Some of you may recall that after the big exodus from Daily Kos following the Ides fo March decree, a subreddit called Kossacks_For_Sanders was created by a number of former prominent Bernie supporters. Over time, as other Sanders' subreddits have imploded due to subversion or infiltration by Clinton operatives, many people saw K4S as their refuge. There, topics were generally not censored (I say generally because in fact, some were). I suspect many c99ers are familiar with K4S as I have seen many of you both here and over there.

Well, the policy of openness regarding what topics were acceptable for discussion took a biog hit yesterday when the moderators of K4S posted the following:

Kossacks For Sanders began as a community dedicated to the support of Bernie Sanders and the principles of democratic socialism that he has been promoting for many years. Initially it focused on supporting his campaign for the Democratic nomination for POTUS. That campaign has come to an end, and Bernie is no longer running for President. However, he is still actively campaigning to build a long term movement that will support the principles of democratic socialism and the other related policy positions. We will continue to actively support Bernie in his efforts. He has launched a national initiative under the banner of Our Revolution. His campaign staff is being brought back to operational status and it appears they are using some of the same strategies that were used successfully in the presidential campaign. OR is not about the presidential election. It will not be used to support the Hillary Clinton campaign. It will be focused entirely on down ballot progressive candidates in the 2016 election and will also be looking to support such candidates beyond that election. This is an initiative that KFS intends to get behind.

Bernie Sanders was the only person who we saw as a positive and constructive choice for POTUS. We do not support the campaigns of any of the remaining active candidates. This sub will deemphasize the focus on the presidential election. There will be a daily mega-thread devoted to the presidential election. Material relating to the candidacies of:

Hillary Clinton Gary Johnson Jill Stein Donald Trump

must be placed in that mega-thread. Material about those candidates not placed there will be removed.

Our initiative here remains entirely separate from and independent of /r/Political_Revolution. We support Bernie and his Our Revolution as do they, but we will do it in our own way and on our own terms. We welcome your input from you about ways in which we can be effective in our efforts to support Bernie's vision. This policy statement is a joint effort by the members of the mod team who have reached a consensus on it. It will become effective after we have the opportunity to review the comments.

If you see yourself as someone who basically does not support Bernie Sanders, then this is probably not a place where you will feel at home.

Frankly, I was disappointed, but moreso, I was extremely upset. This is not how to build a revolutionary movement, dictating what can and cannot be discussed, and placing certain topics in their own little ghetto to marginalize them. Here was my response in the thread to that post last night:

So it's about Bernie's revolution now, not a political revolution? It's about him and his ideas on how to do things rather than a collective effort by everyone to the left side of the oligarchy that controls the D and the R brands to come together and create a movement that will change the duopoly? You're making a big mistake folks. You are cutting your little slice of the internet off from a larger movement. You are advancing the interests of TPTB when you say that there is only one path to the political revolution. Even Buddha never said that his way was the only path to enlightenment. I'd rethink what you're doing unless you have some specific reason I don't understand for what you are doing. IMO, it's wrong from a movement building standpoint, it's wrong from a communications and collective action standpoint and it's wrong from a people standpoint. Shutting down or curtailing speech is not a good thing. You had a good thing going, a site that could be a place where people with many different viewpoints, strategies, tactics and opinions could all come together and speak to one another, encourage one another, help one another and work with one another. I have no idea why you would want to do change this. No good idea in any event. Bernie never said it the revolution was about him, it is about us - all of us making the changes and taking the actions necessary to effect change. How does what you are doing with this decision to limit what can and cannot be the focus of this subreddit advance that goal?

Perhaps I was wrong about that. Maybe K4S was never as open and welcoming as I imagined, unlike this place. In any event, a subreddit that had grown to well over 4000 members may soon see significant departures. Feel free to express your own opinion about what the K4S mods have brought down upon their heads and feel free to speculate as to their motives.

Ps. I can recommend another subreddit, created by former mods at K4S who left after they saw what they considered censorship and "sheepdogging" known as WayOfThe Bern, which seems to be much more open to any and all matters one wishes to discuss, promote, educate or simply raise hell about.