This will be my first and a fairly brief diary.
I have been reading DailyKos for a few of years and commenting sporadically for a shorter period of time.
I came here seeking refuge from other, less rational forms of media and from less reasonable blogs. I came because this community is ostensibly and self-proclaimed-ly the reality-based community.
I have noticed recently (I have been regarding this for quite some time, actually) that the Kossack community is progressively less prone to holding itself to this standard. What "reality-based" seems to mean to most Kossacks is "if someone agrees with Koventional Kos Knowledge, it’s logical and ‘reality-based.’ If someone disagrees, it is not."
An example for this, and the final straw which motivates this diary, is the response to a diary posted tonight.
I agree that the source the diarist sites is somewhat questionable, and that an incredible and dedicated democrat like John Edwards deserves the benefit of the doubt. However, if this was really a community devoted to the principles of logic and reason, a "reality-based" community, the refutations of the diarist would come in the forms of logical refutations of the arguments, not ad-hominem attacks on the diarist and non-sequiturs about the source.
What Kossacks seem not to understand is that logic and reason, enlightenment principles, are universal and must be applied as such (a characteristic shared with principles like "love of democracy" and "the rule-of-law". You are not reasonable, logical, or "reality-based" if you only apply these principles sometimes.
Very disappointing.