“In Defense Of Free Speech” = Banned From Daylight Atheism!
Posted in Blogosphere, Daylight Atheism, Quickies, Thinking Critically on | 1 minute | 7 Comments →
Cost of a Typepad Pro account? $149.50 per year.
Cost of freedom of speech? Hundreds of thousands of American lives.
Cost of banning me in the thread from In Defense of Free Speech, and then closing comments so those who really value free speech couldn't criticize Ebonmuse like they did last time? Priceless!
I guess Ebon does need a coercive advantage on his side! The funny thing is, he thinks it's all about him and that my goal was to annoy him. I wasn't trying to "bait" Ebon, nor was I trying to get banned from his blog. I was actually generally interested in hearing him explain the apparent discrepancy between his stated position and his actions. If we say we're for free speech, well, let's really be for free speech.
I'm actually a bit bummed out about being fully banned from DA. I made some friends there, and often times people took my side in arguments. Just goes to show ya, atheists fare no better than the next group when it comes to hypocrisy, censorship and protecting their own sacred cows.
Lighten up, Ebon! It's just discourse.
Mike aka MonolithTMA
says...Wow, I don’t read there so I haven’t seen your commenting, but if I wasn’t familiar with you and was just reading that one post I might understand how Ebonmuse felt you were baiting him. Did he rewrite his “Policy” before or after this occurrence?
Scrolling through the comments on the policy I see quite a few calling you a troll, yet, I’ve never seen you act trollish. Persistent in defining the terms of the argument, yes, but I see that as a good thing. I know you and GCT had a feud of sorts going for a while, but trollish? Not that I’ve seen.
Steve Bowen
says...Well cl, I for one am sad to see you go, but with the following caveat (isn’t there always a caveat?).
I see Adam’s point in this because prior to your commenting restrictions you were dominating pretty much every open thread on D.A and a lot of your comments (IMHO) were semantic nit-picking which didn’t advance the arguments much (please understand that, without meaning to sound patronising, I believe you to be a very astute and competent theologian and that exegeses often runs foul of semantics so I can see why this style is tempting for you). All sorts of people frequent sites like Adam’s, some of them have shorter attention spans than others, but even I who flatter myself with a certain intelligence found your interventions at that time more distracting than edifying.
However since the restriction your comments have in general been shorter, pithier, more comprehensible and not disruptive of the general flow of discourse, except when you chose to complain about the restriction and indulge in Ad Hominem attackes on Adam. (I tried to gently nudge you out of the habit a little while ago you will recall).
I don’t believe that Adam is in any way scared of challenges to his world view or arguments against his position. I do believe he is passionate about the way his blog appears to its readers; it’s his sandbox and he likes to keep it tidy and in particular reasonably free from personal comments.
I am sure that you are in email contact with Adam, and none of this is news to you.
All that being said, to repeat I am sorry you won’t be seen on D.A, however I do lurk around here (see, I do think you’re worth reading..sometimes :) so maybe I’ll comment more here when I have something profound to impart.
Gideon
says...Fat Philly’s comment policy apparently has changed, cl, along with his girlfriend, SI’s. Going by their remarks on those threads you linked, you’d think they were the epitome of free speech! Wonder why it is I’m banned from BOTH their sites? Is it my sparkling personality that’s too much for them? My religious views?
Is it my deodorant?
What a difference a few months make. Anyway, no loss, in my view. Shovel the dirt over them and move on, cl. Some of those names I recognize (it really is a small world in Bloggerland, especially when you’ve been doing it for seven years) from years ago, former friends and ‘colleagues’, if you will. They turned out to be back-stabbing vitriolics when the chips were down. That’s why I work alone, and, I never comment anywhere I can’t leave at a moment’s notice.
Oh, and I guess I did miss that quote of yours, on the other thread. I thought it was the troll’s comment. Sorry about that!
Enjoy your banishment. You sure unearthed a lot of buried resentment and contention in the ranks!
I guess they could have had ME over there…
LOL!
Gideon
says...And, there is no fucking way I would pay $150.00 a year for a blog! What, $150.00 a year to listen to guys like Moron-ales?
Get real!
Tommykey
says...Here’s where the nitpicking comes in. The post that CL commented yesterday on that resulted in his banning from Daylight Atheism was nearly two years old and the last comment in that post before his was from January of 2008. In other words, CL had to go rummaging through Adam’s blog in order to find an old post that CL thought made Adam look like a hypocrite just so that CL could whine “Why are you censoring me?”
While I have no personal problem with you CL, you seem to have an obsession with making Adam feel that he is somehow obligated to pay attention to you. Like anyone’s else’s blog, he has every right to determine who can comment there and who cannot based on his own personal criteria. There is a big difference between the administrator of a personal blog banning someone from his blog because he finds that person to be annoying and a governmental body infringing on a citizen’s right to free expression in the public square.
As for my own blog, I have a rather open comment policy and I have only demanded that one person, some nutty fellow from Romania who goes by either Lucian or Lvka, to refrain from commenting. It doesn’t mean I think it should be illegal to use a computer and comment on blogs on the Internet. He’s just not welcome at my blog.
Here’s my advice CL, just forget about Daylight Atheism and go on with your life and stop making a public spectacle of it.
Ritchie
says...Oh. That’s all a bit rubbish, really.
I can’t pretend I didn’t notice that you were somewhat of a character over at DA, but at the same time I don’t really keep up with the flow of comments there either. I read posts and sometimes the comments, sometimes not. But I didn’t realise relations were quite so strained for you over there.
Anyway, just wanted to say I for one think it’s a bit pants that you’re gone. Whilst I respect Ebon’s right to ban whomever he likes, I like being able to discuss these matters with people who will disagree with me – people I can actually debate! If we all agree it’s just boring. And though I can’t really say I noticed you being outlandishly trollish (as I say, I don’t always read comments), I do think you were a rational and respectful person to debate with.
At the risk of just echoing Steve Bowen (he always seems to beat me to the punch at things) I’m sorry you won’t be around and maybe I’ll pop on here a little more often too.
Teleprompter
says...I haven’t really kept up with the commenting at Daylight Atheism, as I have only commented there sparingly in the first place, but I’m sad to hear that you won’t be contributing to any more discussions at DA. While I have to admit to you that I respect Ebon’s decision, I do regret that I won’t hear any of your commentary while I am there.
I agree with Steve Bowen in that I grew to appreciate your comments to a much greater degree after Ebon imposed restrictions on you. To be frank, it was painfully easy to write you off as a troll while you were dominating threads, no matter what points you actually made, just because of the sheer volume that your comments occupied, I made it a regular habit to ignore them. But once you were forced to pare down your thoughts, I actually appreciated some of the things which you said from time to time.