Blog Cultures and Winger Idealogues

Thank Gawd, it isn't just me...

Frogs and Ravens: Blog Wars and Blog Cultures: "The blogosphere is not a uniform, homogenous place, operating according to universal rules and expectations. (My god, how boring it would be if that were so.) Instead, the blogosphere varies with the whims and inclinations of each blog host and each commenting community. Some places are fine with profanity, others aren't. Some specialize in trading witty one-offs; others prefer thoughtful, meandering conversations. Some are snarky and sarcastic; some are warm and touchy-feely. Some develop small, close-knit communities into which a newcomer must ease slowly and cautiously; others are big raucous public parties that anyone can jump into without prior experience. The blogosphere is anything but homogenous."

However, to a newcomer, it often looks that way, so the clueless go around bulling their way into existing conversations, committing social faux pas, etc. until someone calls them on it. The honestly clueless wise up, learn to "read the room" and adjust their commenting styles to the norms of each particular blog and its attendent culture.

Other folks, on the other hand, don't.

--snip--

Some don't because they have an axe to grind that has nothing to do with the blogosphere per se. A particular variant of this is the proudly self-proclaimed conservative who rails at liberal bloggers for failing to tolerate dissent in their blog threads. (There are liberal equivalents, but the rhetorical tools at their disposal are different, as are those of their opponents, so the dynamics play out differently. They can't and don't level hypocrisy charges at sexist bigots, for example, if they get banned.) There's no use arguing with these types. They are not interested in hearing evidence to the contrary, because they are trying to promote an ideology, not educate themselves. They are not amenable to accusations of hypocrisy (cue LGF reference here), because they do not define themselves in terms of tolerance and open-mindedness; they are using the stereotype of liberal tolerance as a rhetorical club against ideological opponents -- if it didn't exist, they'd find another approach. They want to be banned, because then they can spin the result as proving their point about liberal hypocrisy; explaining to them that "tolerance" does not equal "putting up with every stripe of foolishness under the sun" (let alone treating such foolishness with respect) does not work, because, again, they are not interested in arguing about actual ideas, but about scoring ideological points. The closest equivalent I can think of in offline life are radio talk show hosts, or the hecklers who show up at political rallies, and the like -- the gotcha, stir-up-shit crowd, in other words.