Is it just me, or has there been excessive amounts of hostility here lately?
Read on if you care...
Granted, I am relatively new to this site, but the fighting seems to me to be entirely inappropriate and counterproductive.
Let us not forget that we all choose to come here. Alone, that choice--the choice to care in what is happening in our world today--should be more than enough to unite us.
The "problem" (I put it in quotes, because as I hope to show you, this is not truly a problem) may very well lie in each of our levels of dedication. Some users here visit the site countless times throughout the day, sifting through news stories and consistently making insightful diaries. Other users here visit less frequently, reading through open threads and shying away from creating diaries.
But we, as a community bound by a common cause, must realize that the users of the latter-type are the majority here. It is simply asking too much that every new user at Daily Kos be not only well-versed in the political, economic, religious, cultural, and social happenings of our world, but also experts in Daily Kos etiquette. Because of this, the former group, ie, those "in the know," should make it their goal and top priority to "educate" those who are less knowledgeable. We need to be sure that rather than first looking to scold those who make mistakes, we seek instead to understand and, yes, even learn from them.
Another problem, it seems, goes a long way in explaining the recent successes of the right and failures of the left. Naturally, none of us here want the left to become mindless zombies, as the vast majority of the right has become; we all clearly want to remain the independent thinkers that we rightfully pride ourselves as being. But, and this is where many of us make our mistake, being independent thinkers requires us to remain open-minded to the points-of-view of other independent thinkers. Bringing down others who do not share our exact feelings does naught but hurt our community and widen the ever-growing gap between those of us on the left.
We all know that the right has been successful lately because its people have ceased all forms of intelligent discourse. But naturally, there is no sense in becoming those we oppose; instead, we can do them one better. Instead of focusing on our differences, let us focus on what we have in common: an undying devotion to our planet and all those who inhabit it. In the grand scheme of things, the matters we bicker over are of no relative importance. Granted, this discourse is important, but, as I think we can all agree, it can only be effective if it is done in a respectful manner which can lead to compromises.
In a nutshell, these are the problems we face. We can either allow them to continue unabated and risk the crumbling of one of our most beloved and valuable communities or we can band together as we so desperately need to and begin to focus on helping each other and directing our anger and passion in the right (or is it the "right's"?) direction. Achieving our goals is going to take each and every one of us, and until all of us realize that, we are bound and destined to fail.