I've been loathe to get too deeply involved in the Jane Hamsher pie fight, but there is something about it that I've found incredibly disturbing and I can't quite shake it.
I read the letter that caused so much outrage and if no one had ever told me who wrote it I would come away thinking "Man, that person really doesn't like Rahm Emmanuel". This is not a sentiment that is uncommon among the left as it is Rahm that has been doing his level best to pimp-slap the liberal left and the DFHs that inhabit it. But people are in an uproar over one of the authors of this now infamous letter and that got me to thinking. Are people not even paying attention to the message anymore? Is it really all about the messengers? By aligning ever so briefly with someone completely reviled on the left, Jane Hamsher has been branded a traitor, crazy, delusional, etcetera, etcetera, ad nauseum. But very rare has been the criticism of the content of the letter itself. I mean people have used the collaboration as a means of proving (in their own minds) that Jane Hamsher is an "attention whore", "egomaniac", "narcissist" (all terms I've personally seen used here), but I have yet to see anyone argue the merits of the letter itself. The closest I saw was someone who was arguing that the charges against Rahm were so old and previously investigated that there surely can't be any "there" there, but that's it.
I have found this deeply disturbing and it wasn't until today that I realized why.
I have been a member of this community for many years and I have seen many friendships formed and lost. I've seen many members shine with brilliance and excellence only to leave in disgust (some of them I miss a great deal). I have seen the best of us and the worst of us but I have always maintained that on the balance we were better than most. But this deal with Jane Hamsher has made me realize that maybe there are no friends here, only potential enemies. That all friendships or alliances or positive standing here are not just conditional, but secretly conditional. Heaven help anyone get renowned enough to go on television. Heaven help anyone to have the "wrong" insights. Heaven help anyone to reach across the aisle or find common cause in a so called "enemy". Heaven help anyone to care more for the results than the method. Heaven help anyone that does not have enough passion to put aside their reason. And heaven help anyone who does not join the mob.
It just seems that we've spent so many years being so outraged under Bush, that we don't know how else to exist. It's like we don't know how to live beyond the outrage or how to be constructive with our passions or this community.
Are there no friends here, only potential enemies? How can we as a community function under that kind of culture?
I don't know what to think about this. This isn't GBCW as much as me giving word to a feeling that has been creeping in of late: That I don't know if I belong here anymore. That I don't know if I WANT to belong here anymore, if belonging means giving up everything I used to love about this site.