Something there is that does not love a wall.
—In me, anyway. I just had someone write to me and tell me they’d understand if—because it’s clear we disagree on this point, rather vehemently—I wanted to remove them from my blogroll.
Which sort of thing is one of the reasons why I wanted to swear off these holier-than-thou crapfests in the first place.
After the initial shitstorm over at Electrolite, things calmed down a tad; it’s still heavy weather, but the sort of thing it’s bracing to go for a brisk walk in, if you like that sort of thing. (Which I do.) In the course of which, Teresa Nielsen Hayden took a quick point (“David Brin is fond of quoting a study that suggests that people in a self-righteous mood are literally enjoying a high . . . an endorphin kick”) made by Stefan Jones and ran with it a bit:
Stefan, I’ve been assuming for years, just based on my own observations, that self-righteous indignation is a high. The shorthand term Patrick and I use for it is “cheap glow”. A lot of people obviously find it attractive. I figure it’s one of the reasons they listen to Limbaugh. I also figure it’s why some political websites—mostly right-wing, some left—have taken to having an “instant outrage” feature for the rats who can’t wait to press the lever and get their pellet. I’ve also noticed that the outrage-generating texts have been making less and less sense, as both parties to the transaction move toward the complicit admission that one participant just wants his shot of anger, and is willing to cede his judgement to the other in return for it.
And it’s that image of the rats that helps me square away some stuff that’s been bugging me about blogging lately—my own stuff as well as the stuff I read. It’s why, while I can’t get through the day without checking on Atrios (say), I tend for the most part to avoid his comments crew. (Which is not to speak ill of many fine people who’ve posted many fine things there.) It’s why when I leap up in a righteous dudgeon and jerk the lever myself for a pellet, I feel all hollow and crapulent afterwards. (Do I contradict myself? Very well. I contradict myself.) —It’s why, even though I check in with the Horse from time to time, I just can’t bring myself to ’roll her or him or it or them.
But we’re back to the blogroll thing again.
The only reason a link is over there is because it’s stuff and people I like to read, on a regular basis. It’s my portable bookmark list. The key there is “like”: a frothy, ambiguous, flighty word. You’ll notice, say, a distinct dearth of bloggers which could be considered right-wing—not to name the usual names, but. (This is a distinct lacking in a political blogger; then, the funny thing is, I’ve never considered myself a political blogger, per se.) (Well. It seemed funny at the time.) You’ll also notice a distinct dearth of blogs on web standards and design and usability (Dean Allen’s occasional out-of-the-blue smashcuts notwithstanding), in spite of my passing if inept interest in the field. —On the other hand, I’m probably going to start adding more of the gonzo critical sites I’m finding by following links off Bellona Times and Waggish; they make me feel stupid, in a good way. And I really ought to add more stuff about comics, since, you know, that’s one of my ostensible fields of expertise…
My point (and I do have one) being: the only reason I have a blogroll is to remind me to check in on stuff I like to read from people I like to hang out with. It isn’t a references list or a who’s who of my secret clubhouse. If I started kicking off people I disagreed with, Barry’d be the first to go; he stubbornly refuses to accede to my superior critical understanding of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Compared with that, harsh words over choking on this ill-advised thrown-away vote or that appallingly mis-directed outburst are as nothing; a trifle. (Piffle.) —I laugh because I care. Yes, there’s a big gaping wound here in the Progressive Left-of-Center Pragmatic Utopian Mills; I don’t think it’s waterlined “us,” but it needs to be talked about, and that’s hard when each side is still spitting angry rat-pellets at the other. So what I mostly intended (ha ha) with this morning’s post was to irresponsibly abdicate a field I hadn’t been listing in much lately, anyway, since I try to keep my dogs in other fights, and I really want to go on revising my tentative translation of Thomas Browne’s Urn Burial, honest I do; instead, I tried to get an underhanded dig in. (Cue Silvio’s Godfather impersonation: “Just when I thought I was out—they pull me back in!”)
To make a long story only slight longer: I’d never allow politics to get in the way of someone whose stuff I like to read and out with whom I like to hang. (Politics might keep me from hanging out with someone in the first place, but that’s different.) (Subtly so, but.) —So. No one’s being dropped from the blogroll, not today, and that’s enough with the metatalk. In the meanwhile: David Chess stopped by and said something delightful in his usual lucid way; and honest, Sara, I’m almost done assembling those links on Utena; and if Paul Krugman is shrill, I don’t ever want to be sane. —Thank you, and goodnight.
Commenting is closed for this article.
Some of those rat pellets have been funny, and ghu knows I need a laugh these days. You seem to do a better job than I on talking politics. Right now I can only sputter.
Hey
The rants are 1) well-written, 2) amusing 3) mostly reflect concern for other people.
But you know, "translating" Thomas Browne? That's heresy. I'm warning you, don't go there.
L
You've summed up a lot of why I find blogging about politics less and less compelling (apart from the whole job-hunting thing).
So much of it is another day, another demonization, and so many political blogs get involved in these huge shitstorms that are just meaningless after 48 hours. (As opposed to the Gore-Nader shitstorm, which will probably be a sore subject for more than 48 months.)
Jim Henley was out of town for one of these 48-hour wonders and came back to say "well, it's just as well I missed all that; it resolved itself without me needing to post about it". If it's worth blogging about, it should generally still be relevant in two days.
I hadn't put the rat with pellet aspect together with the other in quite the way that "cheap glow" does, but I completely recognize the hollow feeling you get afterwards. That nasty feeling is almost certainly a sign that what you've been doing is unhealthy--mentally, emotionally, and probably spiritually.
hey, you're welcome to come read my blog anytime. i rarely talk about politics 'cuz i let other people have my opinions for me.
I dunno, Kirsten. Naked Knitting. Sounds a little risque. Not exactly safe for work.
And I should maybe indicate that I sometimes protest too much. Certainly, the cheapness of the glow aside, it's possible to get something substantive from a rat pellet; Krugman, say, is all about the outrage hit, but it's a cleaner, stronger, more bracing tonic than most. (To mix metaphors entirely. Pellet? Tonic? Rats? --Maybe it's the remake of Willard with Crispin Glover. Maybe it's because the ship is sinking.)
But I will be thinking of the rats and the pellets before haring off after something to post. So.