Building Communities

By Number Six

Thursday, August 18, 2005 at 03:47 PM

Interesting bit of data I ran across...

Someone sat down and did some research, counting up hit counts and stuff, denoting that the progressive blogs are performing very well, as opposed to the neo-con garbage out there. Does say something, yes.

But more interesting to me was the bit about how the progressive blogs are wide open, sort of building on-line communities, unlike the regressive sit-down-shut-up-and-listen stuff of the other breed.

I've noticed that. Take Matt Drudge. Where is the doohickey where you or me can comment on his stories? Ain't none. Ain't none at Rush Slimeball, either. Interesting, yes?

Yet, here, at WTW, or Brad, or DU, or Raw Story or Americablog....just about all of them...there's ways for all of us to speak out, comment, talk, exchange ideas, bitch and carry on.

This says a lot about we progressive types: We have this thing about building communities. Forget the blog "authors", someone should sit down and start adding up all the names of those who comment at all these blogs, and the number would be stunning.

That's a lot of voices, that's a lot of minds exchanging ideas, thoughts, notions. It says so much, and it's damned beautiful the more I think about it: Progressives build communities.

But, we always did that. It's the regressives who seem to prefer either anarchy or oligarchy, and lately, seem to prefer totalitarian ideals. Such is reflected well in the regressive blogs and webpages, replete with their "you fucking listen to me!" tone and demeanor.

No, we progressives aren't into that. We seem to prefer the cacophony of a good-old-fashioned bitching contest, knowing in our hearts that with time, bitching becomes proposals, proposals become compromise, and from compromise comes community. We listen to everyone from UFO-chasers to militant lunatics, and somewhere in all the madness, the yelling, the screaming...we eventually shape ideas and concepts into focus.

Worse, for the regressives, our little community is growing steadily, and becoming more powerful. Such has become a voice of dissent, a method to grab real news, and for the truth to be known.

Building communities. Now, that's lovely.