But let's start with the crazy part first....you know the scene where the progressive blogosphere ....on the eve of a critical election.....is torn apart by the pressing question of ....who is an anti-semite.... and when is an apology an apology?
Huh? I realize there is a petition. But I really have to wonder whether those well intentioned .....but utterly humourless ProgBlog Purgers ....will settle for the Blaghster doing anything less than this....
I mean check out the language....
"I'm not as hard on this apology as Dawg is.. that he made an attempt at one is an event of itself. (I could be cynical saying he probably got a push of encouragement to do so from the polling results at the Blogging Dippers vote.. but I'm going to be charitable). However, that will not change or reverse the decision that was imposed on him..."
Yikes! Imposed on him....like a prison sentence or fifty lashes..... Is that inquisitor biased or what? Is that a blogging roll or a blogging church? And who is next?
Hmmm....Once again I'm with Robert on this one.
Make no mistake however, terrorizing people into silence because they might face some penalty is also an assault on freedom of speech and when people begin to feel they are no longer free to speak, then they no longer are.
I don't believe anyone should be banned for what they write, unless they are calling for people to be killed or stuff like that. I get attacked all the time by homophobes...who sometimes call me the foulest names... and I'm quite sure would cheer wildly if they ever rounded me up. I hate some of them with a passion. But I don't want them banned. I'd rather give them enough rope to hang themselves. Or just fight back....with every word in my arsenal.
Which sometimes...coz I can cuss in English, French and Scottish....isn't very nice either...
So I'd hate to have a tribunal of pompous purgers sitting around going through every word I wrote in anger or sorrow....or trolling through my comments....to decide whether I was progressive enough...or boring enough...to qualify as a serious blogger. A member in good standing of a blogroll the MSM can mention because it's "safe" and "respectable" enough...sanitized and purged to eliminate the "lunatic fringe." Instead of understanding that blogging is all about.... freedom from authority....and the real stuff of life.
Which reminds me....not only can it drive you crazy...apparently it can actually kill you.
Staying chained to your desk might place you at greater risk of potentially fatal blood clots in the legs, researchers in New Zealand say.
The study suggested that people develop clots in their legs from sitting three to four hours at a time.....It wasn't common, but it was more common than we thought....
Uh oh....I guess we bloggers face some hard choices. Give it up before blogging kills us or drives us crazy. Or take two aspirins a day. One for the legs...and the other for the pain in the ass. Or two codeine tablets to deal with the boredom.
Or learn how to blog on a treadmill...which would at least give us the illusion that we're going somewhere...and keep us alive. But wouldn't change our biggest problem.
The Blogging Tories are united and gearing up for an election.
And too many progressive bloggers aren't.....
That's why. If the left in this country doesn't get its act together ...and stop fighting itself...and find common ground to fight the common enemy.
It won't have to worry about blogging killing it or driving it crazy...
It will already be crazy...and sooner rather than later..
It will kill itself...
ugh...rhetorical analysis of the apology...ugh...I'm nipples-deep in a modern rhetoric class right now. whish I hadn't scrolled through the comments on that link :)
ReplyDeleteI agree that banning him from the rolls of PB was going too far, but also that the apology in question seems a little half-hearted (disclaimer: don't know him, never read him before, first I've come across him, just an initial impression) and more of a 'sorry I got caught saying something naughty' than a 'sorry I said something naughty' . I say reinstate him and give him rope, if he (figuratively) hangs himself, so be it.
that aside, I found out just how dangerous being shackled to a computer is. after several hours of working in Illustrator yesterday I stood up to find that my left leg was numb from mid-thigh down. fell flat on my ass, probably scared the hell out of the neighbours with the sound of me hitting the floor. the first thing that came to mind: the medical alert commercials with older actors pretending to fall, and not being able to get back up.
computers are terrorists!
This is kind of a bizarre situation. I signed the petition, I agree with reinstating Myblahg if for no other reason than banning someone sets a bad precedent. There are a few bloggers at PB that have said things at times that I consider less than progressive, but we all make mistakes -- they should still be able to say them, and let their commenters point out that they might be off base.
ReplyDeleteRobert's remark was ill-conceived, but I don't think it was part of a pattern. Anti-zionism is a lot different from anti-semitism. If I'd been the PB mods, I might have taken this up with him by private email rather than the very public flogging he ultimately got.
What this sadly points out is that progressives spend too much time and energy fighting with each other. You don't see this happening on the blogging tories.
Just my .02