Quote, Unquote
"There are plenty of reasons to dismiss political blogs as trivial or ephemeral, with a depressingly low standard of debate." says this near-blog. "Take a randomn visit to Harry's Place, which supports the Euston Manifesto and is regarded as one of the more significant and respectable examples of political blogging. You may be lucky to find a thoughtful piece about world events. Or you may find a bit of puerile sniping at Ken Livingstone, Polly Toynbee or George Galloway (all right. some people do deserve puerile sniping)".
"Even if you found a thoughtful piece, click on the 'comments' link (especially if it shows there are more than about thirty comments), and you'll find that only a couple of the early responses involve to-the-point criticism. Indeed, you'll be lucky if you don't find the comments descending into point-scoring, ad hominem attacks, apparently irrelevant asides (usually referring to separate arguments elsewhere on the site) and a good deal of personal abuse. It is unlikely to make you want to get involved."
The Best Is Yet To Come
The above is a quote from an article in the current issue of "Democratic Socialism" by Bernard Hughes. It also, of course, appears on the site to which I supplied my initial link. The article is entitled "Return to Euston", but it is a fun read on blogging on top of its analysis of the Euston Manifesto.
It supplies a great set of 44 mainly lefty links, so it has been placed straight into my "favorites" box. Whilst its "with-it" nature is shown in its definitions box on the "Decent Left", "Fisking", "Stoppers", "Muscular Liberals" and "Moonbat".
As a consequence of Bernard's strictures I will escue puerile sniping and stop calling the Crud the Crud. And I will no longer enter boxes crowded with more than 30 responses. (I must say that I soon noticed the point he makes.)
Why do I get involved in these things Bernard? Well it is easy after 18 years of bobbing up at down on the green benches in the Commons. At least I can now say what I want without having to catch someone's eye, even if I do receive less hits than past observations from those deserted green benches or from the even emptier press gallery.
4 comments:
I often wonder if the people who get involved in the sort of anonymous sniping on blogs actually do it in real life. You know, the sort of boring sods that pack the public bar with instant solutions to every problem of the wotld and dismiss anyone with a different view as a 'wanker'. Or are they really just sad little sods with a laptop in a bedsit, trying to find an outlet for their built up aggression?
Either way, I don't think I really want to talk to them.
My own blog does not allow anonymous comments. This may ban some reasonable cases and mean that few respond, but it keeps out a lot of rubbish. On the plus side it accomodates Bob Piper.
Thanks for the write-up, Harry, and glad you enjoyed the article. The list of links is a little incomplete (it doesn't include Bob, for instance!) but,as the article says, it's a beginning...
Hi Bernard,
Are you aware of this link
http://politicalopinions.co.uk/ ?
Will Brown will be at our Dronfield Labour Discussion tonight to raise debate around "Labour, the Left and the Leadership." We had 16 at our last meeting. 4 of us regulars were in a North Derbyshire ILP Branch in the 1980s.
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