It’s been a year since I’ve joined, and in this time, I have noticed a sad matter of affairs here at DailyKOS that I wanted to talk about before I move on to my next replacement after the fading of AmericaBlog and ThinkProgress (my go-to places back in the aughts): Any dissent is stomped on by the weight of rabid supporters of whoever I called out.
Recently, I noticed a comment by a poster that made the laughable claim that Trump’s taxes were paid on the up and up, and that he paid everything he owed. I found the comment laughable, and commented as such. I chose to express my disbelief that the guy really just made that claim with the statement that the OP was either stunningly misinformed, or that he was a shill for Team Red. Of course, the first half of the statement was ignored and they immediately threatened Moderator Action against me (another interesting phenomenon — community members threatening moderator action) because I dared state the guy might just be a player for the other side.
Of course, this is a community, and the community may set its own policies and its own guidelines, and the only recourse I have is to conform or go somewhere else, so I won’t ask that DailyKOS change its ways. But I will point out some observations.
- My statement was an observation, a statement that you have to either be so misinformed or a shill for Trump to claim that he has paid the taxes he owes. The man has abused every single fucking tax law out there to ensure that he pays nothing while taking and taking and taking from every last one of us. This idea should not be fucking controversial. That it is is just mind-blowing to me.
- I have been to another site where dissent is smashed down by threats of moderation. I’ll give DailyKOS the benefit of the doubt here and say it’s not as bad as Redstate in this regard, but that’s on the shoulders of the moderators and the site admins. If half the people I’ve interacted with on this site were mods, then this place would be exactly like Redstate, and the only way it’s not is that those people AREN’T Moderators. So, kudos on the Moderation staff for resisting the urges of the rabid folks on my side of the political aisle who would be as fast to ban my criticism as the rabid Righties on Redstate are to ban on their site.
- Threatening moderator action is bullying. The users who use this when someone claims you have to be uninformed or playing for the other team to even suggest Trump pays his taxes properly are bullies. The user who threatened moderator action when someone observes that for all of Bush’s failures and apparent incompetency, he still managed to win reelection bullied the OP. It’s designed to shut down discussion and nitpick tiny details of a poster’s post, rather than actually debate ideas. I would prefer a community where users bring posts they disagree with to the moderator’s attention and then fucking let the moderators do their job. What a concept!
- The quality of comments here as degraded of late. Mind you, I’m not blaming DailyKOS for that, as comments have degraded all around the web in the past year. The dumbfucks are out in force. But DKos membership should really consider that perhaps, the best course of action is to state why someone is not a shill or misinformed, rather than latching on to half the assertion and ignoring people in general. I still don’t get how you can think that Trump has been playing the game right rather than abusing the fuck out of the rules for his personal gain, but I’m not going to ever find that out because…
I don’t comment at sites that I feel are dens of bullies and yes-men. What’s the point. I thought DailyKOS would be a fair replacement for the fading out sides of AmericaBlog and ThinkProgress, but from my interactions, I see that’s not so. A shame, if I say so myself, but that’s life. As I said. I am not asking DailyKOS to change their ground-rules. If the community thinks the right answer to dissent is to threaten moderator action for even the slightest transgressions, that’s their right.
I’ll keep searching for a new forum to debate on. Bye.