Getting your buttons hammered is a test of equanimity, which fails miserably with many, many meditators. Tuquoiseb was pretty intense this way, but also posted well reasoned posts and other interesting things. He was not a one note guy. I found authfriend just as annoying eventually as I did Turq in the beginning. Unlike the irrelevant posts of 'R' and the rather insanely abusive posts of another 'R' a few years ago. In fact those two 'Rs' were the only ones I would have removed from FFL myself were I in control. There was a third 'R' whom I found rather creepy, but he had reasoned if sometimes devious argumentation, so even though I did not care for him, I would not have removed him because I disagreed with him. Turq provided a strong pole for the non-theistic path of spirituality, and I miss the authfriend/turq battles of the past. Intellectually Turq is far more well rounded than our farmer turned tyrant, who I feel does not have the mental flexibility to deal with strong contrary views. His own posting has been spammy in mostly non-interactive, and until now, mostly a complaint.
We should note that personal attacks also do not necessarily involve profanity and can take on a much more subtle quality, and in this light everyone one here has engaged in that in my observation. It is very easy to slip from arguing against an idea and aiming at the person. Our moderator seems to have had a personal enmity against Turq and others opposed to his medieval religious persona. I for one vote for removing him as moderator. Also not all personal attacks here are gratuitous. What do you say if you are arguing against a point you regard as stupid? That implies the person holding that view is also stupid because they are holding it. And the converse is true, the person hold that stupid belief thinks it is true and holds the other in contempt for disagreeing, thinking it is stupid. Likes and dislikes have nothing to do with truth. Truth transcends even the gods, or however many you are pretending there are (the range is 0 or more). If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. —George Orwell If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. —George Washington Freedom of speech does not protect you from the consequences of saying stupid shit. —Jim C. Hines Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear. —Harry S. Truman My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line, and kiss my ass. —Christopher Hitchens I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. —James Madison Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties. —John Milton Because if you don't stand up for the stuff you don't like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you've already lost. —Neil Gaiman If there's one American belief I hold above all others, it's that those who would set themselves up in judgment on matters of what is "right" and what is "best" should be given no rest; that they should have to defend their behavior most stringently. ... As a nation, we've been through too many fights to preserve our rights of free thought to let them go just because some prude with a highlighter doesn't approve of them. —Stephen King Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.... The framers of the constitution knew human nature as well as we do. They too had lived in dangerous days; they too knew the suffocating influence of orthodoxy and standardized thought. They weighed the compulsions for restrained speech and thought against the abuses of liberty. They chose liberty. —William O. Douglas Most people do not really want others to have freedom of speech, they just want others to be given the freedom to say want they want to hear. —Mokokoma Mokhonoana Religion grants its adherents malign, intoxicating and morally corrosive sensations. Destroying intellectual freedom is always evil, but only religion makes doing evil feel quite so good. —Philip Pullman It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks. —Tacitus The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, whether it's a religious belief system or a secular ideology, the moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible. —Salman Rushdie In the Hindu religion, one cannot have freedom of speech. A Hindu must surrender his freedom of speech. He must act according to the Vedas. If the Vedas do not support the actions, instructions must be sought from the Smritis, and if the Smritis fail to provide any such instructions, he must follow in the footsteps of the great men. He is not supposed to reason. Hence, so long as you are in the Hindu religion, you cannot expect to have freedom of thought. —B.R. Ambedkar Why is contemporary China short of works that speak directly? Because we writers cannot speak directly, or rather we can only speak in an indirect way.... Why does contemporary China lack good works that critique our current situation? Because our current situation may not be critiqued. We have not only lost the right to criticise, but the courage to do so.... Why is modern China lacking in great writers? Because all the great writers are castrated while still in the nursery. —Murong Xuecun The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest. That's all. —Martin Luther King Jr. Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error. —Thomas Jefferson A central lesson of science is that to understand complex issues (or even simple ones), we must try to free our minds of dogma and to guarantee the freedom to publish, to contradict, and to experiment. Arguments from authority are unacceptable. —Carl Sagan A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read.... It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so. —Mark Twain Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. —John F. Kennedy Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. —Abraham Lincoln And you our dear moderator, are still far from the unbounded freedom of mind these illustrious gentlemen represent. Your sanctimonious 'Buck' persona is beginning to bleed through. You are too cowardly to face the arguments people present against your idea of reality. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <steve.sundur@...> wrote : Ya know, Sal, I think it's pretty simple: Avoid gratuitous personal attacks and it works out pretty well. Avoid the temptation to push someone's buttons for the sole purpose, of declaring, "Ha, I pushed your buttons" And then, if possible, try to avoid a commentary, or small essay, on the virtues of having your buttons pushed, and the tremendous opportunity it presents for personal growth, supplying statistics and definitions to buttress this position. That's my take. (-: Otherwise, have at it! ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mjackson74@...> wrote : Our new moderator is a dipshit vedic nazi and a partisan moron Doug for being a snivelling coward All insults that give grounds for your very own dismissal Sal! Kind of the idea. I'm just underlining that I won't be diluting myself at all. I'm happy as I am, I don't want to be assimilated into any group mind again. I will happily justify every word if our overlord decrees it though. But the funny thing is I'm most mild mannered usually but when some "authority" tells me I can't swear I instantly start swearing like trooper. Must be the anarchist in me. Most of me actually. We shall fight on the beaches etc... And here I thought I would be the first to go - I reckon Bucky wants to keep tabs on me so he will know where to direct the drones. I just wrote a huge and brilliant [ahem] reply to this MJ, justifications, explanations about the dangers of censorship, an analysis of why people have a problem with us apostates, some cool quotes, some thoughts on what made FFL so good in the past, I spent best part of an hour on it and then I pressed the wrong key and deleted the whole thing myself. Doh! No moderator required.... And I'm out of time today. If I still have an account on Sunday I'll have another go. I've a feeling the topic won't go away! It's protest time in London town tomorrow. Another injustice that needs to be sorted out is our government of capitalist shitheads, so it's a good march and shout then a demo in Hyde park. Not that anyone listens and it won't even make the news but when you care about something you have to speak up or they assume you don't care. To the barricades! From: salyavin808 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, June 19, 2015 8:44 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Fw: Alex, can you post a question to the forum for me? ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <j_alexander_stanley@...> wrote : I have zero idea what's going on, but I'll at least let him say goodbye. ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: TurquoiseBee <turquoiseb@...> To: Alex Stanley <j_alexander_stanley@...> Sent: Friday, June 19, 2015 5:46 AM Subject: Alex, can you post a question to the forum for me? It appears that Doug has gone ahead with his threats and has deleted my access to Fairfield Life. I'm just wondering how he justifies doing this based on supposedly "offending" posts of mine made back in May when on June 9th in post #416493 https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/conversations/messages/416493?soc_src=mail&soc_trk=ma he explicitly said: In moderation at this point I feel “the past is a lesser state of evolution” and I am going forward with a clean slate on everyone and not one is on moderation in any way from this point. I would only suggest in our going forward that folks take the time to actually read the Yahoo-groups guidelines if they want to continue fluidly posting on FFL. We should appreciate your cooperative collaboration on this. -JaiGuruYou! Seems to me there is more than a little hypocrisy, double-dealing, and outright dishonesty going on here, and since Doug has eliminated the possibility of me bringing this question up to the group myself, I figured I'd ask you to do it for me. Thanks for everything. You have been more than fair in all of your dealings with Fairfield Life and with the odd group of characters who have posted there over the years. I wish that sense of fairness and honesty was equally present in the newest moderator. Barry...ooops, do I get in trouble for using my own real name? :-) P.S. To everyone else, so long and thanks for all the fish... It really won't be the same without you old chap. Our new moderator is a dipshit vedic nazi and a partisan moron who has thrown out one of the most innovative and dynamic posters here in his all consuming quest for uniform blandness. Why Rick would leave the rights to who gets to post here down to him is beyond me, complete disinterest I suppose. But I guess that somehow we'll have to try and compensate for the inevitable gaping hole that your absence will leave behind. So cheers Barry for all the laughs, insights, wisdom, book recommendations, movie reviews and the ongoing travelogue of your life and times. If only the people who spent all day sitting in a dome with their eyes closed had so much to say! TTFN and all the very, very best. Salyavin PS Well done Doug for being a snivelling coward and not even daring to have a discussion about post content with Barry on here. Seems to me that every example you found to back up your decision was very poor indeed and stood up to about two seconds of scrutiny. But that's not the point is it? It's all about using the guidelines to further what YOU think this place should be about. Shame you never read the home page...
