This morning I noticed that the recent brachytherapy thread had been locked and regals’s posts had been removed.
While I certainly do not subscribe to regal’s characterization of prostate surgery as “butchery” and found his comments rude, I fail to understand why his posts were excised and the thread locked. It is undoubtedly offensive to surgery patients on this forum to have their chosen procedure described in such terms but it also may be helpful to new members to understand the passion that regal felt about this option. He was not obscene, his post was not directed at a specific forum member and he did not ridicule anyone in particular.
I have seen far more egregious violations of the forum rules without moderator censorship. One anti-religious poster has been allowed to describe people of religion as “freaks” and to ridicule their beliefs. And there are frequent ED discussions that may go over the line for a forum whose rules describe it as “family friendly”. I am not suggesting that these posts should have been censored nor do I think regal’s should have been.
As a radiation patient I’m sure I would be offended if my treatment choice was described in derogatory terms such as “butchery”. However, to be honest, I am equally offended when a moderator takes a backhanded slap at my choice by making the misleading and patently untrue statement, “…that we still lack critical unbiased controlled trial corroboration on the efficacy and side effects of brachytherapy.”
I guess my point is that, as a free speech advocate, I think we should be slow to judge and even slower to censor.
Just one guy’s take,
Tudpock (Jim)