I just spent a little time with the echo chamber over at Redstate. Some amazing shit these people believe. I posted two comments into separate threads regarding ID. Some Redstaters are offended by the ID push, and wish it would go away as it is clearly embarrassing to them. Others cling to it like the simple-minded folk that they are. One wanted proof that lawnmowers didn't "evolve" into Peterbilts. I asked him some four-year-old questions and bitch-slapped him. Another attempted to compare the controversy to the Big Bang controversy and moaned that Judge Jones had set back science in a big way by not allowing the "controversy" to be taught. I let him have it with my favorite Carl Sagan quote: "They laughed at Newton, Einstein, and Edison . . . but they also laughed at Bobo the Clown."
But my favorite comment may turn out to be my last in that space.
As anyone who has read Redstate knows, their editorial staff are highly intolerant. If you in any way thumb your nose at the authoritarian culture there, you can have your account revoked. "Profanity is NOT tolerated" they sternly warn. And I see all kinds of Gestapo-like statements littered throughout their conversation. Posting even slightly off-topic into a thread is immediately seized on as "Thread-jacking" and treated quite severely. As far as I can tell, Redstate is run and largely inhabited by the biggest bunch of humorless pricks on the planet. I read one very short thread where the editor apparently was going through someone's comments and decided they were a "sock-puppet" and deleted their account -- and then another account he just happened to not like.
At any rate, I ran across a thread where someone was bitching about "Astroturfing" in regards to impeachment. Basically, some pollster (?) "Richard Morin" was quizzed repeatedly in an online exchange about impeachment, which progressively made him (and his redstate counterparts) mad, madder, and maddest! I was reminded of a Bearnstein Bears book as I read it.
The thread then went on to characterize the entire Impeachment movement as "moonbats" and quickly went into familiar echo chamber territory.
Multiple times on Redstate I've read how the 3-point jump of Bush's poll numbers means that the Dems have "already lost" 2006, and I saw several chest-thumping declarations of certain victory on this thread. Quite amusing. But what finally prompted me to post was someone's assertion that "Bush isn't up for election in 2008." The post contained a number of other echo-chamber memes. "Dems have no plan." "Dems are all 'Hate Bush' and 'Bush Lied.'" "Preceding is 'gettin' old.'" And so on.
I had to respond. Because to me what is important is not whether or not he's up for election. It's the fact that he did lie, and about a major and important thing. The fact that he has in the service of this lie assaulted our civil liberties. The fact that he has no respect for either the laws of our nation or the liberties of our people. The fact that impeachment isn't about a political victory, it's about doing justice. A crime has been committed. I want to see the perpetrators brought to justice. Very simple.
At any rate, I eagerly await my accounts' banning on Redstate. It's the first overtly aggressive comment I've made specifically regarding their hero-worship of Bush. And I think I've maybe commented a total of six times.