Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Concern Troll?

Turns out that the attacks I saw on that fellow "Sundog" had an effect. Wouldja believe it, and I swear I am not making this up, he is a blogger at the TPM Cafe.

He was called a 'concern troll' (so was I on the TPM Cafe). And he makes a startling revelation:
Atrios posts a comment about "What exactly is there to like about Joe Lieberman?" Rather exasperated. I foolishly jumped into the comments and said, prominently identifying myself as a Lamont supporter, come on, he's been a solid Democrat most of his life; it's just his choices over the last few years are wrong in my book.

Ever see a pack of dogs go after red meat?

The irony and the unfairness of the situation are still with me.
I decided to respond to him:
Sundog - I surfed over to that thread at Atrois tonight (11:30 pm Monday) and I saw how you were ripped apart. I feel for you, brother, because I had the same experience here at the TPM Cafe (not as much a howler-monkey poo flinging that you received... but I have less patience.)

As an anthropologist, I've tried to analyze what's going on here on the Left - why there's such backlash against impure ideology. I always prided the Left as being better able to see both sides of an issue. But there's an ugly and pervasive sociological phenomenon going on here on all these "netroot" websites.

I don't know what a 'concern troll' is - I was called that after I took umbrage at a personal attack - but it sounds like what a teenager calls an adult after being caught smoking in the boys room.

Teenagers are able to punch each other in the cafeteria; in the cubicle world, that's called assault. So too on these blogs - antisocial behavior which is commonplace in a dorm is just not accepted in the 'real world.' And politics, war, jobs - these are real, no?
But, naturally, I have even worse conclusions. These are some scary dark times.

2009 Update: Pic from here.

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