The Forum II

(fm the BC thread "The Age of Demons")

When we had the Pajamas Media Tech Editor here to beat up on over the site format and comment threading we all should have joined hands together and beat the **** out of him over indexing and the need for a decent search feature.

My blog is 90% my comment archive, with a few additions and embedded pics and vids, and thanks to Blogger™ a search feature, so I was able to go back and do a search on whiskey. Interestingly I found where I defended him (and Habu) about two months ago. My four criticisms mentioned above stand as not new with three additions.

1) His tendency to issue declarative predictive assertions without in fact any accompanying criteria for scholarly evaluation, factual support or subsequent self criticism. Remember his assertion about the North Carolina vote? President McCain sure is glad that came through as predicted.

2) The fact that he introduced his tangents not after the thread topic proposed by the host was exhausted, as others often did on subjects ranging from small arms comparisons to the history of cheese eaters, but on live discussions. Over time a by-play developed in which whiskey would introduce his theory, with plausible deniability as to his desired goals, and others would then pick up the ball and run by suggesting apocalyptic and violent outcomes. Over the last couple of months he reduced his efforts to deny his own sympathies, as in pushing the idea that he wished he was a black woman, and he also pushed into assertions of not only cultural but genetic distinctions between groups which even if worthy of exploration were simply not what the host had desired a discussion on. That could be seen as thread hijacking and over a long period of time if persisted in could wear out a welcome.

3) Each blog reflects the tone desired by the Owner. There are a diversity of blogs, even among those with similar subject interests and close political biases. On the Left the Kos Kiddies are not identical to the HuffPo writers, although they do overlap. For real foaming infantilism you have to wade into DemUnderground, where things are written that Kos would not tolerate. On the right we have many venues also including the Freepers, Malkin, and many on our hosts blogroll. It is perfectly reasonable for him to desire a certain tone in his blog and feel that some comments are more appropriate to another forum. One day he may decide that I am a windy bore or conversely given that I have been much less visible the last 6 weeks he might feel that my influence and credibility are declining.

By "mentioned above" I meant my comment #102 on the closed "What the Russian Sleepers Did" thread. It seemed appropriate to go into my archives and blog this but if our host feels that it only opens a wound then I have no problem with him deleting it.

We are guests in a house and in a club. When someone from the Left comes in and acts with courtesy it is noticed. When they come in and call us idiots it is noticed. When we get so wrapped up in our own obsessions that we ignore the hosts admonitions to be careful of his furniture we should expect him to defend the time and effort he has put into this.

Those who feel that they have a perfect license to go anywhere on the internet and say anything they please to anyone and that any effort to prevent that is fascism or communism are simply wrong. You have a right to speak but not a right to make others provide a forum for your speech or a right to make others see or hear your speech. The host (wretchard) has an interest in encouraging the widest possible range of discourse to keep the blog a lively place. The weighing of interests he must perform in that role is a marketing decision, even if no money but only reputation and influence are involved. My view is that he does a pretty good job of it.