Yesterday, Jerome Armstrong, founder of MyDD, finally confirmed what everyone already knows: that his site will officially brook no criticism of Hillary Clinton or, more to the point, her supporters. In a front-page-posted diary, he warned critics of the site's rec-list-darling, Alegre, that anyone giving her negative ratings for her abusive, insulting, non-discursive attacks is subject to losing privileges or being banned.
This is a Democratic site. Clinton is a Democrat, and she has supporters here. If you are an Obama supporter, and don't like that, tough. Deal with it.
The problem, of course, is that Alegre is notorious for hit-and-run jobs on Obama supporters on the site - exactly the same kind of behavior Jerome is decrying. And when, in a heated exchange between Jerome and commenters on the diary, this was pointed out, Alegre's ratings history was suddenly and inexplicably scrubbed, making it impossible to provide evidence of her own offenses.
Here's the original diary:
Abusing the Guidelines
And here's a counterpoint posted today:
Is This Snark?
Not surprisingly, during the comments exchange between Jerome and his (largely respectful) critics, a number of longstanding members who had a problem with his methods - largely, by definition, Obama supporters - were banned, or silenced, or had privileges removed during the discussion. Full disclosure: I was stripped of all privileges, including posting comments, when I replied to Jerome's post with exactly the same response Jerome was defending on Alegre's behalf. Classy.
I realize this news will come like a fart in the wind to most of the folks here at Kos, and I have to say I pretty much agree. But as one of the few who actually still dropped in over there from time to time to watch the joint's slow descent into madness, I thought it worthy of pointing out. A marker, if you will, of what this primary season has done to once-great progressives.
Rest in peace, MyDD. We hardly knew ye.
***UPDATE: Changed the diary title - didn't realize how often "jumped the shark" had been used in re: MyDD. Thanks to Yoshimi for "flounder." ;-)