I'm not one to blog much about blogging - I find that Netroots tendency a bit self-indulgent - but I thought I would take a moment as part of this community just to let folks know I am confused, and a bit hurt.
As many of you know, along with my regular posts, I do a post every week on my newspaper column, going over some of the stuff that I wasn't able to include, adding some more context, and soliciting feedback (and by the way, the reason I link to the column rather than reposting it here is because of copyright issues). The post references my column but is far different from just a reprint. Periodically, I ask the Netroots for help in giving me ideas for the column, and use the column to promote terrific Netroots voices - most recently the team at OpenLeft and Salon's Glenn Greenwald. I have also asked the Netroots for some help contacting local editors in hopes that they might run the column - and that has been an incredible success, which I have thanked everyone for.
What confuses me is that it seems that everytime I post anything now at DailyKos, a small group of very vitriolic and very angry people personally attack me - and by that I mean attack me as a person, rather than attacking the arguments I put forward (the latter of which is absolutely fine by me - in fact I think its a good thing).
The thrust of the attacks, exemplified in the comments section of this post yesterday, are that I am a horrible person for promoting my work, and an especially awful person for promoting my work on DailyKos. This was the crux of ct’s criticism yesterday. It then degenerates from there – with people DailyKos front-page posters like Laura Clawson using the comments section to tell me that, in fact, my work is "marginal" and unimportant. DHinMI, a Capitol Hill staffer, typically chimes in with one or another version of a comment that implies I should just leave the community. Again, the attacks rarely – if ever – have anything to do with the actual substance of the issues I am covering and reporting on.
Out of this, there are a few things I simply do not understand.
For example, why is it a bad thing for progressives to promote their work in this community? Why is this tarred and feathered as evil "self promoting?"
The truth is, anyone who writes a diary here is promoting their message, and themselves. And I think that’s terrific - in fact, I think that's the whole point! Our movement suffers from a failure to get our message out widely enough. This is why the blogosphere has been such an important tool – all of us have been able to get our messages out further.
Yet, somehow, people who have success getting their message out are then attacked by some in the community not for what they are saying, but for simply for getting their message out. Suddenly, success in getting your message out means that you are an awful, in-it-only-for-yourself hack/narcissist. It doesn’t really make sense to me. And it really doesn’t make sense to me that the Netroots complains so vehemently about being ignored by the MSM, but then some of the same people in the Netroots viciously and personally attack me when I work to meld my MSM column with Netroots concerns. I am the only columnist to come directly out of the Netroots. That is to say, I'm not someone who had success, and then decided to use the Netroots to further that success. I'm someone who has had success BECAUSE of the Netroots - and that is a badge of honor, as far as I'm concerned. Not surprisingly, I'm one of the only columnists that consistently tries to interact with and promote the Netroots. And I had thought that such a posture – trying to make people feel some interaction with the column – would be something that would be met with a bit of appreciation, or at least not angry hate.
Look, maybe my expectations were wrong in that I just never expected the bitterness. I’m someone who has spent my career promoting others – first as a press secretary on Capitol Hill, then as a communications person at the Center for American Progress, then in setting up an organization whose whole mission is to promote the work of progressive state legislators (and which financially supported the YearlyKos convention), then in writing two books that promote all sorts of different progressive organizations (including, by the way, DailyKos and Netroots Nation), and now as a columnist who uses the platform I’ve scratched and clawed for to promote our voices. I mean, isn’t this the whole point? Shouldn’t we all be trying to amplify one another’s voices? And is it really a bad thing if I - or Markos or any of us - eeks out a living in progressive politics and builds a career in our movement, and asks for the community's help in doing that? If it is, aren't we simply telling people that what they really should do is just go sell out and become a high-paid corporate hack? And is that really the way a true "community" should operate?
The truth is, our side isn’t like the right – we don’t have the organized, well-financed resources that amplify our message. For me personally, if I don’t push my message and my work hard, I know no one else will. It will go into the ether because we don’t yet have that major amplification system. And now worse, I am finding out that what tiny amplification system we do have, has at least a small faction that actually attacks people for pushing their work and their movement message.
I’m perfectly willing to accept the fact that perhaps I’ve done something to make some people personally hate me. And sometimes, my reaction to the hate directed at me is probably too harsh – and I sincerely apologize for that. I once in a while just get really upset when in the course of fighting hard against the forces of true darkness in this country - the right, corporate interests, corruption - I find myself on the receiving end of personal hate from parts of a community that I am trying to fight FOR. That doesn't excuse my sometimes too harsh reaction - but it at least tells you where it comes from.
Then again, maybe some of it is ideological. Many of the issues and positions I push make certain classes of people uncomfortable. In my opinion, the liberal blogosphere, for instance, isn’t all that comfortable with issues of economic class that I focus on. So perhaps that’s some of where the vitriol is coming from.
Let's be clear: I think it’s definitely true that the people who launch the most passionate and personal attacks against me in this community are a very, very small minority (and interestingly, some of the people who are the most personally nasty are front-page posters - so maybe it has something to do with them not liking others really participating on this site in any way that gets equal or more attention than them here). That’s based on the email I get, and the help this community has been in all my work. Believe me – as I’ve said before, my column wouldn’t now have a weekly audience of 1.5 million people without this community having contacted local papers. If it's a horrible thing to enlist the help and support of the grassroots - then people who represent the grassroots will never be able to succeed. In short, it's a catch-22.
I'm not gonna lie – I have a thick skin, but much of the vitriol exemplified in the comments of this post yesterday hurt my feelings and really bring me down. I don’t mean to sound lame – I certainly can take it. But the underlying assertion that I am an awful, nefarious person for promoting my column really make me feel badly and really make me feel that there are very self-destructive forces inside this community. I will say what I have said before: I rely on the grassroots and this community for support – and I’m not talking financial support. I’m talking a more general support – support in contacting editors, interacting with me for ideas to write about, etc. If that’s a crime, then I plead guilty. But if that’s a crime – I think there’s a very bad contradiction at work. If we want the media and the political debate to represent this community, then we should want our voices in the media and the political debate to feel that they won’t be torn apart personally by the community for doing just that.
I’m not looking for sympathy here at all, and I probably won't just leave the community and stop posting here at DailyKos. But I’m just confused and feeling bummed out - and looking for some answers. I’m confused about how I’m supposed to not be "self-promote" my substantive work, yet also get my message out there, my column a wider circulation, and our movement farther along. And I’m bummed out that in trying to do what I do (interact/represent the grassroots/Netroots) – which 99.9% of professional political writers do not do – I have been met with sheer, unadulterated hate from a small faction in the very community I am a part of and seek to champion.
If you have answers on some of these questions, or any kind of thoughts, post them in the comments. I really don't mean this post to be self-indulgent - as I said, I think the blogosphere's penchant to blog about blogging is a little overdone. And seriously: this diary is not meant as a way to fish for compliments. That's not what I'm looking for - I'm looking for some answers. This is something that has been on my mind for some time as part of this community - and I should also add, it is a dynamic that simply does not exist in any other realm of my political engagement, or in any other online progressive community I am a part of. So I figured I'd air it out here and see if folks have any thoughts.
One note: I'm not going to comment in the comment section - everytime I do I get slandered or personally attacked. But rest assured I'll read them all. And I want to be very, very clear: What I have outlined here are questions about the attacks on me as a person, and the attacks on me for having built the platforms I have built. These are separate and distinct attacks from attacks on the content of what I write - which I totally understand, and actually encourage.
UPDATE: Since the original post, I have updated this post with some additional information/tweaks. Nothing that changes the thrust of the post or the factual data - just some more expanding (especially because I said I didn't want to intervene in the comments in this diary). Also, sorry for the length and rambling nature of the post.
UPDATE II: Thanks for the strong response, folks. I really appreciate it, and have read every comment. I saw someone say that the recs on this post alone show just how small the personally hateful group really is.
To respond in a macro way to some of the comments, let me say first I appreciate the constructive criticism from so many of you, both on style and substance. I'll take it to heart.
As it relates to "updating" - I put an update up here letting folks know the post had been updated from its original. I see Laura Clawson, the front-page poster who called my work "marginal," is citing that as some sort of awful crime against humanity. I disagree. She cites updating as some proof of dishonesty. Again, I disagree. My work stands on its own two feet in terms of the veracity of the substance - that's why most of my posts are chock full of links to source material for folks to verify themselves. Laura has also said I respond to all criticism in a nasty way - also verifiably untrue. Sometimes, I am nasty in responding to personal hate - that's absolutely true. It doesn't excuse my reaction, of course. But on substance, I argue vigorously, sure - but constructively. Interestingly, again, that the attacks continue to come from Laura - a front page poster. I love reading DailyKos - love Markos, love most of the front-pagers (Kargo X is one of my favorites of all time). But it does seem curious that front-pagers like Plutonium, MissLaura and DHinMI tend to offer up some of the most personal vitriol (Plutonium called me a "narcissist" right in this post - very nice). Ct, meanwhile, happily says "I'll neither help nor hinder Sirota in the future." I'm glad he won't "hinder" me, but him saying he has no interest in "helping" - well, it proves the point about how some in our movement really are uninterested in the broader goal. We should all be helping each other.
Also, to the few who claim I think I am more important than others on this site, I'd respond only that this diary itself should tell you otherwise. If I thought I was so important why would I take the time to interact and respond to the criticism? Why would I care? The truth is, I do care - and I value everyone here equally. It's why I wrote this diary in the first place.
Finally, rest assured, I won't stop being part of this community in any way. As I said, I'm not embarrassed to say I need you all, and more importantly, we all need to work together for the betterment of our society (sounds cheezy, but its true). I'm not perfect - I've made my share of mistakes in this community and in life. But I value this community very much, and will not let the spiteful and hateful minority get in my way, much as we shouldn't let that minority get in our collective way. As a few commenters urged, I'll keep on truckin'!