I'm hoping that soon we will see the next chapter from OPOL. I'm waiting for the next stirring OPOL photo-diary that offers some hope or course of action. The one, that will incite collaborative productive thought, rather than arguments over the merits of photo-rhetoric.
I think it's pretty evident from the tip jars that he has a gift for bringing together a photographic montage that pushes the buttons of this crowd. He's done it before and will surely do it again.
(more thoughts....but no pictures.... below the fold)
But I think that what lifts this crowd above the level of the mindless mass of agreement that has plagued both sides at times present and past, is an ability to put actions where there were previously only words.
The left has, in the past, bemoaned the powers of "establishment politics", but this community led a net-roots charge to bring unforeseen candidates to the front and to get them into office.
The outside has, in the past, bemoaned the "insider game" of committee politics, but this community is forging a new means of monitoring Washington politics at that insider level.
The left has in the past, bemoaned the "corporate media" control that has swept away or ignored the stories of scandal that surround so many on the right, but this community has begun to dabble with Google-bombing those stories to the forefront of the public awareness.
These are but a few of the innovative changes that I've seen come out of Daily Kos in my brief time here.
I don't think we will have any trouble finding people who agree that Kent State was bullshit. I think we'd have trouble finding people who think that it wasn't bullshit. Likewise slavery, racism and the assassination of presidents and other political leaders. Likewise Watergate, Iran-Contra and many of the other scandals brought up.
But there are other topics dismissed as "bullshit" that are so complex and nuanced, that to dismiss them with a single word is, well, bullshit.
What exactly is meant by "9-11 was bullshit"? Is it meant that it was bullshit that it was even an attack by terrorists? Or is it meant that it was bullshit that the PNAC seized on this to further their agenda? Is it meant that it was bullshit that we were attacked this way? Or is it meant that our policies that have provoked such animosity in the first place were bullshit? I'm confused by the oversimplification.
What exactly is meant by "Healthcare in America is Bullshit"? I'm a pediatrician and I see abuses of the system and neglect of the underserved on a daily basis. Yeah, I'd say that is bullshit. But I also see physicians, myself included, treating patients with serious illnesses on a daily basis, without concern or question about whether or not they are going to get paid. I see plastic surgeons doing insurance-covered boob jobs and bariatric surgeons providing gastric-bypass surgery to my ex-Rep J.D. Hayworth and I scream. And then I see vaccines that have been developed by this same "bullshit" system that have saved millions of lives and I rejoice. I'm trying not to be personally offended by this particular issue, but once again, I'm confused by the oversimplification.
I'm not in the least, impuning OPOL's love of this country. I'm not in the least, denying that there are a lot of serious wrongs that are pointed out in that diary. I'm just pointing out that there's a big difference between pointing a finger at these things that everybody pretty much agrees are bullshit..... and starting the ball rolling towards solving some of these complex problems.
I've been amazed by some of the things this community has done already, and I'd much rather see the comments fill up with constructive ideas about how to fix problems. As opposed to people arguing about whether or not OPOL hates America.
(Because I'm pretty sure he doesn't)