I’m posting this article because it speaks well to one of the overriding purposes for starting this blog in January of 2006. John Dean had already demonstrated the power of the Internet by raising some $48 million.
I started blogging at on Slate’s Fray when it looked like Bush might actually get re-elected. I couldn’t figure out how people could be so blind to this idiot. Half of America already considered him the worse president in modern times. My engagement in the arguments with right-wingers brought home in the most visceral way, the notion that the intellectual objectivity across our species varied dramatically.
And this began my search for an answer. As many of you know, I found it. Altemeyer and this interview express it best.
The Internet bubble had burst, The DailyKos was soaring, and the web had begun to flex its muscle as an unstoppable, horizontal, democratic vehicle for human interaction. I believe we are still at the beginning.
This article describes the power of blogs like this one, to counter the corrupt, tribal character that has been so destructive throughout our civilization.
McCain is running a textbook Rovian race: fear-based, smear-based, anything goes. But it isn’t working. The glitch in the well-oiled machine? The Internet.
“We are witnessing the end of Rovian politics,” Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google told me. And YouTube, which Google bought in 2006 for $1.65 billion, is one of the causes of its demise.
How fast things are changing…
Back in the Dark Ages of 2004, when YouTube (and HuffPost, for that matter) didn’t exist, a campaign could tell a brazen lie, and the media might call them on it. But if they kept repeating the lie again and again and again, the media would eventually let it go (see the Swiftboating of John Kerry). Traditional media like moving on to the next shiny thing. But bloggers love revisiting a story. So when Palin kept repeating her bridge to nowhere lie, bloggers kept calling her on it. Andrew Sullivan, for one, has made a cottage industry of calling Palin on her lies. And eventually, the truth filtered up and cost McCain credibility with his true base: journalists.
The Internet may make it easier to disseminate character smears, but it also makes it much less likely that these smears will stick. Read on…
Only a year ago, I might have bothered to argue stupid comments like;
Richard Okelberry: Cliff, The very fact that you called CNN right wing shows that you really need to talk to your doctor…
The few remaining Okelberries out there still banging away, have been marginalized. Just in the past year, we have seen them lose their ’swift boat’, ‘mob’ power. And I know this viscerally. People like Ken, Richard Okelberries, Bob S, JD etc, have been reduced to an embarrassment to a thinking, progressive America.
They have helped destroy the ‘other party’ for the next decade.
McCain and his strategists missed this transition. So did the corrupt corporate media. I think Rove tried to warn them, but they suffer from terminal ’sheeple’ effect – that terrible disease that so plagues our planet.
God bless the Internet and the millions of thoughtful people around the world standing tall upon it.
Note: I also believe the Internet is ready for a serious, next generation, publishing platform like the one being build by ManyOne.
#1 by Richard Warnick on October 23, 2008 - 9:04 am
Internet usage has been on an upward trend. The Pew Internet & American Life Project says that 73 percent of American adults now use the Internet at least occasionally. They also found that the more wealthy and educated you are, the more likely you go online. Older people are less likely to use the Internet.
#2 by bekkieann on October 23, 2008 - 9:52 am
As this medium matures, we need to mature with it and make sure our words offer something meaningful to our readers. Until I started looking at my stats, I thought only a handful of family and close friends read my blog. But I have discovered the volume is much higher than that, and that people from all over the U.S. and literally all over the world find my posts – mostly through Google. I have become aware that people click on that link to me hoping to find something informative or useful. This has caused me to use my blog less as a ranting place and more as my own personal op-ed page.
Interestingly, while I get pretty predictable traffic on my current posts, some of my old posts still produce daily hits: 1st place goes to my post on a popular online Scrabble game that suddenly disappeared. 2nd is my post on a popular Mormon hymn, 3rd is regarding most intelligent presidents, and 4th is regarding cayenne pepper repelling skunks.
It’s humbling to find out people are seeking you out for information regarding repelling skunks!
#3 by jdberger on October 23, 2008 - 12:56 pm
Thanks for the fame, Cliff.
We also appreciate the ablility (using the “unstoppable, horizontal, democratic vehicle for human interaction”) to counter your “fear-based, smear-based, anything goes” fallacious posts about guns, gun control, the Second Amendment, Alan Korwin, the National Budget, econonomy, Katrina, civility and general truthiness.
In fact, without the above referenced “vehicle for human interaction Bob and I would have never met. We wouldn’t have had the opportunity to expose you for the plagiaristic unstable elitist hack you (and Richard and Larry) are.
I for one, appreciate it.
Thanks.
#4 by Cliff on October 23, 2008 - 1:19 pm
Frankly JD Berger,
I could give a shit about me and whatever you think you’ve exposed. All I care about is destroying any remnant of legitimacy anonymous chickens shits like YOU have on the American electorate.
I WANT MY BLACK PRESIDENT YESTERDAY!
#5 by jdberger on October 23, 2008 - 1:35 pm
So, it’s really been a question of identity politics this whole time, Cliff?
Is a black president really going to assuage your liberal white guilt for having racist prejudices and fears?
I don’t think it will.
#6 by Richard Warnick on October 23, 2008 - 1:48 pm
Carlos Mencia said it best: Barack Obama is the whitest black guy on the planet. This election really has nothing to do with race. At least, for thinking people it doesn’t.
#7 by Bob S. on October 23, 2008 - 2:03 pm
Guess that answers that question, doesn’t it!
#8 by Richard Warnick on October 23, 2008 - 3:15 pm
Cliff was being snarky, as usual. He doesn’t care that Obama is black, but he knows it drives racists crazy.
#9 by Don on October 23, 2008 - 3:24 pm
jd and Bob,
Are you guys really that easy to troll? Come on, please tell me I’m not wasting my time conversing with you and that your responses to Cliff were purposefully taking the bait . . .
#10 by jdberger on October 23, 2008 - 3:38 pm
Whatever would you mean, Don?
Do we not have civilized conversations?
You and bekkieann and Jimmy (for the most part) have the ability to converse rationally without resorting to fabricating facts (Richard), resorting to invective (Cliffy) or retreating to LaRouche style conspiracy theories (Jenkum Larry).
We’re good.
#11 by Don on October 23, 2008 - 3:56 pm
I’m just diggin’ at you for so easily falling for Cliff’s bait. I was feigning concern that our intellectual discussions were all for naught and that I was really dealing with another Ken Bingham.
#12 by Bob S. on October 23, 2008 - 6:47 pm
Don,
I was just taking a pot shot at Cliff; provided by his ally Richard.
I thought the juxtaposition of the two statements so close together was too good to pass up.
#13 by Richard Okelberry on November 18, 2008 - 6:19 am
JD,
Man, I didn’t realize how much Cliff feared what I have to say until I searched his site for my name. I imagine your name is just as popular.
Did Cliff essentially just say they he has defeated us in argument in this post then later admonished us for making the converse claim? Funny, I can’t think of a single time that Cliff’s hate filled banter has won the day. Sure the baby handful of his “followers” around here like his stuff, but the reality is the average person who reads these posts, if there are any, know better. Logic and a strong argument will always win the day in debate and is ALWAYS something that Cliff is short of. Still it is good to see him actually write something resembling an essay rather than the usual copying of someone else’s work followed by a few slanted comments.
I forgive you again Cliff.
#14 by Becky on November 18, 2008 - 6:34 am
Them’s baitin’ words, Richard. Unfortunately, I can’t banter with you this morning as I’m already at work. Perhaps someone else will take the bait.
Punctuation Tip: Quotation marks not needed around followers. I recommend an absolutely delightful book, “Eats, Shoots, and Leaves” , for more fun and practical help with punctuation.
(I’m sorry, Richard, I couldn’t resist. It’s morning and this is just how my brain works after my third cup of coffee.)
#15 by jdberger on November 18, 2008 - 10:37 am
Becky – quotes around followers is just fine. Maybe RO is implying that the people he speaks of aren’t really Cliff’s followers.
NB: Though I don’t necessarily consider you, Becky, as a Cliffy minion, I don’t recall you ever disagreeing with him. Of course, since I haven’t been looking, I may not have noticed.
In regards to Cliffy popularizing my name. I wish he wouldn’t. I’d rather use up my 15 minutes of fame in some other way.
#16 by Richard Okelberry on November 18, 2008 - 10:51 am
Becky,
JD hit my intended use of quotation marks on the head. Think of me doing finger quotes in the air when I say “followers” and you’ll likely get the meaning. Don’t feel bad, sarcasm doesn’t sell well in blog posts. I try to stay away from it but just can’t resist some times. I understand your need to corrent my spelling and punctuation. Even when I was Editor of my high school newspaper, it drove my teacher/advisor crazy. I should say that I have noticed several mispellings and puntuation errors on your part, but have declined to use them against you mainly because it doesn’t serve the topic at hand and is generally a sign of diverting from a weak argument with a personl attack. That said; if it makes you feel better please continue, I can take the criticizim.
#17 by Becky on November 18, 2008 - 10:52 am
Ah well, if he meant it ironically, that’s different. I took it literally since he once suggested that Cliff tells me what to say.
Don’t expect me to disagree just for disagreement’s sake like many do here. But also remember, I’m an unabashed liberal from way back. We on this site tend to share similar viewpoints, so don’t be surprised when you don’t see us bickering amongst ourselves. Do keep following us, though, as there is bound to come a topic . . .
#18 by Becky on November 18, 2008 - 10:55 am
Yes, Richard, as I said, it puts me in a glass house situation. It’s not so much the diversion from the argument as just habit from years of writing and editing. Damn, I do wish I were perfect.
#19 by jdberger on November 18, 2008 - 11:02 am
I’m perfect.
Lemme tell ya’ – it’s a burden.
#20 by C av on November 18, 2008 - 3:13 pm
Perfecter than the perfectest!