Hey there Kossacks, longtime listener first time caller. I have recently read about this trolling hubbub. I would like to suggest to the community that we change our approach to more ignoring and/or more thoughtful engagement. I base this suggestion on the fundamental premise that we all live in the same country, and if we don’t start finding more common ground we are collectively fcked. As Ghandi says “Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding”.
Personally when someone writes a bunch of nonsense that makes you want to put your head in a blender, the instinct is to fire off something equally valueless like “go beat your meat BS”. However, in the case of one particular apparently infamous Diary, I found our rebuttal comments quite lacking. Short, they didn’t attack obvious openings, I know I’m being critical guys but I simply don’t believe you brought your collective “A” game.
I’m suggesting that BS’s diary should not have been troll-rated (I know I know, everyone disagrees), rather, we should have collectively taken a minute to compose a proper skull-(begins with F ends with G). To that end I have done two things. One, composed a rebuttal which I hope is fun to read, and two, signed up with RedState. In the process I learned something that honestly shocked me. For those who don't like suspense skip the rebuttal and jump to the end.
Dear BS Abassador,
Welcome! I see you have taken the time to rub in what is clearly not our best moment. I wonder how long you had to wait before we were wrong on something. Was it really just two weeks or did you get lucky? Like most humans, it’s tough for me to admit I was wrong. As a rightwinger I’m going to assume you’ve never done it before. (That is, you’ve never done it, or admitted you were wrong). Please, make an ass of you and me and tell me a time you were wrong.
/crickets
I wanted to write a line by line response to your diary, but it’s a bit repetitious, so let me condense it for you. We were wrong. Collectively, the majority of us didn’t want to believe Wiener would be so stupid, and we jumped to defend our man. RedState would NEVER do such a thing I’m sure. I recall all the mea culpa’s on Iraq and the numerous apologies for Bush. Why every other repug I meet embraces the man!
Yes we both know I kid. Well regardless let’s hop on over to RedState and see what sort of informed discussion you are having today.
/Gets in airplane
/flies over middle of country
/jumps out
Ah! Here we are. This place is kind of nice. It feels familiar. I see we’ve got front page diaries, recommended diaries on the side. Why, this feels just like home! So what have we got cooking today?
First Diary on RedState
Alright I admit you’ve got my attention. “One useful metric of energy efficiency is GDP in $/Kg of Oil burned”. Ok as an energy guy I’m going to say you’re disappointing me. GDP/Oil consumption is a very poor choice of metric of nationwide energy efficiency, our total energy mix you can find here, oil being a bit over a third.
Your community is not showing it’s collective intellect friend. Let’s head to the recommended diaries. HO
LY
Spit.
Every single recommended diary is about Sarah Palin or Wiener. No way. You guys have to be bringing more to the table that this right? Taxes, health care, energy, foreign policy, anything?
Wait a second. Why is it so quiet?
Holy sh!t! There is no one here!
Your top recommended diary is what-a-palin-campaign-might-look-like, has four comments. You’re kidding me. Why did I sign up for this? If I wanted to shadow box I would.
You know what guys I’m sorry. I thought RedState was a real site. It’s not. There is more activity in at Knittinghelp.com. I’m not kidding.
There may be a right wing, I know I hear about them all the time, but they aren’t at RedState. No wonder BS came to dkos, he probably just wants someone to talk to. I’m not joking. I feel bad now. We banned the poor guy when he really just wanted a friend.