The Circle Jerks

Funny things these internets. We're actually just in the infancy of the computer age, aren't we? Widespread online activity only really got going about ten years ago so we're smack dab in an evolving process.

I know that a lot of internet users, especially younger people, just use the tubes to send email, shmooze and chat, maybe start a blog and download music. I'll bet the online vendors are mopping up this holiday season. My interests lie in news, science, politics and opinion. I don't know about you, but I've seen a curious phenomena evolve in the last several years and I think it's emblematic of politics at large, and could point towards what we can expect later. The 'right wing' blogosphere bubble.

It's not really a choice between left and right as I think those terms are meaningless now. The political arena is shaping up to be a struggle between constitutionalists and authoritarians that transcends left and right.

The bubble exists as a squawking megaphone for top down authoritarians with jackboots on their xmas wishlist. It serves as a strident adjunct to the corporate media line. We all hyperlink in our blogs; the kids in the bubble link a lot to each other. It's been called an echo chamber for good reason. It's got a pack mentality and those blogs - Malkin, little green fascists, Powerline and the others are quick to repeat what they think represents a validation of their brownshirted outlook - pubbies represent good, dems bad and the snarling muslim barbarians are out to get us but only the bubble knows it. In other words stagnant, simplistic and xenophobic, and increasingly isolated. That sure describes their war hero president.

Here's an example. Using memeorandum which tracks hot blog topics I see that the usual suspects are all chasing what seemed to be a hot story for them that they could spin into a dems = bad zinger. A supposed 'al qaeda' terrorist takes credit for the democratic win in the elections in a video which was released a couple days ago. Stop the presses! See, this proves the dems are in bed with our enemies! Spineless libs anyway.

I looked into all the big news sites and didn't find one peep about this video, let alone their shrill conclusion. Not one reference. It turns out that every one of the bubble's sweating denizens linked to the same ABC Blotter entry by Brian Ross that's basically a standard yawn inspiring piece of propaganda. They just love to sniff out these supposed threats and then invent reasons to smear anybody they consider their political enemies. Go take a look at one or two of them and gaze in wonder as the commenters sieg heil.

I think this happens all the time. It serves to buttress their righteousness in the phony us against them paradigm that Codpiece laid out after 9/11. But a lot of dead-from-the-neck-up Bush supporters who are also probable Faux© viewers hang on to this crap for dear life. They decided to follow their batshit insane Precious Leader over the cliff so they constantly need that comforting reinforcement. I think there's going to be a showdown sometime in the near future as these crazed wingnuts rally to the fascists when the last nail in our republic's coffin is hammered, but Chris Bowers at MyDD has a more optimistic outlook:
"Conservative bloggers continue to act as though they are simply a supplement to the existing pundit class, without any need to converse with those operating outside of a small social bubble or any need to engage people within the new structure of the public sphere. In the formulation of Stirling Newberry, they view themselves existing on top of a pyramid rather than in the middle of a sphere. At least when it comes to the national blogosphere, liberals are leaving conservatives in the dust. By comparison, conservatives seem all too happy to continue to cogitate from atop their lofty and increasingly irrelevant perch. That's fine by me. I hope some things never change."