I took a little trip over to mydd on Sunday night after avoiding the place for a couple of weeks. I have to say that I have a new perspective about mydd, and DailyKos, and I think that it’s something that we should all consider when we post here.
No, my political perspective has not been changed. I have no more love for Hillary or doubt about Obama than I had before I spent a half hour reading diaries and comments at mydd. But I do have a new perspective on manners and netiquette and how opposing views should be treated in online political discussion.
There have certainly been a lot of negative comments here on Kos about Obama supporters and how they treat Hillary supporters, the ones who are not obvious trolls. The genuine Hillary supporters who just want to express their opinions and perspective on their candidate and the perceived shortcomings of ours. I’ve always just written such complaints off as people whose skins are not thick enough to engage in online discussion in general and political discussion in particular, or people who don’t like having their beliefs challenged with facts. Some are of this type, but many are not, and I now see things more from their perspective.
At mydd, there are a lot less users than here at Kos, and so there’s less general noise, threads are easier to read and respond to with fewer voices shouting, and there are a lot less diaries to sift through at any given time. But one other thing I noticed was that while it is clearly dominated by Hillary supporters, there are a lot of Obama supporters as well, and they are treated with much more respect than we tend to treat Hillary supporters around here.
I think that the political views of the Hillary supporters and the "facts" they use to support their views tend to range from skewed to outright delusional at times, but over at mydd, they engage in discussions with the Obama supporters and present their positions in fully articulated arguments, laughable as I may find many of them. Sure, there are a few hit-and-run commenters who just toss some snide, unsupported swipe at a Obama or a supporter of his, but that type of post is MUCH more rare than it is here at Kos.
Kos has recently devolved into a snarkfest whenever a diary or comment is posted that is at all supportive of Hillary or one of her positions, be it policy or politics. It’s not even funny snark a lot of the time. It’s just rude and stupid, of no substance or attempt at substantive debate and engagement. And such comments are not limited only to responses to trollish diaries or comments. These are directed at good and thoughtful diaries by longtime Kos diarists who happen to support Hillary Clinton and not DK’s (current) favorite son. After coming back over to Kos to read my last few diaries before bed, I was very disappointed with what I saw.
Maybe Sunday was a good night at mydd and a bad night at Kos, but I don’t think so. I think that the Hillary supporters have a legitimate beef with the way they are disrespected around here, even when they are being honest, earnest, and engaging. I’m not talking about "hit pieces" (which, by the way, there are plenty that I’d categorize as "hit pieces" towards Hillary around here these days), but legitimate, substantive diaries.
We need to re-evaluate how we define the term "troll" around these parts. A person writing a diary or comment in support of Hillary Clinton is not necessarily a troll. A person writing a hit piece against Hillary, or a hit-and-run comment in a Hillary supporter’s diary that does nothing but insult the diarist without offering any response of substance IS.