We Must Be Hitting A Nerve

The Albany Herald’s Squawkbox is truly one of my favorite places in the whole paper. It is there that you can see what the people of Albany really think when protected by anonymity.  There, they can be rude and viscious, and they can be polite and sensitive.  Without the light of identity, we can see their true natures.

Apparently, we here at SWGA Politics have hit a nerve.

One squawk in particular says “You  are correct:  the bloggers and blogees are all like-minded.  I’m not certain that’s a compliment, though.  It might be in-breeding.”  Ah, at least they went high brow in their attacks.  Nothing like an in-breeding reference here in the Deep South to make you feel warm and tingly.

Now, I haven’t checked out the Squawkbox in a couple of days due to other obligations.  But it seems pretty clear that this was a reference to the recent article about this blog on the front page of the same Albany Herald.  In it, writer Carlton Fletcher makes reference to a “like-minded” blog, Project Logic.  While I wouldn’t classify Project Logic as necessarily like-minded, we don’t have huge arguments back and forth.  So what?

The root of this comment is probably something much easier to understand.  As political bloggers, we put ourselves squarely in the cross hairs.  With the article in the Herald, any anonymity we ourselves would have had has gone completely out the window.  That’s fine though, since we weren’t exactly hiding who we are.  This is a networked blog on Facebook with our faces and names clearly plastered on it…and from well before the Herald article.

We accept that many will disagree with us.  In fact, we encourage respectful debate on any of our posts.  But many of those can’t handle the idea that we disagree with them on sacred cow issues like drugs or welfare.  It bothers them in unspeakable ways, so they have to make comments like the one quoted above.  It’s far easier to attack those who think differently than to actually accept that there’s a possibility your own thoughts aren’t shared by all rational people.

In this state, we have several political blogs.  There are libertarian blogs, such as this one or Jason Pye’s.  There’s conservative leaning ones like Peach Pundit (though their are liberals and libertarians who post there).  And there are more liberal ones like Tondee’s Tavern.  Project Logic is run by a self-described moderate Democrat, which represents the part of the diversity in political discussion within this state.

So, when any blogger talks about a like-minded blog or blogger, keep in mind that those are the exception, and not the rule.  We tend to disagree on many issues, including Jason Pye taking me to task on a post of mine regarding media bias.  He wasn’t the only one who took issue with it either.  And that was fine.

Of course, if the best attack you can come up with is in-breeding, then you need to keep it to yourself.  I can come up with better than that before the morning alarm has even gone off.