Democrat and Independent Thinker..."The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." -Nietzsche

Commenting on many things, including..."A government more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it claims to protect us from." - Keith Olbermann

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

And far reaching

When I wrote about the Blogroll Amnesty and expressed my opinion that Atrios should exemplify diversity and link to more minority blogs, this is not exactly what I had in mind.

Linking to "one of the most compelling arguments against purging blogrolls" made by a decidedly minority blogger, as described at Faux Real, by titling the post "Things Which Make Me Want To Shoot People In The Face" illustrates that Duncan Black just does not get my point at all. To put it mildly.

From reading his blog, I take it that Atrios blogs in order to make an impact. Well, my my my. He certainly is doing just that. Influencing public discourse? Unh. Not so much. At least, not so much as he thinks and not in the way he would surely choose, I would think, especially on this subject.

Perhaps Mr. Black would prefer to lynch all of those of us whom he has offended by his (and others) actions which basically did nothing but "rend the network asunder" as Demothenes so aptly puts it in his comment at Faux Real, and who have the temerity, the absolute gall, mind you, to comment upon it.

Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much.

Perhaps it is time to admit that all he and Kos and others did was stir up a shit storm that may, should no such admission be forthcoming, drown out their own voices in the end.

For what have they become? To my mind, more and more, some of the powerful A-listers have become nothing more than political "insiders", much like what we are fed daily by the MSM. Coverage of actual politics is non-existant already. What is deemed "coverage" is nothing more than pundits and "insiders" making opinionated comments about politics and politicians, and, ever more increasingly, about other pundits and "insiders" and their opinions. Is that not Atrios' forte?

Thanks, but, no thanks. Give me the words out of the horses mouth, or ass, whatever they may be, and I will form my own opinion, thank you very kindly.

We little blogs may be tiny, but yea, are we not mighty also? For, collectively, we are vast. The A-listers may be powerful, but they are few, and quoth as they may be by offline media outlets, we wee ones are vox populi. In the end, it is we who will not be ignored.

3 comments:

Maryscott OConnor said...

It is time for the non-A-list bloggers to gather together and once again prove the old adage, that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

In other words, these arrogant motherfuckers need us a whole lot more than we need them, and their blogrolls' value won't hold once we all drop them from OURS.

Go here and join up:

Independent Bloggers Alliance

Demosthenes said...

Like I've said elsewhere (I think over at Brilliant at Breakfast, but I'm losing track lately), Atrios seems to be bothered by this precisely because he actually isn't a gigantic ass. The "shoot in the face" line feels more like the desperate cry of someone who wants to be a good guy and knows he screwed up, rather than a stone-cold bastard.

Were he the latter, he'd probably have ignored all of this entirely.

Thanks for the compliment, by the way.

BlueKat said...

Maryscott, Renee has added me to the blogroll of the Alliance as I have added it to mine. I barely have enough clarity and coherence to post here occasionally but if I have something to contribute sometime I will.

Yo, Whig. Yah, I know you had me on your blogroll, dude. I have you on mine, too.

Demothenes, you are most welcome and most deserving of praise. You have been very even minded, I think, during this whole debate. I, however, no longer have patience for anyone who refuses to admit an error. Too Bush-like. Ergo, one of the reasons why I don't support Hillary Clinton.

If you prove to be right, and Atrios does admit error, and becomes more supportive of smaller, more diverse bloggers, I will be the first to admit that I was wrong about him being an arrogant ass who is little more than a news aggregator, much along the lines of Drudge although more amusing and less of an idiot.