(Via Instapundit, via American Thinker).
The author writes: “Something is Rotten in Blogmark: Sometimes I am embarrassed to call myself a member of DKos. This is one of those times. There is a sort of groupthink, Lord of the Flies kind of behaviour at DKos over certain issues that absolutely makes me nauseated.”
Her diary generated over 1,000 comments. Mostly angry.
Possibly of interest to BMG readers since DailyKos is the most popular Dem political website. Any Kos readers also alienated by the lack of transparency there?
Please share widely!
Though frankly I’m personally getting real tired of Kos himself…even more tiresome are the endless “meta” discussions like the one you link to. Incidentally, instead of “the author” you should say “Maryscott O’Connor” so that people who have already seen it (most everyone) would know what you were referring to without following the link.
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My take…representing no one but me…is that the internet is still the Wild West, and it’s generally a good idea to keep your head down if you don’t want to get shot. Regarding “transparency”–I think the “netroots” take themselves WAY too seriously. Kos may be getting a bit of a big head from all the attention he’s gotten lately, but his followers seem to have a much worse case of it. And MSOC (you know you’ve made it on dKos when you’re referred to by a four-letter abbreviation) is the worst of the lot in this regard.
that you had to click into a link that wasn’t identified to your satisfaction.
You can see right through him.
This sort of thing happens with every single Internet community once it has reached critical mass and has, in fact, happened at Dkos mulitple times over already. The only difference now is that it’s happening in public and people are paying attention.
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It may very well happen here, too, given time. It’s like entropy. It always wins.
i hate that entropy always wins.
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especially since i work at a school.
Some time ago, probably about 9-12 months or so, when it seems to me that it changed from a place where people were revved up about ideas and interested in debate and process to one where thousands of very like-minded folks were mostly interested in shouting at those they disagreed with — discussion be damned. I posted a piece I wrote there opposed to the NYC transit strike (which I still think was a disgraceful and illegal), for example, and instead of debate got FUCK YOU!!. I have seen the same pattern repeated many times there on a variety of issues. David, Charley and I are well aware of what has happened at Kos and will do our best to resist the laws of therodynamics — and also try to avoid forming partnerships with stock pumpers. Personally, I think discourse here has improved in recent weeks, compared to a few months age when we had our big Rules of the Road debate.
oh, never mind.
are the non-political diaries (of course everything has a political angle), like Darksyde’s “Science Friday” pieces or Bill in Portland Maine’s “Cheers and Jeers” humor pieces. Sometimes there’s actual news to be found as well. I’ve also found there is still plenty of room for reasonable discussion, but unfortunately there is always a “hot button” issue that’s too radioactive to admit of differing opinions. And the “meta” stuff….forget it. What’s most disturbing is the knowledge that, according to every survey, most people on dKos are age 40 or older….you’d think people our age would be a little more…mature.
might enjoy my little “snark” of yesterday
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“Daily Kos ID for sale“
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Mark
with a low user ID, I’ve been around that blog for a looong time. I was one of the angry ones, angry at the insatisable neurotic need of the diarist to demand attention. The diarist is the problem, imho, not Kos’s purported lack of “transparency.” This is a bogus issue, one that the purity & perfection crowd really warm to because it makes them feel ethical and righteous. Add to this a healthy (or unhealthy, as the case may be) helping of the cult of personality, and you get what happened there this weekend.
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Calling a spade a spade, I say the whole thing is utter bullshit, and speaks more to the navel-gazing groupies and sycophantic neurotics who hang on that particular diarist’s every burp and skip than it speaks to any meaningful or relevant issue in these troubling times.
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They don’t call me sweetness and light for nothing. lol.
Once a diarist gets “star” status, no matter what he or she writes will make the top 10 list.
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Fortunatly SusanG has started a “diary rescue” thread. She or a sub read all the diaries and front-page a list of good ones that didn’t make the “recommended” list.
because there are so many of them and my last recollection of reading them is that the signal/noise ratio is very low, Here, and to a lesser extent at MyDD, it’s worth my time to look at all the comments on individual threads, rate them, and so forth. I can get an idea of individual personalities.
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I still like reading Atrios, Kos, and some of dKos’ front-page posters for their content, but neither site works for me as a “community”.
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There’s often a “race to the bottom” in comment quality because the people with the most time and energy to post are often the least interesting posters. Most or all of the people on BMG seem to have lives…
I proposed a theory of mine on the Iraq War that liberals must committ themselves to winning the war even though we opposed it, proposed installing a pro US government regardless of its democratic tendencies etc, a realpolitik solution to a realpoltik war.
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In any case that Armando fellow was the first to jump on me and actually prevented my post which had enough replies to be on the front page from being viewed, I received a lot of hateful emails as well. Someone is right it lost its relevency 9-12 months ago when it moved from being a simple news outlet with liberal bias, a liberal Drudge that was interactive, to becoming this “netroots” movement that to me is highly dangerous to political discourse and offers a mob mentality.
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The shifting allegiances and Kos telling supporters who to vote for and give money to is also angering, as his the tendency to reward or bash politicians not based on ideological purity but based on personal relationships with Kos. Schiwietzer is far more conservative than Lieberman but he gets Kos accolades because he posted on Kos, Lamont asked Kos for support Liberman didnt, therefore Kos supports Lamont, who aside from the war is about as centrist as Liebermen.
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Like Ive said earlier there is no mentality like that here, we do have lives, this is a nice discussion board and not a political cult, although there is an inherent pro Deval bias (which I approve of) and an inherent pro Andrea bias (which I disapprove of) and no true fact checkers to make sure whats printed here is accurate. That is the danger when the new medium empowers individuals to create facts, granted Im tired of the pundit class telling me whos electable I also would prefer a professionals opinion every now and then which is why netroots are no substitute for political publications.
Schiwietzer is far more conservative than Lieberman but he gets Kos accolades because he posted on Kos, Lamont asked Kos for support Liberman didnt, therefore Kos supports Lamont, who aside from the war is about as centrist as Liebermen.
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I disagree. I think Kos supports Schweitzer because Schweitzer is about as progressive/populist as that part of the country could hope to elect at this time, and because Schweitzer is supportive of the Democrats, even embracing of his Democratic position.
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Lieberman, on the other hand, is in a part of the country that could elect a person far more progressive/populist than Joementum. Forthermore, Joe has not been supportive of the Dems, often going out of his way on the Sunday morning shows and elsewhere to play a moderate card, at the unnecessary expense of other Dems. That he’s running in the Dem primary and also as an indy is further evidence of his disloyalty to the Democratic Party.
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But, I’m not kos. I don’t know for sure. However, dividing Schweitzer and Lieberman along those lines does make sense to me, and is the reason why I’m glad Schweitzer is the governor of Montana but also glad that Lamont is challenging Lieberman in CT.
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Personally, I prefer the Next Hurrah, Think Progress, or Swords Crossed. Of course, there’s Jesus’ General, one of my faves, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.
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I don’t even care, particularly, for the front pagers on Kos these days. I read Kos himself and few of the old timers who are still around. The diaries are often reactionary and ill-informed, or, as in the diary cited in this case, just spittle-laden screeds. But the masses lap up the stuff.
…it’s the Bread and Circus of our day. (And I’m not talking about the grocery store)
Frankly, I gave up on DKos right around the time he decided to frontpage “Bill in Portland ME”. Why is a shtick stolen shamelessly from TV Guide (of all places) worthy of auto-frontpaging?
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More than that, though, it was the sheer size of the place. Just don’t have time for it. Hell, I barely have time for BMG, but it’s much more worthwhile due (at least in part) to its local emphasis. But it still does a decent job with national and world politics.
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Thanks, B, C & D.