I don't know about you, but I took a long time to sort out my thoughts yesterday. And I realized I was upset about not one, but two things:
1.) We lost.
2.) I was deluded. Seriously, seriously deluded.
Together, here on dKos, we worked up a big head of steam. In reaching for confidence, we went (let's be honest here) a bit too far overboard. We seem to be, on the whole, intelligent, clear-eyed individuals. In truth, we were spinning ourselves.
please read on...
I got hit by the ugly edge of this on election night. I hung in there, faithfully, until it was almost daylight on the East Coast. But when the last glimmer of hope had been extinguished--when it was clear there weren't enough provisional ballots to make a difference in Ohio--I posted a diary expressing affection and positivity for the future. It was titled "Hugs, and Goodnight".
I had to delete the diary a half hour later. It had attracted too many obscenity-filled denunciations, and accusations that I was a troll--all because I'd had the temerity to admit that we'd lost. It was too painful to look at; these fellow Kossacks venting their rage on me.
This graceless incident made me think, and realize something. During the run-up to the election, we all took great glee in batting down suspected trolling. Those of us with Trusted User status didn't hesitate to use it, and it seemed like the closer we got to Nov. 2, the faster we were on the trigger.
We pride ourselves on being the defenders of the right to dissent. But we stopped giving ourselves reality checks, and in the process we put on blinders.
We turned this vital, profound, ultimately revolutionary community into a giant Kool-Aid machine.
Okay. So, how can we keep it from happening in the future? I guess I've got a few ideas. Please pitch in with your own. I'm not advocating any of these, just starting a dialogue:
- Rethink the troll-rating system. Instead of distributing that power, allocate it to a Troll Patrol. Let everyone report suspected trolling, but make deletion a reviewed action, as it is with wikis.
- Create a status of Worthy Opposition. Find a few intelligent, articulate conservative bloggers and actually invite them to post over here, with the understanding that their protected status will disappear if they devolve from discourse into troll-level baiting and namecalling.
- Create an Opposition Research Zone. I'm as guilty as anyone of taking great glee in "dumpster diving"--i.e., visiting the freeper sites for notably stupid and hateful posts, and reposting them here for everyone's amusement. How I wish I had instead searched for the non-stupid ones, the ones that might have cut down on the noise in our self-congratulatory echo chamber. But I didn't have a forum for posting those, not without the risk of being troll-flamed into oblivion. The Republicans have one advantage over us: it's easier for them to respect the opposition. But we're going to have to start taking them seriously, aren't we?
- Create a Contrarian Zone. I've suggested this before. A forum in which any of us can express our misgivings without fear of troll-flaming, or being accused of "defeatist thinking."
- Create a culture that encourages "devil's advocates." This is maybe the easiest to achieve. Perhaps we can do this by creating a simple acronym--heck, DA for Devil's Advocate--and use it to precede the postings wherein we assume that mode.
I honestly don't know what the answers are. But we've got a wonderful, powerful thing going here...and we need to fine-tune it. I wanna be challenged, motivated, and connected. I don't like the taste of Kool-Aid in my mouth.