Yeah I suppose this is a temporary GBCW diary or whatever it's called. But don't worry, I'll leave a tip jar so you can flog it as you wish, no sense in you having to go out of your way to find one and link to it. But before labeling me as a troll at least look at my (short) history here and see that I tried being a member of this community. So without further adieu, this is why I'm saying goodbye until the DNC convention in August, and yes the number 16 has something to do with it if you care to read this all the way through.
This place has gotten toxic beyond words, as has really most progressive sites. Does it really need to be said why? I think the more rational and less knee-jerking of you all here would understand completely how meta it's gotten here to the point that we're about to shoot ourselves in the foot (if we hadn't already done so), and I don't mean just November (care to listen? read on). Don't get me wrong, I'm NOT against political debates nor am I against disagreements; but tell me exactly why the hell this sort of site does the following:
a) Claims that they gave Obama the nomination; you've no monopoly on him, and from what I see he wasn't originally supported here so unless you were always on board you've nothing to say on the matter.
b) Literally looks for reasons to dump him in a heartbeat. Yes FISA sucks but it's not the end of the world and frankly I see more important things to worry about like my parents barely affording their house and other basic things (working class + stagflation = fun!) and one of my close friends in Afghanistan who may end up going to Iraq some day because of Bush II and maybe even John McCain, so sorry if my immediate concerns makes me appear that I shit on the constitution (I don't but why argue with ideologues? learned that lesson from the Repubs the last 7 years). And that's just on FISA, arguably the most legitimate issue taken against him; I've seen uproars on pretty much EVERYTHING he has or hasn't done. Take anything that has to do with him and I guarantee 10 equivalent diaries bitching about it if it's a non-issue, 100 if it's a semi-issue.
c) While on that topic, the fact that unless you toe the same line as the majority here including the demi-gods of this site on an issue that you must hate America or something. Gee, sounds very much like the Republican line of argument, doesn't it? Well I'm sorry that I don't see FISA as a reason to spend the last 2 weeks and the next 2 weeks doing nothing EXCEPT working non-stop against it and threatening to not support Obama with anything except "maybe a vote in November" because gasp he disappointed me! Newsflash people, he disappointed me from day one, enough to the point that I was indifferent towards him until April. Maybe that's why I'm not kicking and screaming as if he stabbed me in the heart like everyone else here, because maybe I actually am realistic enough to either see the big picture or I never put Obama on a pedestal in the first place (many of you seem to have done so...once your preferred candidate left). Plus if you think there exists a candidate who was perfect and never took a questionable stance on anything (be it a constitutional matter or a civil rights debatable issue), well then you're still sleeping. Welcome to politics.
d) To go back on (a), tell me exactly when Obama relied on the netroots? I can't and I don't see it. Sure he relies on the internet and does so better than any candidate so far, but doesn't seem like he's been depending on sites like DailyKos to get his votes; he's a center-left candidate overall, has run his entire campaign as such since day 1, and has been labeling himself not as the progressive candidate but as the candidate that represents ALL of the United States. That's the key folks, his support and infrastructure runs much deeper than the blogging deities and the few vocal people who only bark and not bite and only bark on these sites. He has Democrats that both come on these sites and those that don't, moderates and independents (who may OR may not be centrist, I'm technically one and I'm to the left of the party), and even some disaffected lean-conservatives. And frankly, seeing the fickleness of support on here since I've came here I can see why he isn't looking to them (guess that means he's not going to be missing Kos' $2300 after all); yeah I still remember people threatening not to vote for him because of either a choice in adviser or god forbid a lowly supporter of his who happens to frequent the same sites as the angry "Clintonista" said something not nice about Hillary (you think it's bad here? go to Fark.com, they tear her and well every candidate really to shreds for fun on a daily basis). Point is I don't care what you decide to do with your money, but don't act as if anyone's coming here on bended knee for it, and maybe that should be telling.
If that's what netroots stands for--pettiness and support that is best described as fleeting, way more punishing than rewarding yet still wishing to take credit for something they won't have done in the end and who honestly thinks they have total control of the candidates--I wish you luck because it's going to fail the more pure your sample becomes. Not because you won't get more and better Dems elected, as I've stated that if we keep them in power they WILL SWING LEFT as the Republicans have swung right in the last 40 years, but because you will have lost the support of those of us here who don't pigeon-hole ourselves here. It really drives away people who may or may not share the majority opinion here on one or two issues max (but apparently that's all that is needed to label you as a troll), or who may share the views but not agree with the reactions and rationales of such.
And this is where I come into the picture. I've been here for about a month and a half I think, I forget how long exactly as time seems to merge on itself. I came to this site because I wanted to participate somewhere where I thought the people shared my ideals yet were not so purity-minded that they change the candidates they support on a weekly basis like many news-blogs (Reddit comes to mind), somewhere where maybe I can find out if there's anything I can do to ensure we don't have another Bush-Wannabe in the White House. Silly me, I apparently expected too much, or rather simply the wrong things altogether. Instead of that I am hard-pressed to see a diary that doesn't take a pot-shot at Obama--especially on FISA--when the topic doesn't even merit it. Of course that assumes it's not one of the 600 carbon copy diaries on the issue. I mean seriously how many different ways is there to look at the bill, Obama's flip-flop on it (hope he was listening to K.O.'s Special Comment tonight if he still insists on voting for it, he hit it on the head), and exactly how many different combinations can be made out of this pool of phrases: satisfaction on the bill, vote, donate, volunteer?
I'll tell you how many: 16. If you don't believe me, let's look at it in binary numerals. Let WXYZ be the word (yes that's the term used for it) that describes your actions, W be the bit on whether you're satisfied with the bill and/or his stance on it, X be the bit that says whether you vote for him, Y the bit about donating another cent to him, Z the bit about whether to volunteer any time in effort. Since each issue is binary (either you will or won't), the lowest number you can have is 0000 (0) and the highest is 1111 (15). So when you count 0000 as you do in Computer Science, you have 16 different things.
So there you have it, 600+ diaries and counting (including FP) on something that takes on only 16 different combinations, and that's only in theory while assuming each one is realistically going to be used! In practice the real number of combinations is about 6. So yeah, that makes it look even worse doesn't it? So tell me, is this what is ALWAYS going to happen here on ANYTHING he disappoints you on (funny, he even said prepare to be disappointed, at least he's honest with you there even if you won't listen)? If so, then maybe I can make better use of my time elsewhere.
But I haven't exactly why I said I'm taking a leave of absence here yet, so here I go. It's summer, when there are many things I'd like and maybe even need to do, when no one outside of us political fanatics (meaning those who follow it religiously, relax it's not an insult) even really cares about what's happening with the candidates. I need to go out and look at the sun, because this place has become that space underneath a rock. It's not so much the harsher rhetoric or the outcries on the FISA bill that gets to me as I've learned to filter it out, but rather the realization that this place really is little more than an echo-chamber and if one person becomes ill everyone here gets the virus. That's what is toxic here, that you all over-inflate your influence (either on the candidates or on the general public, like the person in some rural place without the internet is going to vote against Obama because of something you said here), that you claim extreme non-nuanced actions as simple criticism, and take it to the extreme where yes it's a powerful tool, but has no inertia. Inertia, folks, is a measure to the resistance against acceleration (change of speed and/or direction), and it seems here that the folks here are ready to 180 themselves on everything over just one issue over the whole pool of issues. I'd say that's evidence that you have little inertia, that you are easily led and led astray. By the way, kinetic and (gravitational) potential energy are proportional to inertia, so please ask yourselves how you plan to be a viable operation when you aren't even dependable enough to stay on focus.
And that's why I plan to return after the convention, because I'm hoping (maybe in vain) that things will die down here once we're finally out of Primary mode (so long as people take pot-shots at Clinton I'm going to guess we're still there) and officially in GE mode, and maybe we can actually have civil discussions without resorting to all-or-nothing tactics that rapidly change criticisms into tantrums (yes I realize the irony that I'm sort of leaving which is an all-or-nothing, but unlike you all I've been patient and calm this whole time. But I don't blame everyone, this is apparently the kind of site Kos himself wants it to be, as evidenced by his front-page works here (yes, I do call him out on that). In fact I'd say that most of you are relatively non-vocal or at least are moderated with how you handle yourself on both the triumphs and disappointments, but honestly when I'm starting to feel depressed about my own things (yes I suffer from mood disorders, flares up around this time of year, sorry I never got to writing about it, didn't want to distract from the 100th FISA diary of the day), this site isn't good medicine. Sorry, but the soul needs to be taken care of before I can come and do something related to the elections.
And if someone wants to ironically shout against the "hand-wringing about the hand-wringing", ask yourselves how does this screaming bloody terror on everything looks to someone new such as myself? It definitely is a turn off and makes this site look fringe-esque and therefore less significant, so maybe you should learn to moderate your temperament like I have to take extra care in doing my own. Else, you'll get the delusional homogeneity you want here (Dems seem to be much more varied in opinion), but with 1/10 the audience. Till then, see ya in late August (I may lurk time to time if something of interest develops, or a Countdown thread, but that's about it).