The amount of energy being wasted by Obama loyalists and Obama critics tearing into each other is getting depressing and disheartening. This isn't the primaries or the Great Fraudster Wars of 2004/5 or even that stupid original pie fight - this has a different quality. The two sides seem more or less evenly matched, and there are reasons to think that neither side is going anywhere anytime soon. So if we don't do something, this place is going to become uninhabitable. Analysis and a proposal below the flip.
I think this current split is something the dKos community deeply owns. We're neither a blog of pragmatist wonks nor one of idealist radicals (I like to think of them as realos vs. fundies ) - we've always been both. We're also to the left (I think) of any other blog that still has a strong pro-Obama presence. For all these reasons, the way all those other blog uncivil wars ended - with one faction leaving or shutting up and becoming a part of the ever present disgruntled dKos underground - isn't going to happen this time. Or so I prognosticate, LOL.
What I'm proposing is more STFU than Kumbaya. No we can't all be friends right now, but maybe we can kinda sorta stop eating each other alive? The dynamics of the Obama flame wars is simple:
- An Obama loyalist publishes an Obama/Rahm/the bailout/etc.-praising diary, a few Obama critics amble in and start moping around, the self-proclaimed firebagger hunters confront them, call them names, insinuate they are payed by Jane Hamsher, and everything goes kablooie.
- Alternatively, an Obama-critic publishes an Obama/Rahm/the bailout/etc.-criticizing diary, a few Obama loyalists amble in and start stinking up the joint, the self-proclaimed ant-Obamabot squad confronts them, name calling ensues, accusations of corporatist shilldom, and everything goes kablooie.
(A variation on the above are the totally inane spoof diaries that go up within minutes of major pro- or anti-Obama diaries. Spoofs can be good snark, but what I've seen recently from the Obama loyalists/critics is beyond embarrassing. Of course these diaries push some people on the other side over the edge.)
We need to understand that we won't see each others point of view anytime soon. We need to accept that we don't particularly like each other right now, don't even trust each other much, but that neither side can win this fight and everybody is suffering because of it.
All it takes is to let the other side be.
- Let them post their pro-/anti-Obama diaries.
- Resist the temptation to engage directly by commenting or spoofing.
- Post a rebuttal diary if you're calm enough.
- Post a pootie diary if you're not calm enough.
- If you find yourself enraged, get off the blog. Better yet, get off the computer. Take a walk. Cook a nice meal. Go chop wood. Make a Republican chase his own tail.
I imagine a lot of people will find the suggestion not to post in each others diaries for a while offensive. I think it's a necessary deescalation strategy.
So. I want to see how many people are willing to take the Disengagement Pledge.
As one of the great old ones used to say in the old days, take the effing poll.