Paying Attention
I must admit, I really applauded Roxanne's comment about perspective vis a vis the rightie plagiarist briefly hired as the Washington Post blogger. (Sounds like a cheesy villain type, doesn't it? "Beware the Wrath of the Washington Post Blogger! mwahahaha...") But then I read Leigh Anne's Blog Like Ben offering and thought, maybe I should have given more notice to this even though 99 out of 100 times I ignore or completely skim over what liberal bloggers say conservative bloggers are doing because I won't really get the in-jokes otherwise.
And then I read August's very thoughtful piece about why it's a good thing to talk at length about what's going on in the cozy relationships between the mainstream news media (TV, newspapers of record, similar corpo-driven communications enterprises with huge ad revenues) and an extremely partisan perspective in favor of the people currently charged with running our country, one that delights in spin and confers authority upon the unworthy in much the same way they do in Washington.
And I concluded, you know what? I just don't have the time to care about the irony surrounding wonky liberal bloggers complaining about whiny conservative bloggers accusing wonky liberal bloggers of being whiners. I have enough whine in my own head to suffice me for the rest of my life, I've found a little public wonkiness goes a long way, and I'm just here for the free crisps, mate.
Yes, it's important to keep pointing out the sleazy and corrupt and hypocritical activities going on around us. But as part of a greater whole (the selling of the media to a profit motive, for instance), not an obsession in and of itself posted in large measure because you want your readers to think you have cogent quips that they haven't already thought themselves. It's almost like a high-school game, to see which blogger best and most maliciously mocks other bloggers who don't share his or her viewpoint. And they figure they have a ready-made excuse for this: "they started it!"
Of course they did. But not by themselves, and that's not the point anyway. Here's what I think is the point: when serious issues are breaking out all over us, compounding daily with interest, nobody outside of our little corner is going to be paying relatively that much attention to the kids throwing sand at each other. They're going to want to learn more about the stuff that actually matters to them. They're already paying attention in greater and greater numbers. Good writers in the liberal blogosphere ought to take advantage of that thirst for truth, instead of living out Charles Atlas revenge fantasies of kicking sand in the bullies' faces. It may provide a momentary laugh (which value I don't downplay at all) but doesn't really humiliate those bullies in real life, it just feeds into their rigged damned-if-you-do-and-damned-if-you-don't talking points ("liberals are whiners") and winds up making the whole exchange All About You instead of all about communicating with fellow readers and citizens.
So um, I guess I agree with Roxanne.
I must admit, I really applauded Roxanne's comment about perspective vis a vis the rightie plagiarist briefly hired as the Washington Post blogger. (Sounds like a cheesy villain type, doesn't it? "Beware the Wrath of the Washington Post Blogger! mwahahaha...") But then I read Leigh Anne's Blog Like Ben offering and thought, maybe I should have given more notice to this even though 99 out of 100 times I ignore or completely skim over what liberal bloggers say conservative bloggers are doing because I won't really get the in-jokes otherwise.
And then I read August's very thoughtful piece about why it's a good thing to talk at length about what's going on in the cozy relationships between the mainstream news media (TV, newspapers of record, similar corpo-driven communications enterprises with huge ad revenues) and an extremely partisan perspective in favor of the people currently charged with running our country, one that delights in spin and confers authority upon the unworthy in much the same way they do in Washington.
And I concluded, you know what? I just don't have the time to care about the irony surrounding wonky liberal bloggers complaining about whiny conservative bloggers accusing wonky liberal bloggers of being whiners. I have enough whine in my own head to suffice me for the rest of my life, I've found a little public wonkiness goes a long way, and I'm just here for the free crisps, mate.
Yes, it's important to keep pointing out the sleazy and corrupt and hypocritical activities going on around us. But as part of a greater whole (the selling of the media to a profit motive, for instance), not an obsession in and of itself posted in large measure because you want your readers to think you have cogent quips that they haven't already thought themselves. It's almost like a high-school game, to see which blogger best and most maliciously mocks other bloggers who don't share his or her viewpoint. And they figure they have a ready-made excuse for this: "they started it!"
Of course they did. But not by themselves, and that's not the point anyway. Here's what I think is the point: when serious issues are breaking out all over us, compounding daily with interest, nobody outside of our little corner is going to be paying relatively that much attention to the kids throwing sand at each other. They're going to want to learn more about the stuff that actually matters to them. They're already paying attention in greater and greater numbers. Good writers in the liberal blogosphere ought to take advantage of that thirst for truth, instead of living out Charles Atlas revenge fantasies of kicking sand in the bullies' faces. It may provide a momentary laugh (which value I don't downplay at all) but doesn't really humiliate those bullies in real life, it just feeds into their rigged damned-if-you-do-and-damned-if-you-don't talking points ("liberals are whiners") and winds up making the whole exchange All About You instead of all about communicating with fellow readers and citizens.
So um, I guess I agree with Roxanne.
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