Every so often, we get a diary like this one on the rec list. The state's Republican senator/governor/legislature does something really stupid, a diary gets published about it, Kossacks comment that the state is really stupid for doing whatever it is, and somebody from the state gets offended that his or her brothers and sisters are saying whatever odious thing it is about THEM. I've noticed that when we get one, it's usually NOT about Wisconsin or Michigan or Texas. I think I know why, too. I'll tell you below the divider doodle.
You see, it's like this. When Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Republicans do something addlepated, we have a group of people FROM WISCONSIN who are eager to diary about it. Or to show up and sing at the state house in Madison and diary about that. When Rick Snyder and the city managers in Michigan act stupid, we get diaries from Michiganders. Heck, we get diaries from the guy who writes THE progressive state blog about Michigan, who was the guy who announced that NN 14 will be in Detroit at NN 13. Texas? One of our colleagues can't be photographed because said colleague (I'm not even going to identify this person by gender) is VERY involved with the state democratic party and with Battleground Texas. We have DK4 GROUPS about Texas politics
What I'm proposing is that if you're the type of Kossack who finds this trashing of your state distasteful, be proactive about it. You live in Missouri? Why aren't you combing the Kansas City Star and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for news about your idiot legislature? We'd much rather get those stories from people on the ground. I just spent three weeks writing a diary at least every two days about the plight of gay people in Russia because I thought it was important. I live in California, so I DON'T have to write about the idiot legislature which seems to be there to keep Jerry Brown from doing stupid things. If Jerry Brown were behaving like, say, Rick Scott, do you think I'd be writing about Russia? NO, I'd be joining the chorus from California agitating for change.
I know, this blog also has a tendency to trash the South too, even though a lot of us live in Southern states. They complain too, and we should probably all be nicer about the problems that blue voters have in terribly red states. But if you don't like to be called names, don't call people names yourself, and don't think that complaining after you've called people names will do anything to fix the situation either.
UPDATE, 9/1, 7:00 AM: If I ever had any doubts about the truth of reader-response theory, they're gone now. I meant this to be a specific call-out diary, aimed at a diarist who used a mild obscenity in a title that's STILL on the rec list, who has written 15 diaries to date, and who has up until now not paid any attention to Missouri in 14 of them (the one that did is 5 years old now). From that, you've interpreted my call to diary about your red state's problems the way our members from Wisconsin, Michigan and Texas do as blaming the victim. Turn the telescope the other way, please.
Or shorter: If politics in your state gives you lemons, make lemonade.