunderground after reading a number of threads savaging Bev Harris, and then learning that she had been banned from the forum. The justifications put forth for her banning seemed arbitrary and unfair, and it was troubling that board administrators had taken this action at such a critical juncture in Bev’s investigations of rampant high tech voter fraud on a national scale. Since I was living in Seminole County, Florida in 2000 where the presidential election was stolen, voter fraud was high on my agenda of civic priorities. I learned about Bev Harris and her work on the issue several years later, and had a great deal of respect for her for daring to take on such a daunting task. Soon after finding out about her involvement in uncovering voter fraud and the widespread rigging of elections, I called Bev up on her cell phone. She graciously spoke with me about my concerns for a little while despite being very busy and not knowing me from Adam. And for the record, she never solicited any donations from me, nor did I offer any. So when I found out that democraticunderground had banned her from its forum, I was wary of joining myself, but proceeded to do so anyway to voice my fears for the naiton.
What I found at democraticunderground, however, was an enmity that I’d never experienced from fellow Americans. Whenever I attempted to address sensitive issues such as the ethnic cleansing of African Americans from LA by latino gangs of foreign naitonals living in our country illegally, I was viciously flamed by partisan posters, who piled on with teams of trolls to disrupt my thread and shut it down. It wasn’t long before the mods would swoop in and lock my thread. I was shocked by the personal nature of the ad hominem attacks on me and by the level of intolerance democrats displayed towards those with differing points of views on national issues. Although I complained about the ad hominem attacks and biased moderation in an email to democraticundergournd’s administrator, Skinner, he didn’t acknowledge my concerns and basically didn’t give a damn. However I noticed he regularly solicited donations from board users.
Many of the posters on democraticunderground were too assinine to accept or acknowledge the fact that some progressives held differing and even conservative stances on some issues, like immigration and trade. These partisan trolls always attacked posters that found common ground with the minutemen, or who voiced concern for their fellow citizens living along the southern border, who were routinely being threatened by narco-terroritst drug runners. These pitbull partisan posters were too busy trying to convince themselves and others that terrorists only had middle eastern faces, and silenced those who disagreed with harsh censorship before showing them the door.
The rank and file at democraticunderground showed more allegiance towards foreign nationals living here illegally than they did towards the life, liberty and happiness of their own countrymen. They seemed to be living on the other side of the looking glass when it came to this issue, which will soon eliminate our national soveriengty and effectively gives birth to the North American Union. Anyone who demonstrates allegiance to the USA on democraticunderground by supporting these stances is accused of being a Tancredo supporter or a "repuke". I didn’t know who Tom Tancredo was before joining democraticunderground, but I do now and I respect his support for his fellow countrymen living along the dangerous US/Mexico border.
Hostile democratic partisan posters also attacked me for starting a thread celebrating marriage, while cheering on a gay poster who started a thread about the gay pride parade. Although as a progressive, I support equal rights and freedoms for gay men and women, I am straight and continue to respect traditional lifestyles. Nevertheless, the partisan pitbull posters of democraticunderground pounced on me savagely when I posted pictures of Nicole Kidman’s wedding to Keith Urban, while praising images posted of the gay pride parade by a homosexual member of the forum.
Another taboo subject on democraticunderground was Israel and its undue influence over US domestic and foreign policy. While many posters were given free reign to attack Christians values and its impact on our political process, moderators routinely locked any threads critical of Israel and the role neocons played in getting the US into the Iraq war. Threads that dared discuss the influence of the AIPAC lobby on American policies were also locked by mods. The anti Christian bias among the partisans pitbull posters of democraticunderground was as undeniable as the forum’s blind support for Israel.
While I was posting on democraticunderground, some posters started threads expressing frustration over constant attacks by teams of trolls, who sometimes claimed in other sub forums that they launced these attacks simply for "sport" or out of boredom. This led some posters to leave democraticunderground in disgust. In fact the troops that tortured prisoners in Abu Gharib got nothing on the vicious troll tag teams of democraticunderground, who would easily fit in and no doubt enjoy torturing enemy combatants at Gitmo all day long.
Right from the beginning, my threads were locked by moderators on democraticunderground because I had an opposing viewpoint. Banning of users by mods at democraticunderground seems as frequent as the common cold, and begs the question whether all the banned users of the forum have been purged from the rolls. Last time I checked, the number of user registrants of democraticunderground stood at 103,922 - but what percentage of those users have been banned, and what percentage are still active? Companies that advertise on democraticunderground should request that information before paying the requisite fees to do so.
Although democrats constantly condemn republicans for walking in lock step with their party, the partisan posters on democraticunderground routinely pressure other posters to unite behind the party leadership - despite the fact that party leaders continually sell out their base and the independents and moderate republicans that voted for them on issues like impeaching Bush/Cheney/Gonzales, ending the war in Iraq, brokering bad trade and immigration bills and engaging in other gratuitous acts of deception. This makes many of the posters on democraticunderground miserable hypocrits, emulating their leaders in Congress who have taken lying to a new low. Many of the mods and administrators at democraticunerground are rude, ill informed bullies, who use the same strong arm tactics to clamp down on free speech as diehard fascist George W. Bush.
The rules at democraticunderground are both selectively and arbitrarily enforced by moderators, and their is no subforum for threads so posters can dispute or discuss the locking of threads, the constant troll attacks and outright bannings. In short, democraticunderground is anything but - it is a bastion of censorship. Views and the way they are expressed by posters are so severely curtailed by moderators on democraticunderground that it feels more like a cyber concentration camp than a politcal forum. The administrators of democratic underground are guilty of false advertising, since fascist underground better describes the nature of their pathetically totalitarian forum. Democratic partisans posting at democraticunderground are constantly trying to force posters to behave like good partisans, berating them in thread after thread for criticizing other democrats and not getting fully behind the party line. Thus, democraticunderground is nothing more than an echo chamber for nitwits. Nitwits that are banned at the drop of a hat by fascist moderators with full support of the administrators.
The first time I was banned from democraticunderground (I’ve had 4 different screen names) it was after just joining. I was on a thread discussing John Kerry, who I’d stupidly voted for (and later regretted). I mentioned the fact that Kerry was a member of the ‘Skull and Bones’ Society at Yale and one of his supporters went postal. When I went to sign in again later that day, I got a message stating that my membership had been revoked. I emailed the administrator demanding to know why, but never received a respone. Since then, I have signed up under three other screen names and have been banned everytime, even though I am not politically militant and discuss largely mainstream issues.
The second time I signed up under a different screen name, I was banned for posting a thread about Nicole Kidman’s wedding to Keith Urban in the wrong forum. I had posted it in the "General Discussion Forum" and was mercilessly attacked and flamed by many posters for doing so. They claimed it belonged in the "du lounge" and lambasted me as though I had just waterboarded Nancy Pelosi. The posters and moderators said that the "General Discussion Forum" was for POLITICS ONLY!!! But that didn’t seem to make sense since democraticunderground already had another "General Discussion: Politics Forum". In my book "General Discussion" speaks for itself, but obviously not in theirs. All I got for sharing beautiful bridal images of Nicole and her handsome groom was attacked, maligned and banned. However a gay member that posted a thread with images of the gay pride parade in the same "General Discussion Forum" and was practically sainted for doing so - despite the fact that both our threads celebrated an institutional event. No one was attacking him or telling him it was in the wrong forum. And I was doing bascially the same thing as him - posting images that celebrated a certain lifestyle. But since my pictures celebrated a traditional lifestyle, I was discriminated against by democraticunderground and banned from the forum for the second time, even after making a donation to the board.
The censorship measures employed by the administrators and moderators of democraticunderground to silence posters are similar to the fascist tactics used by George W. Bush. The board is rife with mean spirited jerks running roughshod over concerned citizens posting in good faith out of concern for the state of the nation. Skinner and his cronies should be ashamed of themselves, but of course they’re not. If you demonstrate an iota of independent thought on democraticunderground they show you the door, just like republicans do at staged events for George W. Bush.
My skewering by the partisan pitbull posters of democraticunderground, with the blessings and particpation of their administrators and mods, was like a trial by fire. It taught me the vicious truth about the censorship methods used by the lackeys of democratic leaders to silence debate and censor free speech within their base. It shattered my fantasy of openness within the democratic party and converted me from a democrat to an independent populist. My fiance and I used to donate regularly to the democratic party, but we will not do so anymore unless the party gets real and begins to aggressively advocate the stances I believe in on pressing national issues.
Thanks to Skinner and his cronies at democraticunderground, future democratic candidates will have to prove their sincerity to me (beyond a shadow of a doubt) to earn my vote. They will have to show independence from lobbyists, both foreign and domestic, and shun corporate fascism entirely. They will have to declare their opposition to the North American Union and come out against it publically in open defiance of the DLC. They will have to swear to repeal the USA Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act and all the free trade agreements that have devastated the manufacting sector. And they must pledge to abolish the Federal Reserve and have Congress start issuing interest free currency to the citizens of this nation, as JFK planned to do. And last but not least, they will have to swear to KEEP their oath to defend our Consistutional Republic, defend our borders, Constitution and Bill of Rights and uphold and protect the life, liberty and property of the people of this nation or I'm NOT voting for them.
mayflower