I've been following the main Ron Paul internet discussion forum. There has been a schism and now there is a second forum.
Based on my analysis, the reason for the schism is The Strawman Fallacy. Ron Paul has said publicly that he favors a second investigation into the World Trade Center attack, and that the first investigation was poorly done and incomplete. This causes a lot of the "9/11 Truth Movement" advocates to be strong Ron Paul supporters. They are posting many 9/11 related topics on the Ron Paul forum. (I have a future post planned for the "9/11 Truth Movement".)
However, the person who runs the first Ron Paul forum is concerned about The Strawman Fallacy. His reasoning is "The mainstream media says that supporters of the 9/11 Truth Movement are insane. If these people are seen supporting Ron Paul, that decreases the legitimacy of Ron Paul's campaign. Therefore, I must ban these topics from the Ron Paul discussion forum." That is defective reasoning.
Unfortunately, everyone is trained to believe The Strawman Fallacy. Perversely, if your primary goal is get Ron Paul elected President, it might be necessary to censor non-mainstream ideas from Ron Paul's campaign forums and meetings. I consider that to be another example of the fundamental structural flaw in the voting system.
Friday, August 31, 2007
The Ron Paul Discussion Forum Schism and The Strawman Fallacy
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Sorry if it looks like I'm posting too many comments a night.
But I think the Ron Paul forum moderator just wants to steer clear of what he sees as trolls and wants people to focus on more important things, as any moderator would do, keep other topics in other places if somebody wants to moderate it.
Yes, this is a form of censorship, either from shame, or fear or pressure, but more importantly, its the submission to democracy. If you want to play the voting game, you just have to be careful about attracting more and scaring off less.
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