This is My Last Blog Post

This is my last posting on the Patch – and I will be dropping my subscription and account as well.  The reason for this is that I found out last week that two of the frequent commenters on the Patch who tend to be hyperbolic in their rhetoric are actually sponsors of an organization that has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.  Just type in the word “cfiile” (two i’s) and you will see what I mean. 

Some other posters and bloggers and I attempted to bring this information to the Patch readers via comments on blog postings and our contributions were rejected as being inappropriate, whereas the commenters in question continue to be free to hijack conversations with mean-spirited and personal comments that promote hate and extremism. 

For example, these commenters “accused” me of being gay because I support equal rights for homosexuals and do not think that gays are sodomites who will be subject to retribution of Biblical proportions.  Most reasoning people would think such comments violate the Patch’s Terms of Use policy in the following manner (words verbatim from that policy):

• is defamatory, abusive, obscene, profane or offensive;
• is threatening, harassing or that promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual; promotes or encourages violence;
• is inaccurate, false or misleading in any way;

Those kinds of posts are OK, but telling Patch readers the motivations of these commenters – well, that violates the Patch’s “Terms of Use”. I personally think this is insane.

Please note that I am not personally hurt by these sorts of comments – I think they are ridiculous and silly – after all, I am a mature adult.  Now that I know the motivations of these commenters – I find the comments disturbing as well.

I do not dispute the right of anyone to free speech and these commenters can post as often as they like – but I also think that readers have the right to know who they are dealing with.

The Patch thinks otherwise. I cannot abide that position and thus will no longer assist in bringing revenue to the Patch by putting in uncompensated personal time and effort to write blog posts which earn the Patch advertising dollars when people read them.