Who is Ken O'Keefe?

[Wombaticus Rex]

I think the million dollar question is that serious thinkers are wondering why the Hasbara trolls are not swept out of the house.

Solace is not going to be banned merely for reflexively supporting Israel.

Nor is RI going to start banning people for minority opinions -- which is a great working definition of "Democracy."

[seemslikeadream]

I think the million dollar question is that serious thinkers are wondering why the Hasbara trolls are not swept out of the house.

Solace is not going to be banned merely for reflexively supporting Israel.

Nor is RI going to start banning people for minority opinions -- which is a great working definition of "Democracy."

merely for reflexively supporting Israel...solace merely? when has that ever happened?


Defending Israel is not the problem here ..is it WombatRex? It is the vicious outrageous PERSONAL attacks ..he never defends Israel...unless you consider personal attacks a defense ...then I guess HMW should never have been banned

[tapitsbo]

SLAD, why resent the personal attacks if they're simply opportunities to better fortify any chinks in your armour?

[identity]

I think the million dollar question is that serious thinkers are wondering why the Hasbara trolls are not swept out of the house.

Solace is not going to be banned merely for reflexively supporting Israel.

Nor is RI going to start banning people for minority opinions -- which is a great working definition of "Democracy."

I don't think the issue at hand is either of the factors bolded above; it is, rather, the hostility he spews and the contempt for anyone who doesn't agree with his "message" or his method that irks people.

Q: Would creating a poll asking whether forum members want Solace banned for disruptive behaviour (and having Moderator take action on the result, if a solid majority were in favour of such a move) be "anti-democratic"?

[solace]

[MacCruiskeen]

I think the million dollar question is that serious thinkers are wondering why the Hasbara trolls are not swept out of the house.

Solace is not going to be banned merely for reflexively supporting Israel.

Nor is RI going to start banning people for minority opinions -- which is a great working definition of "Democracy."

I don't think the issue at hand is either of the factors bolded above; it is, rather, the hostility he spews and the contempt for anyone who doesn't agree with his "message" or his method that irks people.

Exactly. No one is insisting on anyone being banned. I, personally, have never asked for anyone to be banned, ever. And I do not understand this bizarre pretence that Moderation means choosing between:

a) Letting anything go, any kind of vile stupid illiterate abuse, on and on and on and on, despite multiple complaints from multiple regulars on innumerable different threads, for years.

and

b) Banning the offender instantly.

No. The system in place here for years was 1. Polite request. 2. Warning. 3. Suspension, for anything between a day and a month (and for rare repeat offenders, sockpuppets, etc,, forever) It ain't rocket science. And, very obviously, one word from the Moderator would suffice to induce instantly less obnoxious behaviour from someone who is not just an obvious and notorious troll but also a craven toady.

[Wombaticus Rex]

The system in place here for years was 1. Polite request. 2. Warning. 3. Suspension, for anything between a day and a month (and for rare repeat offenders, sockpuppets, etc,, forever) It ain't rocket science.

Indeed, it's not.

Like I said, I opted to skip Nordic's suspension in light of the situation.

[MacCruiskeen]

While I'm at it: Can people please stop referring to the troll as "she". It is gratuitously insulting to women, who (god knows) already have more than enough to put up with. There has never been a more obvious penisholder than solace. Only boys ever behave or talk like that.

[BrandonD]

If he is as bad as you say, then yes maybe he's ultimately not worth listening to. Too much noise to weed through to get the signal.

If you let solace be your guide to what's worth listening to, you will have to put me on "ignore" too. And just to be perfectly safe, you can limit your reading and knowledge about anything to do with the Arab world or Israel to what's available at the ADL website. And then you, yes you, can be as well-informed and articulate as solace is, about Middle East history and politics. Have fun.

My wording was intentional, to create a pleasant end to our particular exchange because I didn't see it going anywhere. I don't generally follow the suggestions of hostile mean-spirited people, whatever their political persuasion.

[identity]

The wonderful thing about being on an ancient computer like mine is that youtube videos no longer load–one sees only an empty black box without image or text–so that, unless I make the extraordinary effort of downloading the video from another site (highly improbable in a case such as this), I will never have a clue as to the contents of a particular posted video.

So, Solace, many thanks for posting this, and "a picture is worth a thousand words," so by all means increasingly feel free to express your views via youtube videos rather than through the cumbersome, awkward, and antiquated medium of words. THANKS!

[MacCruiskeen]

It should shame us all to have to acknowledge that solace has been so viciously persecuted merely for taking 386 shits on the carpet over the course of six or seven years. Have a heart, Mob! That's barely one turd a week, on average.

[MacCruiskeen]

The system in place here for years was 1. Polite request. 2. Warning. 3. Suspension, for anything between a day and a month (and for rare repeat offenders, sockpuppets, etc,, forever) It ain't rocket science.

Indeed, it's not.

Like I said, I opted to skip Nordic's suspension in light of the situation.

WR, as a response to what I actually wrote (on this very page), that is a joke. Or, as solace would put it, with complete impunity: "a fucking JOKE, you insane farleft truther ASSholes!"

[Wombaticus Rex]

that is a joke.

Factually correct; may those deductive powers never leave you, sir.

[MacCruiskeen]

that is a joke.

Factually correct; may those deductive powers never leave you, sir.

I adore your inimitably light touch, master. (Why should any poster here make the effort to avoid repeating themselves.)

You know it is you who are insisting on turning this into an utterly unnecessary fight, for an utterly unnecessarily long time. "Damned if I'm gonna back down now. I'll look stoopid."

[Elvis]

In the first OP video (I didn't watch the second), Ken O'Keefe makes sense and says a lot of true and laudible things.

But the bit below, from the video Solace linked, is a terrible thing to say.

the worst insult you could say to somebody — which I didn’t even know the origin of it, but we used to all use it — and it was no basis of any kind of discrimination, it was just this term — and it was Jew. In the worst way, fucking Jew. You know, you’re a fucking Jew, or something like that.

And you know, I never really thought about it. I didn’t have any Jewish friends as far as I knew, and yet I look back at it now and I realize it must be that there is some truth behind this, that it would be the ultimate insult, that’s somehow there’s this awareness without even being aware of the historical reality of Jewish impact on human history.

It's true that in the video, there's another ten minutes' worth of context that makes the above remarks somewhat more understandable. But whether alone or in that context, it's a terrible thing to say and to teach, and it will unfortunately always cast a pall in my eyes over anything he has to say. Others are more (or less) forgiving and that's okay.

Who was the audience in that video? SPLC doesn't say on the YouTube page. Note the applause at the idea of the EU fracturing. They really seemed to be eating up the whole thing.