WYFP is our community's Saturday evening gathering to talk about our problems, empathize with one another, and share advice, pootie pictures, favorite adult beverages, and anything else that we think might help. Everyone and all sorts of troubles are welcome. May we find peace and healing here. Won't you please share the joy of WYFP by recommending?
According to the schedule, today was supposed to be AndyS in Colorado's turn to host our weekly bring-your-problems-to-the-community session. Unfortunately, he had to back out--and that's actually one of my FPs this week. Follow me below the fold for more.
I'm not going to go into gruesome detail, but Andy fell victim to some frustrations, which he vented in a diary here. Since he was running counter to what passes for "received opinion" among Kossacks, he took a lot of flak for his diary. He was called a lot of filthy names, his character was impugned, and, inevitably, the troll-ratings came out. As a result, he's on hiatus from this site--because he felt that his presence might be detrimental to a couple of things, including this weekly diary.
And that pains me, because I've seen it happen far too often this year. Once upon a time, people could actually disagree. They may not always have been able to keep it civil, but rarely did anyone feel threatened simply because s/he was advocating for an unpopular position.
Plus, when you get right down to it, our entire political system is premised on the notion that we're never going to be able to reach complete agreement about anything, so we have to be able to discuss matters rationally and reach some kind of compromise. And I see that ability fading from American life both civil and political, and especially from the blogosphere. We may well be on the verge of driving the Republican Party close to insignificance this year. But even if we accomplish that goal on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, I fear me that one vestige of Republicanism, at least, will be with us for a long time to come: the politics of personal destruction. The Republicans have made a career for a generation out of not just disagreeing with Democrats, but demonizing them. We're not just wrong, we're evil. We're not just mistaken, we're deliberately attempting to subvert our nation. (And we hate freedom, democracy, Mom, apple pie, and baseball, too!) (Well, OK, I'll cop to hating baseball.)
The saddest thing is, we've railed against the Republicans for these tactics for about as long as the Republicans have been using them. And now we're using them on ourselves and on our own. It wasn't enough to oppose the election of Hillary Clinton: people felt they had to make her out to be some kind of devil incarnate. Epithets were hurled at her that would under no circumstances be tolerated in reference to anyone else (except Republicans--and even then not always). Same thing, though to a lesser extent (insofar as I saw--and I made a conscious effort, after January or thereabouts, to avoid almost all of the candidate diaries, so I'll freely admit I probably didn't get the full picture, though I saw plenty through the Land of Hidden Comments), with Barack Obama.
My second, and completely unrelated, FP is, as I reported earlier today on my own blog, that the Chicago Blackhawks are reportedly close to bringing back long-time play-by-play announcer Pat Foley. I was extremely pleased in May 2006 by the news that Foley was leaving, because I found his voice even more annoying than the noise made by fingernails scraping down a chalkboard.
In retrospect, and faced anew with the prospect of having to endure listening to that voice for the better part of two hours on some 80 occasions over the next 18 months, I'm not sure that was a proper comparison. I would rather listen to, I don't know, pigs being slaughtered, or endless repetitions of Roseanne Barr mangling the "Star-Spangled Banner," than have to listen to Pat Foley call a Hawks game. I'd even willingly sit through every last one of the Boy Who Won't Be King Much Longer's speeches over the last eight years if it meant I wouldn't have to listen to Pat Foley ruin the resurgence of my hometown team.
Dammit, I was so looking forward to next season. And while I'll continue to hope the Hawks keep right on improving as they have done this past year and more, it's looking like I may have to cut back on my viewing of their games--even though for the first time in history all of their 82 regular-season games (plus playoff games) will be televised. That, or else I'm going to be watching with the sound off, and maybe catching a simulcast on the NHL radio feed.
So, what's on your mind tonight?