The Loud Talker

[originally posted 09/10/07. What's old is new again.]

The very first paragraph in the “About” section at the DailyKOS says that the site was created “in those dark days when an oppressive and war-crazed administration suppressed all dissent as unpatriotic and treasonous. As a veteran, Moulitsas [site founder] was offended that the freedoms he pledged his life for were so carelessly being tossed aside by the reckless and destructive Republican administration.”

Let me point out two key objections of the founder:

• the “administration suppressed all dissent”
• He was “offended that the freedoms he pledged his life for were so carelessly being tossed aside…”

This would lead one to believe that the Daily KOS was a site motivated to seek the truth, promote discussion, welcome debate and strive to be everything that an ‘oppressive administration’ was not.

Survey says: WRONG

As a grown-up that enjoys sharing my opinion and engaging in debate with dissimilar opinions I thought it would be enlightening to create an account at the Daily KOS. I posted for a couple of weeks and tried to remain polite yet direct with my comments. Usually I was called crazy or clueless. Sometimes a member would counter with their own facts in a rational manner. The Internet at it’s finest.

Then I was ‘outed’ by ZappoDave. <insert dramatic music stab>

Apparently my comments supporting our troops pissed some of the loonies off. I suggested that the war could have been over years ago if soldiers were allowed to engage the enemy as they were trained as opposed to being handcuffed by the ridiculous rules of engagement that they are forced to follow today. I received three comments: an f-word laced emotional outburst plus two other less vicious yet still curse-including responses. I countered with “Curses and insults are the best you can come up with? My post and facts still stand.”

I came back a couple of days later to find that my commenting privileges had been revoked. Oh yeah… the three asinine comments and my pimp slap of the three were removed from the site. I drew out a few of the losers and they got erased along with me. Just like a good homicide bomber…

I also saw that there were several comments re: my outing. What do I mean by outing? ZappoDave had a stroke of investigative genius and checked out my member profile. He posted his ’scoop’ in the comments section. He found my blog. <insert another musically tense stab> Note to Zappo… if I didn’t want people to know that I had my own conservative blog I wouldn’t have put the link in my KOS profile you bonehead! Yet users chimed in with “nice catch” and “this guy is a fucking troll.”

If voicing an opinion other than the liberal party line makes me a troll, color me guilty. I guess when you have nothing but your heart to argue with you can’t let things like facts our counterpoint get in the way of a good temper tantrum against the Neo-cons, right?

The site also is proud of the fact that “tens of thousands of regular Americans have used Daily Kos to lend their voice to a political world once the domain of the rich, connected, and powerful.” Um… the political world is still the domain of the rich, connected and powerful. I can only surmise that opinions like mine exclude me from the category of ‘regular Americans’ as defined by the left.

In other words, my dissent needed to be suppressed. My freedom was carelessly tossed aside.

What good is a message board if it contains nothing but redundant “atta boys” and “down with the man” posts? Where’s the intellectual stimulation? What possible value is gained by marching lock-step with a crowd of lemmings? If you truly believe what you say, if you have a rational defense for your opinions, wouldn’t you enjoy the opportunity to try and educate a non-believer? Wouldn’t you try to expose your political opposite as a fraud? I guess that’s not an option at the Daily KOS. You either tow the lefty line or you get muzzled.

We’ll see if my account regains its former privileges. (update 10/5/07: no privileges still… to disagree is to be shunned) When it does I’ll be glad to remove my Markos ‘Kos’ Moulitsas/Hitler ‘art.’ I would like to continue posting at the Daily KOS in the hope that I can foster discussion and maybe expose just some of the illogical musings of the uneducated. I’m not on a friggin’ Crusade, I’m just trying to insert a dose of perspective.