I'll admit I lost interest in DKos some time ago, when the tone of the site passed a threshold which I couldn't reconcile with the desire to effect real, permanent, positive societal change. For that matter, I couldn't reconcile the atmosphere around here with reality itself. I looked elsewhere for intelligent debate. I stopped by occasionally, only to see pie fights, abuses of the site's infrastructure, and calls for more moderation. Then, Kos raised the ban hammer and started whacking it around like a child having a tantrum. Anyone suggesting that putting Democrats in office wasn't going to solve our problems was history. Now, I see positive coverage of Occupy Wall Street on the front page. WTF?
NOTICE
This diary was written by, and will be read by, human beings. Therefore, your ability to find flaws in the reasoning contained herein may not prove what you think it proves. By reading further, you agree that this is an unfortunate but unavoidable fact of life.
One of the core principles behind the OWS movement is that the political system itself is broken. In my opinion, the protest is about forcing the system itself to change--or, failing that, replacing it with a better one. Putting the 'right' people into elected office, then insisting that they 'do the right thing', isn't going to bring about the needed changes. The protestors aren't trying to take the power of the system away from some people and give it to other people. They're trying to create more and better ways of circumventing the existing system. When the alternatives to working within the old system become powerful enough, the people working within the old system will no longer hold the power they have held. They won't be able to do business in the ways they have grown accustomed to doing business.
In other words, they're strongly suggesting that electing more and better Democrats, then holding their feet to the fire, is pretty much pointless as long as you're doing it within the existing political, social and economic systems. There they are on the front page of Daily Kos, those 99%ers who have dared to take to the streets with signs announcing that they will no longer accept the choices the existing systems have to offer. If there is one overarching message to these Occupy protests, it is that they will be creating their own choices from now on, thank you very much. The protestors have made it clear that they refuse to be bound by any political ideology, nor will they allow their movement to be co-opted by any politicians or the parties they belong to.
During the DK Great Purge of 2011, people were banned for suggesting much the same thing. Kos explicitly warned the entire community that anyone openly espousing the idea that broader and stronger support of the Democratic Party and its candidates was not The Answer To All Our Problems would be dealt with severely. To make sure everyone believed he meant it, he suspended or deleted the accounts of members whose on-site activities fit that description.
Yet, there the OWS protesters are...
on the front page of DailyKos...
saying, basically, 'F**k That'.
I don't get it.