Today is my tenth anniversary here at the Great Orange Satan and in honor of that I thought I'd impart some of my experience upon all of you plebes and Johnnies and Janes come lately. So today we're going to talk about how to survive the primary season here at DailyKos.
Now, I don't mean 'survive' as in just not getting banned, I mean actually emerging with not only your sanity, but also with some of the friends you had going in. Even people who might not support the same candidate as you do. But most importantly, it means retaining your courage to keep fighting. There are few things as discouraging as seeing the fighting during the primary seasons. People you otherwise respect will say stupid and mean things, maybe even to you.
With that all in mind, let's get started.
Obviously the first step is to follow the rules. Don't go calling people shills, or telling them to go fuck themselves. Don't HR people just because they disagree with you. And yes, that includes people who are spreading information that you consider to be false. Unless it's been explicitly banned as some sort of talking point then technically it isn't against the rules. Lest we forget, this site isn't a democracy, it's a dictatorship. Benevolent most of the time, but a dictatorship none the less.
Second, and possibly most important: Hold the control key and click that little arrow next to the title of a comment that you really can't stand. The one that repeats the same stupid taking point about your candidate that has been repeated a million times. You know the one. Instead of responding, or reading all the way out to the margins, because you know it will go that far, just hold down control and click on the arrow next to the title. It will save you a ton of stress by avoiding an entire thread that you have almost certainly seen before by this point.
Third. Remember that pretty much everyone is arguing in good faith. Or at the very least they are arguing in favor of a candidate that they truly think is the best option. Sometimes that means that they're sell outs or naive. Wait, I mean pragmatists or idealists. No, no, there's totally a neutral term for these things, I swear. Emo-prog and corporatist whore? No, definitely not. But if I knew it I'd tell you so we could all get along. But it would be turned into slurs in no time flat anyway. When someone asks a question, try answering in a straight forward manner. Even if it's someone you've crossed words with before. And if they throw it back in your face remember the second point, ctrl + click.
Fourth, remember that what we say here doesn't have much of an effect. As much as I love this place, and love to hate it, its primary effect in the elections is as a fund raising platform. You can certainly come here and discuss things or argue, or shout even. But your not going to make the comment that swings the election. None of us are going to send the five dollars that really just puts our candidate over the top either. What we will do is be the ones who slog through the intellectual dreck that is the American political system to maybe do something halfway worth doing.
Fifth, and finally, know when to step away. Not only from some discussion or another, but from the site as a whole. Also, know not to make a big deal of stepping away. You don't need to tell everyone you're leaving, although if you've been around a while it's nice to let folks know you'll be gone so no one worries, but a huge, blow up GBCW diary about how unfair X is, or how Y politician really does this won't change anything. Block it on your router if you want to commit, but don't make it a huge drama. When you start getting angry, just step away. If you're about to say something really mean to someone because it just needs to be said, step away. Even if you're just tired of the nonsense, step away. Take a break. A day, a week, whatever, just have a break.
ETA: I forgot my most basic tip. If a diary has more than a hundred comments and is about one of the candidates don't go into the comments. It's never worth it.