Since yesterday's (non)post where I was unsummarily banned within an hour http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/25/997316/-Hello-KOS!?via=user
I have had an opportunity to speak to a few people I respect who post on KOS. Seems that not many people at KOS have much sense for irony these days.
My KOS name I gave myself-abortionondemand-is obviously(I would think)meant to be ironic. But clearly this was not how it was received. It seems that the people who wrote me up and got me banned honestly believed I was a Republican troll.
Even knowing the different levels of people's irnonymeters surely my website here makes clear how I feel about the Republican party.
What I am understanding is that KOS has a lot of decent people who are honestly committed to forwarding a progressive/liberal agenda and don't get so sidetracked in the "Dump Obama" and "Obama is a Republican" theatrics of FDL.
Unfortunately there is-as some have frankly admitted-a dearth of humor these days due to some nasty wars in the comments section which started in the Clinton-Obama primary season. In recent years things have decayed to the level of racist and homophobic insults.
Overall I get that KOS tries to be a place where people can discuss things without "pie throwing contests" breaking out all the time in the comments section. There's something to be said for that.
Still I do think that one can go too far to in editing out disagreeable posts or labeling them "trolls."
This is what I for one see as a problem in today's liberal blogosphere. 13 years ago, when talk radio was the only real game in town for people to express their political views in any kind of large public forum, al you heard all day was Rush and co. Lewinsky-baiting, et al. At the time I like many liberals complained that we had no space like the dittoheads to express our views, learn and plan strategy.
(Not that Rush has ever been a place that people learn at-to the contrary as Al Franken said it's where you are punished for knowing things. It's like a test curved in reverse)
Yet 13 years later it seems that too often our blogosphere seems to be a double edged sword with more circular firing squads and "friendly fire" than any fighting with Red State America. No matter the reception I got on KOS I came as friend.
This wasn't understood yet I don't feel that I was wrong so much as the overall climate is wrong-not necessarily the fault of KOS members.
Let me go over the parts of my post that went over the biggest(LOL-being ironic again). My very name abortionondemand obviously was misconstrued as me being anti-choice:
"which is a RW phrase to make freedom of choice sound petty, I don't think we want this troll around, no matter what he writes."
This by ezekiel. Clearly he had closed his mind even before starting. Some may argue therefore that I was wrong in using the name. I don't agree but let me explain the thinking behind it.
The very phrase "abortion on demand" was coined or at least put into wide usage from Rush Limbaugh himself. See his "The Way Things Oughta Be" and "See I Told You So." The idea was that all liberals and "feminazis" want are abortions, are perversely committed to seeing that as many abortions are performed as possible, they are wantontly committed to "abortion on demand"-again his phrase.
My point in using the word is an example of using a term meant to be derogatory and turning it around on Rush, Terry Nichols(the dangerous prolife extremist from Operation Rescue). Basically it's an example of reappropriating a term of disempowerment and makinjg it an empowering word. The idea is you try to insult me, but I turn it around on you.
Basically "abortionondemand" is meant to mock the hyperbolic and exaggerated claims of the pro-lifers that we liberals and feminists all want "abortion on demand."
I've always wanted to use that name to mess with Red State America, turns out that Blue State America doesn't do irony as well as I assumed either.
Similarly, "Obamabots and firebaggers" was meant as a-self-depreceating-joke as I am called an Obamabot on FDL and it seems that we liberals have now managed to put ourselves into this divide of "are you an Obamabot or a firebagger."
To think that I say this as a Righty is clearly wrong-I don't know that the GOP knows anything about Obamabots and firebaggers-at least I'm hoping not.
http://my.firedoglake.com/candide08/2011/07/24/is-fdl-made-up-of-firebaggers-who-have-all-gone-hamsher/#comment-322
Someone who calls himself RoberDumas actually posted: "
candide08,
When push really does come to shove…..and that day, and whatever is going to trigger it…..are fast approaching……my belief is that Tea Party Members will be standing shoulder to shoulder…..with us progressives.
While people like you will still be casting about looking for someone to engage in a futile debate about semantics, or self-righteous placement of blame on some faction whom you are content to endlessly define and redefine, as if that is productive time well spent.
There are the top 5-6% that comprise the plutocracy, and then there are the rest of us.
What I’d like to ask you is this : WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?"
Some of the firebaggers actually have come to see themselves as on the same side as the teabaggers over and against the Obamabots. Some actually reccommend working with the GOP to help the Dems lose in 2012. http://my.firedoglake.com/metamars/2011/07/19/how-a-spectrum-of-progressives-dem-supporters-dem-haters-can-synergistically-protect-ss-medicare/
Note that this is the same fellow who gave us the afro-reeducation plan to "educate" Black America"
http://my.firedoglake.com/metamars/2011/05/18/a-seriously-trouble-making-proposal-dear-cornel-west-and-new-progressive-alliance/
"Whose side are you on" is clearly a question that seems harder and harder to answer in today's liberal blogosphere.
But nature abhors a vaccum. There is a real hunger out there where liberals can really learn, strategize, and do some good-like support Wisconsin for starters or the banks that MSNBC did.
In speaking with some KOS members off the record I know some of these good things happen there.
But the overall climate of suspicion and not even knowing "whose side are yon on?" has created a chilling effect on dialogue in general I believe. What I'm interested is in rectifying the problem.
If I have any overriding criticism of FDL it's that there are no solutions provided just endless descriptions meant to impress you with how "hell in a handbasket" everything is.
Solutions is what BlueAmerica needs.
You have the floor!
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