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January 20, 2004
Second Wave
Right then, Michele finally noticed the Freepers getting their hate on with Margaret Cho.
Most of the emails are filled with horrible grammar and more spelling errors than a first grade essay contest. Things like this is why the right is often considered to be hateful, racist, ignorant trolls.
"considered"?
Any road up, this leads to. . . complaints about the Democratic Underground boards. And a few missives about Margaret and the Dixie Chicks crying about being attacked, which I don't seem to remember being the case.
Oh, and more white people sitting around chatting about how the left is/are the real racists, and wild speculation as to why people of color seem incapable of thinking for themselves. Because if we could, of course we'd become conservatives.
There are also some additional attacks on Margaret, but because this is the second wave, they're kindler, gentler attacks. Not as openly racist, no actual death threats that I noticed. . . this is the face of compassionate conservatism.
The CCC rather than the KKK, basically.
See the trackbacks for yet more. . . something. I'd link these myself, but that might lead to those people coming here. And, worse, saying stupid things. Again.
I realize that Blogs Aren't a Safe Space, but there has to be some happy middle ground between all-out flame-fests and having a closed, gated community.
Which is why I'm not looking forward to the comment registration feature in the next MT release, or at least don't think I'll be turning it on.
Really need to come back and edit this. . . from that previous link:
One thing that we're missing as disconnected souls reading each other's words is a shared social structure where we can intuitively understand when to critique and when to support. The blog world too easily lends itself to a forum for attacking each other, purportedly to critique ideas. How often are anonymous critiques truly constructive? How easy is it to tear apart someone you don't know? Stanley Milgram learned that ages ago... if you feel like your responsibility is to critique, you can do so infinitely, regardless of how another might feel. And the further removed you are from witnessing the horrific reactions, the more you can continue on. Sometimes, i think we're all a bit sadistic.
Except that this does seem like a safe space, with the exception of tourist season, and even that hasn't been particularly bad -- or interesting, really -- this time around.
Yep, definitely come back and edit.
Posted by Aaron at January 20, 2004 04:07 PM
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By and large, people seem to be horrified about the response Margaret Cho received to her routine at the MoveOn.Org... [Read More]
Tracked on January 21, 2004 07:00 AM
Comments
There was a post that made the rounds in the tech circles a while ago that dealt with some of the safe space issues that you're talking about. I need to dig it up and post the link.
The gist of the argument was that it's easy to make fun of in-groups for how they talk to each other when you're not a member of the group, and that the web has taken semi-private communications and opened them up for that kind of public mocking. Now everything is totally private or totally public, with not much in between.
I don't know how I feel about comment registration. Part of me hates it, but as you say, "tourist season" ...
Posted by: Ginger at January 20, 2004 05:48 PM
you've illustrated very well how safe space, both on the internet and in the "real world", only manages to remain that way through a combination of decisive, proactive defense [oh the many times you have saved me from myself here!] and being willing to take a certain amount of risk to keep the borders permeable enough so that the atmosphere doesn't stifle.
members-only login-required message boards, based on personal experience, are a hellish place reminiscent of sartre's "no exit".
Posted by: r@d@r at January 20, 2004 06:32 PM
There are also some additional attacks on Margaret, but because this is the second wave, they're kindler, gentler attacks. Not as openly racist, no actual death threats that I noticed. . . this is the face of compassionate conservatism.
Where was the "compassionate liberalism" when Margaret Cho wrote that she wanted to anally rape the Pope and hoped that he would die? I didn't hear a peep out of anyone when Cho was spreading her vicious hate. Did I simply miss it? Did someone on the Left put her in check and I simply missed it?
Posted by: Joe Carter at January 20, 2004 07:27 PM
Um, Joe?
If you honestly can't tell the difference between jokes delivered by a comedian and the email Margaret received from the Freepers. . . you're not worth talking to.
If you do see the difference, but you're trying to score rhetorical points. . . you're not worth talking to.
You do understand my problem, don't you?
r@d@r, nah, I just get delete-happy sometimes. I'm working on it. But the idea of creating a closed environment doesn't appeal to me, even if it would keep, say, Joe, from posting Very Silly Things.
Ginger, Danah (from misbehaving.net) has written about this a lot; I'm still working my way through her papers on the whole virtual community thing. Really should give more thought to that sort of thing, seeing as I seem to have created one without really trying. . .
Posted by: Aaron at January 21, 2004 06:48 PM
Speaking of jokes. Who told Ted Kennedy it was ok to start making analogies between Bush (or any) policies and people drowning in water?
Jeeesh.
Posted by: Lord Shagariffic at January 22, 2004 01:28 PM
Google is very nice :) Google is very cool. Thursday 02 September 2004 08:55:03
Posted by: hans huber Google at September 2, 2004 01:53 AM