How Bloggers Lose "Friends," Or Is It Simply Readers?

Face it. Whether it's Sarah Palin, or Glenn Beck, as in Jenny's case, though she's far from unfair here, or whomever, I've watched over the last year or two how this has played out across the blogs. Perhaps it's always been here. But if one fails to embrace the latest conservative craze, or personality in lock-step with everyone else, they somehow feel that they may lose "friends," or readers. I can't believe friends is the right descriptor.

Whatever the case, I think the day we start giving in to that influence by not speaking our minds and weathering any storm that erupts, we stop being the best of what we mostly came out to be imo - ourselves. That's the day I'll know blogging has begun to become passe. Lord knows I have my share of fights and disagreements, but I rarely cut people off over them, especially when I believe they're still a vital part of the conversation, as so many bloggers are. We need to be tolerant out here, or we run the risk of losing touch with who we are ourselves - the people. At least when at our best in many ways, I do believe.

SEE JENNY LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE

I’m a little ticked off at Glenn Beck. Yeah, I said it. I like to end things on a negative, so I’ll point out what I admire about him first. I think the concept behind the 912 project is great and the march on DC was amazing. I think the tea party movement is the force it is because of Beck’s inspiration, and I think if not for him commies like Van Jones and Anita Dunn would still be lurking in the shadows of the Obama administration.

Comments

[Silk]

Dan,
This is where I think you miss the whole point of people who get pissed off when you post Beck items. I just read Jenny's post and I have no problem with her view and would not stop reading her.

She said agrees with Beck's views, but not his style or solutions. That's fine with me even though I do agree with many (not all) of them. The thing is she did it without being condescending or antagonistic to her own side.

Something I think you take some sort of pleasure in doing. It's like speaking truth to power for liberals. There are some conservatives who think they're acting noble and upstanding when they sitck it to their own side a little.

[Dan Riehl]

Silk - I have my own style. I too agree with Beck's views, just not his style or solutions. No difference. But my style is and will likely always be antagonistic, snarky, condescending, etc. That's the blog personality for better, or worse.

Sometimes I'm more tempered. But not that often. Just depends who I'm shooting at. I doubt changing it would do me much good as a blogger. It's what people get and have always gotten with me. Yes, I go to extremes sometimes, or dance with the edge with it, especially with being political incorrect.

Two sides of the same coin. Many people like it when I go after libs that way. Good with the bad and all that, I guess. But I don't think I could change my style much if I wanted to - any more than I suspect Beck could change his and still do what he does. fwiw ymmv and all that. Thanks.

[Dante]

That is one huge strawman you've set up in your opening paragraph. The sign of a feeble mind: resorting to logical fallacies and name calling (as we saw in the Beck thread). Nice job.

[Dante]

"But my style is and will likely always be antagonistic, snarky, condescending, etc. "

Where does spouting unfounded innuendo about a census worker being a pedophile fall in that list?

[virgil]

when did you become a whiny little bitch?

[Mr, Sauce]

Let's see now: A politically-incorrect conservative blogger that takes a principled stand, without vapid co-bloggers, gravatars, hand wringing, emoticons, cat pictures, registration, slow loading, linkabilly nonsense, and insider-only gibberish.

What's not to like? Even when Dan navel-gazes, he does it with attitude.

[MDr]

Whatever. What I've noticed is that after 8 yrs of the Left's demonization from every (East Coast's) word mispronunciation by Bush to any minor mis-step by the Bush WH, the Right wants a little pay back. Unfortunately, that desire for a little instructive tit-for-tat, and the nonstop abuse they'd received, have left some, a little less tolerant of differing opinions/takes from within.

This too will pass, hopefully before its stand & deliver time, with a united opposition response, in 2010.

[Elmo]

Readers? Who the f*ck's got readers? Most all of my hits are from the deranged followers of the pedophilic moon g*d death cult (no joke).

Sh*t smells [insert token (ghost of a) dead horse riding link here ... http://anechoicroom.blogspot.com/2005/10/this-user-is-blocked_112982698387561085.html ...]

Not too many people roun the web I haven't antagonized, annoyed, or pissed off. Some I do miss, thought of them as friends even (though never met in the atomic). Not proud. Nor cheered. But I will not ingore reality. In whole or part. I will call a garden implement, a garden implement.

Blog on ....

[gary gulrud]

Speaking only for myself, the main things causing me to ditch a blogger are:

Mind-numbing, willfully ignorant stupidity.

Repeated failure to acknowledge conflicting points of view, especially abusing commenters who have opposing arguments, refusing to post them, etc.

[radar]

I have to ask.....isn't the same true when it comes to conservatives who don't attend regular devotations at the shrine of St. Sarah of Wasilla? I agree, she's been horribly mistreated by the press. She's not the caricature they've drawn of her. And yet, I don't get the extreme hero-worhip of her. I don't understand why she's THE ONLY WOMAN WHO CAN SAVE AMERICA!!!!!!! You venture into the comments section of Hot Air, for example, and if you don't immediately pay homage to Sarah Palin, you're accused of being a RINO, a phony, a concern troll, or just an out-and-out leftist. God forbid you criticize her, even in the gentlest of terms.

What gives? Isn't it possible to be a conservative, to have sympathy for and a positive opinion of Palin, and yet to be unconvinced that she's a good candidate for the presidency at this time? Look, I like Sarah Palin, but at this point her appeal is clearly much more on style and personal charisma. How is that different from Obama? There's the same cultist tendency from Palin followers as there was from Obama followers, and it's no more reassuring when it's people who you agree with on the issues.

If she wants to be another Reagan, then that's fine - let's see her spend the next few years addressing the issues in a clear, convincing manner the way Reagan did with his speeches, radio addresses and writings through the 1970s. She has time to do this, and I hope she follows through. Until then, though, she still appears to me to be a lightweight.

[gary gulrud]

What these comments like "radar's" that reasonably detract from Palin or her orks tend to leave out:

Who they're for and why. It's like tut-tutting throwing oneself on the grenade and then refusing to poke one's helmet out of the foxhole.

One cannot demonstrate bona fides negatively, sorry.

[radar]

Fair enough. Right now, I don't really have a favorite. Never liked Mittens much, and the disaster that the Massachusetts health care program has become makes him radioactive to me. Huckabee's a statist-friendly clown. I've always liked Fred Thompson a great deal, and I wish he showed any real interest in running, but we learned through his half-hearted "campaigning" (if you can call it that) that he really doesn't care. Pawlenty? Zzzzzzz.....DeMint's great but has no chances of higher office (nor does he want any, probably).

It's not too late for my man George Allen to rise from the dead! Hey, Nixon did it.....seriously, though, I would like to see him try to come back. He got torpedoed by a lousy campaign staff and the disgusting conduct of the Washington Post, and still just barely lost. He was a terrific governor of a major state, has impeccable conservative credentials, and has a sunny Reagan-like personality. I don't know if he's damaged goods for eternity at this point, but I do know that I like him a whole lot more than the names that get bandied about these days.

Please, anyone but Huckabee, though. Seriously. The guy annoys the hell outta me. We don't need any more tax-prone Republicans - the ones we already have are bad enough.