Welcome to tonight's Top Comments! :)
11 days ago I read a comment in that night’s Top Comments diary in which the author despaired of being able to ‘lift the discourse’ here on the Daily Kos. To the author’s credit, giving up was not an option, and diary recommendations were denied to all candidate diaries.
Optimist that I am, I wrote a very long comment in response, in which I said it was absolutely in our power to raise the level of discourse here. My response came very late in the life of the diary, so it did not get a great deal of readership. Several friends recommended that I post it as a diary in its own right, so here it is, below.
Of COURSE we can lift the discourse!
We do it every NIGHT here in Top Comments. Every night.
(Spoiler alert: this is a LONG comment. ;x )
The idea that we are too 'small' or too 'few' to make a change is the greatest challenge to democracy that we face in this country (I am certain it is not a feeling exclusive to here). It is a thought which fosters depression and inaction. Democrats, particularly in red states, ask themselves the same question, come voting time, and all too often the answer is, my vote isn't going to matter, my vote is too small, too insignificant, too inconsequential ... those voting like me are too few ...
If you regard conservatives as a terrible political adversary, that is nothing compared to the inner adversary, which is the idea that there isn't much we can do.
I have been involved in a really nice thread, below, with Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (whose first commentwas all about responding to the positive energy in TC) about mining for Top Comments, as TC diarists do it. That is only a portion of what goes into Top Comments each night. All of the diarists for Top Comments are also HOSTS. We try very hard to make TC a welcoming place for each night's guests, a fun and interesting place to be, an online version of Cheers, where, if everyone doesn't know your name, exactly, they at least know and regard your dKos nick, and try hard to recognize and validate your arrival when you come.
I know my time is limited each night since I get up around 5 am Eastern every weekday, so I cannot rec and comment late into the night as I once did. Others do that, however. We take being fun and playful very seriously. ;)
Obviously, recommendations are a part of the dKos commenting system. They don’t mean much, neither does ‘TU status.’ But at least they are a tangible way of letting the commenter know ‘Kilroy was here.’ It is, for me, like a smile or a handshake of acknowledgment and approval. You cannot build a diary series like Top Comments on recs alone, however, it is built on comment threads. On conversations.
When one works as a Top Comments host, one has the opportunity to see very clearly how ‘energy’ works in the dKos community. Someone makes a comment within the diary, someone replies with a comment that adds energy to the thread, each addition moving the thread. Not all comments add energy. Some comments - this kind is ultra rare in TC - drain energy, sap energy, work to kill the thread. Others bring energy, provoke thought, provoke further conversation and engagement. It can be a bit tricky following multiple threads in a given night’s TC diary, but TC hosts are very adept in that kind of virtual gymnastics. So we see many ways in which positive and dynamic comment energy works here.
People who comment more rarely have a harder time acquiring insight into how energy moves comment threads. There are some other dynamics at play in a virtual comment field which don’t work well for building positive energy momentum. When there are conflicts, it can acquire a coliseum-like atmosphere, in which some come to cheer for the Christians (and add conflict-enhancing energy to one side), others come to cheer for the lions, and add conflict-bolstering energy to the other side. Egos become involved, no one wants to lose face, and before you know it, all the highly toxic energy all those individuals have ever stored up for ANY slight or injustice is brought full force into the fray. Such threads are fueled by runaway energy, and it is all but impossible to jump in and arrest that momentum. The attempt to do so there is not very wise, really. It’s more likely that both sides will dump on anyone who attempts it.
Most people know there are better times than others to discuss ‘difficult’ topics with loved ones, so they try to pick those times. The Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan, discusses this very topic with a high percentage of his clients. They cannot get their dogs to do what they want when the dog gets excited. Cesar has an incredibly fine sense of recognizing the escalating stages of canine excitement. Many dogs can go from level one (calm) to level ten (highly excited) in a second or so. But they give off ‘signals’ that the escalation is about to happen, so he bumps or touches the dog in an alerting way before that escalation occurs, REQUIRING the dog’s attention, insisting upon it, no discussion, no negotiation. The dog is like, what?! But the dog can’t sustain that escalation of excitement at the same time it is trying to decipher what Cesar wants.
Obviously, human beings are a great deal more complex than dogs, but many do go through similar escalations when it comes to excitement. When their ‘blood is up,’ reasoning with them is all but impossible. My 'candidate diary' last week (which in my defense wasn’t a candidate diary at ALL) talked a bit about Mahatma Gandhi and his brilliant peace movement (HE was the candidate I offered for consideration, and not for office, but for behavioral role model). The most effective work Gandhi did was in the calm times, when his audience wasn’t escalated out of control. He taught when they could think, when they could listen. He prepared them for controlling their energy and their power when the challenges and provocations would inevitably come. He was probably the most effective teacher our species has yet had at reading human energy and in helping humans control their own energy from within, which is how it works best.
So, if you cannot help interrupt toxic comment threads, what can you do? First, remove your energy from those threads. Decline to read them, decline to rec them, not even individual comments within them, and certainly, refuse to add your energy to that toxic swirl. Energy has the unique property in our species of being magnetic, of being contagious. It can be very difficult to not be ‘infected’ in that atmosphere. Never reinforce toxic energy, never take it into yourself.
One of the most remarkable things about life is, it’s short, with infinite possibilities, infinite possible things we can do with our energy. What I most like to see is Democrats using their energy in positive ways to elect Democrats, to promote a powerful progressive agenda. There are infinite ways to do that!
So while it may seem at the time that we HAVE to say something in response to this diary/comment/news article or that, we really don’t, because a much better time will come for our communication, and better ways for it, too.
Put your energy and your attention in threads you want to encourage and reinforce. Watch how the infusion of your positive energy impacts the thread. Of course, it won’t always. This comment, for example, comes when very few will venture again into va dare’s fine diary. So it won’t get read by many, it won’t have much opportunity to animate. Many comments, however, DO get that chance, particularly in a fresh diary, when commenting is dynamic. Or look at comment threads in any night’s diary which ‘took’ off. Look at the little bits of energy commenters fed into them to help them reach that ‘escape velocity.'
The other thing Gandhi might highlight is, there is great power in ‘being the change we wish to see.’ It ‘touches’ all those around us. It may not touch them with enormous influence all at once - what was the line in the old Moody Blues song Higher and Higher ...
Blasting, billowing, bursting forth
With the power of ten billion butterfly sneezes
- perhaps our energy will only have the power of a single butterfly sneeze, or ten. But add a hundred, add a thousand, add a million, and before long the impact will be felt.
It does not seem like much when it is happening. But mistake it not, it will move mountains, and it does. Every candidate who ever won elective office won on individual votes which counted, every societal initiative which ever won the day did the same. Every diary with a deep abiding energy and appeal resonates because of the contributions of individual commenters.
The power is greater if you believe in it. ;)
And, Gandhi might say that the deteriorating standards of behavior others adopt when they let their energy be carried away has nothing to do with you, if you don’t let it. Try to never sacrifice your standards in moments of passion. Think about what you are trying to accomplish: to make this world a better place, unless I am very much mistaken. And ask yourself about the best ways to do that. Ways. Because there are infinitely many. There are ways with every person you ever meet. Use your passion and your power there.
Thank you for the fine energy each of you brings each night into Top Comments. I believe in it, and in you.
Now for tonight's comments!
From ChocolateChris:
Jacques on the brand aspect of our two potential nominees.
From AllisonInSeattle:
copithorne on the transformative aspects, for a white voter, campaigning for Obama.
From noweasels:
Uh-oh!! McCain is plagiarizing? Dont Just Stand There thinks so, but clammyc isn't sure from whom!!
From Magnifico:
In today's midday open thread, jmknapp put up side-by-side videos of Michelle Obama's remark about being "really proud.." One with the malicious edit, followed by what she "really" said. Thanks for exposing the rightwing doing their dirty tricks.
From Land of Enchantment:
From The Termite's delightful "Chicken Little" diary, this comment by leonard145b.
From greenchiledem:
After the Senator Obama campaign having to go on defense the past couple of days, Melody Townsel had this to say in the “22 Wins in 2 Weeks - What Obama Has Done” diary by RobertInWisconsin “Looks like Wisconsin is plagiarizing.....the recent results of 20 other states.” - By Melody Townsel. I couldn’t stop laughing.
My humble picks:
This comment by harry the taoist describes the flow of energy I talked about in tonight's TC diary, but there have been many other comments on the subject, and many diaries, too!
reef the dog on controlling your energy. ;) (How ironic! ;) )
sgilman, I'm afraid to ask about this picture! ;x
Top Mojo - excluding search-identifiable tip jars and first diary comments (top 30 of each plus ties):
1 just got back from voting by TobyRocksSoHard - 186
2 Thanks by draylogan - 179
3 thanks! by macarthur31 - 169
4 This hispanic, and his whole family, by fbihop - 150
5 It's amazing to me... by Aqualad08 - 139
6 What makes me even more tingly by Lisa Lockwood - 136
7 my life-long true republican 82 year old mother.. by petercjack - 112
8 I'm trying hard to be a National Delegate from by kubla000 - 107
9 Madison voter(s) by brozek - 102
10 Don't you just love it when you vote and you walk by funluvn1 - 95
11 as a democrat from kansas by worldtrippers - 94
12 Aloha from Maui! by raatz - 92
13 Dumb to announce it, wouldn't you say? by arthura - 90
14 Hmm. They used to matter. by reef the dog - 89
15 i don't think that by TobyRocksSoHard - 86
16 He looks like Harriet Miers... by Dallasdoc - 80
17 I've never rec'd a republican writen diary before by psilocynic - 78
18 I Am the Attorney by JekyllnHyde - 78
19 Or... by PsiFighter37 - 76
20 My Take: by rapcetera - 75
21 Green Bay ( Brown County ) by WeBetterWinThisTime - 74
22 Never too old for change by xofferson - 73
23 Heh. by Lisa Lockwood - 73
24 I don't mean to offend Clinton backers by draylogan - 72
25 Point #1 is the disturbing one by RFK Lives - 72
26 I was first at my precinct this morning by harrylimelives - 70
27 not in wisconsin by mytribe - 70
28 My heavily right-wing leaning brother from Ohio.. by dweb8231 - 67
29 This has never happened for me yet, by revbludge - 67
30 Pacific Rim Greetings Hawaiian Style!!! by Predictor - 66
31 Chilly today - by nightsweat - 66
Top Mojo - everything included:
1 Tips. by TheBlaz - 383
2 Flame away. by Yosef 52 - 357
3 tip jar here by slinkerwink - 304
4 Tip jar by Crisitunity - 278
5 tip jar by CaptUnderpants - 277
6 I picked a hell of a day to quit sniffing glue nt by arubyan - 245
7 Tip Jar by The Termite - 241
8 Recs and Tips for Democracy by dansac - 217
9 Tips for Red State Voters Who Matter. by kath25 - 215
10 Tips! by markhaverty - 195
11 just got back from voting by TobyRocksSoHard - 186
12 please read the entire post by Jeffrey Feldman - 181
13 Thanks by draylogan - 179
14 Tip Jar by TheFatLadySings - 178
15 Tips for doing our work for us by DJShay - 175
16 That was fascinating... by mayan - 170
17 thanks! by macarthur31 - 169
18 Tip Jar by natalie902 - 158
19 This hispanic, and his whole family, by fbihop - 150
20 I went out of my way by Marcus Junius Brutus - 149
21 Tips by pontificator - 146
22 TIP JAR...thanks... by dinazina - 143
23 It's amazing to me... by Aqualad08 - 139
24 What makes me even more tingly by Lisa Lockwood - 136
25 my life-long true republican 82 year old mother.. by petercjack - 112
26 Hat tip for you by rikyrah - 110
27 I'm trying hard to be a National Delegate from by kubla000 - 107
28 Cindy was in red leather today. by Bob Johnson - 107
29 Madison voter(s) by brozek - 102
30 It's kinda funny... by rashomon - 102
31 Feels good to do what's right doesn't it? n/t by DJ ProFusion - 102
32 Great reports coming in by calistan - 102
By all means submit your own picks below! And remember to send them to topcomments a t gmail d0t com if you want us to include them for you. The more the merrier!