blue cigar said:
Prestwich_Blue said:
Let's get one or two things clear.
This is primarily a football forum and encompasses people from all walks of life, creeds, colours, religions and from all shades of the political spectrum. As long as people abide by the Code of Conduct they are free to post their views and opinions. If they breach the CoC, they face sanctions up to and including a permanent ban.
You are free to decide whether to post on here or not and if you decide not to bother, no one will stop you if that's what you want. If you want to join other forums and post on them, you're free to do so.
No one has been hounded off here or banned because of their politics, unless these were so extreme that they expressed views on here that breached the CoC. So we've banned some people who expressed views they'd cut and pasted from far right wing, anti-semitic or Islamophobic websites.
Some users felt they were denied "freedom of speech" on here and went elsewhere. That's their choice. Some chose to join them who'd been banned from here for persistent or serious CoC violations. No problem with that as it's a free country. As "The Pound Shop Gordon Gecko" (aka SWP's Back) said so succinctly, that gave them the chance to express views that our CoC forbids. If that's what they want then fine. But some of them chose to be extremely abusive on this forum to posters on here who were of different ethnic backgrounds, religions, disabled, which none of you have really seen as we've mopped it all up. Not surprisingly that left no choice but to ban them.
Not because they were left wing, anti-Israel, muffin-ites, Mancini fan-boys, preferred 4-4-2, liked Morrissey or any other reason other than they broke the CoC by failing to respect other users.
With all due respect pb,that is horseshit. People have been banned because of their political persuasion,people have been treated very differently to others because of their political persuasion. If this forum lurches any further to the right you will have nigel farage joining in.
I get that there are extremes who cross the line but a group of people from one end of the political spectrum all deciding to leave should ring alarm bells,it hasnt so that will do for me.
I'm afraid I've got to agree with Blue Cigar. The lurch rightwards on this forum is thoroughly depressing, especially when you consider the absolute bile with which certain posters express their views, particularly against any poor sod who finds themselves in receipt of benefits, or anybody who happens to work in the public sector. Chav scum, scroungers, lazy bastards are a few of the kinder ways some use to describe their fellow human beings. They do it increasingly on here because they know they can get away with it, it's safe to do so - shit, it's almost expected.
That some on here feel they can be so virulently right wing is, I'm afraid, as a direct consequence of the departure of a large number of articulate and forthright posters from the left who, it seemed to me, all disappeared around the time that Israel was carpet-bombing the Palestinians.
What we're left with is quite a nasty, hateful forum where views that people would not dare express on the street or in the workplace are now the norm. Very, very sad.
