I'd like to give everyone here a chance in a lifetime. I know it's something I should be selling. You know, the "secret to making you look years younger" or "the secret to losing 25 pounds in one week." I have the "secret to not getting your undies in a bundle over Dkos diaries". I know - worth big, big bucks and I should get rich. But instead, I'm going to offer it to you all for the low, low price of - nothing. That's right. Free. Absolutely nothing. Money back guaranteed.
So here it is. If you've managed to get yourself mired into one of the little gangs here on Dkos that have "sides" on some issue, with a corresponding gang on the other "side", and you see a diary written by one of the gang members from the other side, and you know, in your heart of hearts, that this person writes horrible diaries with terrible ideas, and you're convinced that whatever is in that diary is just going to be something that will make your blood boil, here's what you do. YOU DON'T READ IT. that's right. You just keep on scrolling down the long list of diaries that have been recently published and PRETEND THE ONE WRITTEN BY THE GUY YOU HATE DOESN'T EVEN EXIST.
I know, I know. (Taking a bow.) It took the inspiration of an absolute genius to come up with this brilliant idea. And it's a shame to share such a brilliant idea for free in our sweet, greedy capitalistic society. But there it is. Only because I'm hoping to receive a benefit myself if people put this brilliant idea to use.
Really, people, there is no law that says you must read a diary. And if you believe a diarist always writes things that are stupid or wrong or is stirring the pot or whatever else, just don't read the damn thing. You've already had more than ample opportunity to tell the person, in other diaries and threads, what your opinion of him is. You've already leveled all the personal attacks you have in your artillary at him, so all you have left is repeats.
The benefit to me and all the other hundreds, even thousands of Dkos readers that aren't a part of either of your respective ganges is that none of us will have to deal with being blindsided by not knowing about all the little petty gangs and who's in what one, so that if we have the audacity of rec'ing a diary that struck us as providing food for thought and discussion without first doing a thorough research to determine whether the diarist is a member of one of such gangs or the opponent of one of such gangs, we won't be accused of things like being "morally inconsistent" or being told that it's clear who's side we're on or being directed to the past history of the gangs, with the assurance that if we're not willing to waste our time on such nonsense, it's proof of our being secret supporters of the other side.
Think about it. What's the point of reading it? You know, long before you click on it, that it's going to make you angry, right? And that you're not going to be engaging in a rational, thought filled discussion, right? So is it that you're afraid others who don't know about the gangs and who's side who is on will read the diary and find something of value in it? Are you afraid that the diarist has found a really unique way of making his argument that he's never used before that will be so convincing he'll have the rest of the site on his side if you don't chime in to point out what a horrible, dishonest, lying rascal he really is and therefore nothing he says should be listened to? Or do you think that if you tell him what a horrible, dishonest, lying rascal he is just one more time - or twenty or one hundred more times - he'll learn the error of his ways and see things your way? If you don't have those fears, why wouldn't you just freaking ignore him?
Or is it that you get a high out of the fight? I strongly suspect that's more like it. You're so emotionally starved that the negative emotions you experience through the little online fights you get involved in are a necessary part of your life that you simply can't do without. And I suppose I should accept that and be happy you're finding something worthwhile in your life.
The problem is, the rest of us have to wade through the hundreds of comments of personal insults that get thrown around and end up getting pulled into the fight before we even know there's a goddamn fight going on. The rest of us really and truly don't care about the history of your fights. We don't care about what might have led to the writing of the diary. All we're interested in is the content of this particular diary. If we see something in it that has some merit or is discussion worthy, we'd like to actually discuss it, regardless of whether the motive behind it's writing was some kind of evil act. And we'd like to be able to do it without being accused of being part of some evil cabal.
What would be really sweet if you'd all take this very valuable, but free, advice is that the rest of us then wouldn't have to either scroll past or worse yet read another two or three or six or eight diaries written to prove how horrible the original diarist really is, because after all, the three hundred comments posted in that original diary certainly couldn't have been sufficient to let us know. Maybe instead we'd get to see the worthwhile diaries that got pushed off the rec list because of the ones written just to make sure we know how horrid the original diarist is.
I know, I know. The piefights have been a way of life here since the inception of time. And they'll continue. I just happen to have very unintentionally and unknowingly gotten pulled into one today that I had no idea existed. And of course, the more I attempted to establish that I wasn't a part of it and had no interest in it and no desire to participate, the more convinced the poster became that I was a secret sinister supporter of the hated diarist.
So just give some thought to the fact that those of you who let yourselves waste who knows how much time on the piefight today could instead have been celebrating the fact that NYC might actually have to back off on some of their most outrageous stop and frisk activities, that Holder today appears to be utilizing some common sense regarding drug sentences, that a 16 year old girl was rescued from her kidnapper. Or if you didn't want to celebrate, you could have spent the time learning about some of the atrocities that Republicans - our real enemies - have been engaging in today.
Just a little food for thought.
