Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Censorship (for Greywolfe359)

CENSOR-RED-2

Greywolfe359 was banned/censored by Markos himself for Greywolfe359's excellent, amusing, and most apropos diary: It's Over Gandalf. We Need to Unite Behind Saruman To Save Middle Earth From Sauron!... if you've not read it, you should.

You know, there are some words I've known since I was a schoolboy. "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie as wisdom and warning. The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged.
"The Drumhead" (29 April 1991) by Jeri Taylor
Star Trek: The Next Generation

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

...and more than 18,000 shares on facebook.

A most excellent Saturday morning to Greywolfe.

up
0 users have voted.
sensetolisten's picture

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

up
0 users have voted.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman
Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

all those thousands of people get to see the humorless commissariats of Daily Kos stomping on creative expression in the comments. Must not make fun of Dear Leader and the Candidate. It's like they're burning books in the town square.

up
0 users have voted.

" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

detroitmechworks's picture

Just because this scene reminds me so much of what's going on over there...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf-HZz5Qv8E]

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

sensetolisten's picture

Markos has sown what he will reap. He is now marked forever as a totalitarian censor – an enemy of Freedom of Speech, that which true Americans hold most dear. THE FIRST AMENDMENT.

So much for his site being an ally of the Democratic Party or an ally of the people of the United States of America.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

up
0 users have voted.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman
kharma's picture

up
0 users have voted.

There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JkA-FWFzOA

This is worse than a purge. There will be no alternative information allowed, other than what is sanctioned by the Clinton Crowd...scary stuff at TOP

up
0 users have voted.

Democracy now, such an obvious outlet for rw talking points!
I thought using rwtps was bannable.
Turns out not fully and openly supporting Hillary brings out the hammer.

up
0 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Raggedy Ann's picture

{{{{{{{{{APPLAUSE}}}}}}}}}

up
0 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

sensetolisten's picture

HIP HIP HOORAY!!!

HIP HIP HOORAY!!!

HIP HIP HOORAY!!!

up
0 users have voted.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman
progdog's picture

This comment started out with so many expletives, but I'm too upset for even that.

Just wow.

up
0 users have voted.

prog - weirdo | dog - woof

sensetolisten's picture

my feelings of utter disgust, I would get rather profane.

up
0 users have voted.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman

I have been profoundly upset at what has been going on since the warnings about 3/15.... and yesterday's banning left me speechless and once again, if I truly expressed what I was thinking, it would be a trail of enraged invectives that would be flammable.

The only thing that makes sense to me is that 'The Blogmaster' is getting either $ or 'loyalty points' with the Clinton Machine.

And not to go CT on everyone, I cannot help ask myself that if DK is being purged as a way to 'secure' the media and election, what other dirty tricks are going on to either tilt the table in the Clinton's favor or actually take the winnings by sleight of hand. I do not have any evidence at all, except with Bill's interrupting the voting, now in several states.

But I keep on saying, if DK has gone so draconian in its 'party loyalty' stuff before the friggin nomination process is hardly decided, what else is going on? This just has to be the tip of the iceberg.

BTW, feel free to call me CT. These are just the questions I have been asking myself. That's all.

up
0 users have voted.

Sea Turtle

used so far: the discrepancies in the iowa caucus voting; sending surrogates, like jauquin castro, out & about in nevada to smear bernie before latino audiences; the delores huerta "english only" affair at the nevada caucus; harry reid instructing the union bosses in vegas to tell the rank & file to vote for hillary--after declaring his neutrality; john lewis claiming that bernie's cr creds were bogus...& then issuing a quiet walkback days later that got little to no mention in the media; bill c calling in his chits with the black churches/pastors in sc; cook county, ill & rahm emanuel...

joseph stalin provides an insight into what's really going on--he said, it's not important how many people voted, or the votes a particularr candidate got--what matters most is who's doing the counting.

up
0 users have voted.
mawnjilla's picture

WTF. I'm officially never signing back in there. You can't pass yourself off as remotely progressive, or even democratic if you're banning Amy Goodman. What a fucking crock of shit that site is. We all should really never, EVER click there again. The more we rub shoulders with that crowd, the more legitimacy we give to the right wing, which is what they are, full stop.

up
0 users have voted.

bern baby bern disco inberno

gulfgal98's picture

They are culling the herd. I looked at his last couple of comments, and there was nothing that should have been subject to being banned. I wonder who will be next. Me?

My post at the help desk asking why greywolf was banned.

I am just wondering why this diarist was banned. This diary hit the top of the rec list with over 460 recommendations and was shared with nearly 13 K Facebook users. It was a great example of satire and yet the diarist was banned without notice.

IMO, it is sad when people must have to self censor. Every person here now is walking on eggshells unless they are a full throated supporter of Hillary Clinton. It is sad that anyone should feel that way. It is the worst type of censorship. I would hope that dkos is a better place than that.

My real point in that post was about self censorship which is the worst kind. Markos is, in effect, playing the kind of game that despots use and creating an atmosphere wherein people are now being forced to censor themselves for thoughts that would be normally acceptable. This is a very dangerous game and the authoritarians there are loving it because they get to enforce it with impunity. But it is a very very dangerous precedent over there.

up
0 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

sensetolisten's picture

My real point in that post was about self censorship which is the worst kind. Markos is, in effect, playing the kind of game that despots use and creating an atmosphere wherein people are now being forced to censor themselves for thoughts that would be normally acceptable. This is a very dangerous game and the authoritarians there are loving it because they get to enforce it with impunity. But it is a very very dangerous precedent over there.

up
0 users have voted.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman

Self-censorship generates paranoia and shuts down thinking.

up
0 users have voted.
Hillbilly Dem's picture

GG, I would be curious to know the response, if any, to your inquiry as to the reason for banning greywolf. Thanks, in advance. HD

up
0 users have voted.

"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

gulfgal98's picture

One person defended kos and said that graywolfe deserved to be banned and one other pointed out kos's comment on the diary as proof that my question had been answered. Then there were two sock puppets posting nasty stuff about Hillary on that thread. LOL It is still an open thread because I refuse to close it.

up
0 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Hillbilly Dem's picture

up
0 users have voted.

"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

sensetolisten's picture

been abusively wrongfully HR'd and banned for months. I even emailed elfling, posted almost a dozen comments, posted a diary, and opened a HelpDesk ticket too. The comment responses were pure BS and from the Helpdesk ticket and email to elfling I got silence!!

Here's kos' justification for banning greywolf:

kos Laurence Lewis Mar 18 · 09:35:11 AM

It’ll stop, at least from this writer.

Reply Recommended 33 times Flag


kos kos Mar 18 · 09:43:40 AM
Aside from being a lame attempt at circumventing the new rules, it was also a lame analogy. Saruman was in league with Sauron. I don’t think even the most deluded Bernie supporter wants to argue that Clinton is in league with Donald Trump.

The proper analogy from the Sanders perspective would be she is Gondor, on the front line against the enemy, but corrupted.

Thing is, I think the analogy to Saruman was most fitting. Kos wants to promote the idea that Hillary is "on the front line against the enemy, but corrupted," but that just is not the case. Hillary is not on the front line. She is on the enemy's side cutting down trees and pissing off the Ents.

up
0 users have voted.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman

pointing out people to ban.

The purge is on.

up
0 users have voted.

because he said she was corrupt.

He has given up persuading. Had he let things play out naturally, he would have ended up with a far better outcome.

It's all a sideshow.

Bernie matters. The Blogowner increasingly lacks relevance.

up
0 users have voted.

up
0 users have voted.
sensetolisten's picture

up
0 users have voted.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman
orlbucfan's picture

Markos was a registered Republican before he changed to a Democrat. None of this stuff he's pulling now should surprise anyone. The Turd Way/DLCorporate crowd are, at the very least, Repukelican Lite. That's why I intensely dislike them.

up
0 users have voted.

Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

a banner or a thread with a gif that had the "proudly banned" emblem but personalized with the name of the bannee being carried out of a battlefield on a stretcher. Maybe the medics carrying the the stretcher could be wearing vests with a red cross and the number 99 on them.

up
0 users have voted.

" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

up
0 users have voted.
sensetolisten's picture

up
0 users have voted.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman

Could Kos be giving a better example of censorship, and why so many will nevah ( togethah we will nevah vote for Clintons, evah again!) support DKos.
They must've gotten a lota new members, and Kos himself must have laughed all the way to the proverbial bank to be so dickish. Seriously, he's laughable. The fp'ers are allowed to spend so much time mocking Trump, cuz Kos is jealous of the attention Trump's getting! Trump is acting like a clown, he knows it, and has the media tamed, doing just what he wants in control - and laughing at the people mocking him - everyone knows ya can't make fun of a clown! A clown with an MBA from Wharton, a moderate, who manipulated everyone, banks included, to get what he wanted. Just like the Clintons, but Trump seriously has more class! He was born to money, his older sister is a well known Judge, advocate for women's rights. Clintons, remember Clinton's Hope AK, and his mother, Hillary's brothers, sad crews all.

Kos thinks he's "moved up" in the Clinton's world - HAH! Ask Lani Guinier about Clinton loyalty. Kos is nothing, no where, lost what ever DKos had. Gone.

"THIS WILL NOT STAND" - Kos must be trying out for some new role?

Greywolfe, where ever you are, I thought it was marvelous satire. Hope you're here now too.
Cyber hugs, and thanks, you're needed in so many places, don't let DKos hurt you.

up
0 users have voted.
jiordan's picture

but I'm quite certain he got paid. This is so overt that the payoff had to be greater than the predicted loss back three years ago when he started cheerleading for Clinton. Then again, maybe the deal was for sock puppets so no loss of traffic would show in the metrics. No idea and as of the 15th, I no longer care.

I know folks are having a hard time letting go of TOS because it was a home for a lot of us for a long time. But the truth has been staring at us for years now, and this latest purge shouldn't really be a surprise. TOS is an establishment site just like HuffPo or Politico. The less we engage there, share our thoughts there or even visit there, the better off we are and the quicker we move forward to talk about real issues and focus our energy here, to build a community that works for us where we don't have to worry about banhammers, censorship and acceptable memes.

up
0 users have voted.

one way or another... He proclaims he is a libertarian but acts like an authoritarian, all the time. And no one has brought up just how verbally abusive Kos has been over the years. He thinks that because he owns the blog he can crap all over people with 'fuck this, and fuck that' and then, I think a real showing of his colors came, when he brought Armando back. Armando who went out into the DK diaries like a hired gun and has never had a time out that he could not fully recover from.

Ok, that is enough for now. There is no doubt that Kos is getting some sort of remuneration for this.

up
0 users have voted.

Sea Turtle

sensetolisten's picture

Greywolfe, where ever you are, I thought it was marvelous satire. Hope you're here now too.

Cyber hugs, and thanks, you're needed in so many places, don't let DKos hurt you.

up
0 users have voted.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman
Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

Now it's a humorless, censored, party-line only re-education camp.

up
0 users have voted.

" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

sensetolisten's picture

It's the Cultural Revolution of Daily Kos

Now it's a humorless, censored, party-line only re-education camp.

up
0 users have voted.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman
PastorAgnostic's picture

Come to think of it, there are similarities between them.

up
0 users have voted.
gulfgal98's picture

Both are authoritarians.

up
0 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

OLinda's picture

that DK is like a Trump rally with the fighting and people with differing opinions getting brutally tossed out.

up
0 users have voted.
sensetolisten's picture

I have been feeling the same thing for quite some time. Hell, the entire "authoritarian" ethos of the Clinton supporters is, in fact, the defining characteristic of the REPUBLICAN PARTY itself.

up
0 users have voted.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman

As you say so eloquently:

Now it's a humorless, censored, party-line only re-education camp.

Love it. Because that captures it exactly.

up
0 users have voted.

Sea Turtle

sensetolisten's picture

It's the Cultural Revolution of Daily Kos

Now it's a humorless, censored, party-line only re-education camp.

up
0 users have voted.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman
detroitmechworks's picture

Always really fancy themselves feudal lords.

On THEIR land, you are their serf. Anybody who thinks that way earns my enmity.

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

sensetolisten's picture

On THEIR land, you are their serf. Anybody who thinks that way earns my enmity.

up
0 users have voted.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman
Big Al's picture

Daily Kos is nothing more than a conservative democratic party blog. The owner is a de factor republican who supports a de facto republican for President.
It is what it is, like the democratic party is what it is.
Censorship is everywhere, including here, whether people realize it or not. There is self censorship caused by not wanting to rock the boat, from wanting to get along, etc. There is shunning censorship where certain subjects will not get the attention or the "recs" other subjects might get because it doesn't fit in with the world views of the majority, or the language is too harsh or the truth is too hard to digest. And there is outright censorship caused by the long term and ingrained conditioning we've all gone thru since birth.
Kos has proven what he is and that's not going to change. The Democratic party has proven what it is and that's not going to change. The only thing we can really change is ourselves.

up
0 users have voted.

"The Democratic party has proven what it is and that's not going to change."

The Democratic party is whatever the people who control it decide for it to be.
And it is not the private property of anyone in particular.
We can change what the Democratic party is, by taken over the damned thing. It belongs to whomever can seize it and hold it.

up
0 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

sensetolisten's picture

We can change what the Democratic party is, by [taking] over the damned thing.

It belongs to whomever can seize it and hold it.

up
0 users have voted.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman
ArthurPoet's picture

and I can personally testify to that fact.

And I LOVE that episode and that speech. It's one of my favorite ST-TNG episodes!

up
0 users have voted.

• Move Sooner, Not Faster •
(((../\..)))
bodysurfer's picture

Actually because I was excited by Bernie and scared of a Clinton nomination. I had lurked a long time. I like the idea of a possible million member readership in case I accidentally wrote something interesting.

Oh, well. Glad to be here.

up
0 users have voted.

All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I'm fine. -- Jeff Spicoli

Tyrion's_Red_Coat's picture

Same here -- all this.

up
0 users have voted.

When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar; you are only telling the world that you fear what he might say.

Remember the part about, you cannot ever leave.....and, they have lots of sockpuppets....actual active membership is estimated to be a tenth of that. Frequent fliers are less yet.

Just a little honest math Smile

up
0 users have voted.
sensetolisten's picture

who are reccing diaries is much less than real users. They always show up in waves at the same times of the day, which is very suspicious. Clearly not the way authentic users are reccing Bernie Sanders diaries.

up
0 users have voted.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman
Alison Wunderland's picture

There are definite traffic patterns on commenting. I lived at another blog for close to 8 years, not to mention lurking at many more. What made this blog unique was that the comments -- often over 1000/day -- came in bunches as the day went by, and the comment page reloaded in real time... no reloading needed by the reader. I still miss it so much

The morning gang started posting with the roosters.
Then there'd be a lull until people got to their offices. (Wish sometimes I'd figured how to goof off and still get paid, lol.)
Comments built to a noon-time crescendo when people broke off for lunch, and traffic subsided noticeably.
After lunch comments would again appear with greater and greater rapidity until "quitting time" (5ish)
The place would turn into a virtual graveyard until commuters got home and logged in again.
Then the comments would again start coming sooner and sooner until the employed and non-insomniacs would call it a day.

The owner/builder of the site closed it down when it had reached ~2million comments after 8 years. Got to be too unmanageable, he said.

up
0 users have voted.

Not a sock, either. I joined with a new name in 2008 after moving and a break from 2006-2007 when all I did was lurk occasionally.

Also, my SO used to read it and sign petitions, so I think that activity got counted. He never had an account.

up
0 users have voted.

One of the most popular diaries that DKos has seen in months, not to mention one of the most funny ones, gets the writer banned.
Markos has jumped the shark.

up
0 users have voted.
Muddy Boots's picture

I have now stopped laughing and the job ahead is deadly serious. I mean, have you seen Mordor?

That Kos would ban Greywilfe359 over this really burns me. Kos has seriously gone to the dark side over this. As noted above, talk about being a dick.

And I don't see how he can recover from this. He is purging his site of the very people he needs the most. He has reinforced the shields on his bubble 1000 fold. The odds of him ever breaking out of it are negligible. While his bubble hasn't burst his tent is shrinking, and he has succumbed to textbook puddle thinking which threatens our very existence.

up
0 users have voted.

"If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back" - Regina Brett

PastorAgnostic's picture

I totally agree about the impact on that site. As I said before, that place has become a toxic sludge center.

up
0 users have voted.
sensetolisten's picture

laughing in the face of one's enemy" ... sort of a way.

But I could not agree more:

I have now stopped laughing and the job ahead is deadly serious.

In fact, i agree with everything you've said, most especially this:

I don't see how he can recover from this. He is purging his site of the very people he needs the most. He has reinforced the shields on his bubble 1000 fold. The odds of him ever breaking out of it are negligible.

up
0 users have voted.

“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
― Harry Truman

I loved the diary. But I certainly agree there's now a lot to be done now that the results are in.

up
0 users have voted.
greywolfe359's picture

I'm a huge Trekkie. DS9 is my favorite with TNG a close second. Love this speech by Picard.

For a Star Trek analogy, I think Trump is Dukat (fascist megalomaniac who wants his name and statue everywhere) and Cruz is Weyoun (religious fanatic who thinks he's taking marching orders from gods).

Hillary is like Moogie. She wants us to think that being "progressive" is finally getting a woman into power in the Ferengi Alliance. Women should be allowed to exploit the mass of workers, too! And while yes, a Ferengi alliance where women can wear clothes and earn profit is profitable to one where they can't, I'm still fighting for...

The United Federation of Planets! Here's to our democratic socialist future!

up
0 users have voted.

hillary is clearly Kai Winn.
She even looks a bit like her.

up
0 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

greywolfe359's picture

Yeah, appears to be righteous but totally self-serving almost all of the time. I did even say that to a friend not long ago.

up
0 users have voted.
Hifiguy's picture

Far too many people have taken "1984" as inspiration and instruction manual rather than warning. And it's not just Repigs anymore.

And I lurves me some Patrick Stewart/Picard.

up
0 users have voted.

NO MORE TURD WAY! Loud and proud Sandernista.

Satire threatens the new orthodoxy.

up
0 users have voted.

Double posted. I can edit, but don't know how to delete.

up
0 users have voted.