Just to highlight the "non-linear" element of history's flow, I was chatting with a lefty colleague the other day about how it SEEMED at one time that the Internet and blogoshere would greatly empower the average folks to take on the powers that be, i.e., the President, government, etc.

Who could have predicted that the 'Net-'Sphere would in fact hugely empower the DEFENDERS of the President and government? Basically, if you're going to attack the gov today, ya better have EVERY 'I' dotted and EVERY 'T' crossed when you do it (paging Dan Rather). The Prez and Gov are used to being attacked like that. For that matter, after 30+ years in the cold, so is the right. But their attackers from the left are not at all used to being forced to account for every sentence they utter, nor is the press, nor are academics.

The fact is that the Internet offered real and genuine "power to the people". The left is now horrified to find it used against THEM, of all people, and utterly at a loss to know where to go with that. Hence, a very disconcerting undercurrent of threatened violence. ("It CAN'T be a legitimate government, they didn't choose US!")

I'm wondering what will happen when the Delay and Frist cases fall apart, the press is judged more harshly post-Katrina than the President, Bush nominates a second SCOTUS conservative, or even a third, Iraq stabilizes with a constitutional government next year, and the GOP picks up seats in '06.

A good reason why Jeb Bush should not run. They really WOULD start blowing up buildings if he did. They might anyway, but there's no reason to let loose hornets in the asylum if not necessary.

Andrew X, good points. The left was probably under the delusion that the mainstream media, being corporate, was thus right wing. So they thought that when The People got control of information technology, then of course the voices and truths that emerged would fit their worldview.

Surprise, surprise. While the technology has empowered the left somewhat, it's empowered the right even more.

(Personal aside: I used to know some of the people involved in Community Memory, perhaps the earliest computers-for-the-people group, founded in the early '70s. They were Berkeley lefties who certainly thought that way [and probably still do.])

But OJ, I don't think the authors of those books are in any way responsible for the ravings of some depressed revolutionary wannabe.

We need the streets running awash in rivers of blood of these thugs and criminals and zealots.

While I mildly disagree, I also note that the screed's author and I probably have radically different ideas about whose blood should wet the streets.

All the activism of the Civil Rights era has gotten African Americans precisely nowhere. Segregation may not be the law of the land anymore, but it's still the de facto state of America.

Yes, Condileeza Rice, Colin Powell, Barack Obama, Clarence Thomas, Time Warner Chairman & CEO Richard D. Parsons, Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, Rep. Harold Ford of Tennessee, and literally tens of thousands of other prominent black achievers are nobodies, and have gotten nowhere.

Segregation may indeed still be the de facto state of America, but by choice, not by fiat.

My mental state is collapsing and deteriorating almost daily.

Obviously.

Posted by: Michael Herdegen at October 1, 2005 9:42 PM

I never read sites like Free Republic or Kos site. However, I never considered FR as out there as Kos seems to be based on extracts in other places.

I recall reading Free Republic 2 times. The first was a a message board following the space shuttle re-entry on 2/2/2003 and the second was during the Dan Rather forgery. Seemed to be a big right wing chat room but not militant or nutty. Am I wrong?

JAB:

It's handy for finding articles, but the comments get pretty dodgy.

Papaya:

Not responsible for, obviously, but paving the way towards, maybe?

So they advocate armed revolution, but you dare not call them unpatriotic.

The comments at Free Republic, Little Green Footballs, Slashdot and such sites are too big and to inbred for my tastes. They are generally useless when it comes to additional information, as almost immediately they degenerate into mutual admiration echoes interspersed with reinforcement of the conventional wisdom of the site.

As for author responsibility: They are doing the thinking (more like rationalization) for those who are mostly inarticulate. Someone pointed out recently that with the Internet and modern communications, sometimes all you need to do is suggest that, for example, someone should destroy some buildings in New York or D.C. Maybe plant a few suggestions as to ways it might be achieved, but nothing too specific. Then sit back and wait for someone else to make it happen. Deniability was never so easy.

We are seeing the definition of what it means to be an enenmy of the American folk.

Let our thoughts go back to 1964, just after the election. We heard no such talk among conservatives. There was some sad head-shaking, and I recall a vulgar rhyming couplet about African-Americans and homosexuals for four more years, but mostly we picked ourselves up, told ourselves that the people had made a mistake, and got back to work. So it was that we came back.

Why is there dispair and fanaticism among those people on the other side? I suggest that is just because all the weathermen now see which way the wind is blowing. People such as the Kos commenter referenced above realistically see themselves as folk-enemies. They understand what is the matter with Kansas. If they act on their hatred in violation of the law we shall treat them as we would treat any other criminal. If they join forces with our foreign enemies we have places for them in Charleston and Guantanemo.

JAB: I'd agree that there's a greater net weight of crazies of the Kos side. Maybe because I'm more likely to agree with the average Freeper on most issues. . . .

OJ: Perhaps. I'm just reluctant to tie authors too closely to all their ideological followers. (And maybe you should too, Mr. "We should have nuked 'em"!)

Raoul: I find Slashdot quite good. After a day's discussion on most topics, just view the comments at threshold 4 or 5 to see only the highest rated. There are always comments I find worthwhile (or at least funny). Though I should disclose I comment and moderate there.

Papaya:

Yes, the point is that it's their own ideas that lead to such alienation, not that some of their fellows on the Left are already there.