We disagree, often.
Sometimes I am repulsed, and so I creatively seek to capture that repulsion and illustrate it back to you in my response.
Sometimes I think, well, there are bigger battles to fight, and I say little, and move on.
Free Speech commands that both must be acceptable... and that at no times should the right to express one's self be subject to the amorphous thing known as "taste", good, bad, or otherwise.
"Poor taste", "Good taste", and the like are too subjective, too relative, to be allowed to impinge on freedom of expression. And afterall what year is this anyway? 1865, 1955, 1455...? Have we somehow been transported back in time to the era of Manet's Olympia, or McCarthy, or Mapplethorpe?
Alas no. It's January 20, 2009, the inauguration of a new era, and yet we - would-be and self-proclaimed progressives included - still carry around some rather soiled laundry, long-since in need of cleansing, or better yet, disposing.
We're not speaking of hate speech or other forms of expression that have proven to actually deter or remove others from their own rights...despite how gray and thin and hard to distinguish that line can be at times.
We are speaking of the dire straits democracy finds itself in when the aforementioned thin gray line is all but forgotten and obliterated by those who seek to impress their own version of what is or is not in poor taste upon others, and do so with belligerence. And if/when that is met with any righteous indignation, they go even further, cheneyesque-like, and begin to accuse the indignant, whom they attacked unrightly, of victimization, and worse.
Now to bring this topic home...
Here on DKos, a place that has helped moved this nation and the world one small-but-crucial step forward, and away from a brink that no one dares claim, or desire, to know what exactly rests beyond it, I have to respectfully suggest: That serious consideration is given to the all-too-common practice of telling diarists to delete their diaries, or that they are unwelcome, or any other act that amounts to bullying, and thus severely cripples DKos' capabilities to embody the very same principles that it seeks to suborn, i.e. "getting good and better democrats elected". Because, there can be no such animal as a good or better democrat, without good and better progressive dialogue being freely embraced.
Which means, that as our about-to-be President says, we must learn to disagree without being disagreeable.
This is not to say that we cannot have heated disagreements. But that the heat is, or should be, reserved for the points in question - not the character of the person expressing them.
And I must say that in this, there is much progress to be made, and fast.
I see it over and over again. People attempting to argue their point, only to call into question the character of the one they are discoursing with... slinging accusations of "troll", and worse, around like confetti on New Year's.
And no one is saying it is or will be easy. In fact, I dare say that we have all, even liberals, yes even DKos users, front-page and otherwise, been quite desensitized to what precisely it means, and looks and sounds like to have disagreements that lack the type of character-assassination that has become virtually omnipresent in American society. We think we're arguing in a most righteous, points-only manner, when in fact we just ignorantly, and arrogantly, and erroneously, presumed the authority to tell someone that they have no right to their opinion - at least not here.. not because they broke any rule or law, but because we simply found their view and/or expression of it to be in what we deem is "poor taste".
(...Oh, steady Messirs Franklin, Paine, King Jr. et al... graves are supposed to be a resting place, not a g-force-challenging carnival ride...)
In all reality, I suspect it began in earnest in the '50s, and was forged into an array of both finely sharpened instruments of surgical precision, and mind-numbing blunt-force tools of bludgeoning, throughout the Nixon-Reagan-Clinton-Bush years... assisted by, happily, those who profited on delivering blow by blow, cut by cut, via the airwaves and cable lines running directly from McCarthy's brain into our own.
Indeed, the water is so muddied, that as I alluded to earlier, it seems many intelligent folks cannot even tell the difference between offense and defense....or if they can, they deliberately destroy the barrier in an attempt to sabotage their "opponent's" case as the whines of victimization.
But let me be clear: I know that many if not most loyal DKos users identify such tactics with the GOP, and rightfully so - they have raised the bar to heights unknown in this area. But it is not a partisan-based issue, not at all. It has become a part of the fabric of social dialogue. And it has to be extracted. Not that it can ever fully be. To think so is foolhardy. But it is most certainly time to hit the "reset" button if we can find one, and try to at least temper the most beastly threads of it, before it ruins the cloth altogether. And since we're cleaning house and installing new drapes and refreshing the linens at 1600 Pa. Ave., now seems like the time to do it.
So to sum up, I think that while the site is undergoing infrastructural renovation, that some serious examination is made as to how better to guide the discourse, in a way that actually can promote more and better free speech, as opposed to the "mob rules" effect that results when so many - even "front-pagers" or other erstwhile influential users - feel, quite mistakenly, that they should have the authority to instruct diarists whom have not broken any rules or laws, but have only expressed an opinion in a challenging manner, to delete the "questionable" diaries, or even worse, to leave the site, or what have you.
Otherwise, it would be a tearful shame to see what the results will look like not long from now.
Free speech is a multi-directional avenue, and the right-of-way absolutely must be preserved in all directions, or else it's not for real..and more gravely, the right to righteous indignation in the face of other equal, albeit more obviously grotesque, unjust acts, such as Prop 8, or torture, etc, is completely lost... tossed out simultaneously, if unintentionally, with that thing called credibility.
And while our chosen President embarks on his journey, deftly cajoling and encouraging us to higher aims, we must each take yet another new step of our own. That President has said as much. And we often like to comfort ourselves by counting our efforts thus far.
But today, it's clear: The bar has been raised. And the measure of it, and thus us, begins in the mirror.
This goes for me, you, the whole DKos community, and anyone else who claims to care, about any of the following: liberty, justice, humanity, democracy, or their children or nieces' and nephews' or neighbors' kids' futures.