It has come to my attention that some of our commenters are of the opinion that they have the right to dictate the terms by which we express our opinions. This would be an incorrect assumption.
We, the front pagers can post our opinions on anything on our mind. We can say things that you do not particularly like. We are free to write things that will challenge your most cherished beliefs on a particular subject. If we know that there are people who are lying to you about something, we may feel obligated to tell you, to the best of our ability and understanding and sometimes from an inside point of view, exactly how we think they are misleading you. Just because it violates some preconceived notion put forth by your tribe doesn’t mean we are wrong or being mean. You may not like it. Tough. That’s our prerogative.
You may disagree with us if you want. That is what the comment section is for. However, it is not your right to tell us what to write or how to write it. It is not up to commenters to dictate what kind of blog we are. If you want a more exclusively feminist blog, there are others to choose from. This front pager does not think it is to anyone’s advantage to have only women blogging. That’s not the way the world works. We don’t achieve equality by partitioning ourselves off from the world and then pulling gender rage at everything that is written that we don’t like. That strikes me as dangerously close to the crap the Obots pulled on us in 2008 when everything we said, did or breathed was deliberately misconstrued as racist.
If you want a more Birkenstock wearing, academically minded, purist and unrealistic read, google someone like Chris Hedges. There are certain things that trigger a Pavlovian response in lefties, like nuclear energy, pharma and anyone with “Clinton” following their first name. If you have a reflexive response to those words, you may not feel comfortable here.
From the first day this blog started, the goal has been to challenge consensus reality and to give those of us with contrary opinions a place to voice our dissent. It was badly needed. But it can be jarring and leave readers dizzy. Readers are advised to expect the unexpected. We present ideas and try to connect the dots. So far, we have a pretty good track record of being right. Just because it is all the rage to rail against “bullying” on websites doesn’t mean we are in any way responsible for some commenters sense of victimization. We aren’t forcing anyone to read us. That doesn’t mean we want to alienate any readers but you should know what you are signing up for. We don’t ban nearly as many people as other blogs and most of you usually get to say whatever the hell you want. I’ve read a lot of complaints today that myiq is “attacking” some of you and I’ve read the threads in question. I don’t see it.
Our credo is in the tabs at the top of the page. I advise commenters to read it. The front pagers of this blog pretty much subscribe to those principles. One thing i would like to emphasize is our right to be unpopular if necessary. It’s one of the reasons we don’t have ads plastering our pages or beg you for money. If we did that, we might pull our punches in the future and not have the nerve to tell you to fuck off if we have to. But we are not into group think and we do occasionally disagree with each other. If we don’t have a problem with that, why should you? And if you do have a problem with it, there is a perfectly good solution…
Get your own blog.
Filed under: General, meta | Tagged: blog owners, blog readers, bullying |
The Confluence 
Honk, honk.
HONK, HONK, HONK!
honk, honk, honk!!
(replying to DT & myiq2xu)
How come you always have to have a “girl” stick up for you? Can’t you fight your own battles, Clown? If you can’t take it, then don’t dish it. Honk on that. (Why does that honk, honk hooey ring so false? Probably because I live in the South and have seen more than my fair share of “Honk if you love Jesus” bumper stickers.)
He doesn’t need a “girl” (let me check. Yep, I’m a girl alright) sticking up for him. Have you seen myiq??? I mean, jeez, lock your doors.
BTW, In case you missed the point of this post, it’s not your blog.
Out here in Big Smoggy we have “Honk if you’re horny” bumper stickers.
But Californians are friendly like that.
This is why I love this blog.
I may not agree with everything you say, I may agree with most of what you say but I love the intellectual soup that is prepared when you mix thousands of different opinions and ideas and serve it up to the masses.
If you don’t like the soup…find another cook!!!!
Happy Holidays everyone!!!!
If you don’t like the soup…find another cook!!!!
Or have the salad instead.
I love the soup!
djmm
And by the way, you’re all wrong. I’m the only one who knows what’s going on. 🙂
WHAT?? I made perfectly reasoned arguments, and you’re not buying it??? I beat you in the debate, dammit, and you are REQUIRED to admit that.
If you don’t, you are arrogant and patronizing and attacking me. Stop attacking me. Why are you attacking me? I mean, you didn’t call me an a-hole or anything, but by not deferring to my superior argument, you are implying by your tone that I am an idiot. And I’ve had about enough of that, mister.
😉
I’m going to quote one of my favorite authors, Patrick F. McManus, from “Muldoon in Love”
LOL
AMEN.
ditto
ditto
I’ve read a lot of complaints today that myiq is “attacking” some of you ..
*********
Boo f”ing hoo or perhaps get a real life???
That doesn’t mean anyone should be harrassed or deliberately made to feel uncomfortable. I prefer to save the fuck yous for people who are trying to tell me how to run this blog. If you just disagree, do it vigorously but as politely as possible.
WATB’s can go hang out at dakinikat’s blog. Civility is in the eyes of the beholder.
Nice comment until the last sentence. Let it go, you just sound petty at this point.
Not petty. Just disgusted.
What is WATB?
Atrios coined it:
“Whiny Ass Titty Baby”
Coined it? Pfffft! My granddaddy used to call people WATB’s. It’s older than Atrios.
Ouch!
ooooh, I guess I missed something while I was gone having surgery and stuff.
{{Teresa}} I hope that the surgery went well and that you’re feeling better soon.
Where is that blog?
BTW – WATB sounds like something Hank Hill’s crabby old dad would say.
Tweet from Obama:
He can call it anything he wants. Dudn’t majesty true.
And BTW, people who lived through FDR’s terms are still around so I’d watch it.
I hate autocomplete.
Yes, automobile is the worst.
🙂 some programs allow the user to turn that feature off. I sure don’t know if yours does, though.
Not to mention LBJ’s.
In case any proof were needed that teh Percious’ demographics are he amnesiacs and fratzies with neither personal nor historical memory of anything before W’s election, there it is
Sometimes, it seems like President Obama must have slept right through his history classes.
djmm
You know I think that makes the most sense. A couple of weeks ago he said something about Social Security being for Widows & Orphans when it first started and my eyes just about fell out of my face.
No one in the room blinked much less discussed it later, but, I’ve been trying to understand how he could think something so dumb.
Yours is the best explanation I’ve heard. Him and every reporter on the White House beat.
More like, he is assuming that YOU, his target audience, slept through history class.
He doesn’t think you’re all that smart.
Personally, I think he’s taking his cue from Bush II. He, too, believed that if he said it, that made it true. And, since he often got away with it, Teh Big O is using the tactic.
That comment was talked about on conservative sites–they were flabbergasted that he could say that and not get called on it.
It’s so weird to have thoughts in common with conservative radio hosts…..
I was around for the last eight years of FDR’s presidency even I know Obama is no FDR.
I just read that….this country is well and truly screwed. In the next Congress, he will continue his historic breaking of “grid lock” with “entitlement reform”. With the country in a major restructuring of employment, when a “safety net” will be more needed than ever, Obama and the Rethugs will “reform” it.
With employer based health care disappearing with the “new” economy; Obama locked us into the Insurance Industry. Over the next two years, Medicare and Medicade will be gutted. Then SS.
Then they’ll go after the government pensions. Within a couple of generations, everyone except the very wealthy will be living in tenements.
You really think it will take that long?
Okay, one generation. I’m trying to be optimistic.
Cheaper help for the big mansion houses and grounds.
did they ever find WKJM? We could use him about now
with this SS heist looming.
At least we know what the Obot talking points will be.
Oh wait….aren’t all the talking points….
Obama is ‘the hostess with the most-est’.
He did have his snark font tag, right?
I read The Confluence for the links first, the comments second and the front page opinionation last. If I think the front pagers are full of shit, I either roll my eyes and move on or I post a one sentence comment. It’s simple.
Thank you.
Alas, I always miss out on all the drama.
If anyone is interested, I know of a blog currently having a heated debate about fruitcake.
Ooooh, I hate fruitcake.
No, fruitcake is great. It’s just acting like it’s horrible. It’s playing 11 dimensional chess. You’re just not smart enough to comprehend how great fruit cake is. 🙂
it’s the little green chewy bits that I don’t like.
I guess that makes me r@ycist.
You’re anti-green? Planet killer!
Honk, Honk!
Way to Lance that boil.
Can someone please post the video from Poltergeist where the cool l’il lady says “this house is clean”… ’cause that’s what it feels like.
thanks.
The house cleaning post was on Sunday
I love a good “Fuck Off.”
Some people need to just wrap themselves in cotton, sit in an easy chair and avoid all human contact IRL & on the intertubes.
You pick fights just so you can tell people to fuck off.
That’s one of the things I like about you
LOL — you got me! WTF else is the internet for? 😉
Did ya know that WTF=WikiLeaks Task Force?
One thing’s for sure – tomorrow during the “airing of grievances” we’ll all have plenty to talk about.
Oh!!! Goody! We’re going to celebrate Festivis?
“It’s your heritage”
I’m glad you are all here.
… and not anywhere else? LOL 🙂
As a teacher for more than 30 years let me offer a rewording of the post and correct one mistake it makes. Alternatively, the old bible has a paradigm for what I want to do: “let’s talk about your daughter Rachel.” (Translation: crap aside, I love Rachel, what do I have to do to get your agreement?)
Rewording: I’ll write whatever the fuck I want. Big Dawg, Big Dawg, Big Dawg. If you don’t like it: STFU. The mistake: we commenters can say whatever we want. For instance: Riverdaughter you’re full of it. The post should emphasize that that commenter can spit in the Pacific and wait for the impact.
Happy Holidays
well I am lost. I pride myself on never having missed a single question on any reading comprehension test I have taken. However If you gave multiple choice answers to that comment I would probably just fill in “C”.
My hat is off to you, sincerely
You can strive for agreement. What you can’t do is tell a frontpager that they’re attacking you just because they don’t share your point of view. THAT’S not persuasion.
I know peer pressure and a bait ball frenzy when I see it.
You’re proving RD’s point.
ZOMG!
The original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie is playing!
I ❤ Luke Perry.
Oxygen had a series marathon today – way better than the movie! And I’d appreciate you don’t decide for us that the movie is better – who do you think you are? /snark font
Correction: If you don’t like it, or disagree, argue your point.. Have at it. The STFU only comes when the commenter decides, rather than continuing to argue their point, to tell RD that she ought not to be posting that, there is something wrong with the person writing it, that opinion ought not to be expressed, or their own opinion is a minority in the thread, so that’s somehow “not fair”, or “bullying” etc.
RD doesn’t usually tell people to STFU, even people she disagrees with regularly (I know, because often it’s me.) Only when they start telling her what she ought and ought not to say, or allow to be said, or posted, does she tell them to go gripe elsewhere.
That was supposed to nest under Jack Rip’s comment. Dunno what happened.
You subconsciously decided you really didn’t want to nest under him.
(laughing) Thanks! You just made me spit coffee all over my knitting!
My subconscious has no idea what is going on these days. Have last-minute family flying in for Christmas, so am discombobulated.
(((((applause))))
The more I learn about projection the more it seems to fit most situations. People (myself included) get triggered by things in their own inner world and then project it onto targets in the external world. This blog gets hit with that emotional shrapnel as well. The reason I came was my fondness for challenging consensus reality and railing against group think. Fortunately, the captains of this ship are consistently clear-sighted and keep those central principles as our guide. I, for one, am very grateful.
Here I posted a thoughtful, heartfelt comment and Spammy ate me. He hates sentiment. Please by-pass his cynical nature and retrieve it.
I love to disagree with the posts here. Agreeing ain’t too bad either.
Point is, it’s always interesting to me and I don’t need an echo.
I am grateful to myiq for his explanation of how the wikileaks turmoil needs to be more carefully examined using bigger questions. While I wasn’t planning to dig too deeply into the whats and whys of it, I was just riding the easy wave and believing the surface screaming that Julian A was being railroaded.
Not now.
If anybody thinks it’s rough here then they haven’t fought it out at the orange. I just had a tussle with BJ (riverdaughter’s favorite person) and the sticking of fingers in ears and blaming someone else for Obama’s problems are an amazing ability they have.
Well, the toilet paper in the employee restroom is John Wayne brand.
It’s rough, it’s tough, and it don’t take shit off anybody.
Riverdaughter,
I hate to leave a comment here and ruin the lovely echo chamber.
I never tell anyone how to blog. I express my opinions, and don’t like bullying. As Markos said, and your blog seems in a rush to join him, “it’s a big internet!”
I have NEVER been a fan of Assange, NEVER thought he was a saint, NEVER was a member of his CULT. Trust me, I have been around the block for too long to have teenage crushes on personalities (I didn’t have a crust on Obama either, feel better?)
Engaging in a discussion, or posting on your blog is a sign of respect. Frankly, I don’t consider what’s going on here a matter of difference of opinion. That would have been a lovely discussion. Say, following on what Cannonfire has done regarding his takes on the leaks.
What is going on here is someone trying to scream and shut down opponents. I am so reminded of DK when people kept repeating the same talking points to the point that reasonable people got exhausted.
PEACE.
Oh, it makes me sad to hear you say that. I never see you anymore. Where are you blogging now?
Just commenting here and there. Mostly reading. Nice to see you too. I see your comments at talkleft and Alegrescorner from time to time.
“What is going on here is someone trying to scream and shut down opponents. I am so reminded of DK when people kept repeating the same talking points to the point that reasonable people got exhausted.”
This simply isn’t happening. I can’t believe all the angst that is going on….
No one is making anyone read specific posts.
People are allowed to have different opinions and are also allowed to state them emphatically.
Some of us enjoy the differences of opinion.
I come here to learn not just be affirmed.
After looking through these posts again and then a few comments, I think some of these disgruntled and even angry comments have absolutely nothing to do with the posts in question. I suspect there’s anger about other things and people are venting.
I agree. Now stop it people.
Sorry, I just don’t see it that way. I don’t think myiq was accusing anyone on this blog of behaving like Assange groupies. I think he was referring to others outside this blog.
I read what myiq wrote and I read the comment threads and what you are seeing isn’t there. So, where is that idea coming from??
Well, I guess we aren’t the only ones to notice the Dem brand is suffering and might be ruined for quite some time.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/democratic-party/steven-spielberg-advising-nanc.html
Another Hillary supported called to resuscitate the party. What else is new.
I was sorry to see the sneer about Hedges, one of the few real heroes in the USA. Examining why those who attack the ruling orthodoxy with real integrity and commitment are regarded with such contempt by “liberals” as well as right wingers might explain why America has sunk so far.
Well Chris calls himself a “socialist.” I like a lot of what he says and stands for. I also keep some distance from people who believe they have the corner on truth. Reminds me of church..
shouldn’t this have been posted on december 23, the feast of festivus, as part of the airing of grievances?
I was just looking thru our stats and we’ve got a LOT of posts in our archives.
Riverdaughter has the most at 1295, I have 910, Dakinikat had 709, Bostonboomer 491, Katiebird 235, DandyTiger 71, and Little Isis 50,
That is a lot of work. I have appreciated every day of it for over 2 years now and I would like to say thank you all for the work that goes into running one of the ten best sites on the net. Lurkers need information and entertainment too .
I’ll HONK that. It’s quicker than formulating a comment of my own.
Happy Festus!!!!
Marshal Dillon and Miss Kitty too!