When anyone starts regulating who can speak and about what-Watch Out and ask Why?
Bushco has basically shut down most avenues of HONEST administration in Congress, the Senate, Main stream Media etc., etc., with His Homeland Security, his dismantling of Democracy, the constitution, religion, education health care and on and on.
The Blind is leading the blind and look at all the people following in-step.
I’ve turned to conspiracy theories for answers for legitimate reasons. There is no TRUST in this government or politics anymore.
Anyone who has ever lived with an ABUSER or Drug/Alcohol addict understands this way of living- with no trust, always on guard, until one can get out of that environment.
We are in that kind of Environment now. George Bush is all of the above and he holds the ‘most powerful, important position in the world, or so I’ve been told. I want out of his environment. But his environment has affected almost every part of my life. He and his ilk have encroached on my sensibilities, on my privacy, on My Turf! And in my humble opinion, the ramifications will not be solved by voting or politics in the near future.
For starters the right to Vote- is now a lie. When we cannot trust our Vote to count, and there is proof, democracy becomes a joke.
When the world is lied to about the reasons for going to war and CHAOS becomes normal one MUST ask WHY?
When we cannot get HONEST Factual information from the NEWS reporters we must search for it, wherever it may take us.
When the dumbed-down culture becomes the majority, I ask why and what the fuck happened?
Not wanting to BLAME all of mankind for being so damn STUPID, I began searching for other reasons that could cause such Blind mentality.
Knowing now that MONEY, GREED and POWER are now the three most important aspirations of the ownership society and I don’t qualify or fit in that mind-set, I need to look for the reasons that that mindset is being engrained in many of the least of us. I need to know why people are still allowing themselves to be DUMBED DOWN! I need to know why we as a group are not doing more to STOP the Insanity. The problem is much bigger than Kos and spending wasted hours challenging each other with words and political ping pong.
Kos is only 33. I have a daughter that age. He does not speak for me and is showing his narrow focus life inexperience of the real world.
We were CONSPIRED against. There are Conspiracies that need to be brought out into the open Whether He likes it or not. Conspiracies do shock one’s ‘intelligence’ now and then, but many have been and are being proven.
Keep your minds OPEN people. If you don’t think the ‘unthinkable’ you have been dumbed down.
I cross-posted this from KOS because he has again, put restrictions on free speech and worse Free-Thought. Why? I ask.
giv’m hell rosee ; )
I think what is desperately needed is to have something proven. Brought out into the light of day. The status quo is just too deeply ingrained in the American mind. The use of patriotism as a hammer used to beat people back into place is the most glaring example of “conform or be cast out”. Those who actively engage in and carry out conspiricies against us and the country feel snug and protected by the inability of most people to believe the worst about their country and thus, themselves. The deal at Kos is predictable since he clearly craves the attention of mainstream thinkers and party players, hoping to elevate himself into their company, and people who stray from the message are definetily a threat to his ability to climb that ladder. Nonetheless, it is his blog. The rest of us are left to seek out voices and venues that more closely resemble our own beliefs and that’s just the way it is. Imo, time spent trying to open the minds of those with titanium skulls, is wasted time. They don’t get it, and may never get it. Just my 2 cents. I agree with you 1000 pct. We desperately need more open minds.
Peace
Good stuff.
Excellent! I’ve come to loathe the phrase “reality-based community” because it’s so frequently been used to shut people down when they raise questions some feel are beyond the pale. By all means, don’t believe everything you hear — but since when are “we” on the left in the business of ruling it out of bounds to question authority? The proper target for anger, it seems to me, is not those who wonder about possible conspiracies, but those in power who make it so easy, because they cultivate by their actions an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust, to turn to such explanations.
People who cover their ears and scream “I’m not listening!” at the mention of conspiracy remind me of something I once heard Janeane Garofalo say on Air America. Can’t remember the quote verbatim, but it was something along these lines: Tell people an election was stolen in the Congo, and they’ll nod and say, Oh yes, of course. Tell them an election was stolen in Ohio, and they’ll roll their eyes and call you a nut. The difference too often rests purely on the assumption of American exceptionalism, which is frequently just another form of unexamined prejudice.
You probably feel as if you’re shouting down a well sometimes, Roseeriter, but I, for one, am listening. Hell, Rigorous Intuition–speaking of conspiracy theorists–is one of my favorite blogs.
It isn’t only a matter of having certain topics shut down, you are also supposed to present things only in certain ways. You must have solid facts before it is possible to have them, you must be able to back your opinions up with reliable sources in a pit of quicksand where no footing is reliable, you may not speak of the uneasy feeling in the pit of your gut, the feeling that warns, Danger Will Robinson, danger.
A government that would create Cointelpro is a government capable of any conspiracy.
Reality based, yeah right. Ask any Buddhist about reality!
Do you have a link?? LOL!
on Rigorous Intuition? Sounds like it’s right up my alley as my intuition is working at 1000% right now- seriously!
I appreciate your support too..Thanks.
I can’t even believe you’ve never read it! And when you do you’ll see why I’m grinning right now. I don’t know how to do links and am too lazy to learn at the mo, so forgive me if I just give it to you this way:
http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/
Be warned. You think YOU see conspiracies. . .!
It is raining here today and I just finished scrubbing floors so now I have something fun to do. Thanks Kansas!!
That’s all I had to do?? Just Copy it? Who knew? God, now I’ll be linking like crazy.
Reality based, yeah right. Ask any Buddhist about reality!
Don’t ask me – I’m still learning. 🙂
I suppose that’s a typical Buddhist answer though, isn’t it? 🙂
Great diary and insite. I have to agree with you on everything you said here. I want to think if we get rid of dubyas mind (rove) we can make this WH obsolete. If we can get rove in jail, then maybe we can get some confusion in the WH that will bring them down quicker. I know duyba has not got the mind-thought to do all this himself. Cheney is too sick to do much on his own. Beside he will only be more transparent without rove. So I hate to admit it if we can get the mind of this whole mess muted then maybe we have a chance.
As far as the voting rights, this time it is up to us to see that no fraud is done. We will have to sit at the booth and see that the ppl get to vote. We have to insist on a paper trail. We have to put the machines that fail to work, away and when we do, we must cancel all republican voting on that machine as well. If one machine fails to work, then we have to assume that they are all broken and postpone the election until such time that they all work and properly and everyone has a chance to vote.
He wants to be more “mainstream”. He has gotten a taste of being sought after as an expert and a mover and shaker and it has changed him in a lot of ways. Where before the blog was free wheeling and he allowed views that did not reflect his own, now he is trying to hone the image so that it more reflects his own ideas and views.
It is his blog and he can do with it as he pleases, truely.
That being said we leave him his blog and find other wheres and ways to express our views. He is only human and when we look at conspiracies we have to find the human motivations behind them or lose ourselves in fearing that demons are on the loose.
I agree that voting counts are iffy. But I think if we could come up with good leadership we could overwhelm any count variations. So much so that an off count would trigger something akin to the “orange revolution”. It is good leadership we have to search for and foster.
to be fair, the comments in roseeriter’s Kos diary are in the opposite direction, meaning it’s not just Kos in the community. There appear to be many supporting comments from various posters for the sentiment that how you approach topics is important – and that’s really the only point. See here, for example.
That, in no way, is meant to undermine this diary. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. But a fair picture is called for.
Do I find the responses being different here compared to dKos interesting? Sure. They’re different and complementary communities. It’d be a shame if they just mirrored each other. But the disagreement about this extends far beyond markos.
like an intractable problem that this site is a sounding board for criticizing Daily Kos. It makes me uncomfortable, but at the same time it has its uses.
I made a comment in Hunter’s diary, and that is all I really have to say about this.
I agree it hurts the whole Daily Kos community to have recommended diaries accusing Bush of mass murder of innocent Britons without any semblance of proof.
But the reaction to them has been sanctimonious. I can craft a theory that Bush and Blair felt they needed to do this attack in order to avoid losing the war.
I can also craft a theory that Muslim terrorists did it to punish Blair for joining the coalition.
Right now, neither one has any supporting evidence. Right now, both are theories.
One theory is okay to say, and the other is embarrassing. But don’t insult people’s inteliigence and call then unreasonable because they are suspicious.
Did the FSB bomb the Moscow apartments in 1999 in order to start the second Chechen War? I’m not sure. But it is not outside the realm of possibility. When it comes to winning and losing wars, and strategic control of the Middle East, many unthinkable things suddenly seem possible.
So, I understand the horror of seeing diaries getting recommended that are going to make the site a sitting duck for ridicule and marginalization. But speculation of the true bombers is fair game.
People should realize, however, that those diaries are damaging to the community, even if they wind up being true.
Things are complex.
well taken comments.
I don’t know that there is an answer, just many answers. Nor do i expect the fundamental disagreements to suddenly go away. But some of the diaries were just awful pieces of work. Had they been ignored instead of recommended, the reaction might have been different.
The same would be true if polite and respectful disagreement showed what was wrong with them, assuming the diarist rsponded to such (big assumption). That’s been in short supply since november, alas.
Either way, my point is that it’s the community that takes some responsibility, not Kos alone.
check this out. Right wing blogs all over the internets were searching for something on Kos to use for their own purposes on the trusday of the bombings.
Conspiracy theory? Nah, just a fact.
Good to see you over here. I think you add a valuable perspective to the site and I hope you continue to grace us with your presence 🙂
As for you not wanting to be a politician… hmmm… does that mean you won’t be running in the primary against Joe… 😉
cheers,
spider
Heh. ctkeith is working very hard on that front, thanks, and I’m sure will come up with someone to rally around.
It’s good to discuss standards and how to approach topics. It’s human nature to want to be a part of a community and to live within whatever standards apply. How community standards are applied and enforced says everything about the community as a whole.
If you want to engage others in democracy, democracy should be the example. If you want to engage others in critical thinking, critical thinking should be the example. If you want tolerance, tolerance should be the example. IMO, saying “you’re just making shit up” and “People like you don’t get it” and, “Look, you want to wear the tin foil, wear it. I couldn’t care less. Just don’t do it here.” serves none of these purposes.
The common theme is intolerance, and it is IMO encouraged. That’s a sad thing. If I float something out there and anyone wants to question my logic, my reasoning, my facts, that’s welcome and appreciated. I will learn from the process. None of us have all the answers. Attack me or anyone else, the result is not learning, collaboration and cooperation, it’s alienation. What purpose does that serve?
It’s not a one way street and there are two sides to every story, of course. Kos is his own person and my style, personally, is different. I dislike the confrontational approach. Snark’s, okay, but only when judiciously applied.
I’m sure, OTOH, it’s frustrating to see a proliferation of outrageous, poorly sourced diaries make the recommended list day after day.
This is old ground. When I was front paging there, I saw it as a front pager’s duty to facilitate, intervene occasionally, and moderate often. We found it helpful, after some degree of angst in working it out, to use the diaries to vet things and keep them off the front page until ‘riper’. Now, at least, it isn’t about whether it’s on the front page, it’s whether it’s in the recommendeds, or in the diaries at all. But some of the diaries have (as a fellow named BooMan notes) been just awful. And I don’t see it as an absolute right to publish whatever garbage folks want.
Of course, there was no golden age. Before the election I had diaries about the benefits of bestiality to deal with (honest!) and I got awfully tired of being called joe leiberman. And IMHO, the primaries were worse. Get enough smart, savvy and passionate folks together, and that’s the way it is.
Interesting problem, to have outrageous, poorly sourced diaries make the recommended list day after day. I think that begs the question, why? Is the quality of content dwindling as a whole, is there a shift in the user population, or is there a shift in what users consider quality content? I don’t know.
We do know why grassroots are so effective, not only if fund raising but in shaping public opinion. The outrageous is out there and can’t be banned. We can shield our children from the outrageous or we can give them the skills to think for themselves. Why not take the same approach with adults? Since most people do want to live within community standards, carrots work better than sticks.
there have always been such diaries. Carrots don’t always work with those who have a different agenda than the site professes, though they are preferred, no doubt.
Some (not all or most) of them are deliberate provocation. Grow big enough, and you’ll have that happen here.
Everybody has a carrot. That’s the success in organizations from the PTA to the CIA. It’s the underbelly of the “ownership society”. Carrots work best on those who have a different agenda, including violent provocateurs, and captured terrorists. Sticks are what this administration uses and we can see how well that’s working on a global scale.
I would much rather see a community defeat the ideology of hate, bigotry and intolerance by engaging with tolerance, as Durham did on the Fred Phelps groups protests and subsequent cross burnings, than see police wielding night sticks.
Any Democratic political group should seek democratic solutions. Banning may be a solution, but its bad politics. Just ask the Denver 3.
Well, I would rather see any community do as you suggest! Doesn’t mean communities can get away with no penalties at all.
Talking about what should always be misses the mark about some things that happen nonetheless.
Talking about what should be is foundation, platform, democracy no? I don’t agree that our constitution (“what should be”) misses the mark because some things happen. Isn’t that the whole point? To enshrine principles so competing needs are tested against the founding principles?
I think you are correct about Kos wanting to be more mainstream. I’ll add to that thought that me thinks he aspires to becoming a politician. And IMHO he has a narrow view about Democrats. This is a big tent and he wants a smaller tent.
So do I in some regards. Although I proclaim my liberalness there are many things many liberals think are okay which I do not- Porn is one example I abhor vehemently, although anything goes between two consenting adults is okay with me. As long as a person’s choice does not hurt another I say do what you want. When that choice encroaches me, endangers my family, my country then it’s another story.
But that is another topic.
How has he restricted free speech Rose? I’m afraid im relatively new to the scene so i m not aware of all the history
On the vote counts. There are two ways to defeat fraud, and you’ve mentioned what I believe to be our only chance to overcome it, because we sure aren’t gonna see any real election reform before 08 and certainly not before next year’s mid-terms. If John Kerry, IMO, had run the campaign that he was capable of running, I believe that he would have gotten many, many more votes. Enough to overcome any manipulation that might have hopefully tipped off more voters that something was wrong, as you say. We really need some exceptional people to step forward now, don’t we? And BTW, I’ve had an Orange ribbon on the back of my van since the Ukrainian election and I still doubt if anyone “gets it”.
It’s not just kos. There are a whole mess of leading Kossacks for whom being able to maintain a “mainstream” appearance is obviously the single most important thing. Note, for example, the last line of Hunter’s diary on dKos “Community Standards” (I should add that I have a lot of respect for Hunter. He did extraordinary work on the TANG memos last year. He’s smart, hardworking, and “reality based” in the best sense. All the more reason to be disappointed by this recent diary.)
The funny thing is, I’m personally very unsympathetic to most conspiracy theories (I’m much more of a believer in structural explanations, fwiw). But I think it’s much, much worse to ban ideas from above, then to let them operate in a real marketplace of ideas. Most such marketplaces are anything but open. The barriers to entry in the MSM are so high, for example, that it’s anything but a marketplace of ideas. But on a blog like dKos, those barriers are fairly low. And I guess I have a pretty strong, Millian faith in such actual marketplaces of ideas.
But the whole mess at dKos is also an example of another phenomenon that has plagued the American left for decades and that I believe may have its roots in Cold War era anti-Communism. Too many people on the left would much rather hang out (and work with) people who are on their right than people who are on their left. On the further reaches of the left, this is in part a desire to be the most radical person in the room (and, in fact, on the very far reaches of the left one encounters the precisely opposite phenomenon: the sort of ultraradicalism that denounces anyone less radical). But for folks closer to the center, like nearly everyone who posts regularly on dKos, this is about appearing “mainstream” by loudly proclaiming that there are in fact nutcase radical moonbat Others out there, but that we are not among them.
This is a very, very old move among American liberals and progressives. You can see it in the hysteria of an Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., denouncing Henry Wallace in 1948, in the reaction to the 1960s New Left among some stalwarts of the anticommunist Old Left like Irving Howe. Or Clinton’s Sister Souljah moment. Indeed, this kind of move was the first step in the long, long journey rightward of the folks who’d become the first generation of Neocons.
Needless to say, I think this habit on the part of the “acceptable” left has been disastrous. It has divided us against ourselves. It has bought a few individuals respectability. But the price of this respectability has been the ostracism of many others. And real power has not come with respectability. The more usual reward has been the attainment of a kind of useful-idiot status for a select few acceptable lefties.
For my part, I am as comfortable — or even more comfortable — working with folks to my left as to my right. I’ve gone from being on the left fringe of the Democratic Party, to being firmly in the right-center (as it were) of the Green Party (in international Green terms, I’m a Realo, not a Fundi). But I’m convinced that if progressives don’t really prioritize working together with other progressives (as opposed to finding ways to feel good about people like Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieux, Brad Carson, or Joe Biden because they have “D”s after their names), we’ll never get anywhere. The recent events at dKos militate against any such coming together.
Again to be fair, some of us who aren’t politicians and don’t want to be politicians (and, truth be told, don’t necessarily like politicians) are, in fact, more towards the middle rather than merely ‘wanting to appear’ so. But it’s all a matter of perspective, as I’d be considered far left where I work and in my community.
But really, I could give a flying whatever as to how I’m labeled. I think that misses the mark.
As for wanting to work with everyone, it’s a feature, not a bug. 😉 Not always possible, alas.
.
Adapt some names of political parties, and your statement could apply for many European nations, The Netherlands for sure.
The Labor party PvdA led an administration from 1994-2002 in a purple coalition with D’66 Center Liberals and VVD right wing spectrum of Dutch politics. First four years worked well to legislate progressive and liberal reforms, the second term soured very quickly and led to indecision, waste of government money and any economic advantage the Dutch had within Europe.
The present coalition, PvdA has been swapped by CDA Christian Democrats with PM Jan Peter Balkenende, sees the necessity to cut government spending and lower social benefits to all Dutch citizens. But, doing what was agreed upon within the EU, decisions Chirac, Schreuder and Berlusconi don’t have the balls to make.
USA WELCOME: Make Yourself Known @BooMan Tribune and add some cheers!
That’s true in recent Canadian history as well. The Liberal party became more centrist during the 90s – shifting towards right-wing policies. Now that they are ruling a minority government situation, they’ve been forced to cooperate with the further left New Deomocratic Party in order to ensure they keep governing – moving them back to their real leftist roots. That’s definitely progress, afaic.
Needless to say, I think this habit on the part of the “acceptable” left has been disastrous. It has divided us against ourselves.
Exactly. Who needs enemies when you call your friends “kooks” and “crazies”? Look at the treatment that Michael Moore got at the hands of the DLCers. It’s not only bad strategy, it’s bad policy. Imagine instead of making Michael Moore and MoveOn political pariah, the Democratic party embraced the differences. “We believe that everyone is entitled to his or her views, that’s the beauty of democracy. We do agree on what’s important and we welcome all who share our values.”
IMO, Kos is selling online fundraising capabilities, that’s his base and his political stake in the status quo. I will continue to champion diversity and dissent as our strength, not our weakness.
I just don’t trust this “left, right” thing. Instead of thinking through a point of view and defending it because it’s the right thing to do and it expresses who we are, we carve out little spots on a political spectrum and cleave to it like flotsam from a shipwreck.
Sort of like picking which secular religion your in. :/
I agree with the diary and all the posters so far.
I would like to add this thought, the words ‘conspiracy theory’ are the danger words. The connotations of those words leads to all kinds of thoughts, first of which is tin foil hat. My point is that when things are labeled as conspiracy, they are automatically downgraded in some minds to be beyond the pale and far out in thinking.
So I propose we drop the term Conspiracy Theory and replace it with Possible Scenarios, or some other term which perhaps we can come up with.
A note about the ‘free press’ this is not the first time in our history we have had this problem, think of Hearst, Spanish American War, how he controlled and promoted and manipulated what he wanted the people in US to think.
In my humble opinion the first totally free press we have had ever, is the internet and bloggers.
Very good point, Diane. “Conspiracy theory” and “tin-foil hat” are very high hills of contempt for somebody to have to climb.
I really like the “possible scenarios” wording. It leaves it open and allows for a wide range of thinking, like when brainstorming. Good idea!
I didn’t know all this was about. Seems sad to me, but all that I can say is that I joined this community. Many seem much mellower personalities than I am, but they tolerate me on my obnoxious days right now and understand I have some stress levels being breeched. Seems like the content and community interaction on Kos is more quantity than quality after hanging out here lately. I get the same quality of information here, maybe better because I don’t have to sort through all the bickering and people on here tend to simply agree to disagree. Going to do my Hurricane preparations today. Will miss ya all and if my power gets knocked out tomorrow I’m really gonna be missing ya!
Be safe, Tracy! We’ll be missing you, too!
“I’ve turned to conspiracy theories for answers for legitimate reasons. There is no TRUST in this government or politics anymore.”
Thanks for this. I constantly wonder whether this administration is just really dumb or really smart. If they’re dumb, they’ve been lucky and that will run out. If they’re smart – then I get really frightened and the conspiracy themes begin to emerge. Its not something I can just turn off, even if I wanted to – and I don’t! I just pick and choose the times I’m willing to share them.
Almost as depressing is the string of comments on the Kos post. Strict fathers coming down and scolding the misbehaving diarist. Very thin skins, too — almost everyone took it as being all about the most recent purge.
Well, if you think thats bad, see this thread,
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/7/9/33541/47510
in which Kos himself goes off at the end on this diarist, whom I know from Bradblog.
It’s not even a point of view anymore. It’s an angry, label filled attack. Thin skin indeed.
His rant is about as revealing as any I’ve seen.
From his comment:
Making shit up, and calling it a “theory”, is no different than the Intelligent Design people.
Perhaps he’s never looked up the various definitions of the word theory.
n. pl. the·o·ries
A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena.
The branch of a science or art consisting of its explanatory statements, accepted principles, and methods of analysis, as opposed to practice: a fine musician who had never studied theory.
A set of theorems that constitute a systematic view of a branch of mathematics.
Abstract reasoning; speculation: a decision based on experience rather than theory.
A belief or principle that guides action or assists comprehension or judgment: staked out the house on the theory that criminals usually return to the scene of the crime.
An assumption based on limited information or knowledge; a conjecture.
He seems to subscribe to the idea that you must have proven your theory before you can even present it. Life doesn’t always work that way.
Thanks for clarifying the definition, catnip.
I did a poll on the diary at Kos regarding “Critical Thinking” as opposed to Criticizing opinion thinking also called critical thinking.
But some cannot deal with grey matter.. they only see things as black or white- not meant in the racial sense, but thinking a bit more I suppose that is true for some also…
ah ya gotta love the English language– wonder who thought that up… LOL!! all the double inuendos etc., Now there’s a conspiracy LOL!!
ah ya gotta love the English language– wonder who thought that up… LOL!! all the double inuendos etc., Now there’s a conspiracy LOL!!
I’ll bet anyone trying to learn English as a second language definitely thinks so. 🙂
The term fundamentalist is not just used in the religious context. It’s binary, black/white, true/false, good/evil. You can hear it in the language they choose, always, never, right, wrong, certain, impossible, etc. They also have a very difficult time with the concept of preponderance, more likely than not, since that is a grey area of decision-making.
So, the “proof” a fundamentalist thinker needs for something outside their accepted frame is very high indeed.
Just look at Bush – a man who refuses to even admit a mistake. What kind of distorted righteousness is that?
I read that comment and had the same thought. I’ve come to realize that it’s difficult for anyone to really be honest about their own biases. Theory can be fact used to support one’s existing bias. The more mainstream one seeks to be, the more biased one becomes in examining truth. Recall the Dixie Chicks dust up? The more the emotional the push back, the better the odds that you’ve hit bias, not critical thinking.
Think about what it takes in evidence, if enough evidence is even possible, to convince someone that their loved one committed murder. That murder is so unthinkable that the mind will ignore or twist all of the evidence to make it not so. The same is true for incest. The higher the stakes, the more irrational the mind becomes.
The more the emotional the push back, the better the odds that you’ve hit bias, not critical thinking.
That’s a basic Buddhist belief. You must get the emotions out of the way in order to discover the truth. That doesn’t mean you turn into some mindless, unfeeling zombie. It simply opens a window into rationally considering reality, understanding that your emotions can often hinder your ability to see things as they are. That’s also the basis for the scientific method, which Buddhists are very respectful of and are more than willing to come around to when science reveals that their long held beliefs need to be changed. (Read Destructive Emotions for an excellent look into how Buddhism and science are complementary).
The neocons have a perfect understanding of the power of appealing to emotions. That’s why they play on the fears of people. The extreme religious right also fits right into that mindset because their religious beliefs are premised on the fear of the wrath of God. Moderate people are able to balance their fears with logic and reasonableness – tempering emotions so they are not ruled by them.
I think it’s also a basic Christian belief, I mean the real one not a Christian™ belief. Seems to be the root problem of most family stuff too, truth flies out the window when chased by residual emotion.
It’s the double standard that bothers me. Instead of challenging any theory, we see a lot of emotional crap spewed about. The best way test any theory is to question it. Without that, all you have is emotion driven bias. For any community that prides itself on being “reality-based”, there are sure a lot of sacred cows grazing in the pasture.
For any community that prides itself on being “reality-based”, there are sure a lot of sacred cows grazing in the pasture.
That’s part of the reason I left. Even before the pie wars and this latest fisaco, it was tougher and tougher to hold a minority opinion there.
I used to be a Catholic and I respect the belief that Christians live with a fear of God as a form of religious humility, but the extremists take it much too far and try to impose it on everyone – regardless of their beliefs. That’s disprespectful and not what Christ preached, afaic.
Where I was enjoying my old pals Kid and MaryScott, after trying to wade through the mess I ran crying back here to read my soul sister’s work. Supersoling, that link is just incredible. I am a believer, and often wear the foil – but never for show. This makes me think of poor little Mickey Jagger helplessly begging his “brothers and sisters” to settle down at Altamont. I fear we are witnessing the worst of times here in blogland. Looks like time to get out of the water. It can be fun, but also deadly sometimes.
got taken out in this purge. I guess terrorist attacks make everyone a bit jumpy.
I finally have something worth adding a sig for.
What did you get banned for? Writing or recommending someone’s diary? Just curious…
I have no idea. I must have recommended the wrong thing… or maybe I was too sarcastic about DHinMI a couple times. There was no reason or communication given, just a sudden inability to comment, rate or recommend…
I can still see hidden comments though.
I sent an email via the ‘contact us’ page to request unbanishment, but it does not seem to have had effect.
I used to post at kos, never liked the term kossack though:), but i will no longer patronize that site. When kos refused to give any play to the vote fraud evidence, the conyers hearings or even the dnc ohio report, it told me all i need to know about markos. when i heard of the recent mass banning, it was the final straw. bookmark deleted.
it is a shame because with the volume of traffic over there, much could have been acomplished. oh well.
if the kossacks, as hunter said, are determined to be ‘mainstream’ what good is the site? i’d rather watch a nice looking newsmodel on cnn or something for sanitized mainstream news and opinion.
that said i don’t believe the london bombings or 9-11 was the work of anyone but radical islamists. solid evidence could change my mind, and i don’t have a problem with anyone speculating about anything. heaven knows bush has given me no reason to trust the official line about anything implicitly.
Totally close-minded press. Check out this puff piece that appeared on page 14 of today’s LA Times.
Salient quote:
THE NATION
Mystery Thickens in Secret Source Case
After two years, more questions than answers have emerged on who named a CIA agent and the role the White House may have played.
By Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writer
My letter to the Editor:
Mr. Schmitt writes that Valerie Plame’s identity was leaked, “in retaliation for an opinion piece her husband had written in the New York Times that attacked the Bush administration for intelligence failures.”
No! Wilson’s article stated in no uncertain terms that there were no WMD’s in Iraq, and why. And, guess what, there aren’t any!
We went to war based on lies, and individuals like Mr. Wilson were acting out of conscience to do their part to put on the brakes and inform the American people.
Not only did this criminal act of retaliation threaten Wilson’s family, it threatened all of his wife’s undercover contacts, it threatened our national security, and it was a shot across the bow to anyone else who dared to challenge the Bush administration’s determination to “fix the facts around the policy” of declaring an illegal and immoral war. There were no “intelligence failures,” only intelligence manipulations. Members of the intelligence community, such as Valerie Plame and her husband, were warned in no uncertain terms what the results would be if they did not accommodate the Bush administration’s determination to fix the facts around the policy of appropriating Iraq’s oil.
It appears that there is no point in reading the LA Times to get the news anymore, just to see how your staff writers spin the facts to soft soap the tragic policies of an extremist administration.
Please send your response to this tragic distortion of the facts to letters@latimes.com.
I don’t know but you are welcome to post this on my new message board!
He claims this was more of a warning to those too quick to hit the recommend buttons. I cross-posted my most recent diary here, since it does seem to have a better signal-to-noise ratio. That topic seems increasingly relevant, and the diary may be due for an update given the Robert Pape has a new Op-Ed in the NYT:
There’s one conspiracy that’s not a theory: Corporate governance is taking over the world.
It’s not a conspiracy theory because it’s not a theory at all–it’s a statement of observation.
Resources have become more privatized. Social services have become more privatized. Military services have become more privatized. The jurisdiction of democratic governments over corporate behavior has become more restricted by nondemocratic treaties and nondemocratic regulatory agencies. Culture–including organized religion–has become more commercial and is increasingly organized in the corporate model.
Most important of all, the main venue for societal experience and discourse has relocated out of physical spaces where our habits, cultures and Constitutional system guide and protect us, into private mass media spaces where only the handful of owners have the right and the sheer ability to speak, to petition, to operate a press, and to entirely fabricate a broad, deep view of the world for a whole society.
This is past tense–it’s stated openly and constantly by our most conservative voices–and it’s an ongoing process. (Well, they’re still being a bit coy about their media.)
We could have missed or pardoned every individual illegal conspiracy from Watergate to anthrax and the worst nightmares of the tinfoilers, yet still have ended up in a profoundly different and better nation and world at this moment, if we had recognized and addressed the purely open, public process of transforming all of society and creation into the private property of a few lords.
I don’t have a neat wrapup here because these global forces and trends that everyone agrees on have powerful incentives to conduct some of the tinfoiliest schemes that have been suggested. But I think we’re strongest when we address the publicly-accepted picture, which means at minimum to stop fantasizing that the opposition is merely a different political philosophy and movement that can be stopped with reasoned debated and a few clever messages.
But then again, they have motive, means, ability and opportunity to engage in much milder, more plausible behavior. For instance, making reason-based communities a little less pleasant to work in, and a little less effective in reaching consensus and acting on it. If we learned anything over the last century or more, it should have been that not every failing of the left is a failing of the left.
“For instance, making reason-based communities a little less pleasant to work in, and a little less effective in reaching consensus and acting on it. If we learned anything over the last century or more, it should have been that not every failing of the left is a failing of the left.
This was posted here the other day, and then disappeared. Is this an example of what you are referring to? I found it curious to find no discussion of its appearance and subsequent disappearance. Maybe I missed it.