Everyone is tearing themselves apart over whether this Fiscal Cliff deal amounted to a "betrayal" or was a "win", and that is an argument that needs to be had. There is a place for substantive disagreement between those who think this amounted to a betrayal of the progressive cause and those who think this is a win. I do not begrudge anyone that argument, in fact, I think we should all welcome it.
But at the end of the day, everyone needs to be reminded of this one thing: while we debate over Obama and his "win" or "betrayal", we are debating fellow kossacks, fellow members of our internet household. What is the fucking purpose of raking each other over hot coals about this? What is the purpose of doling out hrs and insults and uprates of insults just because we agree with one side or another. Most of us who are very active in this website are trusted users and have been for a long time. We know that insults don't fly, we know that we are not supposed to hr for no reason other than disagreement, we know that we are not supposed to uprate said insults, even if the person getting hr'd is a member of our crew. And yet, this stupid, silly, pointless bullshit still happens. The gangs come out and manipulate the rules to their perspective advantages, hr'ing something in one instance, and UPRATING that exact same thing in another instance, and using the supposed fucking rules to cover their asses. Well, its ridiculous. We are adults, capable of disagreeing without being disagreeable. So why the fuck do we do this, with every controversial decision in national politics.
Don't you guys fucking get tired of this? There comes a fucking point when a conversation no longer becomes useful, no longer is helpful, isn't about actually hashing out differences. We are far past that point with this debate. Far fucking past it.
This is our home, this is where we live on the internet. WE, as a community, make this place what it is. When the rec list become filled to the brim with pie fighting every which way, it no longer is a community, its just another online free-for-all, not unlike facebook comments or a twitter feed. I don't come here to fucking read the same fight over and over and over again. I come here because I genuinely like the people here, and love the community that WE have built, steadily, over the years. Don't fucking tear it down by breaking the rules and hiding something that you aren't supposed to, or upping a comment YOU KNOW contains an insult just because that comment came from a person you identify as being "in your crew". What the fuck kind of school yard cliquish bullshit is that? In fact, if you have a fucking nasty, mean, rude comment -- keep it to your fucking self. Thats right, I said it. Shut up. Walk away. Smoke a cigarette. Smoke a bowl. Drink some bourbon. JUST. DONT. EXACERBATE. THE. SITUATION. GAH!!!!!
When we become embroiled in these bullshit fights, this place is just unreadable.