"Gary Drescher" wrote in message
. ..
[...]
But when a bona fide member of the group advocates exterminating Muslims
and threatens to lynch them, it is unconscionable for people participating
in that conversation to let the remarks pass.

"Participating" being a key point. I don't think that's what Thomas was
saying...he seems to expect each and every newsgroup participant who sees an
abominable statement like that to respond with a disagreement.

I agree that if you are in a discussion and let something like that just go
unanswered, that's tacit approval. But for someone not engaged in the
discussion at hand (and this includes even if they are engaged in some other
portion of the thread...we've had two, three, sometimes more levels of
bifurcation in a single thread and it's unreasonable to expect everyone
participating in one branch to monitor and/or respond to other branches), I
don't see any reason to expect a response.

Pete