I know that there have been a lot of posts about what the community should be striving towards lately. I don't think it has really been addressed sufficiently though. Mostly, any discussion has focused on which types of issues should be discussed and whether or not the thrust of the site should be towards activism. However, there hasn't been much discussion as to the tone of, well the discussion.
I know on paper I'm fairly new to Dkos, but I have been coming here for about a year now. Like many others who have said this before, I have noticed a steep, steep decline in the quality and diversity of discussion on here. The impetus for me posting this diary was my reaction to the replies to a comment that I made yesterday found here:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2004/12/6/231524/548/25#25
Notice in my comment that I stated that the military's plan would would not work, that the war was stupid, and that our constant comparing of the United States as Nazis does not help. It especially doesn't help now or in the future, as to almost the entire country we would later just be the boy who cried wolf. The main point of my post was to try to get some kind of discussion going about the rebuilding of Fallujah and a debate on what we had all read. I guess this is where we get to the point of this particular diary. What is the point of Dkos? Like I said in one of my replies in the above thread, I have seen a very sharp turn towards group think on here, especially in the last month or two. What exactly is the point of 200 people posting variations on "Bush is such an asshole. This war sucks". Truly, what is the point? What is your reason, yes you, for posting comments? Do we encourage discussion or are we simply here to find like minded individuals in order to maintain sanity? One of the most striking things that I noticed about all the replies to my comment was that virtually no one addressed what I had actually said about the underlying ideas of the plan having a possibility to be quite good if toned down, i.e. ID of some kind and a New Deal like program for Iraqis. Instead, those who replied posted long diatribes against the war and the U.S. military. I was told that I was "utterly amoral" and "devoid of a moral compass" and making "germanic, circa 1930's" rationalizations. I feel as though Dkos has increasingly turned into a big whoring contest for who can get the most tips or a recommended diary by posting the most witty variation on "Iraq sucks" or "the election was stolen". I guess overall, what should be the tone of discussion here? and in the sould searching vain, are we devovling into little more than an echo chamber that raises money during election cycles?