A Real Lack Of Courage And Vision In The Blogosphere

I am going to take this opportunity to call bloggers on the carpet. Many of you have no class, and even less courage. When it comes to the blogging enterprise, you look to the big centers, the main go-betweens, and aspire to be there yourself. If one of them engages in an action that is deplorable, far be it from you to even consider criticizing them. No, your righteous criticism is saved for President Bush and Darth Rumsfeld.

Why is that? To me, it makes no sense. I push for ideas on this site, and I set up an altar for no cult of personality. Yet, all that said, the venomous Julia over at Sisyphus Shrugged has the audacity to accuse me of a vanity mission. She thinks I'm trying to push my site at her blog. Anyone who's followed my activity for the past few months knows that is absurd.

I don't post as much over at Kos or Atrios, and never cruise back over to the Agonist, where I helped lead the charge against war jingoism in the spring (check the record...I'm all over it), and all this lack of activity because I'm on an intense software project that needs to get done. I don't care about my traffic, and I don't get much. That's fine. When I tried to push it in the early days, I did so aggressively, where there was no question, and I ended up with about 30 or so incoming links.

That's plenty. For now. I will upgrade this site, and make the information in it more accessible, organized, and navigable, but I just can't make that a priority right now. As for people like Julia, who falsely claim to believe in principles and ideals that they aren't willing to practice or actually defend in reality, I refer you to the concept of karma.

Julia is a liar, and even worse, she is a censor. Not only that, but she treats individuals with disrespect, when at the very least she could make an effort for individual communication in regards to differences. I've had differences with many on the Internet, and most have been resolved and settled via personal email. These are primarily individuals who share a similar world view and political orientation, but due to disagreement over a particular issue, and personality factors, somehow escalated to being more than the ideas being engaged.

This is what Julia needs to learn. On the streets, they would call her "a punk". I've never published a comment on Julia's blog, other than the short one that she excised, and have never harrassed or otherwise given her reason to 1) censor me, 2) disrespect me, and 3) misconstrue me.

Even after the Billmon episode, every email I received supported me that I should not have been banned for disagreeing with Billmon. Every one. Nearly every one also said that they disagree with me, and most for Billmon, but that's fine. I respect that. That's all about turning over ideas and engaging in discussion.

If the defenders of American liberalism don't think they can tolerate dissent within their own ranks, then they have a problem. When everyone wants to be the superstar of the blogosphere, and are willing to criticize the "out group" but wouldn't even consider doing so openly in the "in group", there is an even bigger problem.

This is the nature of politics. People kiss a@#. In the "in group". Cognitive dissonance theory is not far away, and I will be bringing it back with a vengeance in the week ahead. Julia will be my latest foil, and the example I will make. Not because I disrespect her, but because she disrespected me, and to make a point.

It's downright silly. If we can't get past "patronage politics" here in the blogosphere, especially amongst those who portend to champion liberal democracy and the inalienable, then this medium will be no different than any other.

I'm going to do my part to make sure that doesn't happen. Don't bet against me. This isn't about my pride, or ego, but about deep-rooted desires to see freedom work and realized in the world. Around the globe. Not just here in America, but everywhere. All men and women. It's time to get over the selfish narcissism that rules politics and consciousness in America today, and see that there is a worldwide struggle today for liberation, and it's been going on for awhile.

It starts with information. America needs to be involved, and taking a leadership position. Will you?