The First Amendment and Poop Scooping Online

One of my favorite columnists, Mike Adams, addressed something in his TownHall column today that I also deal with here at Dakota Voice.

Dr. Adams tells of how certain people feel entitled to say whatever they want at his Facebook page.

From the column:

the highlight of the morning was one person who posted – on my wall, mind you – a remark saying she “had a lot of respect for me” but that my actions had “radically changed that.” This person was the recipient of a rare “un-friend” maneuver because her comment evidenced an IQ substantially below room temperature. (And I simply don’t try to communicate with people who have IQs below their life expectancy). But, for those with IQs above the 70s, I believe that a bold-letter explanation is in order:

The First Amendment protects private citizens from the government. It is designed to prevent government control of the public forum. It is not designed to prevent citizens from controlling speech on their private property.

People who are too dense to understand this crucial distinction may be able to benefit from this simple analogy: If a dog takes a dump on my front lawn, I have a right to scoop it up. Therefore, if someone writes what I consider to be verbal fecal matter on my wall I have a right to erase it.

If you didn’t understand that crucial distinction you are probably a socialist who voted for Barack Obama. Feel free to return to the Huffington Post or the Daily Kos.

I get a lot of comments on various articles here at Dakota Voice (though less in the last six months than I used to, since I implemented an arbitrary poop-scooping policy when it comes to comments). Conservatives are by nature live-and-let-live people who don’t want to be the center of attention all the time and just want to be left alone. While it is in the nature of most liberals to shoot their mouth (or their keyboard) off anytime anything irritates their childish nature, conservatives are more likely to read something they don’t like or like and simply move on without saying anything.

So it is that comments I receive are something like 5-1 liberal to conservative (it was about 20-1 before the poop-scooping policy was implemented; see, even liberals are capable of learning and modifying behavior).

I like dialog on the issues, even with people who are wrong.  Discussing the pressing matters of our day with people who are wrong about them helps keep one intellectually sharp and helps one find solutions to aspects of problems that might have otherwise been missed.

But, as Dr. Adams pointed out, some folks just don’t seem to have an IQ above room temperature.  Most mature people know enough not to spout off about things they’ve spent no time investigating and thinking about; not so with many liberals.  Encounters of this nature are as satisfying as seeing a Navy SEAL repel an attack from an unarmed teenager.

There are also those who simply can’t seem to acknowledge the truth, even when their nose is rubbed in it repeatedly.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve never achieved the slightest bit of satisfaction of sense of self-improvement from arguing with a fence post.

Then there are those who simply regurgitate Democrat talking points or some drivel they’ve read on some liberal website like the Daily Kos or some other Leftist propaganda sewer pipe.  They don’t even possess enough of a grasp of the issue to be able to argue in their own words.

And let us not forget those who rely heavily on profanity in a vain attempt to fill their chasm of ignorance and lack of vocabulary.

I used to allow all but the profane and most idiotic of comments, spending considerable amounts of time refuting them all, but Dr. Theo made a Jethro-like suggestion not reject any comments, pro or con, that aren’t intelligent or don’t advance the discussion and keep it interesting.

In the end, it is as Dr. Adams describes it: my website is my yard, my house.  You’re a guest here as long as you behave (and there are several who do), but if you get rowdy or detract from my purpose, it will be time to leave.   I get the last word at my castle, and those that can’t deal with that should leave their dirty jobs in their own yard.

Note: Reader comments are reviewed before publishing, and only salient comments that add to the topic will be published. Profanity is absolutely not allowed and will be summarily deleted. Spam, copied statements and other material not comprised of the reader’s own opinion will also be deleted.