I see that another Bowers-instigated flame battle is going on over at Closed Left. I lurk the site from time to time to see just how much progressive issues are being censored in favor of the Chris Matthews-type drivel Bowers favors, and I saw this posted on the front page:
It turns out that if I delete content from a website that I–quite literally–own, then I am engaging in censorship. I don’t remember the part of the first amendment that declares everyone is allowed to use everyone else’s printing press.
The latest mess appears to have begun when someone posted a quick hit to call Obama an ass clown. Okay, nothing controversial about that since Obama is, in fact, an ass clown. But the site administrator didn’t like it, so the QH was deleted. After the fact, the justification was fabricated that the term “ass clown” is somehow homophobic, even though there is no evidence to suggest that it has ever been used in such a derogatory manner. The comments are divided along the usual lines, with Bowers and his sniveling, lying little sycophants defending the action and others crying censorship.
This isn’t surprising at all, seeing as how Bowers routinely violates his own site’s rules only to turn around and chastise others for committing far lesser offenses. For example, a while back the owner of Closed Left posted a snarkfest taking others to task for using the Quick Hits feature to call other people out. Later, Bowers proceeded to use the quick hits section to call out another poster, whom he banned for voicing criticism against him.
When I posted about this glaring act of hypocrisy in both a diary and a quick hit, I was banned from posting. The rules that apply to everyone else at Closed Left do not apply to the site owner, who is free to act like a child while treating grown adults like children. The result? More of the same bullshit that goes on at the Mediocre Orange Hype: scolding lefties to sit down, shut up, and drink the Democratic party Kool-Aid while pretending to be outsiders crashing the gates. The left deserves better from its self-appointed “leaders.”
