I just read Booman’s bloggerazzi diary and the long string of comments. I fear something is happening here and what it is may be very destructive of what I once found here. And it is symtomatic of what is wrong with America.
Here’s something I wrote in Booman last June.
Re: Censorship and Dkos (none / 0)
I want to do two things in this comment. Suck up to Booman and offer an idea about the “censorship” on DKos.
First: sucking up. I started out in the blogosphere as someone making comments and writing pretty much unread diaries on Dkos. It was fun to read the few comments about my diaries, and to make comments on other diaries. I discovered the frog pond through DKos and so I started doing the same thing here: writing and reading diaries and comments. And then something wonderful happened, I started to see and feel an actual sense of community in the frog pond. People could still be obtuse or off-putting or out in left field (and so could I) but there was and is a sense on Booman that whatever it is that keeps us participating here is more important that the opinions we express.
Perhaps all of us should keep in mind that human beings are much more than their political opinions, and while political opinions are very important because they have consequences, they are only a small part of who we all are. What we share as human beings who experience reality is far broader than our opinions. I think when we forget this, we end up with the kind of crap described in Booman’s diary and that has also happened to too many others.
Is it naive to want to have a forum where opinions are vehemently expressed and defended but where we respect one anothers’ experiences and shared humanity? Is it too “preachy” to even say this?
On the other hand, I actually don’t give a shit about the personal stuff of people who write and comment here. One of the great attributes of this blog is the opportunity to write and comment and stay focused on what we think about what we should do. So I get a little bewildered with the vituperation. Maybe it’s because I’ve never met any of the rest of this collection of frogs in person. Maybe it’s because I don’t do this for a living. But for whatever reason, I think I will miss what was once here. Can we get it back? Don’t know.
