Martin Does Not Believe in Free Speech and is Anti-Freedom

[heydaralon]

I keep hearing about how this place is a free speech zone from Martin "Jigsaw" Hash. After all, it says it right on the forum. There was a time that I may have believed that. But events have transpired that have shaken my beliefs to their core. Martin uses underhanded techniques to make his site a bastion of Orwellian control. Here are the facts:
Facts, as I remind people again and again, cannot be argued with. They are set in stone. What I describe in this timely post fall into that category.

1) Hwen attempted to use a porn avatar. This is tasteless and offensive, and many felt he should change it. Martin did not stand up for Hwen and put a stop to this creepy and evil suppression by other board members. I checked the timelogs, and he indeed posted in that thread after they advised Hwen to change his avatar, but did nothing to defend Hwen's choice. Clearly, Martin does not value Hwen's right to free speech.

2) IIn the financial sense, no speech is free. Even if you are not spending money on printer ink or sharpies and posterboard for your sign, there is still an opportunity cost associated with presenting your ideas to others, because you could be spending that time on a job, earning money. Speech costs all of us, including me, especially since I am incurring an enormous opportunity cost to put my ideas out, as seen in this very post. Fortunately, my ideas are so good that it balances itself out. Now that we have established the cost of speech, lets look at who has the most to spend. That would be Martin, the self professed millionaire. Martin can afford the costs and sacrifices that come with free speech, and therefore his speech is more important than ours. The Citizens United supreme court case showed that speech=money, as did the Dred Scott decision and the montgomery bus boycott+Lewis Howard Latimer inventions. If Martin is truly a free speech fanatic, he is going about it all wrong. Under the current regime of MHF, Martin's speech is basically free, and our speech is expensive. This is not fair. Martin needs to live up to his ideals and give each forum member money, so that the opportunity cost of speaking becomes more and more free. If we all had money donated generously by Martin, we would have more of a chance to properly formulate our ideas and present them. These ideas would then grow in the free speech garden, and blossom into the healthy fruit of leisurely intellectual discourse (cited Marbury v. Madison, JK Rowling). If Martin gave me money, I would be more able to share my ideas with others, and free speech could be saved on this small corner of the internet.

3) I have made posts in the past discussing how free speech is overrated. Even though I do not value free speech one bit, it is very hypocritical of Martin to allow me to make such posts, especially since he is a self described liberty nut. If I was running this forum, I would moderate it heavily, and not allow anyone who disagreed with me to have a voice. This is precisely why Martin should have deleted my posts, in order to protect the free speech he so ardently clings to. I am glad he doesn't, because I dislike free speech, and would like to see it disappear like a herpes sore when treated with Valtrex, only to reappear like the same sore and be used by me when ideas or opinions I don't like are debated by me. This inconsistency on my part may be severe, but I never claimed that I was not a hypocrite. Martin is a hypocrite, because he likes free speech and I am against it. By unbanning me, Martin is actually making speech very expensive.

4) Martin has the freedom to post his personal financial data and login information online, yet he chooses not to exercise this right. This is more of an indictment against his courage than anything else. Clearly he wants to appear to support free speech, but lacks the conviction to express ideas that are risky. People in Zimbabwe who spoke out against Robert Mugabe are brave. People in Hungary who denounced the Soviet Invasion of 1956 are braver still. But the bravest people of all are those who would give their bank login info out to strangers on a forum. Alas, Martin can not count himself among these brave souls. He has not the conviction to stand up for his beliefs. This is quite saddening, and it brings to mind the benjamin franklin quote about security and liberty and the kite storm. If Benjamin Franklin's bravery for sticking a kite into a hurricane for our freedom earned him the right to be on the one hundred dollar bill Martin, what better way to honor his liberty giving legacy than to send us some of these bills in your possession, and allow us to gaze upon Franklin's portrait?

This place may one day become a free speech zone, but at the moment the cowardly and miserly behavior of Martin has turned it into a more severe version of the Forum Archipeligo.

[de officiis]

[Montegriffo]

When Martin starts paying us for our valuable contributions is it going to be a merit based system or a flat rate per post? If the later, I've got an endless supply of cute kitten pics the forum needs to see. If the former, that's just elitist and dirty money that will eventually rot your soul.

[Montegriffo]

[Montegriffo]

[Hastur]

[Fife]

[K@th]

[heydaralon]

When Martin starts paying us for our valuable contributions is it going to be a merit based system or a flat rate per post? If the later, I've got an endless supply of cute kitten pics the forum needs to see. If the former, that's just elitist and dirty money that will eventually rot your soul.

Martin should give everyone a flat rate for having an account. Sure, I could make multiple accounts to collect more money, but I won't, because that would be wrong. If multiple accounts have the same ip address as me, that is mere coincidence. Maybe I got my siblings to register and participate, maybe I leave my wifi unsecured. There's no way to know. What I do know is that Martin should give money to each of those accounts, whoever is behind them. I'm getting a bit frustrated having to keep bringing this point up Monte. Martin knows what the right thing to do is, he is simply choosing not to do it. That is far more wrong than me making multiple accounts to collect the flat rate on each one from Martin, not that I would even think about doing that.

[Montegriffo]

HD, I've taken some time off from the important work of searching for cute kitten pics in order to give this subject the serious consideration it deserves.
First of all I'd like to thank you for the selfless effort you've put in to this matter and although I'm sure that your motives for suggesting a flat rate per account are genuine I think it isn't the way forward for two main reasons.
First of all your payment plan doesn't take into consideration compensation for the time spent on posting the valuable insights this place is known for which was your stated intention. For example, Deo's occasional copy and pasting of frivolous legal matters like the 4th ammendment would receive equal payment as my invaluable trebuchet memes and I'm sure you would agree that's just not right.
Secondly and more importantly as you have said yourself a flat rate per account is open to massive corruption. Let's face it, not everyone can be trusted to be as scrupulously honest as yourself. Personally the satisfaction I gain, from the knowledge that my posts explaining the laws of cricket are what keeps people coming back to to the MHF, is payment enough but others are more money oriented than you and I.
So I'd like to put forward my suggestion for a fair and equal solution to this thorny problem. I think a flat rate of 1 cent per post is the answer. To solve the possible cheating some might employ by endlessly repeating the same thing over and over I think the payment should only be made for posts containing original content.
In this way Nuke can finally make true his ambition to become a full time alcoholic and StA will be able to fund his gym membership and steroid adiction. Capps will be able to buy whatever you can get for 1 cent these days.