Welcome to Naberrie Fields! Introductions & banter

No worries, AD. I've just slapped a response down. Unique to Naboo News.

That last sentence because... I actually saw the article earlier on Facebook from another source. I wrote an even stiffer response on there before my alternate response on Anthony's blog just now. But that first response was also more a defence of the prequels in general (crafted for a more apathetic/hostile discussion space). I plan to reproduce that response of mine on Naberrie Fields shortly. 

Always a pleasure to meet another Prequel fanboy. Welcome! 

Alexrd did a fine job. It looks great.

I actually found out about this place through a comment of yours on the great Naboo News. I've been reading your comments and am a fan, just like when you posted on TF.Net.

And Hayden is always a good choice for an avatar. 

I was wondering for the longest time why you stopped posting on TFN. Unfortunate that you got banned, your posts were sorely missed. I've gotten banned from there a few times myself for criticizing Disney. I wish I had found this place sooner, but it's great to be here now. 

Technically, I was even re-excommunicated last year. 

I've mentioned my original ban several times on here, with this being one of the more detailed explanations of what happened and how TFN jumped the shark:

Reply #74 from this thread (posted Jun 29 2020)

It doesn't surprise me that Seeker, despite posting on TFN, is unaware of what happened to me and several other prequel fans. The mods are very good at downplaying their crimes and covering their tracks. Keeping people in the dark is how one maintains power -- an informed populace, after all, is one that can pose a threat to a power structure that rules over them, when they start putting the pieces together and realise how corrupt and illegitimate that power structure really is. Thus, anyone who sees through that power structure early on, or calls the dogmas it is founded on into question, must be quickly cut off at the head and removed. If there's one historical truism, it's that humans continually fill power vacuums and easily find ways to control one another through coercion (backed up through force) and the useful tool of ignorance.

Of course, as all fascists and social engineers know, if you really want to control people, here's what you must do: seize control of language and dictate to people what they can and can't say. That way, you can narrow the Overton window of acceptable thought, reducing resistance and muzzling dissent in advance. The most effective way to achieve this is to pretend to allow a diverse conversation to take place, even as the range of conversation is artificially limited. Or as Noam Chomsky observed: "The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum."

Thus, on TFN, it is acceptable to debate the merits of one film or another, or even one character or another, provided you don't nakedly set the trilogies or copyright holders (i.e., Lucas and Disney) against one another, or imply that a (Disney) character was crafted to fit a corporate Hollywood (bourgeoise leftist) agenda. Interestingly, the same people that set those rules up don't believe those rules should ever (or, indeed, could ever) apply to themselves, or that they should ever be silenced or shamed out of negative commentary. Once positive toward Disney and actively protective of Disney's interests, they have now become very critical of choices made by Disney/LFL and frequently preach down toward and bully people who think differently. Some, on the other hand, either became or remain fans of Disney and the new films and may ban or censor other fans for the opposite reason. It is possible, therefore, to be removed for calling Rey a "Mary Sue" (or simply questioning the application of such a rule as I did), and it is equally possible to be removed for deeming Kylo a "fascist" (as happened to another member here -- though he has since had his account reinstated). 
 
Again, controlling language is how domination is achieved, combined with lying to the populace about the fate of people who have disappeared. It's extremely Orwellian. An overused term on the Internet, or fast becoming a cliche, but still true. People often make reference to "1984", but George Orwell laid most of it out in "Animal Farm". Napoleon lies to the other farm animals about the fate of Snowball, and it's from the latter book that we have the amusing yet chilling phrase, "Four legs good, two legs bad" -- used to drown out opposition to Napoleon in an echo of how Stalin whipped up crowds to drown out Trotsky. Later on, the slogan is insidiously revised to "Four legs good, two legs better", as the animals surrender all remaining critical thought and express their total obedience to Napoleon (who becomes more human-like and stands on two trotters as he grows more Sybaritic and detached from the needs and concerns of the mental and physical slave population he rules over). 

It's the same thing on TFN. The mods made rules, silenced the opposition, got everyone else to agree or intimidated them into conformity, and then set about revising or relaxing those rules -- when it came to their opinions -- at their leisure. Indeed, one of the most active mods on there, who boasts about being a "third-wave feminist", even sneered that if users are banned, it's their own fault: i.e., mods are operationally and morally incapable of breaking rules. In the words of Richard Nixon: "When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal."

So the corruption there is vast. But a lot more is covered in my earlier post. And it's frankly impossible to cover it all. I have hundreds of links amassed already, concerning the invidious conduct of the mods (example after example after example). But that's another thread for another time.

On a final note, it's funny how so much of the mods' behaviour echoes the basic plotline of the PT and its emphasis on the corrupting nature of power. Whether it's the Jedi sliding down a path of militarism (with Mace even believing they should seize control of the Senate in ROTS), Palpatine aggregating more and more executive power to himself, the Republic sliding imperceptibly toward the Empire long before it is ever minted with that name by Palpatine (as Padme rightly recognises in her conversation with Anakin), or Anakin's tragic embrace of violence to remake the world in his image (based on a deep-seated fear of losing Padme), the prequels constantly warn of the ability of power to warp and deceive (much like the One Ring in LOTR). Naturally, the mods on TFN are both deceiving and deceived, and few of them have any real taste for the prequels -- which might explain why they tried to control the narrative toward Disney early on. They fear independent thought and have failed to heed the lessons of the PT. There is nothing new under the sun. 

As do I. It's a game that people play with a conscious aim in mind: to minimise dissent and stop a "mind fire" from burning down bad ideas that keep the existing power structure -- and those benefiting from that existing power structure -- intact.


I know. This is the madness that takes hold when little policemen indulge themselves and deem certain words and terms out of bounds and illegal. It's almost baiting people into using those forbidden words and terms. That's probably a secondary aim: so that the grubby little policemen can justify their arbitrary power and enact punishments. The primary goal, of course, is to shut people up and keep the oppressive polity going (allowing whoever is benefiting from that polity to keep benefiting from it and not be subject to scrutiny or loss of power).


I think it's a book we all ought to become familiar with. Unfortunately, humanity is a morbid mass of blind forces acting with the same delicacy a bulldozer takes when it knocks over trees and kills a colony of ants in the process. 

To name one demon in the mix:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect

People won't come to your aid on a message board (at least, usually), for various reasons, one of which is that message boards are a social commons filled with others. The bystander effect applies to users and mods both. Both, in different ways, see themselves as but a pixel (though mods drunk on power also fancy themselves as little tyrant kings), and the responsibility they feel toward any action (or inaction) is therefore diffused among the crowd or cohort to which they belong, or that they see themselves as belonging to. They are fine to embrace apathy in place of a conscience. And in that respect, bringing them under the control of a set of rules or axioms (even if, on paper, they might question or disdain those rules or axioms) is made easier. And, as mentioned, you have Nixonian-style moderators who believe themselves free of all sin and bias.

You might say we are located in the Outer Rim, far beyond the reach of the Empire.

Welp, the Millenium Falcon is a bit clunky too, but we love her anyway. And, honestly, this place is a moisture farm in the middle of a Tatooine desert compared to the rest of the internet. It is so rare to find this many Prequel lovers in one place.

smittysgelato That sure is some nice ice-cream you got there.