Blog Archive

Rich Lowry makes a great point here:

I missed this Rod Dreher post from the other day, a defense of a more thoughtful conservatism that includes this gem: “Limbaughism sounds a lot like Leninism.” Why is it that the conservative bloggers who make so much of how they prize civility and modulation can’t help throwing around insults and hyperventilating when discussing Rush?

If there is one thing that bugs me more than anything else about online political commentary it is the emotionalism involved in so much of these debates.  There is just so much vitriol and emotion.  Everyone is an idiot or a douche-bag or some other crude term.  People can’t be mistaken or wrong they have to be a danger to society and to the concept of America itself.

This criticism cuts across the political spectrum left, right, and center.  And one of the things that I have been wondering about for a while now is what type of people, organizations and information sources actual change minds or stimulate thinking these days.  Do people read sites that challenge them or do they just enjoying sitting in the choir and being preached to?

Of course, there is a great deal of over-generalization going on in the debate over snark and blogs – and my critique goes beyond blogs – but from personal experience I find that  great deal of opinion writing online is full of emotional bluster and hyperbole.  I just find a great deal of it not worh my while.

But perhaps, I am just grumpy today . . .