Except apparently it didn't. I saw a post Alicublog that made passing mention, but that's it. Nothing as far as I could tell on Lawyers, Guns & Money or the Rude Pundit. It just didn't register. Same with big liberal social media accounts.
There was a time when I might have attributed this to Islamophobia―a term I might deconstruct in a future entry―or kowtowing to same. But that's really not it.
The truth is that "issues" aren't really the blogosphere's thing anymore. There have been other public matters like the East Palestine spill, Lahaina, Ukraine. Areas where someone in the left-to-center-left could make their mark and maybe change some minds. But they're just left sitting on the table.
It was a long process of decay, but the election of Donald Trump was probably the final blow. When the unthinkable happened the world was cleaved into Left and Right. In practice, though, that just meant Democrat and Republican. So now with some sui generis exceptions like columnist/cartoonist Ted Rall―who very much does address issues of substance―they can only focus on Benny Hill-level stuff like the GOP tossing out the House Speaker and failing to select a new one. In a year no one will even remember, which seems to be part of the point.
2 comments:
It appears to be much as Jer has said, "Politics for a number of people is all about the horse race and never about issues. They even use the same terminology as the racing sheets. As soon as a winner is declared they move on to the next race".
It had been such a long time since I looked at any of the liberal blogs you named that I was actually shocked to see they're still bumbling along at all. Alicublog last updated Oct. 13th (Republicans love seeing large numbers of brown people killed); Lawyers, Guns and Money, Oct. 24th (Tom Emmer no longer running for Speaker); Rude Pundit Oct. 21 (Jim Jordan's Combover Can't Hide the Truth); Atrios Oct. 24th (One would expect a few more Republican House members would wonder how they willingly joined a club filled with the biggest assholes on the planet and what that says about their life choices, but... nah.).. I don't know what that was about but he garnered 113 comments - none of which I read.
I'm not going anywhere near the big liberal social media accounts. There's only so much my stomach can take. We were left-wing liberals ourselves for a very long time so it came as a shock when we found ourselves agreeing with the things conservative writers were saying. They were more measured in their opinions about current affairs and certainly not ready to jump on any bandwagons. Both of us still wish Trump had decided to back off and become the grand old man of the GOP backing other candidates, but that didn't happen. The Democrats will lose the coming election - they might have hoped Biden would be defined as a success in contrast to Trump's failures. Instead, the opposite might well happen (especially since the Dems invented the complaints about Trump).
I also have to say we do prefer comedy over misery and the Babylon Bee is far funnier than the Onion. It's good to see Ted Rall is still going strong.
ps: Is that a colander?
Sure there are people who are really into politics, but just for the horse race angle. But it's kind of baffling that they've managed to convince themselves that everyone is like that. If at this point you still think that one party would make the world a better place if they just had a few more seats I don't know what to tell you.
There's a distinct tendency to elevate illusory or overhyped concerns while ignoring the world beyond the party, and giving all attention to the sort of inbred professional world everyone lives in. Well, everyone they know. Big qualifier. Atrios seems to be a little better than most. And Crooked Timber, which Jerry hepped me to a few days ago, seems to have something going on. Better focus, maybe.
You're probably right to stay away from liberal social media accounts, or at least most of them. Good for grim comedy only. The election coming up should be a pivotal one, in that there a lot of things an opposition party could capitalize on. As it's shaping up it looks like it's going to be irrelevant, maybe the most irrelevant election in US history. There's no candidate with his or her hat currently in the ring who will make the kind of changes that need to be made. Lack of awareness, ability, or integrity in some measure for all of them.
The Babylon Bee has had a better average than the Onion as of late. Although Israel/Palestine has knocked them off -step. They were better on Ukraine as I recall. Glad that Rall has managed to keep his edge and his audience.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is.
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