BITE ME.
A Rant.
After a week of facing accusations of being a member of the Taliban arm of the Democratic Party, The Party of al Queda, and a hacker of lame-ass political websites, the last thing I'm going to respond nicely to is a call for more polite discourse on Daily Kos; a call to take the higher road; a call for showing respect to our representatives in Washington, a call for bi-partisanship.
Fuck that.
The time for polite debate is gone. The time for showing respect to those who have shown none for us is over. The time for appealing for respect from those who are tone death to the word has ended. The time for being concerned about how we appear before the press and pundit class is now pathetically laughable.
I refuse to give respect where none is earned. I refuse to clean up my act just so that I can appeal to some unknown "they" who may or may not come to Daily Kos and be influenced one way or another by what "they" read here. I refuse to acquiesce to the concern trolls whose very existence is tied into appeasing this invisible "they".
I'm not saying "they" don't exist. I'm saying, regardless of what we do or say, "they" are going to do what "they" want to do. If you think that this site has the power to influence people on that scale, then I'm willing to bet you buy into the cult/sheeple meme a hell of a lot more readily than I do.
Daily Kos is NOT the face of the Democratic Party. If Kos decides to institute a dress code or code of conduct because he thinks we are the face of the Democratic Party...
Well, first I'm going to laugh my ass off and then see if I can find someone in Berkeley to look for the pod that once contained a faceless alien; the one who took Kos' body over after he fell asleep. IOW, it isn't going to happen.
If you want to put up Polite Polly's Political Palace Blog and School of Political Manners, go right ahead. If you want to proclaim your blog and your readers the "true" face of the Democratic Party, (snort) go right ahead. If you want to skip around picking posies and playing nice with fucked-up freepers, pandering pundits, devious DLCers, loco Liebermaniacs and their ignominious ilk, be my guest. But don't, don't you dare expect me to react to such a demand or request with anything other than a hearty, "Fuck that."
I'm a fairly reasonable Kossack; I don't hand out troll ratings like beads at Mardi Gras; I don't (usually) post overtly snarky responses to newbies who commit a DK faux pas; I don't enter the site looking for a fight to pick or something to be offended by. In all, I keep a rather even keel. But the rhetoric coming from the opposition this week has sent me over the edge.
A political earthquake has occurred within me, knocking knick knacks off the shelves of my mind and rearranging my base reactions. I may have been angry before, but now I am livid. You want rabid? I got your rabid right here. The bullshit appeasement requests will be met with overt hostility from here on out--at least from this Kossack. Because "wouldn't it be nice" just isn't going to cut with me anymore.
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. Sir Winston Churchill.
I am one pissed-off progressive and I have had it UP TO HERE with the concern trolls who spend inordinate amounts of time wringing their hands over "how we appear" to outsiders, how rude we are to the people we send to Washington to represent us, how what we are doing just confirms the bad rep the pundits and press have given us.
Hint: I don't give a flying fuck in a hot skillet cruising down a Texas interstate on the back of a titanium-plated box turtle how we appear.
We're in a battle for the soul of our country here. I don't want there to be a fucking chance in hell that come late summer of 2008 Chimpboy decides that martial law will take effect and the elections will be cancelled. I would ordinarily place this scenario smack dab in the middle of tinfoil territory, but with the monkeyshit flying about this week, I'm not so sure anymore. What's one more outrage when most of the citizens have becomes desensitized to it?
I'm here to help take back my country, help get Democrats elected, and help our party leaders to either address our concerns or tell them to get the fuck out of the way. So, I don't have time to address the niceties of not using coarse language and showing more respect to people simply because they bought, lied, cheated, prostituted or stole their way into a high political office. We are their boss and I, for one, am going to talk about the job they are doing in the arena of Daily Kos however I damn well please.
You don't like the discourse here? Leave.
Anyone who thinks that talking reason to this pit of political vipers who spit words of venom is well on their way of buying into the delusion that cost Joe Lieberman his election. We don't have the luxury of trying to appeal to these people anymore. They can't be bargained with. They can't be reasoned with. They don't feel pity or remorse. They don't have a conscience. Guinea pigs have better-defined morals than these empty skin suits. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until the Democratic Party is marginalized and destroyed along with the America we once knew.
So spare me the Emily Post entreaties. It's a cruel world after all.
As to the press painting such an ugly picture of us--guess what, bucko? No matter what we do, no matter what we say, they will paint us as rabid extremists. Don't you get it? We, along with 60% of Americans are extremists. In the Beltway Bubble we are the enemy and you expect that opinion to change if we clean up the discourse? Please. Don't make me go all sarcastic on your ass.
We're Osama to the Beltway Brigade. We're the useful Beltway Boogeyman. We challenge the status quo and they hate us for it. We ask for accountability from them and the politicians they prop up and they castigate us for it. We address reality and they are stuck in their Cave of Dissonance nibbling on remnants of their cocktail wieners, listening starry-eyed to the dulcet tones of Karl Rove while clutching their steno pads in anticipation of his (or those of his minions) next heavenly utterance. They breath sighs of relief because independent thought is no longer required of them - Close your eyes, go back to sleep, Uncle Karl will take care of everything. The few, the proud, who actually question the administration are kept to the margins, insulted, and out-Roved.
In their eyes it sure as hell can't be that the status quo is fucked to hell and back. What's wrong with America? Things are just peachy here in our bubble. We got wieners and cocktails and backrubs and reach-arounds galore. A republican (lowercase diss, if you failed to notice) is in the White House, they control all branches of the government. This is nirvana, people. What the hell is wrong with you 60% extremists? Remain calm. All is well. Unless we need to pull out the terror card to keep you questioning barbarians in line that is. Didn't you read what Uncle Karl told us to write? Go back to sleep. Go back to sleep.
The way we do things around here on Daily Kos can't possibly be working since, you know, readership has been going down and there is a dearth of new members. I mean, all our nasty disrespectful comments aimed at Joe Lieberman and other politicians have left this place a ghost town on primary night. Servers stand idle. Tip jars and comments are lucky if they get five recommends.
Not to get caught up in numbers, but we're probably a little less than 100K away from the next big milestone and it will take years and years to reach it (if not for a certain troll who should be facing cyberstalking charges soon if there is any karma left after Lieberman). Of course, no one will be here for the primaries. We've imploded. Haven't you noticed? Daily Kos is pining for the fjords.
You know, this call for respectful discourse ("Daily Kos in its current incarnation is bad for Democrats." ) sounds an awful lot like, "This win was bad for Democrats.", "Criticizing the Iraq war is bad for Democrats.", "Growing a backbone is bad for Democrats.". These have been the (paraphrased) words that have come out of the mouths of repugs (oooo, another diss) "concerned" with the health of the Democratic Party.
Bite me. And excuse me if I mistake you for a troll if you want to forward this line of criticism about Daily Kos.
You tangle with crocodiles and you're likely to be fighting in a swamp. I am not going to don my Sunday best manners for the battle. And that means measured disrespect combined with default coarse language.
Because crocodiles aren't going to respect you either way.
It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required. Winston Churchill