@maxdancona,
maxdancona wrote:If you are a Conservative with a sense of decency, where are you to speak up against hate speech from your own side? Even if you don't have a sense of decency, can't you see that your tacit approval of, or even defense of, this clearly bigoted behavior fro people on your own side are the reason you have the reputation you do?
I didn't answer your original question because Joefromchicago had already said almost anything I would have said, had I answered it. But your questions presume a fact that apparently hasn't been questioned yet, so I'll take that one.
Your questions presume that when correspondents believe the same things, they thereby form some sort of club, whose members somehow become responsible for each other's transgressions. I disagree. Back in my libertarian days for example, I saw plenty of self-identified libertarians say stupid and agitated things on A2K. I never considered it my job to correct them, let alone face them down. That's because I'm neither a joiner of clubs nor an arbiter of what's socially acceptable to them. I am on A2K to speak for myself, and that's it.
Therefore, I suggest you consider that individual A2K conservatives might, likewise, speak for themselves only. Your demand that they adopt club rules you can accept, and then enforce them against one another, is unreasonable if there is no club. And even if there is, you aren't in it; you have no standing to move that it amend rules or censure members.
