I was just reading some of the vitriol posted in the right wing
 echo, about the Chick Filet issue. That got me to thinking about
 how the right wingers love to paint anyone not in their group as
 liberals and smear them with much worse.

 This led me to think about the conservatives who used to post in
 Fido. People like Frank Scheidt, John Fitzgerald, Peter Brady,
 and more I can't even remember any more. Frank was a devoted
 conservative, even Bush supporter till the bitter end. Yet,
 because he would not goose step with the right wingers they
 pushed him out of right wing echos. Peter Brady was a hard core
 conservative, and more intelligent than any right wingers I see
 in Fido now, yet he was firmly dedicated to substantive debate
 devoid of personal attack.

 John Fitzgerald was another case entirely. He was perhaps the
 most hard case conservative I have seen in Fido, but he was also
 capable of reasonable consideration of other points of view.
 John was also someone who would conduct decent, and friendly,
 conversations with those they disagreed with.

 All three of those were people I would like to sit down to
 coffee with. Opposed to those you have the right wingers who are
 left in Fidonet. They consider personal attack the normal mode
 of conversation, smear perfectly acceptable, and find if
 offensive if you show they have distorted or misquoted someone.

 The right on Fido is no longer made up or conservative, but
 right wingers who cannot accept that others not only have
 legitimate views, but they can't deal with being proven wrong.
 To them truth is a variable, not a constant, and it changes to
 meet their point of view.

 This is sad, but is also, I believe, a major factor in the
 decline of Fidonet.

 This is sad, and I have no idea how to recruit rational
 conservatives to join the debate.

BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... Patriotism is not sending others to fight and bleed and die.
--- Via Silver Xpress V4.5/P [Reg]