It seems to me that the only choice is to have someone read all comments and delete the offensive garbage before it’s published online.

“That being said, however, there is no reason that this website should tolerate the posting of opinions by hate-mongers who are likely to drag us down.”

Amen.

This problem seems to occur at every traditionalist conservative website, even Lawrence Auster’s, View From the Right, who is an ethnically Jewish Christian.  Auster acts as his own moderator to keep the anti-semitic stuff out. I suppose a moderator may be reequired here as well, and if that’s what it takes to keep Takimag from being polluted, then I’m for it.

On a more pleasant note, I look forward, Dr. G, to your detailed reviews of the three books you mentioned.

Right again Paul,you can be against the neocons and what Israel is doing without blaming all Jews with antisemitic rants.

Perhaps all of us who do not fit in the “whackjob” category can do our part by refusing to dialogue (and thus descending into the gutter) with these assorted ranters and ravers whose only purpose in life is to provoke reactions from their betters.  From this point on, I plan no more visits to the infernal regions where these bigots and morones fester.  Silence will be the only response.

Great Post.

I agree entirely, and if it is possible I recommend introducing some kind of registration system.  For whatever reason, I have found at Eunomia that the additional hurdle of logging in seems to keep these people away.

Allowing readers to flag abusive posts which could then be examined pronto might be the cheapest way to make this site even better!

I wouldn’t be so quick to turn the dialogue here into an echo chamber.  I find the comments by readers most entertaining and often more interesting and insightful than the writers on Taki’s roster.

Although I can fully appreciate the pleasure afforded by a website that allows everyone
to say his piece without posting requirements, I don’t think this website can afford
thatluxury. Therefore I lean toward the idea suggested by Dan Larison, John Zmirak, and
my wife that we move toward a system of registration. Lack of verbal restraint (what the
Greeks called parresia) can become the ruination of this website.

Thank you, some of the comments on this site, and the Chronicles site as well, are truly bizarre. Not just the antisemitic stuff, but the weird personal insults and abuse tossed at the authors.

Common courtesy as well as maintenance of good orderly discussion stipulate that one should comment on the subject matter of the article, not drag in extraneous matter such as impertinent remarks about the Jews, whether or not such are caustic and vilifying.  An adherence to a simple requirement of topicality in comments should eliminate much of the problem Prof. Gottfried complains of.

The majority of the nazi trolls come from littlegreenfootballs.com, where they have always accused taki of being an anti-semite, they then come here and try to post things such as that in order to reinforce the notion.

The Nazi’s (and their illegitimate progeny) belong on the ashheap of history along with Communists, flat-earther’s, and Commodore 64’s. The precepts of the National Socialists don’t require ‘outargue’-ing over and over again; they have long been found to be without merit or virtue, and deserve no more of our time.
Peace be with you.

Paul, your prudential post is just right; I was about to disagree with your later one about “registration,” and then came the one from C.P., a coward who won’t give his name but of course will spout racist nonsense.  My reluctance to regulate gives way to his venom.

I belong to three dog forums, and am a moderator on one of them.  Each forum is open to
guests to read, but only members can post.

The role of the moderator is to maintain civility on the board, keep folks on topic,
and get rid of trolls( people who post just to stir up trouble).

In my opinion you have trolls posting on this site.

Judaism is not a race but a religion and many people confuse Zionism with Judaism.

Are people denigrated because of their belief system? Certainly so.

Everyone on this planet is human. Everyone on this planet are Gods Children.

Its high time we stop putting our belief systens in front of what we are as we are all daughters and sons of man.

Paul,

Bravo, Paul.  Taki, please take action. 

Like others, I look forward to your reviews, especially of the Terrence Zuber book.
Not enough work has been published that treats the build-up to the Great War from the German
point of view.  Years ago, I taught European history at a small college in
Massachusetts.  I used to tell the students that the Schlieffen Plan required such
precision that it had to work perfectly or it wouldn’t work at all.  Unfortunately, it
didn’t work.  If it had, think how many lives would have been spared before a treaty
was negotiated and everyone returned to their pre-war borders, a la 1871.  After the Plague,
the Great War was the greatest human tragedy of the past millenium.

I fully agree that anti-semitic rants do not have any place in any intelligent conversation. At the same time I noticed that certain commenters wield the charge of anti-semitism as a club to stifle any discussion they don’t like, no matter how meritous or how unrelated to antisemitism the posting may be.
I learned to simply skip any comments that do not contribute in an intelligent way to the understanding of the topic at hand. It might help though, as was suggested before, to put the name of the contributor at the top of his comment. After a while I hope the propagandists will quit putting their effort in postings nobody will read. It would be a shame to curtail the usually enlightening and very often funny threads that develop on this very unique site.

A clean sweep of the haters and trolls would be welcome. I have only three suggestions:

1) Require registration and have the name before the comment. This way we can more easily scroll past commentators we dislike.

2)What is considered “hate speech” be made perfectly clear. Give us bright line.

3) Allow us to hate Cal Thomas - assuming he’s still alive - because he’s so boring.

“The Nazi’s (and their illegitimate progeny) belong on the ashheap of history along with Communists, flat-earther’s, and Commodore 64’s.”

Hey, I like the Commodore 64!

On a more serious note, can someone please explain how Jews are “anti-white” considering that most people who claim to be Jewish are white!

Someone said it above, but it’s true:  just as the irrelevant comments of the haters should
be removed, so should gratuitous attempts to provoke them.  I.e. sometimes Sid Cundiff
goes out of his way to list all those who should be purged.  If and when the real
anti-Semites are purged, I hope he’ll simply be satisfied with the result and not bring
them up gratuitously again.  Then there are the incoherent posts replete with “. . .” --
everyone knows what I’m talking about.  Hopefully the system used to screen out the
anti-Semites could be used to cut down on such posts as well.

Professor Gottfried,

Since Semites are not a homogenous group (culturally/linguistically), could you define anti-Semitism? When does it apply? Is it technically a political term?

Thanks.

Having previously suggested relocating the poster’s identifyer to the top in order to facilitate skipping the text, may I reiterate it. That solves the immediate problem each reader faces.

Registration, by all means.

Deletion by complaint, reasonable.

However, one does not want to set up a system that allows hatemongers to florish or false flag Jewish racists to block critucism of the zionist agenda in Palestine and America. Nor is it desirable that airbrushing of history by the eternal innocent victim crowd should be enabled. The latter two are hoary tactics of the progeny of Hertl and Trotsky.

There is an effective system of censorship in America, hidden because it is not government run.
This site should not become part of that programme. Takimag is an oasis. That is important.

Two more suggestions. Limit the size of comments. At some point, let up or submit an article. Also, limit the number of posts to two on a given article. The rants appear to involve extended discussions that veer from the original topic.

Granted, there are some loons that comment on this site. I think the registration option is by far the only good option—and, though, I respect Prof. Gottfried’s point, I’m not convinced the site should make wholesale changes to its protocol because of the least common denominators out there.

Though it may be best for the site that John is now focusing more on his book writing than on his blog contribution. Good luck in whatever Richard chooses to do…