Do you want to answer mistermix’s question? Should we give attention to right-wing blogs in order to correct their lies and distortions, or should we starve them off oxygen by ignoring them?
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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The more important question is whether or not it really matters if we do. Psychologically, it may allow us to vent our frustrations which can be positive, but, really, in the larger scheme of things, if the calling out, showing the lies and distortions, only occurs within our own little on-line communities, what difference in the real world does it make?
A commenter on that thread said we should until we shame the MSM into covering it. While, I am not sure which will come first, the MSM actually displaying any sense of shame, or my winning the lottery and being able to retire from it.
Well the question seems specifically aimed at Media Matters. And on their turf, I think what they do is very good and should continue to be done. Why? Well, just like I think cons do shit to piss us off for the sake of it, MM gets under Fox News’ skin often and effectively. If Fox is giving them the time of day and is clearly pissed off, I think it means they’re effective.
I agree. But what about linking to them?
I think engaging them is a good thing. They don’t need us for oxygen, and it’s a team-building exercise. We rally around our mockery of them. As bad as the pro/anti-Obama shit gets, our disdain for right-wing idiocy always unites us.
Call them out and answer their lies every time. A lie repeated and unrefuted simply grows and gets larger and larger circulation. We should go after every single one of them, do our best to get our comments posted on their sites, and circulate our refutations of them as much as possible. It’s the only way. I get so much just in the form of viral e-mails from conservative friends that it’s obvious to me that the lies get wide circulation and refusing to link to them or go to their sites isn’t doing a thing to negate their circulation. I answer ALL viral emails with the truth, and when I see lies being spread I get in there and do my best to knock them down.
Just stopping in to let everyone who cares know that we survived Irene in NC. No trees fell on our house but we’ll need a professional tree service to clean up the eight that fell elsewhere.
The absolute worst part of it was going without air conditioning. Note to selves: When you buy a generator, get a small window AC unit so that you can sleep at night and have at least one room to retreat into for relief.
The funniest part of it was connecting to Mediacom to get our internet restored. The first time I called I got an agent in NYC who was freaking out! He couldn’t believe Nature had the nerve to attack his city. He was totally unprepared and struggled for three hours to get to his job where they provided water, food and power. He told me, “I should be paying them!”
On my second call the next day, I got another New Yawker who told me they couldn’t give me a clue about when I’d be reconnected. I said, “Look, phone service and power have already been restored, why are you guys being such slackers?”
He confessed in a whisper, “You know, we had a disaster here, too. The execs, all the managers are, like, all messed up. They aren’t thinking straight. I could tell you, you’ll get your service tomorrow or whatever but that would be a lie! This place is a zoo!”
I replied, “Help them focus by telling them I can switch to ADSL via the phone company who has already managed to do their jobs in this disaster area and get dish TV–they’ll totally lose a customer.”
“Absolutely right!” He exclaimed. “I’m telling them just that!”
Two hours later, our internet was back on line. I’m not claiming I personally slapped sense into them. The timing was just coincidental, I’m sure. LOL!
Ha! That’s beautiful.
Glad to hear you pulled through it with only minimal damage, and that you’re back up and running in the world of the intertubes.
These people should not be taken very seriously.
Starve the beast…
I regularly post on a “current events” forum related to, of all things” a auto racing forum. As it happens a good portion are from Indiana or oriented in that direction from their cult like fondness for the Indy 500.
It is not surprising then that they are mostly conservative. And not surprisingly many are faithful Beck, Limbaugh, Fox n Friends followers. A few deeply follow the most wacked out right wing blogs and are heavily “researched”.
I hang there and post. For me it is a good gauge of where a healthy cut of America is at, what they are hearing and what they are believing. I think I benefit from that, especially when they are confronted and I can see how blindly entrenched they are or are not in ignorant propaganda from the Right.
I also think I serve a purpose in that there are many less entrenched people there, many more lurking but not posting, who would tilt towards the silliness if there wasn’t a voice of reason and actual fact there to counter it.
I DO believe democracy happens one person at a time and changes one conversation at a time… unless we become disengaged and let those with the money and power just grab more.
I don’t think contact is bad. Conservative “intelligentia” is a real phenomenon, although one among many others. There’s always the question of whether the individual hegemony right wing ideology instantiates in each follower is really something deep or actually totally disconnected from the everyday circumstances of most people.
I appreciate the work that Media Matters, politifact, factcheck.org and others do to try and keep politicians and media outlets honest. I personally don’t have the energy for it and I don’t think it is the best use of my time. To explain why, I should say that my background is in organizing and teaching. I have spent significant time knocking on doors and making phone calls around referendum campaigns, candidates,legislation, etc. If I were canvassing a street and spent 20 minutes arguing with a crazy person, I would not accomplish anything and I would have wasted valuable time I could have spent talking with receptive folks at 10 other households. Wasting time with one nut while potentially losing 10 supporters is a losing tactic.
I also have a concern that one of the ways we allow momentum to be killed and we harm our ability to message on issues is by allowing ourselves to be distracted by all the chatter. After the President’s address to Congress on healthcare we spent the next week talking about “you lie” rather than keeping the focus on what mattered–the legislation before Congress. Now we will spend the next week renting our garments and pulling our hair out over the timing of the jobs speech rather than dealing with our dire jobs crisis! Isn’t this exactly what the Republicans want? I feel sometimes like we on the left are like my cat sneakers who cannot stop himself from chasing the laser light on my keychain. After a strenuous session chasing something that isn’t really there–he always looks sort of dazed and disgusted that he fell for it again. My hope for liberals is that we learn to be more disciplined and focused on achieving our goals.
Now, I have forwarded information from the organizations I mentioned above when friends/family/contacts etc have questions about an email they have received or a blog or article they have seen on the web so there probably is a need for a small group of people patient enough to do this work, but it ain’t me–that’s for sure! I hope it is not you too since I think your astute analysis is best directed at more important things and at people who are reasonable and could possibly be convinced to change their viewpoint. I come to this site to get away from the BS.