Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one. -Friedrich Nietzsche
To what end does political and sociological blogging actually benefit us? I'm not sure. I see a lot of bitterness that can come from it. In myself, in others too. Sometimes I cannot help but think that when you look at the sort of vitriolic anger and rage common in parts of the blogosphere, that engaging it is a subversive way for it to infect you. Maybe I'm just feeling crappy tonight, but I look at some of these train wrecks like Pandagon and see more gore than amusement right now.
Most of the benefit of the blogosphere goes unnoticed. For every blogger and commenter, there are many more readers who remain silent. It is these unknown folks who are trying to learn something who will be swayed by one argument or another.
You never know who's reading, and you might just be influencing more people than you realize. If Amynda actually thought about this, she would realize how much damage she is doing to the feminist movement, regardless of the groupthink going on in her comments.
I agree with Triton.
I would also say that the Blogosphere is largely for ranting. I mean, who wants to read about what you did that day. Precisely no one. Everyone wants to talk about themselves. But at the same time, people like to read people's blogs who are ranting about the same things they rant about. Hence the negativity seen on blogs.
I don't think it is a bad thing. Rather it is like the news. News is almost always bad news because good news isn't really news at all.
Having been to PZ's nut farm, I'd have to agree that Rage is contagious, and evil, Mike.
If I didn't already know that spiritual forces were real, a brief washing in that particular cesspool would provide ample evidence.
Triton,
Sometimes I am shocked by who is reading my blog. It is not very common, but it is something that has happened more than once, I'm afraid.
Erik,
I have to agree with Mark on this one. I have noticed in myself that I get angrier and more irritable the more I focus on these rantings.
In my estimation, it's just an over-glorified descendant of the newspaper letters column. Because basically most bloggers (myself included) just react to what they're seeing going on around them. I'd be surprised if more than 10 percent (to be fair) of blog postings actually introduce any new ideas or facts into the public scope.
Also I find it nauseating how the legacy media is trying to create their own "blog" as if they're somehow "hip".
Hello there, abe. Haven't seen you around much. Is your blog dead or does it still have life left in it? I have your blog on my news feed in Firefox, but never see any updates...
WRT the introduction of new ideas, let's face it, most blog readers don't really want much of that. Just look at who has made the so-called "A list" if you want an idea of what I mean. There is rarely much correlation between being a good writer with interesting ideas, and having a good sized readership. Most people just don't like to think.
Pandagon and its ilk are symptoms of the disease that is eating away at our country.