Half the rec list is dominated by "Shut up"/"No YOU Shut up" diaries and as long as I’ve been here you’d think I’d know better but I just have to get this off my chest:
Y’all of you need to get over yourselves.
I feel like I’m trapped in a menagerie of absurdity. Open letters to famous people who will never read them that only serve to insult people who support or relate to those famous people (Jee, who could have predicted THAT?), who then write diaries calling the original authors "Bozos" bitching and moaning about how no one appreciates them and everyone at dailykos just wants to tell the left to STFU and on and on and on.
ENOUGH!
To the "liberals/progressives" out there: If you want people to take you seriously your argument needs to begin and end with actual substance, not whining about being unappreciated for your brilliance. It’s not about YOU. It’s about the policies. If you can’t intelligently debate the policies you support, then look within and try and understand WHY you support them in the first place. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and people expressing an opinion that is different than yours is not intellectual persecution. It’s a disagreement. You can try and turn them around by convincing them with the soundness of your facts, or you can get childish and petty. Your call.
To the liberal/progressive "bashers": Grow up. No one’s impressed that you post flame bait under the auspice of an "Open letter" to someone who doesn’t give two shits about your opinion about anything. If you wanted the letter to go to the intended recipient, you’d email it directly (where it will be appropriately processed as garbage). Rather than just telling people they’re wrong and/or jeopardizing the "mission" of HCR, take the time to actually have a dialog with people who disagree with you. Get Socratic about it if you have the wit. But LISTEN as much as you TALK (and that’s good advise for everyone frankly)
And to both sides, please for the love of God exercise your imagination and TRY to consider more than 2 possibilities to any situation or comment. Part of what is making this place so miserable is this pervasive either/or and all or nothing mentality that takes many forms but originates in faulty logic. "Either your with us, or you’re against us" or "If you don’t agree with us, you’re helping the republicans."
And above all, don’t take it personally! It’s not about you! It’s not an attack on YOU. And it’s not proof of any grand conspiracy (whether it be liberals thinking everyone’s out to get them or moderates thinking liberals are out to screw everyone). This place is turning into a cesspool of pettiness and it’s the fault of everyone who encourages these petty bitchfests.
Now. You think we can get along enough to have an intelligent converstation?