STOP THE WANK

I hope I've fooled you all into thinking I'm a serious person.  I'm not.  Maybe the fact that I always have a handy picture of Mr. Spock or hockey players or just about anything else worshipable told some of you that my first home on the intertubes was in fandoms: Star Trek, X-Files, lots of others.  

I've been in fandom communities of all kinds, mostly centering around fan fiction.  And I've seen what's happening at DKos so many times, and I HATE IT.  I HATE WANK.

That's what we call it in fandom: wank.  (Yes, I know the other meaning.  We all do.  Go play in the street, kthx?)

Wank: the irresistable urge to use  anonymity to take up a cause and make yourself unbearable.  The way some people see the net as a way to abandon basic civility to make a point - and by the time they've made it, nobody is listening any more except other wankers.  

The Fandom Wank main page describes it as "...Self-aggrandizing posturing...Circular ego-stroking. Endless flamewars. Pseudointellectual definitions."

Does this sound familiar right now?

I'm beginning to think that all net communities go through this - idealistic beginning, sudden growth, egoism, snark, open warfare, shattering, daughter communities, and on and on.  I don't want to see DKos shatter.

We're losing too damn many good people right now.  It's not because there's political argument.  Why else are we here?  It's because it's so unbearably mean.  

I don't think this diary will stop it, but can it at least make you think that the words you post are just like the words that come out of your mouth (with the exception that the recipient can't punch you in the mouth)?  Hurtful, unintelligent, dronelike?  

Enough already with this.  If you want to have a war, wankers, go start one in your neighborhood over zoning or fences or something, and see how much fun it is.  Not much.  Not much for those of us who see DKos as a community, not a battleground.  

(And don't dream I'll go away.  I'm too stubborn.  And I'll keep fighting for peace as long as I can.)

•  In primary season it should

  be a battleground.  But on a "progressive" site there should be a certain level of civility.  I'm very new here, and I want to say that I have seen a ton of very positive diaries.  The positive, spirited debates far outweigh the negative, from what I have seen so far.  

  However, I agree with this diarist- everyone here needs to realize what the change is they want to see.  Much of it has to do with attitude and tactics.  

  Fight for your candidate.  Fight for your positions.  BUT, fight with the attitude and tactics you RESPECT in others.  We should always be doing it "better."

  by xph on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:31:52 AM PDT

•  The wank is impossible to avoid

  The entire premise of this community seems to be based on ginning up outrage.  Well expressed outrage is an end unto itself.  Demanding that other people "get spine" has become a worthy form of activism.

  Meanwhile the larger party continues to reject righteous anger as a political philosophy.  We assume that this is a sign of their lack of core values.

  We like a good wank around here.  

  by snout on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:32:18 AM PDT

•  But... but...

  ...it's not wank, it's serious candidate advocacy that will propel [X] into the White House fersure.

  by MBNYC on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:33:01 AM PDT

  •  It doesn't help if (X) is only there

    for an overnight stay in the Lincoln bedroom.

    /snark

    by Sick Of It on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:34:38 AM PDT

    •  Hey, it's better than nothing

      Just ask Marilyn Monroe.  Although if she was still alive I think she'd be President by now.  But she's dead, for which I blame Diebold.

      by TruthOfAngels on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:53:58 AM PDT

•  I hate primary season....

  It a concern troll wank-a-thon.

  I have the candidate I like.  I will support that candidate regardless of how mean a DK diary may be.

  For I know the enemy is a Republican who deserves his skull smashed in (figuratively) for the damage done to this country from 8 years of ideological/political gamesmanship and corruption.

  God damn them, and may the rest of us rise up and do God's will by driving the Republican to the worst defeat in his/her party's history!

  There, that should be enough political wanking for the moment.

  by boilerman10 on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:33:58 AM PDT

  •  Wanna read something really wanky?

    Try this on for size

    It get stranger and stranger.

    Clinton pulls one off and the "Obama-lama-ding-dongs" go berzerk.

    Wanking begetting political wanking?

    by boilerman10 on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:42:39 AM PDT

•  meh

  by andgarden on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:34:13 AM PDT

  •  No - tell us what you really think. LOL!

    /snark

    by Sick Of It on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:35:28 AM PDT

•  But I LIKE to wank...

  Oh, wait. You're talking about something else.

  Nevermind!

  by musing85 on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:35:37 AM PDT

•  I suggest:

  We return to WONK instead of WANK:

  wonk (wòngk) noun
  Slang.
  A student who studies excessively; a grind.

  [Origin unknown.]

  The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from INSO Corporation. All rights reserved.

  ----------[Spoken here by a Phi Beta Kappa demon researcher who ADORES the reference material and reporting and ACTION LINKES on Daily Kos!]

  STAY ACTIVE:

  The Nation action and media links:
  http://capwiz.com/...

  http://capwiz.com/...

  by LNK on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:35:53 AM PDT

•  I'm sitting a lot of this out...

  ...not because it's mean...but because I find it excruciatingly, mind-numbingly boring.

  by dov12348 on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:37:28 AM PDT

•  Only wankers wank

  and hopefully the wankers will get wanked off and go the wank away.

  No wanking loss, IMHWO.

  by Niniane on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:38:39 AM PDT

•  It's a delightful alternative to taking action.

  Why do something out in the real world when you can stay in and write a hit/fan diary? It's a great way to convince yourself you're making a difference, even when you're just adding more noise to the echo chamber.

  by haruki on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:39:28 AM PDT

•  Suggested change to your diary:

  "Fighting for peace is like fucking for chastity"

  Say:

  Advocating for peace or pursuing peace...... rather than fighting for peace.

  Therefore, here's another ACTION LINK...the Quakers:

  http://afsc.org/

  Youth and Militarism:
  http://afsc.org/...

  by LNK on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:41:07 AM PDT

  •  Um...

    I actually am a Quaker, and I said it deliberately, for effect.

    by escapee on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:50:55 AM PDT

  •  But thanks anyway!

    by escapee on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:51:13 AM PDT

•  Hmm, a dKos diary about wanking

  I must have been drinking.  Oh, wait, I have been drinking.  

  That also explains how Superman shot JR.  Tasty.

  by TruthOfAngels on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 10:51:01 AM PDT

•  Leave Wanking Alone!!!!

  

  I've got the image link in my cut-and-paste buffer and see so many opportunities today.

  by GW Chimpzilla on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 11:22:03 AM PDT