As a longtime Kossack (no. 1200), I have been around long enough to see every pie fight and controversy within the site. I also haven't really ever been involved in one of these, and have observed from the sidelines - I usually have better things to do. Since I have a spare moment, I wanted to share a thought on the recent controversies.
I work with people with Autism and am the parent of a young man with Aspergers. I've worked with people with disabilities for 20 years. I have a pretty good handle on what people who experience the world differently than others, through a different physical, emotional or perceptual experience (or all of the above). Here is my observation:
I think some people are less gifted than others in how they express themselves, and a few people who are extremely gifted use their talent to bully, shame and drive these people away- instead of reaching out, practicing patience and tolerance.
More in extended...
One of the things kids with Aspergers get tagged with is that they are doing things "on purpose" to "get a rise" out of a teacher or a peer. Those of us who know that population know they really don't understand the complexities of social communication.
When I read some of the situations where people pile on or can't let go, I see something that looks like this. I don't think everyone who is doing this has an Autism Spectrum Disorder, but I do think we are a diverse community made up of people with all levels of education, personal experience and inherent ability to express oneself, and what I see is that a few (I stress this -- really a small percentage) or very talented, highly intelligent people are getting their rocks off very cleverly egging these situations on-- intellectual bullying.
I see it every day in the kids I work with - peers at school figure out what bugs a kiddo with Aspergers, and they start picking -- to the point there is a reaction, an eruption - sometimes, kids do a slow burn and erupt at 2:00 in the afternoon for something that happened at 10:00 in the morning. I see it on this site too.
Someone (I'm not talking about Red State trolls or scam artists trying to get donations) will post a disagreement that may not be popular, but not do a clever job making an argument. Maybe an issue is a little emotional for the person. And then people pounce. Because the bullies have identified from the content of a post or a diary that a person may not be eloquent, may not have all the pieces put together, and they pounce. And I have seen some very subtle, clever manipulations to egg that person on, to get them to commit to greater levels of rhetoric, as the mob of intellectual bullies grow. And then the person says or does something that breaks the fabric of the DKos community.
I can't tell you the number of times my son with Aspergers got in trouble at school for responding to the taunts of others. The clever kids, these bullies, never get caught because they're slick, they're smart, and they justify their behavior.
Which leads us to a GBCW or a TTFN.
I disagreed with Kos' remedy, to immediately ban these. Because I think we're rewarding the bullying behavior that often leads to these types of posts. We're giving the few intellectual bullies and eggers-on here just what they want.
I have a solution, and it does not involve banning, HideRec, or moderation of any kind. It involves:
Reaching out with kindness and empathy. Listening to where another person is coming from. If you aren't convinced or they can't disengage, be the one to let go first and move on. If someone is struggling to make a point you disagree with, be a devil's advocate and try to clarify their points for others, to drive debate forward (isn't that why we're all here?) If someone is taking something way to personally, send them a PM with a bit of kind advice.
That is all.