"Illiberal leftists and reactionary progressives."
Man, Joe Klein is really something else. Since he started posting at TIME's new group blog, he's managed to piss off the liberal blogosphere again (with this post, attacking Paul Krugman, which can always be dangerous). How bad was it? As Klein tells it, he attracted "24 mostly mingy comments about [his] Left Behind post, many of which seem to be steaming off a post by Greg Sargent, who writes a blog called The Horse's...Mouth." (my link, not Klein's).
Blogging is not for everyone -- and I sympathize. I used to go through days in a cold sweat after Kevin Drum or Ezra would link to me, afraid of what people were saying about LWC in their comment sections. But it's important for Klein to realize that the sort of rude, self-righteous, sanctimonious, underinformed screaming he attracted (I assume at least some of it was; I haven't read the comments) isn't a partisan issue. It's more a function of the blogging medium than any kind of stereotypical blogging message. Everybody gets yelled out in cyberspace and the centrists can be as snotty as the ideologues (though snot sounds a bit different when it's harfed from the mainstream).
The fact is, most of the big liberal bloggers take endless shit, from people on their left and people on their right. And they mostly ignore it, suck it up and -- toughest of all -- wade through the insults to search out the good stuff left for them. Really, first basic test of a blogger-commentator's mettle is realizing that the sample of rudeness in your comment section -- or even the occassional smack from another blog -- isn't necessarily representative of your readership or of blogospheric opinion about you. And whining about the abuse is not interesting because it' s the exact same abuse your colleagues take. Though whining is likely to generate more abuse.
Basically, if you start snapping back and referring to anyone who criticizes you as a horse's...ass or an illiberal lefty or whatever without some nice backup facts to explain why they're wrong on the merits (I think Jon Chait has the right take on the issue -- and look he also has 24 comments!) you've sort of revealed yourself as somebody who doesn't get or can't handle the blogging medium. But maybe Klein will toughen up, or, if he's really too delicate to be objective about his critics, get Swampfever's comment section removed.
Blogging is not for everyone -- and I sympathize. I used to go through days in a cold sweat after Kevin Drum or Ezra would link to me, afraid of what people were saying about LWC in their comment sections. But it's important for Klein to realize that the sort of rude, self-righteous, sanctimonious, underinformed screaming he attracted (I assume at least some of it was; I haven't read the comments) isn't a partisan issue. It's more a function of the blogging medium than any kind of stereotypical blogging message. Everybody gets yelled out in cyberspace and the centrists can be as snotty as the ideologues (though snot sounds a bit different when it's harfed from the mainstream).
The fact is, most of the big liberal bloggers take endless shit, from people on their left and people on their right. And they mostly ignore it, suck it up and -- toughest of all -- wade through the insults to search out the good stuff left for them. Really, first basic test of a blogger-commentator's mettle is realizing that the sample of rudeness in your comment section -- or even the occassional smack from another blog -- isn't necessarily representative of your readership or of blogospheric opinion about you. And whining about the abuse is not interesting because it' s the exact same abuse your colleagues take. Though whining is likely to generate more abuse.
Basically, if you start snapping back and referring to anyone who criticizes you as a horse's...ass or an illiberal lefty or whatever without some nice backup facts to explain why they're wrong on the merits (I think Jon Chait has the right take on the issue -- and look he also has 24 comments!) you've sort of revealed yourself as somebody who doesn't get or can't handle the blogging medium. But maybe Klein will toughen up, or, if he's really too delicate to be objective about his critics, get Swampfever's comment section removed.
1 Comments:
"I used to go through days in a cold sweat after Kevin Drum or Ezra would link to me, afraid of what people were saying about LWC in their comment sections."
On;y good things, really. :)
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