Yet another example of this was analyzed over at Eschaton earlier today; it seems that Jonathan Chait of TNR was the latest of these clueless dweebs to speculate as to why lefty bloggers exist, no doubt believing that we are all clones manufactured by The Daily Kos Factory in Berkeley, California.
I'm not going to dignify Chait's article by refuting it point by point; you can go here if you want to read more about it. I will only highlight one utterly laughable sentence.
The netroots consider the notion of pursuing truth for its own sake nonsensical.OK, Chait, you asked for it. Since you apparently are trying to tell the world what netroots bloggers are all about without, apparently, affording us the respect of actually ASKING A FEW OF US, I will tell you why I do this.
(God, this is going to be a bit boring, and I apologize in advance. I teed off on Smerky when he wrote a "What I Believe" column in his Inky debut, but if I have any hope of shutting up people like Chait by writing one of these things myself, I guess I'd better do it - sigh).
Here goes...
I read about Dumbya doing something else stupid, dangerous, illegal, or otherwise clueless, so I blog. I read about Repugs selling the working, middle class, heart and soul of this country down the river yet again, so I blog. I read about Dems sitting on their hands while the Repugs do what I just said, so I blog. I read totally tilted misinformation tinged with more than a little sarcasm from columnists such as Tom Friedman, David Brooks, Victor Davis Hanson, Suzanne Fields, Kathleen Parker, Jack Kelly, this Ruben Navarrette person now over at CNN, and of course Smerky, Kevin Ferris, Jonathan Last, and J.D. Mullane (though not lately, which is surprising), so I blog. I read about the exact opposite from people such as Paul Krugman, Paul Craig Roberts, Paul Campos, Gene Lyons, Joe Conason and a precious few others that I think I can use as part of posts, so I blog. I read about legitimate news stories that are twisted by misinformation, so I blog. I read about corporate media shills cozying up to Bushco and not doing their jobs, so I blog. I read about courageous Democrats trying to do great work such as Russ Feingold, Max Cleland, John Edwards and Patrick Murphy and I try to help them however I can, so I blog. I see information from the Democrats, Working for Change, the AFL-CIO, The Century Foundation or People for the American Way in my "in" box and I think, "Gee, it might be neat to tie this stuff into a post if I can," so I blog. And I see news items that, through no one's fault, are missing background information that I try to provide, so I blog.
I also blog because I am inspired by other bloggers. In addition to the "A" listers we all know about, Prof. Marcus always has pithy, interesting observations about how we are looked upon by the rest of the world (wish I could say it was positive). Len Hart at The Existentialist Cowboy is a factory of scholarly posts utterly laying waste to any credibility that Bushco could ever hope to possess. Lukery at Wot Is It Good 4 along with Miguel and the rest of that bunch is connecting the dots and telling the story of Sibel Edmonds, and if you are totally unfamiliar with what they're doing, you don't know what you're missing. Shaun at Kiko's House writes interesting, reflective posts providing a refreshing context to current events. I also try to touch base with Richard at Itsez and Andrew at Pixel Monkey for other unique perspectives; I know I'm leaving out a bunch of other talented, terrific bloggers (never forget D-Mac at Philadelphia Will Do), and I apologize.
I also try to toss in some posts that I hope and pray are interesting to other people besides myself (I guess that goes for everything, really, when you think about it), and I throw in the videos as a change of pace so this blog never turns into a "one-trick pony."
I can't think of any other reasons why I engage in this exercise. I will add, though, that it takes time away from other writing projects and a bit of time from my family, but I'm sure this is the balancing act that is performed by anyone who chooses to do this. I think, in our way, we're all trying to tell the story of our life and times as accurately and thoroughly as we perceive it because that isn't being addressed anywhere else.
So there, Chait. Yes, many of us have a lot of ideological commonalities, but I would guess that our differences would quickly become apparent if we all gathered in one location. Despite that, though, I have no doubt that we would find a way to work together to tell our stories in the hope of bringing light to darkness and order to chaos in our own special way.
There is no agenda, there is no template (really), and there is no shared list of talking points. We're a discordant, rebellious bunch, and maybe, somehow, someday, all of this will matter. And I'm proud to be a part of this freak show.
And one more thing - I wouldn't read The New Republic if you paid me.
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