Over the weekend, a diarist over at Kos reported back on his six-month study of right-wing blogs (RWBs). He looked at 10 blogs, and we were fortunate enough to make the list. And his conclusions… wow.
I barely recognized ourselves.
The list of allegations and incidents is disturbing, to say the least — and at the worst, downright frightening.
But I noticed something odd.
For all the charges and incidents and widespread abuses, the author didn’t offer the slightest shred of evidence.
No links, no quotes, not even any before-and-after screenshots showing the massive deletions and bannings he talked about.
I challenged the author — repeatedly — to give some proof, but he never bothered.
I’m not saying that what he says doesn’t happen. I’ve seen it — far more on the left than on any of the right sites that I read, but it does happen on both.
“Maccabee” was gracious in thanking me for my comments, but didn’t answer with evidence — or even explain why he didn’t offer any. He just expected his word to be accepted as gospel by the Faithful over there — and, judging by the overwhelming response, he was well justified in that expectation.
I was also surprised to be received mostly civilly over there. Quite frankly, it took a bit longer for the typical venom to emerge than I expected.
I don’t think I’ll participate on a regular basis (or even an irregular basis) over there, but I was surprised I haven’t been banned yet.
My only regret is that I spent so much time over there, instead of working on any pieces here.
