You know, I seriously considered making this a GBCW diary, but what I've realized is that if I GBCW off of DKos, I pretty much need to also leave the entire internet, because the things that are really pissing me off here are also everywhere else on the internet. So I'm going to rant at all of you in the hopes that, perhaps, Daily Kos can prove itself to be a community that actually listens and understands. My topic, as mentioned, is decency on the internet. And it's something that we're all sorely lacking.
The writers of the webcomic Penny Arcade once proposed a hypothesis about how the internet works that goes something like this: normal people, when given an open forum and the complete anonymity that the internet affords, invariably turn into raving, unmitigated assholes. While the humor in this statement lies in its broad over-generalization, the nugget of truth is that people don't treat each other with as much respect and open-mindedness on the internet as they do in real life. This always grates on me, but recently here on DKos I've noticed it far more than usual, and it is concentrated in a couple of areas.
First are the so-called "Obamabots" vs. the so-called "Haters." Obamabots, as they are shamelessly branded by those who disagree with them, are pretty much anyone on DKos who thinks that the President of the United States is correct in his opinion about the unpopular issue du jour, and is quite possibly the best President we've ever had, especially in light of the G-Dubs years. Haters - another, equally inflammatory and untrue appellation - are those who take the opposite view: that the President is wrong on issue du jour, and is leading us further down the garden path of the expanded executive, shameless exercise of unreasonable force, endless war, corporatism, whatever, you name it. The thing that binds both of these groups together in common unity is that they are absolute assholes to each other whenever they get together in a diary comment thread. Here's the thing: I know that I personally tend to walk a middle ground between these two extremes, and I believe that most other people do too. I think that if you looked at the sum total of diary comments, you'd see different people painted as Obamabots and Haters depending on which diary you were reading - i.e., depending on whether the issue du jour was something the individual in question was personally for or against. But the point is, you all treat each other like crap. There's insults, accusations of fascism and totalitarianism, mindless lockstep goose-marching, blind allegiance to a bad leader, being a Blue Dog, being a secret plant from Red State, treason... hell, you name it, someone on DKos has accused someone else of it in the last month. And it grates the hell out of me that these two groups can't express their opinions in a respectful way.
Same with atheist Kossacks vs. Kossacks of faith. I fall into the latter category, so I'm sure I'm at least a little biased here, but again: hardly a day goes by without a hardcore atheist writing a diary about the abolition of religion, or how this or that religious observance is foolish and dooming us all to backwards thinking and hocus-pocus for EVAR. The religiously-minded Kossacks, naturally, after having been painted with a broad brush and attacked in this way, feel it necessary to respond in comment threads, where they try to pointlessly convince their opposite number that religious faith is in fact, meaningful, helpful, the best thing you can experience, whatever. This inevitably leads to accusations of intellectual blindness, naivete, misplaced belief, and so forth - often on both sides of the argument! The religious among us are just as quick to decry atheists as uncritical and hopelessly flawed in their arguments as vice versa. And I, of course, hoping foolishly that one day there will be an open, honest, and kind discourse in these matters, read those diaries and just about have a frustration aneurysm. Every time.
Now, I'm not going to close here with a "can't we all just get along" platitude, because you know what? Most likely we can't. We are invariably going to disagree with each other, and it's invariably going to lead to discussions of our disagreements in comment threads. But here's what I would ask. Think about what you're writing. Read it two or three times and say to yourself, "Am I being an unfeeling asshole here? Would I appreciate it if someone said something like this to me? What if I was talking about this with a close friend or family member? Would I word things the same way?" Because while it isn't necessary for everyone to agree with everyone else about everything, and while dissent is a practical tool of democracies, we can disagree and dissent with one another in a respectful, useful manner that promotes understanding and further conversation.
I would also like to plead on behalf of our common community here. Supposedly, we are all here to help elect more, better Democrats into office. That is a COMMON GOAL people. Unite around it. Look to that as a way to provide common ground and common decency to our discussions here. Because if we fall apart, wall ourselves off into our own close-minded ways of thinking, and stop working together, we will invariably fail in our common goal. And in the last week or two I have been increasingly concerned that that is exactly what might happen to this community.
Practice decency. Attempt, no matter how much you might not like it, to give a good goddamn about each other. Stop using anonymity and an open forum to act like complete assholes to each other. Please.