Sunday, April 04, 2004

Daily Kos Scandal

I haven't much commented on this, because I came to the table late, but for those who are interested, here is a very good rundown.

A briefer rundown is this; A poster at the Daily Kos posted the following in the comments section of a post reacting to the tragic deaths in Fallujah.

"That said, I feel nothing over the death of mercenaries. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them."

Right wing bloggers went predictably nuts, left wing bloggers condemned The Daily Kos, John Kerry delinked the website from his website (delink is a very inelegant term, I have to say). The author of the post quoted above explained it (very eloquently, I might add). Atrios has stated that this incident has forced some changes at his website.

Two comments. I posted something not entirely dissimilar at my website, although I used much softer language. It is more of a tragedy that we have lost so many troops than that we lost these four. If they had been aid workers that would be different; and I'm not saying that negates the tragedy.

It also bears noting that the reason the right wing feels comfy getting all aggressive on us is that we feel shame.

Liberals feel shame when we screw up, and the right wing knows that.

So the right wing loves the opportunity to ask us to defend or attack a fellow liberal. In that sense they isolate us. "Well you are an ok guy; I just wish other liberals were more like you instead of the hateful evil deceitful cementheads they are." And because sometimes our fellow liberals do say things or do things that we don't approve of, and because we feel shame, the technique works.

In other words, Limbaugh Republicans feel comfortable suggesting that the "Daily Kos" is representative of all liberals and Ann Coulter is just one person who does not reflect on all Conservatives. Which is funny when you think about it, because those who are on the Liberal side of the fence are far more ideologically diverse compared to those on the Conservative side.

At any rate I don't intend to Delink from the Daily Kos, in case anybody is wondering.

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