Perhaps you have heard the news: I, the resident Obambot at FDL have now been banned. This was not unexpected, Hamsher had already told me a few weeks back that while she welcomes dissenting opinions that I must not misstate facts. That I had provided a link and had not made any misstatement is the rather mundane fact.
On Tues evening, August 9, I put a comment up after reading two front page posts by Jane claiming that the Obama campaign-Axelord in particular-were engaged in anti-Mormon baiting and labeling Romney "weird."
I went over the whole episode in a previous post. I just felt like with all the things going on in the world not 1 but 2 pieces defending Mitt Romney against alleged anti-Mormon bashing was too much. Talk about heavy weather over small beer.
So I answered that basically he was a little weird-joking about a waitress grabbing his ass, that "I know what it's like to be unemployed" etc. Also that Mormonism is a kind of strange and misogynistic religion. Sure they should not be discriminated against but I can't blame someone for having pause over Romney's Mormon faith-in the context of women's rights, etc.
For this I was banned. Still it was some good times. Many people tell me they can't imagine doing what I did, posting on the central headquarters of "I hope Obama fails." How did I do it? Well I like to think of myself as in the mold of Eric Boehlert-who wrote a great book about the liberal blogosphere by the way-"Blogging on the Bus" a must read I think for today's plugged in blogging liberal.
I guess the circle is rounded for me, already being banned-the first day at KOS-to now be banned at FDL. Overall, I have a feeling, like many liberals I've spoken with, that we need something more. That we deserve better.
13 years ago, was a dark age for liberals-Right-wing talk radio was the only game in town. All you heard all day was Lewinsky-baiting. 13 years later we are in much better shape due (very) largely to the Internet-thank you Al Gore(really, he didn't "invent" it but he did sponsor it). Yet sometimes it seems like something of a double-edged sword.
Too many of the sites have become cliquish.; FDL is just an endless Obama-hating snarkfest. But KOS is in many ways a popularity though it has some good work as well. It seems that the primary of 2008 started a lot of bad blood on KOS between the Obama supporters and the Hillary supporters and since then they have had many nasty wars in the comments section and are now a little to quick to ban.
On FDL there's a litmus test: you either bash Obama and never disagree with any criticism of Obama or you're a "troll" or "Obamabot."
For this reason many liberals now want a different kind of blog which might actually contribute to a meaningful dialogue where you actually learn something and get ideas of how to move forward with building a liberal/prog future than just razzing trolls all day.
You may already read these, but a few of them are ExtremeLiberal, Liberal Lampost, and Blue Blogger-particularly right now as we follow the events in Wisconsin since Blue Blogger is from the badger state.
My hope is Diary of a Republican Hater is another such blog.
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