From Captain America in Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1 #537 during the first marvel civil war. With some editing of course.
“I was just a kid…A million years ago, it seems sometimes. Maybe 5 years ago when I joined. I was reading Mark Twain.
And he wrote something that struck me right down to my core…something so powerful, so true, that it changed my life. I memorized it so I could repeat it to myself, over and over across the years. He wrote –‘In a republic, who is the forum?
Is it the admins which are for the moment in the saddle? Why, the admins are merely a temporary servant: it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a dedicated member and who isn’t. It’s function is to obey orders, not originate them.
Who, then is the forum? Is it the news bot? Is it the site host? Why, these are mere parts of the country, not the whole of it, they have not command, they have only their little share in the command.
In a monarchy, the king and his family are the country: In a republic it is the common voice of the people each of you, for themself, by themself and on their own responsibility, must speak.
It is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of site hosts, news bots, admins, or the empty catchphrases of moderators.
Each must for themself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man.
To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your forum, let men label you as they may.
If you alone of all the forum shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have your duty by yourself and by your country. Hold up your head. You have nothing to be ashamed of’.
Doesn’t matter what the news bots say. Doesn’t matter what the admins or the trolls say. Doesn’t matter if the whole forum decides that something wrong is something right.
This forum was founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences.
When the trolls and the admins and the whole forum tells you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole forum–
–No you move.”
