I don't think anyone here has ever expressed that free thought is bad. On the contrary I see more more people questioning if someones thoughts (or thoughts disguised as questions) are really their own rather something they've read/heard from someone that has an underlying agenda. And I personally think that's fair and nothing to be upset about with regards to how much stuff is being put out there for the sole reason of trying to influence, manipulate or worse; divide, people. A lot of it very successfully as well.  

At least that's my observation from a mostly outside looking in point of view. I may have missed something. 

Thanks, Max.

Thank you..

Questions bring up thought..n discussions..

The Ostrich thread..is or was about folks behaviour..

I have observed people who feruse to look at somthing..An issue..

That they just do not want to see..
The question is why is that?
It dose happen....

I have done that very thing..
Example cheating past spouse..
Other folks saw it plainly but i did not..

In the Ostrich thread..
It looks to me that there was a deliberate effort to get it shut down..
By ...again what looks to me.. as tryied n true methods used before..

It ..has been even pointed out..by other folks..
There have been a good number of thread topics tha get shut down..in that very manner..

If so..
For what reason..
What could the motive be.?

Vanquishing ..some..Evil Agenda...?

Jeese.
Do not let ..annahbody..think of a differnt point of view...that dose not agree with thiers..
Seems to be one of the drivers to me..

Old Navy Guy..posted a good artical.. that fit...
But was completly iggnored..

N..it was a good example..


Yet...

Maxmax..

Btw i do understand..your point on agendas..

More often than not...
It is not the case..

You did a good job explaining.. without being ..nasty..
Thankyou..

it is always fun to see some a$# to get his wallflower likes from other legends in their own mind--then mop the floor with them--the smaller words you use to make your choke hold--the better-

btw I have no idea what your current  friction is about fig --but I get to know who the oxygen thieves are --when i get down to this forum

Too many people look at the source of information, rather than reading the information, and make their judgement. Though the source may cause you to look with a more skeptical eye, the source alone should not completely discount the information. I'm not a fan of either Fox, nor CNN. Both tilt the news in a particular direction. But there are few other sources that do not also rely on these two. Somewhere in their information lies the balance. When I see the NRA being demonized it is always from someone who gets all their information on the NRA from a left leaning news source. They have no first hand knowledge of the NRA, just that if it's from the NRA it is automatically bad or evil. People who love one president will often hate the previous president, and vice versa. In my 50+ years of voting age I've found that no president is all bad, nor all good. But if I talk to diehard R's or D's, it's all or nothing. T did nothing right while O did nothing wrong, or the other way around. I try (don't always succeed) in reading the message, regardless of the person writing it. There are people on this forum with whom I disagree with nearly 99% of the time, but in that 1% I will find something thought provoking.

Seems to me there's a lot of "I'm-right-and-you're-an-idiot" floating around.  Whether or not it's more than in times past, and is simply being aided and brought to the forefront by social media (?) I dunno.  

Edit: My experience has been that asking administrators/managers "why" questions isn't appreciated.

Edit #2: From maxmax's ^^ post  [with some snipping/editing by me]: "I see ... people questioning if someones thoughts .....  And I personally think that's fair and nothing to be upset about ..... ."  Fwiw, I agree, but IF the person who is asked the question refuses to answer, or simply comes back with a cutsie put-down/retort or "I'm entitled to my opinion" [as if that's some sort of explanation...] .... then what we see is what we get, I suppose. 

Great post Dave. Just this morning I read an article (hit piece actually) in the Guardian about Tony Dungy, former NFL player, coach, and now commentator for NBC. If I did not follow Tony closely, and just read the piece, I would not have left thinking Tony was just as they portrayed him. Tony is one of the most decent broadcasters in the NFL. Their distortion and downright lies were pretty obvious to me because I know who he is, not who they portrayed him to be. His "crime" is following his convictions and not being "woke" enough for the Guardian ....... or the likes of Keith Olberman.

Well...at any rate..
Many good toppics are needlesdly..n..i'm saying ..
Systumaticly...
Shut down..


N..to..me...that is an agenda...

quote:

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Originally posted by STUD

Well...at any rate..
Many good toppics are needlesdly..n..i'm saying ..
Systumaticly...
Shut down..


N..to..me...that is an agenda...

---

Al ..... I think you are saying that they are shut down by individual posters who have an agenda ...... NOT by moderators who are just doing their job ..... and doing it well by my estimation!

quote:

---

Originally posted by BanjoLink

Great post Dave. Just this morning I read an article (hit piece actually) in the Guardian about Tony Dungy, former NFL player, coach, and now commentator for NBC. If I did not follow Tony closely, and just read the piece, I would not have left thinking Tony was just as they portrayed him. Tony is one of the most decent broadcasters in the NFL. Their distortion and downright lies were pretty obvious to me because I know who he is, not who they portrayed him to be. His "crime" is following his convictions and not being "woke" enough for the Guardian ....... or the likes of Keith Olberman.

---

A bunch of years ago there was a news story about RuPaul being a judge/questioner in a Miss America or some other beauty pagent.  I was never sure why, exactly, RuPaul was chosen for this position, but that is another discussion.  He asked one of the contestants her opinion of Gay Marriage.  This was when only a few states recognized gay marriage.  Her answer was something to the tune of people should be able to marry whomever they want, but her choice was a heterosexual marriage.  He was outraged by her opinion because it did not align with his.  News flash: Opinions cannot be wrong, they are opinions.  They can be misguided, uninformed, slanted, but not wrong.

quote:

---

Originally posted by BanjoLink

quote:

---

Originally posted by STUD

Well...at any rate..
Many good toppics are needlesdly..n..i'm saying ..
Systumaticly...
Shut down..


N..to..me...that is an agenda...

---

Al ..... I think you are saying that they are shut down by individual posters who have an agenda ...... NOT by moderators who are just doing their job ..... and doing it well by my estimation!

---

Individual posters who lead the thread down a path as to leave the mods no choice but to shut down the thread.  And yes, some mods seem to have an agenda.  You can tell by who shuts down which thread.  But we are not allowed to question, nor criticize them.  It was the primary reason I left for the last several months.  I'm back now to decide if I should renew my Player's Union membership or not, which comes due next month. 

Like everyone else I of course also have opinions on things I have no first-hand knowledge about. I didn't really intend to derail STUD's original question to a topic about sources, just wanted to mention that I see more of that here than people expressing that free thought is bad.

But an example of a very current debate over here - my country decided it would like to join NATO, but our freedom of speech is getting us into a pickle with another NATO country that can stop us from joining. Their issue is that they don't like what a tiny minority (basically one guy) here is up to and wants our government to shut him up. While most people here seem to agree that freedom of speech is important to us and that letting another country dictate our policies is not in our best interest, there's also the point of view that allowing everyone to openly say anything they want might not be in our best interest either.

It's a bit more complex than that, but still basically boils down to STUD's original question (at least how I understood it).

quote:

---

Originally posted by BanjoLink

quote:

---

Originally posted by STUD

Well...at any rate..
Many good toppics are needlesdly..n..i'm saying ..
Systumaticly...
Shut down..


N..to..me...that is an agenda...

---

Al ..... I think you are saying that they are shut down by individual posters who have an agenda ...... NOT by moderators who are just doing their job ..... and doing it well by my estimation!

---

Bingo...

quote:

---

Originally posted by maxmax

Like everyone else I of course also have opinions on things I have no first-hand knowledge about. I didn't really intend to derail STUD's original question to a topic about sources, just wanted to mention that I see more of that here than people expressing that free thought is bad.

But an example of a very current debate over here - my country decided it would like to join NATO, but our freedom of speech is getting us into a pickle with another NATO country that can stop us from joining. Their issue is that they don't like what a tiny minority (basically one guy) here is up to and wants our government to shut him up. While most people here seem to agree that freedom of speech is important to us and that letting another country dictate our policies is not in our best interest, there's also the point of view that allowing everyone to openly say anything they want might not be in our best interest either.

It's a bit more complex than that, but still basically boils down to STUD's original question (at least how I understood it).

 

---

Maxmax..

It's all good..

:0)

quote:

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Originally posted by DC5

quote:

---

Originally posted by BanjoLink

quote:

---

Originally posted by STUD

Well...at any rate..
Many good toppics are needlesdly..n..i'm saying ..
Systumaticly...
Shut down..


N..to..me...that is an agenda...

---

Al ..... I think you are saying that they are shut down by individual posters who have an agenda ...... NOT by moderators who are just doing their job ..... and doing it well by my estimation!

---

Individual posters who lead the thread down a path as to leave the mods no choice but to shut down the thread.  And yes, some mods seem to have an agenda.  You can tell by who shuts down which thread.  But we are not allowed to question, nor criticize them.  It was the primary reason I left for the last several months.  I'm back now to decide if I should renew my Player's Union membership or not, which comes due next month. 

---

Dave ..... don't get me wrong.  I may not agree with every decision that the moderators make, but I don't m ns personally, nor do I believe their decisions are based on on an agenda.  That does not mean that they do not have opinions just like you and I ..... and I may be able to guess what they are.

What I found hilarious in that unfortunately locked thread was that my only participation in the entire thread was to "like" Al's original post----AND YET!----I somehow become, not a person, but a subject to be discussed. Graham and Anthony have the amazing ability to discern so much from a "like' that I don't even have to post! They will tell you what I REALLY had in mind, and then refute it as nonsense, all without my having to type one word!

quote:

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Originally posted by banjo bill-e

What I found hilarious in that unfortunately locked thread was that my only participation in the entire thread was to "like" Al's original post----AND YET!----I somehow become, not a person, but a subject to be discussed. Graham and Anthony have the amazing ability to discern so much from a "like' that I don't even have to post! They will tell you what I REALLY had in mind, and then refute it as nonsense, all without my having to type one word!

---

LOL ......  Bill, I started to hit "like" on your post, but I decided to to leave the mind reading to my gypsy friends down in North Augusta.

quote:

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Originally posted by banjo bill-e

What I found hilarious in that unfortunately locked thread was that my only participation in the entire thread was to "like" Al's original post----AND YET!----I somehow become, not a person, but a subject to be discussed. Graham and Anthony have the amazing ability to discern so much from a "like' that I don't even have to post! They will tell you what I REALLY had in mind, and then refute it as nonsense, all without my having to type one word!

---

Whoa... did you mean Andrew?  I never made any inferences in regards to anyone's likes.  I was however one of the subjects of them.

Okay then,,, from now on I’m not “liking” anybody !  

quote:

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Originally posted by BanjoLink

quote:

---

Originally posted by banjo bill-e

What I found hilarious in that unfortunately locked thread was that my only participation in the entire thread was to "like" Al's original post----AND YET!----I somehow become, not a person, but a subject to be discussed. Graham and Anthony have the amazing ability to discern so much from a "like' that I don't even have to post! They will tell you what I REALLY had in mind, and then refute it as nonsense, all without my having to type one word!

---

LOL ......  Bill, I started to hit "like" on your post, but I decided to to leave the mind reading to my gypsy friends down in North Augusta.

---

Heh...

I liked it..

Cose...welll...

You...know....

:0)

Freedom of Thought vs Freedom of Speech
Anything, anywhere,anytime vs Caveats Caveats Caveats

quote:

---

Originally posted by banjo bill-e

What I found hilarious in that unfortunately locked thread was that my only participation in the entire thread was to "like" Al's original post----AND YET!----I somehow become, not a person, but a subject to be discussed. Graham and Anthony have the amazing ability to discern so much from a "like' that I don't even have to post! They will tell you what I REALLY had in mind, and then refute it as nonsense, all without my having to type one word!

---

True....

----"Whoa... did you mean Andrew? --"

Yes, sorry about that Anthony.

What I "liked" in that original thread post was Al. Yeah, I like Al, Figmo, STUD, I think he's a good guy and would choose him for a neighbor over any of his detractors in a heartbeat. In fact, most of them would cause me to move! So when I saw Al's post I hit the "like" button because I had a good idea of who all would post and the nature of that, and sure enough!