I’m a Progressive Democrat.

On many topics I agree with other Progressive Democrats. However on some topics, I do not.

On occasion, I may even agree with a conservative.

Regardless of my viewpoint on any given subject, I feel I should have the right and the opportunity to express my viewpoint…plus any information or documentation to back up that view-point.

This is where I am finding a problem.

A BIG problem.

There are many people I almost always agree with on Care2, but it is rarely that I find anyone that I agree with 100% of the time.

When I agree, people are glad to have my comment.

When I disagree, the MAJORITY of people are happy to have my comment.

Then, there are some people who believe in censorship. These people delete any comments that disagree with their viewpoint. These people I believe are clearly in the WRONG!

Why have comments if you only allow comments that agree with your position on a topic? Isn’t, and shouldn’t, the purpose of having comments to have a space for people to discuss all viewpoints on an issue? Shouldn’t people be allowed to share all viewpoints, even those that disagree with the premise of the article or story?

Recently I ran across one such example of censorship, and published an article with my response that had been repeatedly deleted from the comment section. I thought at the time that this was a rare event on Care2, and usually people allowed all comments whether they agreed or disagreed with the premise of the shared story.

( https://antiteapublican.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/climate-change-denier-censors-climate-change-proof/ )

The latest censorship on Care2 by an article submitter occurred when I happened to have a different viewpoint on Aspartame. I posted a comment with documented information, not expecting anything unusual. Later when I looked at the article, my COMMENTS HAD BEEN REMOVED!!!

Needless to say, I wasn’t happy about being censored.

If someone’s posted story has the facts to back it up, they shouldn’t be worried about a dissenting opinion… UNLESS THE DISSENTING OPINION IS GOING TO PROVE THEIR INFORMATION WRONG!

That is the only reason I can come up with for why my comments were repeatedly removed.

Here is the original information posted on Care2.com: http://www.care2.com/news/member/230449147/3634087

Here are the comments I posted. Party of the information was allowed to stay, finally. But part of the information was CENSORED (deleted). I posted the same information a second time with the request that it NOT be deleted, but the person deleted it anyway.

Here is a copy of the CENSORED information! (I always keep a backup copy of comments I post for situations such as this. )

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I use aspartame sweetened drinks daily as part of my weight reduction program and have lost 33.5 pounds so far. Also, aspartame has been one of the most studied food ingredients in history and has been proven to be safe.

“Aspartame is one of the most thoroughly studied ingredients in the food supply. It was tested in more than 100 scientific studies before the FDA approved it in 1981. The studies were conducted in laboratory animals and humans, including healthy infants, children, and adults, lactating women, people with diabetes, obese individuals, and people who are carriers of the rare genetic disease phenylketonuria (PKU). Upon approving aspartame, the FDA Commissioner noted, “Few compounds have withstood such detailed testing and repeated, close scrutiny, and the process through which aspartame has gone should provide the public with additional confidence of its safety.”

After FDA approval, extensive additional research has been done with aspartame, which further confirmed its safety for the general population. In fact, aspartame has been tested for more than three decades, in more than 200 studies, with the same result: Aspartame is safe.

In addition to FDA, aspartame has been reviewed and determined to be safe by the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization, the Scientific Committee on Food of the European Union, and the regulatory bodies of over 100 countries. Independent health organizations, such as the American Medical Association’s Council on Scientific Affairs, the American Diabetes Association, and the American Dietetic Association, have reviewed research on aspartame and found it to be safe. Links to numerous governments, expert committees, and health organizations, which have confirmed the safety of aspartame, can be found at http://www.aspartame.org.”
<a href=”http://www.aspartameresource.com/safety.html”>http://www.aspartameresource.com/safety.html</a&gt;

Aspertame Myths & Facts http://bit.ly/AspertameMythsFacts

The food ingredient people SHOULD be worried about and avoiding, is high fructose corn syrup. It has contributed greatly to the obesity epidemic in the United States.
“excess fructose is being metabolized to produce fat, while glucose is largely being processed for energy or stored as a carbohydrate, called glycogen, in the liver and muscles.

In the 40 years since the introduction of high-fructose corn syrup as a cost-effective sweetener in the American diet, rates of obesity in the U.S. have skyrocketed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1970, around 15 percent of the U.S. population met the definition for obesity; today, roughly one-third of the American adults are considered obese, the CDC reported. High-fructose corn syrup is found in a wide range of foods and beverages, including fruit juice, soda, cereal, bread, yogurt, ketchup and mayonnaise. On average, Americans consume 60 pounds of the sweetener per person every year. ”

<a href=”http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/”>http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/</a&gt;

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The thing is… Whether or not you agree with what I have to say, shouldn’t I be allowed to voice my opinion? Shouldn’t I be allowed to voice my information?
With whatever stories I may post, I allow people to voice their opinions… REGARDLESS WHETHER OR NOT THEY AGREE WITH THE STORY I HAVE POSTED. I believe it is only FAIR for others to have the same respect for the comments that I post!!!
I can understand a comment being deleted for being OFF TOPIC. I can understand a comment being deleted for attacking a person or group of people. I can understand a comment being deleted for promoting something illegal, or making threats against a person or group of people. I CAN NOT accept a comment being deleted for having an ALTERNATE VIEWPOINT on the topic of the story!