I posted the following diary on MyDD this morning. Within 15 minutes I had received an official warning from the Administrators for posting "silly diaries about myDD". I took that as the answer to my question about the site and have taken my leave of the place. A nice fellow Obama supporter at MyDD salvaged the text for me and I thought I'd post it here as an example of what MyDD has become.
-----------------------
Is MyDD worth it?
When faced with a hazardous waste site, you have three choices. First, you can ignore it. That would be the Republican plan and not worth discussing here. Second, you can attempt to clean it up, maybe hauling out the dirt and replacing it with clean soil. Finally, you might decide that cleaning up the site is just not practical, and so you cap it, maybe with concrete or asphalt, and then you move on, hoping the deadly effluent doesn't leach into the surrounding community.
MyDD has become a hazardous waste site. Yesterday made it clear to me. When diaries such as Barack Obama is the George Wallace of the Left, by JFK464, and Obama backers: Please, save your breath, by Universal, are not only not removed by the site administrators, but make it to the highest levels of the Rec list, that seems to me to be a sign that not only is this a truly sick site, but that the people that run it, despite protests to the contrary, really don't care if the site becomes a cesspool as long as their hit count is up.
I came here a few weeks ago to provide an alternative viewpoint. I've actually lurked here for a long time, but only started posting here when the high level of anti-Obama rhetoric had reached a crescendo. My thought process was that dissemination of false and misleading information should always have a counterbalance, someone to present an opposing viewpoint. In this diary, I'm speculating that I was wrong, and that maybe, just maybe, it's OK for MyDD to become a pro-Obama-free zone. Maybe it's OK to just cap the hazardous waste site and post a big warning sign at the perimeter. I don't know the answer to that question yet, but it's worth considering.
In all faith traditions that I know of, when there is a loss, there is a place, an opportunity, for those left behind to gather together to mourn that loss, to weep, and to move on. Maybe that's what MyDD is at the moment, and maybe that's what it should be. Maybe MyDD is a place for the supporters of Hillary Clinton to gather, tell stories, maybe make up some tall tales, but doing this while coming to grips with some unpleasant political realities. That wouldn't be so bad. People need space to adjust to loss.
Free speech also allows for echo chambers, spaces where no competing viewpoints ever see the light of day. When Elks go to meetings there aren't Moose Lodge members there, or Lions, or Knights of Columbus. When Young Democrats meet, there aren't any Young Republicans there to offer dissenting views. Even more ominous echo chambers are allowed in our country. When white supremacy groups meet, you can bet there aren't any dissenting opinions in the house. So maybe we can view MyDD as a Clinton supporter echo chamber, a place for Clinton supporters to go to hear themselves and like minded individuals talk, and never be bothered with a contrary opinion. Maybe that's not so bad.
So there lies the question for supporters of Barack Obama. Is it worth being here at all, or should we just ignore this site, the same way we do some of the more extreme Republican sites. In fairness, having written that last sentence, it's not the same thing. At the root, people here are more political friends than enemies, team members rather than opponents. They're just going through a rough patch at the moment and sometimes people in that situation need to be left alone. Should we do that?
The down side to leaving this site is that all the disinformation, vitriol, and lies will just sit here, and worse, leak out into the world. We've already seen examples of things written here finding their way to Republican media. There really is no way to "cap" this waste site, but on the other hand, who really comes here for information anymore? Does anybody come here with an open mind, looking to find information on who to vote for? No. People come here to fight, already solidified in their positions and, in large part, totally closed to anything the other side has to say.
I don't know the answer to my question, and I'll keep it open. I'm not suggesting an alegre-esque "strike." I'm not even really trying to entice anyone to leave the site. Mostly I'm trying to figure if this waste site is worth my precious time, at least at the moment, or if it's worth any pro-Obama person's time for that matter. What do you think?