I like Joe well enough, but then our opinions are generally similar. Not identical ~ for one thing, I am very decidedly an ex-Catholic while Joe is still a proud and happy member ~ but roughly the same.

But I don't agree with many instances of censorship on Mudcat. I don't consider it particularly excessive or onerous, but none at all would be my preference. I consider this exercise to be primarily an exchange of ideas, don't take anything personally, and don't intend anyone else to take my pronoucnements personally.

However, I realize that many others DO get personally involved, to the point of seriously hurt feelings, etc. I don't really understand it, but I grudgingly recognize that such feelings deserve consideration.

Am I "getting what I deserve" because I "allowed" the present regime to gain control? Hell no! By the time I joined up, the powers-that-be were already in place. But I do accept things the way they are, with the reservation that I can and will complain when I have differences (like here and now).

We have a smallish but sufficiently vocal number of members who are true conservatives and/or Republicans, and they seem to be allowed to express themselves at will. The cases of censorship on these political matters of which I am aware involve characters with fairly obscure and unusual agendas (e.g., pro-Nader/OK-with-Hilary/anti-Obama) who express themselves with a bit of vitriol.

I'd prefer to be allowed to read everything and form my own opinion, but I can live with the current fairly-modest level of thought control. It's more benign than what's happening out in the real world, believe it or not.

Another caveat: I don't know, nor do any of us, how things would be hereabouts if there were no controls, and everything anyone submitted was posted. Might not be pretty ~ I've seen some forums (e.g., at local newspaper sites) where the ignorant and mean-spirited seem to crowd everybody else out.

By the way: No one should be surprised that members of a folk-music forum, American members anyway, would be further "left" as a group than the general population. Much of the emerging interest in folk music in this country that occurred about a generation ago was deeply involved with political causes and movements for social change, peace and freedom, etc. Not everyone "got here" by that route, of course, but many of us, perhaps most of us, did.