Problems with Blogdom
Posted by dlw in Uncategorized at 4:58 pm | 
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At Daily Kos, Maccabee shares his observations from 6 months of lurking at Right Wing Blogs.
It seems blogs are often swamps of opinion and group-think. He came away respecting “real” conservatives, libertarians, but viewing many as loonies. Unfortunately, he doesn’t link to any posts to support his args.
This fits with the insights of Paul Musgrave…
Blog readers do not want insight; they prefer provocation. Blog readers do not want explanation; they crave exhortation. Blog readers do not want to learn about novel ideas; they seek to rehearse tired debates.
The blogosphere is not an ideal speech situation, and we are not all listening politely to each truth-claim and debating it in restrained tones with an aim toward uncovering the best possible theory or description of reality. Instead, the group-reinforcement model outlined above works more accurately. If the real aim of political blogs was to convert the other side, they would not be read by people who have already been converted.
I keep these unfortunate realities in mind when I sometimes get a little down over not having a very big readership for my blogging…
dlw
The 29th of January, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Well, there is always inter-blogger fellowship, which is worth the price of commiseration.
RE:Cellulosic Ethanol (your comment at my blog*), this in OpinionJournal today:
“A bit of sobriety would go a long way in discussing this moonshine of the energy world, however. Cellulosic ethanol–which is derived from plants like switchgrass–will require a big technological breakthrough to have any impact on the fuel supply.”**
Moonshine of the energy world. LOL! There was a time during prohibition that moonshine floated the collective boat quite nicely as long as you didn’t mind the Tommyguns.
Aside from that I think a fuel source competing as a food staple is bound to cause trouble. There is also evidence that a lot of fossil fuel (energy, fertilizers) is spent just growing the corn in the first place. A panacea? I’d say not quite yet.
Cheers,
db
*http://www.evaneco.com/?p=263#comments
**http://www.opinionjournal.com/weekend/hottopic/?id=110009587
The 30th of January, 2007 at 10:32 pm
dlw, I think the tone of your blog is good for dialogue. I learned alot from Scot McKnight and his Jesus Creed blog about having a good conversation (or even beginning to learn what that looks like). And have long since abandoned those blogs in which its all about shooting down what is set up- the straw man. Anyhow, keep on blogging and working with that same tone, as you’re able.