There are three words in the top corner of my Daily Kos login page. They are:
NEWS - COMMUNITY - ACTION
So obviously, the owner of this here funny colored orange motherhship believes roughly 1/3 of the value of this site is based on the idea of this being a community.
To connect those 3 words to the site's mission statement, this is a community of like minded individuals who come here for news and action - all to serve the greater goal of electing more and better Democrats.
Having been here a while, I think I get it.
Back in my day, I used to LOVE coming to this website, signing on, double checking to make sure I still had my TU status - and battling away with my fellow community members.
Our little band was really quite the silly bunch. We spent most of our time in the kiddie pool aka Cheers and Jeers. I gotta tell you that while you may think your friends here are cool, they were no way near as hip to the jive as we were. BiPM, Poly, the Pastor and Mrs P, the HH, Wry, Philly Gal, CD (besos - hey it's still a wonderful night for a moon dance!) and the rest of the crazy bastages who trolled at the bottom most nights at Bill's - what a hell of a group. Every so often, Armando or MSOC would come hang with us, and that was pretty cool too.
As many of you young whippersnappers do today - we even started communicating outside the bounds of C&J and Dkos. We got to know each other's real names, shared some secrets, and shared even more laughs. No doubt, the community part of the Daily Kos mission statement applied to our little group. Bad jokes, semi-witty rejoinders, innuendo in nearly every comment, moist towelettes - we had it all. We even spent some time discussing politics!
Over time, things changed. For various reasons, our little group splintered off. Many no longer post here, and we even had one honorary member of the group (see above) go out with a great big bang.
But I will always remember and cherish the community here at that time. The kiddie pool regulars really helped me get through a rough patch, the exact details I never fully revealed - so if any of you are reading tonight, thank you for your humor and insight. It meant more to me than you know and I never properly expressed my appreciation.
For the rest of you fools - I have only one message. Get over yourselves.
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, infuriates me more about this godforsaken place than the feeding frenzy that we unleash on each other when we disagree around the margins. And here we go again with another round. No f%cking links. But it really pisses me off when I see electrons wasted on the bullshit internal squabbling. And I especially cannot stand the sharks swimming around the bodies of those who voluntarily choose or get involuntarily chosen to leave the Great Orange Satan. We used to jokingly call the main page 'the shark tank' but then it turned cyber-real for some and then it wasn't nearly as fucking g*ddamn funny.
It's the #1 reason why I don't post here nearly as often as I used to.
So many issues need resolving in this country. Tremendous work remains in our goal to undo 40 years of Republican mindset that currently permeates our political discourse. I used to think this website was going to be a major player in the revival of progressive (insert whatever bloody word you want to debate calling it here) political thinking. Now, honestly, I think we blew it.
Oh well, c'est la vie.
Bottom line is the community will be as strong as we all choose it to be. And on many occasions we choose....not so wisely. So smarten up and cherish each other. Yeah I said it - CHERISH each other. Every member in good standing should be cherished by the community at large.
Every. Single. Member.
Got a problem with that wiseguy/gal? Well if you do, you might wanna rethink that cause I am one awesomely cool progressive dude who agrees with you on 96.5% of everything you believe in. All but the stuff on the llamas - that's pretty f'd up. Seriously you won't find more agreement on issues in any gathering anywhere than you will in this here COMMUNITY. And I double dog dare you to try. Go ahead, I'll wait.
In the mean time - Cheers and good evening. Hugs and smoochies to all y'all.
SAISL