Dear Paul,
The purpose of this letter is to clarify the nature of your relationship with the Libertarian Alliance Blog. Before you consider answering it, I urge you to read it more than once, and perhaps also to show it to a trusted friend.
At the end of last year, we made an agreement. You would be welcomed as a commenter on this Blog. In return, you would behave on it like a gentleman. You have, in the past week, broken this agreement. You have begun, once again, to treat any failure to agree with you as both a sign of moral depravity and a personal insult. I am also aware of your Facebook conversation with Tom Burroughs and Tim Starr, in which you speak most contemptuously of the Libertarian Alliance, and claim that you gave us a “second chance” and that we have let you down.
For the avoidance of doubt, let me explain your true position. This Blog is private property. It is owned by David Davis and by me. We allow you to leave comments on it, and choose not to edit or reject any of your comments. It is exactly as if either of us were to let you into a physical property, to join in a discussion round the kitchen table. You might be welcomed in. You might be invited to speak your mind with great freedom. You might have a quiet audience as you set out your own opinions and insisted that only you knew the complete truth on any matter. There would, even so, be implied rules of debate. One of these would be not continually to insult your host and the other guests. Another would be not generally to exhaust their patience. Break these rules, and you would be reprimanded. Ignore the reprimand, and you would be asked to leave. Refuse to leave, and you would be expelled by whatever means were most convenient.
Do not take this letter as a threat of expulsion. But it is a reprimand. If necessary, it will be followed by a request for you to stop posting comments. David and I hope the reprimand will be sufficient. If not, we have no doubt you will obey our request to leave. This Blog is private property, and you have spent a lifetime proclaiming your devotion to the principle of private property. You would surely not wish to find yourself in the anomalous position of writing in defence of property rights while violating them. We will add that you have put a lot of effort into this Blog, and are able to reach a wider readership than you can in any other forum where you contribute. You would not wish to commit a trespass by ignoring a request to leave, and you would not wish to be asked to leave.
We therefore ask you from this moment to conduct yourself on this Blog in a gentlemanly manner. You may sometimes find it useful to consult David and me on the specific meaning of our request. Sometimes, we may volunteer guidance. But here are some general rules of behaviour:
1. Do not denounce failure to agree with you as evidence of moral depravity;
2. Do not take failure to agree with you as a personal insult;
3. Do not insist that anyone who disagrees with you is a Communist at war with all private property, or an anti-semite and holocaust revisionist, or a clown whose main ambition is to raise your blood pressure;
4. Before deciding that someone has disagreed with you, read his posting with greater attention than has been your habit so far on this Blog;
5. Do not leave long and rambling comments on posts where you have nothing meaningful to say;
6. Do not leave long and rambling comments one after the other, until what you have written is longer than the original post.
These first three rules are absolute requirements. Keep breaking them, and we will ask you to leave. The last three are more for guidance.
All David and I ask is that you should accept these rules or leave at once. We are not interested in debate on any of the above. We will accept no compromise. Do not ask whether or how the rules will apply to anyone else. David and I own this Blog. We do not have to answer to anyone for how we use our property. If you think we are treating you unfairly, that is unfortunate, but you have always insisted that property owners have no obligation to behave fairly.
As said, this letter is a reprimand. It would be most regrettable if we had to follow it with a request for you to stop posting comments.
Regards,
Sean
