A Stitch in Haste

A comment I left at another blog, in response to conservative group blog RedState's announcement that it has begun restricting posting by Ron Paul supporters:

First of all, "free speech" applies to government, not private people controlling their private property — including their websites. "Private censorship" is an oxymoron.

Second, liberal bloggers may not fully appreciate how out of control these Paulbearers (as I call them) have gotten on conservative and nonpartisan websites — especially YouTube.

They are, almost universally, not engaging in reasoned commenting; they post canned placard slogans that are usually orthogonal to the original blogpost and, occasionally, totally nonsensical.

They are, in other words, spammers.

So, while no fan of RedState am I, I can feel their exasperation.

---

I have for the most part been spared any meaningful bombardment by the Paulbearers, despite my several unflattering blogposts about their icon. But I've seen, on other blogs and especially on YouTube, just how "spammish," unintelligent and just plain pointless these comment bombardments can be.

Bottom line: I don't know who is hurting small-l libertarianism more — the faux libertarian candidate or his misguided background-noise supporters.

More thoughts at Threat Level.