Especially those that pride themselves on the "high caliber of their discussion"-and the "fine people on their front porch". Fortunately I jumped in the gutter from the start-so I have no such lofty ambitions.
But this post-by my Canadian Counterpart-quite accurately describes why the collective blogosphere is a huge failure. Like every major internet outlet for public expression, the blogosphere has been hijacked by those who care nothing for it. Just about every outlet for public discussion on the internet has been ruined by stupidity, and that is quite true in blogs that call themselves "Mil-blogs". And yes Uncle Dumbo-that includes you.
Blogs in general, suck. This place less than others perhaps-but the symptoms of the disease are here as elsewhere. Here at Far East Cynic HQ, however , we do strive to be accurate-which is about the only thing keeping us going. But the pissy idiots like Erik Erikson, 3/4 of the mil-blogs, just about all of the major political blogs and even some of the expat ones-all have tested positive for incurable echo chamber syndrome.
Look, I know how to be successful, influential blogger who has lots of readers and makes money from their work. It isn't hard, really.
You always, always reinforce what your audience already believes and never challenge those core assumptions, regardless of how intellectually inconsistent or ridiculous they might be. You keep your posts under 800 words, which obliterates the possibility of putting anything that happened before last month in some kind of historical context, You mercilessly attack the other side, while justifying or ignoring the excesses of your own. Of course, if you can find a marginal cartoon character, like Jeremiah Wright or David Duke on your own side to denounce, that makes you look "fair." Whatever you do, make sure that cartoon character isn't Sarah Palin, lest you be denounced as "sexist" by people who spent sixteen years making Hillary Clinton jokes.
You link-whore relentlessly, and suck up to folks with audiences larger than your own. And you never disagree with your own side in public, no matter how damaging to your credibility doing so might be. Look at the high level of support George W. Bush had among very conservative Republicans during his spending spree and military adventurism, or the very liberal support for Bill Clinton during his corporatist term in office. Then look to what those former supporters say about them now.
It is a bigger trend really, and affects all major internet outlets. Twitter? Useless except for really famous people to get in trouble with. Nothing meaningful I know can be said in 140 characters or less-and besides who follows average nobodies like me? Facebook? Yea, that's rich. Here's a test-try to have a meaningful discussion with a "friend" who loves the teabaggers has gone to the dark side. It will simply lead to a gang fight-and no meaningful discussion will be accomplished. Do it enough and you learn quickly to move to stupid pictures of people on vacation, cars, any other innocuous thing. Out of fear mostly.
Major Media comments? Most require registration-and then spam comes your way as a result.
Its all a 100% , gold plated, failure.
It's entertainment! Any opposing view is not going to change your opinion and we out here know that. But if we poke you enough sometimes that warning growl turns into a bark, we recoil and get a laugh that you did not actually bite us. Besides that I don't believe half of what you write you really believe.
Well, I have news for you-when it comes to politics and sex, all of what I write I really believe. If I didn’t believe it-I would not write it. Why would I have to put up with some asshole trying to physically attack me because he thinks I wrote something bad about his daughter? ( I didn’t-but about the system she works in). Politics in this country is fucked, and I'm right and the rest of the heard is wrong about the solutions. 🙂
Geez Skippy, I like your writing and enjoy reading your opinions, but that guy was no asshole for jumping in on his daughter's case. Anyone would be offended in that situation and react strongly; imagine his pride in her fine achievements in a difficult environment.
This does not mean I think you were wrong in your ideas or theme, but when you phrase things roughly and crudely, you (and all of us) will offend people, sometimes violently. I know, I was very prone to doing such things face to face when I was younger, and did become involved in some violent reactions.
It is one thing to be right, it is entirely another think how you may go about communicating the fact. 18 years in Asia has taught me a little about taking a more 'harmonious' approach; most areas have such a variety of ethnic and religious mixes that blandly offending people can be disastrous.
And being absolutely correct when everyone else is wrong often changes nothing, is not recognized or acknowledged later (often years) when the rest of the world catches up and changes course. This I know very well from bitter experience, too 🙁
Expressing an opinion sharply is one thing-threatening me and my livilihood because of a first amendment protected right is quite another thing entirely. I don't begrudge him expressing his opinion-but as I pointed out at the time- we were talking past each other. And if you recall I made clear the reasons for the phraseology and caveated its reasons. His and his feminist supporter were not looking at what was cited or written later in the article. I've not removed that post because the more I have to think about it, its more pertinent than ever. His comments are not the issue-his actions outside the comment block were. And that's were we will leave that.
That said-you are correct; how you say things is important. And I do accept your final point-it would seem we have shared some similar experiences.
Sad but all too true I fear.
Shouldn't –
" And you never disagree with your own side in public, no matter how damaging to your credibility doing so might be. "
actually be written as –
" And you never disagree with your own side in public, no matter how damaging to your credibility not doing so might be. "
(where 'not doing so' would indicate 'not disagreeing with your side')?
A fine point, I know, but it would seem to make more sense that way, at least to me. Just wondering.
Depends on who you want credibility with/
The 'front porch' call to mind Dan Gallery's YORC YORC! which for some reason stands in aviator language for 'you're absolutely right commander'. I'm pretty sure I could move every drop of fuel on an LPD with the vacuum suckage of the front porch alone. For some reason EOSS specifies using the fuel oil transfer pump but why bother?
I found little pleasure in blogs after Lex. You and Maggie's Farm are about the last and you're mostly wrong about anything you write about when it comes to economics, foreign policy, military anything, Canada, etc.
I hear they're about to fire the MDA. He gets a write up every day in the Washington Post. Also, they're putting hi-speed rail from Huntsville to Tokyo in next year. It will take 6 months to build and cost .99 cents/mile. Oh, and Congress just passed the NVA17 law. No Virgins Allowed over 17. The US is looking up eh?
Curtis-believe every thing you read about LTG O'Reilly. He's a bastard and his treatment of his people was an open secret in DC. That it took this long to fire him-is a tragedy. One reason I am in Germany is because of his open contempt for his people. The man is a bad guy; brilliant to be sure-but an prime example when program mangers don't come from the "the line".
NVA-17? Sounds like a good plan! 😉
Another Sestak, but me, I don't get it. I worked briefly for a couple of them in the fleet. I shared my plan with them. It worked.