[Nakura]

It's pretty sad and disgusting that so many politicians are using this event not to unify us, but to divide us and further their own political careers. So much of Martin Luther King Jr.'s message has been hijacked and many liberal media outlets have even been calling Obama the 'second coming' of MLK. In spite of the divisive political rhetoric being espoused about this, I think Ben Carson hits the nail on the head.

Just a few excerpts from Dr. Benjamin Carson's speech:

The epidemic of black-on-black violent crime indicates that there has been a significant deterioration of values in the black community. Not only are the lives of their fellow blacks and others being devalued by street thugs, but the lives of unborn babies are being destroyed in disproportionate numbers in the black community.

Although I believe King would be very concerned for all parties in these tragedies, his energies would be primarily channeled into an attempt to give these young women the kind of self-esteem that would preclude their yielding to the charms of individuals who really don’t care about them and are only interested in their selfish pleasures.

King was a huge advocate of education and would be horrified by the high dropout rates in many inner-city high schools. He, like many others, was vilified, beaten and jailed for trying to open the doors of education to everyone, regardless of their race. If he were alive today, he would have to witness people turning their backs on those open doors and choosing to pursue lives of crime or dependency.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment for King would be the wholesale adoption of a victim mentality that makes people feel that they are entitled to being cared for by others rather than working tirelessly to create wealth and opportunities for their progeny.
Finally, we should all remember the aspect of his dream in which he desired that people should be judged by their character and not by the color of their skin. In part, this means no one should assume that a black person should adhere to certain political orthodoxy any more so than a white person would.

Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/28/i-have-a-dream-50-years-later/

What does HLP think?

[BloodEagle]

Wait, wait, wait!  Hold on!

* BloodEagle pulls up a chair

Continue.

[karajorma]

You've been warned about this kind of nonsense in the past Nakura. And you agreed to stop making new topics on Gen Discuss all the time.

You're now banned from Gen Discuss until you can learn to start a discussion without an attack on the liberal media.




If other people want to discuss MLK's legacy in a more sensible fashion, go ahead.

[NGTM-1R]

If other people would want to discuss it, I think they'd also want that OP torched first.

[redsniper]

.........

Everything went better than expected.

[Lorric]

Please be nice to Nakura. I'm sure he doesn't mean any harm.

[The E]

As NGTM1R said, if you wish to discuss Martin Luther King and his impact on society (and I feel that's a discussion worth having), feel free to do so. But I believe that this topic has been tainted from the start.

Lorric: Nakura has been warned that if he posted a topic like this again, one that is needlessly incendiary in terms of how he wished to frame the debate, he would be banned from GenDisc. He saw fit to do it regardless. Your attempt at mediation is neither wanted nor warranted.

[Nuke]

so its totally ok to bash fox news, but as soon as you bash a liberal media source you get banned?

[Lorric]

Remember this?

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=85201.0

Your daily dose of OMGWTFAMIWATCHINGKILLITWITHFIRE idiocy brought to you by Fox News.

Now we have this:

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=85410.0

I can't quote a locked thread, so:

NUKE:

"so its totally ok to bash fox news, but as soon as you bash a liberal media source you get banned?"

Now, of course I know why one went over okay and one didn't. It's the makeup of the crowd here. But to Nakura, the liberal media is probably something like what Fox is to a lot of this forum. And is the best way to deal with him really to attack him and drop the ban hammer on him? If you don't like his topics, ignore them. You can't have a conversation with yourself, look:

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=85316.0

I can't have a conversation with myself.

Is this really the best this forum can do? Someone talks about something you don't like, but are otherwise friendly, and they get attacked, mocked, and ultimately, smack, they get banned indefinitely from Gen Disc?

From the forum guidelines:

• Lively and interesting debate is encouraged and welcomed. However we ask that members respect the right of free speech. That is to say that as long as a comment isn't of a racist or sexist nature - a member has a right to say it. If you disagree with something that someone has said then feel free to argue a retort on the sole condition that (in keeping with point 2) it is not a personal or bigoted attack. Argue the point; debate the person.

• Be nice. If you don't know how, go watch reruns of Mr. Rogers' Neighbourhood - he's a wonderful example. :nod:

• Any attempts to belittle other forum members for not agreeing with you will be treated in much the same way as a direct personal attack. Yes, you may find it annoying if someone is posting an argument that shows that they don't understand the topic under discussion as well as you do, but it's worth remembering that since you probably aren't a world renowned expert in the subject, there could be someone as annoyed at you. If someone is ignorant, it is your job to enlighten them, not make fun of their ignorance.

• Do not post comments on the negative quality of a thread or the posts within it. Be sparing with posts simply saying that a post is a good post. The software the forum runs on already has a karma rating system for posts. If we wanted people rating posts, we'd turn it on.

But I can see nothing in the guidelines that says Nakura's behaviour is wrong. I cannot see how there can be a problem if what I quoted up there is followed.

Everybody loves free speech until somebody uses it.

I do not wish to cause trouble, but I think the ban is wrong. Can we not help Nakura, or at least just leave him alone? What is so wrong? He seems nice to me. I do not understand the hostility at all. I want to help. If I am wrong, I want to understand why.

Please, let's all be nice and calm.

*Lorric takes a deep breath, and hits the Post button...*

[Phantom Hoover]

see lorric, when i write big screeds i either delete it during the deep breath or replace it with [redacted] ten seconds later

i suggest the latter option, asap

[Scourge of Ages]

The thing is, that the mods said that Nakura was warned multiple times. And it's not a total ban, just from Gen Disc.

[Scotty]

It's okay to bash Fox News when evidence of their hilarious ineptitude at how to news becomes apparent during a conversation as it pertains to the original topic and in good faith.

This was not started in good faith.

[Turambar]

I have yet to see one of these alleged 'Liberal Medias' in real life.

[Dragon]

The thing is, that the mods said that Nakura was warned multiple times. And it's not a total ban, just from Gen Disc.

For what? For disagreeing with them? Nakura has his own opinion, let him express it, even if it does differ from ours, even if it's wrong on every single point, even if it's overtly idealistic or cynical. He is not a nazi, not a communist nor any kind of bigot. He didn't write hate speech and is perfectly understandable. He's been banned for opinions, which is just plain wrong. Moderators should not abuse their powers to silence opinions they disagree with. I've never seen Nakura post anything wrong, he just has a bit unusual opinions. Oh, and provoking discussion is not the same as provoking flame wars. If he wishes to discuss a controversial subject, he has a right to do so, as long as he does his part to keep the discussion civil.

[Scotty]

If you think a ban has been wrongly enforced, please bring it up with a moderator or administrator on the site.  Do not appeal to the general population of GenDisc.  As a general rule, that doesn't help.

That said, I'm going to lock this thread because it cannot possibly go anywhere productive, and I'd really rather save Lorric the ban from GenDisc that trying to tell the moderators how to do their jobs in public usually entails.

Please note that this is not an official moderation response to Lorric's behavior in this thread.  This is merely a pre-emptive measure.

[karajorma]

Nakura's comment about the liberal media wasn't supported in the slightest by the link he actually posted. Had he actually posted an example of that, complained about why it was bad for them to compare Obama to MLK, there would have been no issues with his post.

Instead we got a comment about how people were using MLK's speech to divide people followed almost immediately by an inflammatory comment designed to divide people.