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Another kosnik bites the dust

By Michael J. Smith on Thursday July 27, 2006 09:36 PM

It seems we have, or had, a fan at Daily Kos -- a lady (or perhaps a chap, of course) called 'ladufarge', who wrote me yesterday and asked to cross-post an item about Howard Dean and Israel.

Of course I said yes, and of course the poor girl has now been banned. I took the unusually promethean step of saving the post, and the dozens of furious comments it evoked, though.

What I didn't save -- and I'm sorry now, because I found it very interesting -- was a poll 'ladufarge' put up several days ago, asking Kosniks whether they approved or disapproved of Israel's actions in Lebanon. To my utter astonishment, the responses disapproved by a margin of three to one. The poll has now apparently been chucked into the Kosnik memory hole, alas. Interestingly, though the poll figures were overwhelmingly anti-Israel, the comments were nearly all hardline Dershowitz talking points. Dissenters will vote but they know better than to speak up. But votes must be tracked by user -- or you could vote twice. I wonder whether Kos has yet realized he could have a lucrative sideline selling the logs to the ADL.

Anyway, the comments to ladufarge's repost of my Dean thing were interesting, in a grim kind of way. The largest single component consisted of True Believers lauding Dean for his deep political cunning. The second largest component were suggestions that ladufarge was a "troll" -- to which my girl responded, rather wittily I thought, that if we could harness the energy Kosniks expend typing the word 'troll' millions of times, we could eliminate our dependence on imported oil. Third largest were the complaints that we should be concentrating on electing Democrats, and should never, never ask why. Then there were a few oddities: a couple of contributors who found the "off the meds" expression hurtful because they had mental illness in the family -- a claim I can well believe -- and one or two poor out-of-place souls who actually agreed with the post.

I hadn't read Kos for several weeks and I was shocked at how the site had degenerated in that short time. It was always a bit of a bore, but now it's a shrill, hysterical, paranoid, one-note bore. The cultish quality I sensed in the air when I infiltrated their Vegas conclave has become much more pronounced. Apparently nothing fails like success.

Comments (12)

J. Alva Scruggs:

My blog host calls that outlook disciplinary optimism. They demand the display of affect, and they punish people for anything that looks like bad mojo for their magic plans. It truly does suck to be on the receiving end of it.

It's that "balance" thing wherein the democrats enable the right wingers for fear of seeming disloyal.
Then people get blown up...
But at least no one's feelings got hurt.

js paine:

"now it's a shrill, hysterical, paranoid, one-note bore. "

a cult circling into its own collective navel
quietism as a higher form
of digital activism

or are they
a party "matrix"
being fattened on
self congratulation
and group fiend hate
so they can be
milked for kold cash
and vol labor

i know i know
each and every
withdrawal
is of small value
to the donk orthros
but that's
made up for by
massive numerosity

or

are they into
a bigger spooky-er
gig???

i wonder

where weird meets
magic .....

is it possible
under the cover
of all that
execrable
greeting card quality gibber
they're sharping their collective
mind control force field??

readying it
to over ride
the internal repug
preferences of
millions apon millions
of
feckless yahooery
you know
the dolts
with
low enough
cerebal wattage
to buy into
shit like
amerika's got talent

if so
come this november
a small surprise
may emerge
out of the back side
of the ballot booth


but have they figured
fully enough
on the orthro repug
tabulation machines

ahhhh
the magic of
soft ware....?????

That Josh Marshall article I pulled off the link is a trip.

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=6075

When the Republicans lost in 1964, they decided to get organized, exploit the contradictions in American society and build up their organization.

When the Democrats lost in 2000 they decided that all their problems could be solved by attacking the left, that same left which supposedly has no power.

It never seemed to occur to them to address the issues Nader exploited.

Anonymous:

http://the-pennsylvania-progressive.blogspot.com/

Here's a link to a blogger who got kicked off Kos for posting accurate information that Kos didn't like.

MJS:

I was reflecting about how Kos seems to have changed. I've finally figured it out: it's become a business, with a boss and a bunch of browbeaten employees. I've spent most of my adult life working, more or less under protest, in corporate America, and I recognize the tone. There's the brittle, shallow enthusiasm for the buzzword-du-jour, thinly overlayering a seething resentment felt by most of the troops.

But then there are the middle managers -- the poor souls who think they're getting somewhere in the organization -- and they don't have any resentment at all. Or rather, what resentment they have is directed against those unmotivated fuckups in the mail room.

So why do they hang around? Same reason corporate employees put up with their humiliation -- they don't think they have a choice.

Arthur Gilroy:

In 20 years...should we survive that long...dKos will be seen as the equivalent of the Trotskyite-Stalinist wars in the '50s. A bunch of silly little assholes with their underwear all in a bunch over a grand total of about 2% of the real possible power in America.

If that.

Useless.

Like the news...just turn it off.

There is no one home there anymore.

The landlord kicked 'em all out in anticipation of a land boom that will never come.

Could'a been a contender.

Now it's just a placeholder.

Fuggedaboudit.

Waste of time.

AG

How many of us have been banned so far? Maybe we should all network and from a group to expose Daily Kos.

Here's the link to my dairy:

http://www.dailykos.com/user/carlwebb

These are some of the entries that made them upset to the point I've beem blocked:

Progressive Dems Suppress Anti-War Dissent Hotlist

NOM = Not One More military mistake Hotlist

Our Man in Kos - They're Not in Kansas, Anymore By MICHAEL J. SMITH

U.S. shows no interest in prosecuting Texas Guardsman who went AWOL Hotlist

St Louis Dispatch article about a military deserter and anti-war activist's public refusal to serve US imperialism.

Stooping to New Lows to Sabotage the Antiwar Movement Hotlist

MoveOn Rigs Its Own Vote; Betrays Its Membership

MySpace, MyPolitics

js paine:

CARLW:

my very personal view:

the kos site is a nice place to view certain
well intended middle klass critters
in the process
of being rendered useless as agents of social progress
by a simple robo- meme :

slug pull slug replace
slug pull slug replace...etc etc

a typical
mind
retro fit network

manned by the usual micro
cephalic sadists

you'd find similar types
inside any
"tightening up " organization

they all
good or bad mission aside

cultivate as one
key variety
of its cadre
these mind reworkers
and as to their work product
the ass hole innocent
shampooed majority
they end up
more or less harmless


since they were to begin with and remain so
if and when
they come out the other end of the member tunnel

since
its a soft ware
modification
not a lobotomy
they've received
while in the bund


and while there
the badness
is how they are
"directed"
a thing not of their making

and in fact not really emergent either

as the kosarchy articulates its
layers of higher ups

obviously as time passes
these ranks
are more effectively
serviced for the benefit of the kos hives top bees
sent about in
swarms
to various plus/minus targets

x gooood .....y baaad

for
honey sucking
or just stinging


meanwhile among the rituals
the org thrives on
is the episodic
virtual savaging
of a numerosity
of freshly arrived trolls


my guess if they stop attracting these real trolls

the higher hush hush
kadre will cook up fake ones

just
to keep the gauntlet
from getting too slabby
or far worse turning
on itself
in an auto-immune response

there are enough differing views still lurking
among
the kossackery ranks
that
"they "
could start
a shark frenzy
snapping at each others fins and such
especially
if the sabre tooth caste don't
have enough real trolls to keep em busy

The funniest thing is that some - and some of the loudest - of the banned end up hanging at sites that suck off Dkos (or Armando, the big liaison to the baby box car sites... ) for their livelihood.

It helps to be really independent. And to recognise the difference.

And I am moving fast on the landscape... LOL

I'm amazed at the traffic these comments are bringing to my blog The Pennsylvania Progressive. Thank you all. TPP came from my being banned, personally, by Kos. The story of that is at my blog and is titled "Lawyers."

christian:

the sad thing is that many of the best diarists and posters have been banned from DK leaving 21 year olds with little social skills. but lots of "mojo."

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Note also that comments with three or more links may be held for "moderation" -- a strange term to apply to the ghost in this blog's machine. Seems to be a hard-coded limitation of the blog software, unfortunately.

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