Don Northup

[sjphoto]

Can't somebody make this guy go away?

[sjphoto]

Show and tell? Somebody show Don the way out and tell him not to come back.

[baja_traveler]

Well, it is a gallery of posted pictures - could have just as easily been about pornography or anything else. I dont fully agree with the slant either, but freedom to have open debate is exactly what makes this country great. Just look at the number of responses in the gallery - I've never seen a single gallery with so many in such a short time.

[gillettecraig]

He paid his money. If you don't like his approach or his politics, there are plenty of other galleries out there to use to massage your own preferences. Part of the progressive (since they don't like "liberal") conceit is that they are both right and have the only valid viewpoint. Neither is necessarily correct.

[catson]

If you don't like something don't look at it. whether you or anyone else likes it or not, we live in a free society and telling anyone that they can't speak their mind is wrong. So if you don't like what he says start your own gallery with your own point of view, it is your right!

[ukexpat]

He paid his money. If you don't like his approach or his politics, there are plenty of other galleries out there to use to massage your own preferences. Part of the progressive (since they don't like "liberal") conceit is that they are both right and have the only valid viewpoint. Neither is necessarily correct.

Let's not get into political history but the word "liberal" has been hijacked by the right wing and turned into a dirty word. The fact is that some of the greatest thinkers and politicians of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries were "liberals"...

[jcboyd]

Everyone does have a right to his or her opinion. Don does have a right to post what he wants to on his pages. We have the right to view or not to view what we choose. I live in the greatest country on earth, (in my opinion) the United States. The right given to Don to post these images is one small part of what makes the U.S. a great place to live. Again, my opinion.

Don’s political views, no matter how right or wrong he may be cannot be censored without giving up some of these rights.

john

[matiasasun]

As some of you did probably noticed I did participate in Don´s "debate". I do not share Don´s point of view, but, since this site is about photography and photography (no matter what) is a way to express, then a "debate" can be done about a photo. A photo will always reflect something of the man that clicks. A photo will always let us some impression, something to say. Art is political in every sense. And I´m not the first one to say this in these forums.

My critique here is different. I do not share the idea of using the "populars" for political propaganda. I´ve said that some times already. Populars are meant to be here to show and share art, not political posters. It is a thin line, I know, but it is a line for me.

What I really can´t stand for is Don using his space to censor (i mean delete) different opinions. As a lot of people do know, Don sends very rude Pmails, but in his pages he keeps only his opinions. He claims his site is for debate, but there will be no real debate untill messages keep being deleted. Here I will post a little picture I took from my screen. You can call it "museum of censorship in PBase":


As you can check on his gallery none of that opinions, or at least two others I read that were different from his view are posted now. They dissapear. That´s why I´m here to say the political debate should stay in the adecuate forums, not in the users site.

I hope not being too agreessive, I´m just posting something that happens, that reflects what´s happening in Don´s site. I´m deeply sorry if I broke the idea of this threat, but the point is simply: Political debate should stay on the adecuate forums. Don will not stand for different opinions about his pictures content.

Matias, Chile

Ps. Sorry Don, but it was the "right thing to do"....

[gillettecraig]

American liberals apparently are ashamed and embarrassed by being called liberal. Maybe that's because they have strayed from their past?

If liberalism has been hijacked, it's been hijacked from within. Playing the blame game and making excuses is part of the problem. An inability to articulate a viable or attractive position, tolerance of intolerant leadership, lack of positive internal or external dialog or spokespeople is hardly the fault of others.

But getting to the basic topic for this thread, there's seems to be some rather distinct lack of tolerance for the ideas he supports yet there have been numerous galleries and threads which supported opposing viewpoints. So he felt motivated to respond.

If you don't like his ideas, move on. But quashing his point of view because you don't like it is no more acceptable than calling for the deletion of all the galleries which promote other (or for that matter any) viewpoint.

[framewerkz]

Given past experience with Don, I've learned to give him a wide berth. Just like you wouldn't want to deal with that crazy drunk at 2am on your own.

One thing though - this is what he puts on that gallery of his:

*webmasters note: If you want to spread this message, please click the vote button at the bottom of this page. With the amount of liberal spin around pbase now, some of which is completely un-American, it would be the right thing to do. Thank you for visiting and have a great day.*

To me, it's somewhat misleading that Don represents himself to be the "webmaster" (sure, he might be webmaster of his own galleries) of PBase; I'm sure that Slug might have a problem with someone else claiming to (1) have his job and (2) using that position to support/endorse a political conviction. Quite stridently and unpleasantly too, I might add.

[annayu]

I think it's not fair to flame someone who can't defend himself here, extreme bad taste. On top of it, now all his galleries are deleted from the Popular galleries, the Greens and Cats were especially good.
/Anna

[phoenix_dz]

strange... there wasn't enough motivation to get rid of all this crap until the anti-kerry galleries started showing up

[455rocket]

The last time I looked a few minutes ago they (the good arty galleries) all seemed to be there in the popular galleries. Checkout the 90 day one for example, he has the #1 position there. Perhaps you should click reload or refresh to ensure your browser isn't showing an older cached version of the page.

[johnvr]

Don is posting pictures that are clearly not his. They're great shots, but so are the ones on stock image CDs. This is a site for posting one's handiwork, whether it's lousy or great and whether it makes a point or not. It is not a site to post somebody else's shots, period.

And, by the way, that goes for 'liberals' and for 'conservatives.'

[bobt54]

I think Slug would have to give up eating and sleeping to try to authenticate every photograph posted. Not just by Don but all the other abusers as well. Don and the rest of his political buddies have been properly banished to their own level of obscurity and I am glad to see them gone.