If you’ve ever been critical of ODub, you’ve probably gotten one of his typical comebacks (such as “you’re stupid”, “you’re a racist”, “you must be a Christian nut”, or “you have too much time on your hands” just to name a few) that you’ve come to understand how pointless it is to even try to have anything resembling reasoned political discourse with him.
Bill at INDC Journal proposes a pledge that while meant to applied to ODub (who Bill appropriately labels “blogospheric version of Carrot Top”) specifically, probably can be applied to almost any liberal blogger whose usual arguments boil down to cliche liberal talking points like “Bush is a moron,” “Republicans are racist,” “Halliburton,” “Enron,” mixed in with a nostalgia for the days when Bill Clinton was President.
Generally speaking, his idea appears to be a good one. While all bloggers, by the nature of their act of blogging, desire attention, however, ODub is one of the worst, suffering from delusions of grandeur during his constant struggle for relevancy in the blogosphere. One might say ODub suffers from Blogospheric Attention Deficit Disorder.
One thing I would have added to Bill’s proposed pledge (and I encourage him to add it) is “never post a comment on his site.” This is a rule I apply universally to alll liberal blogs, after learning in my first weeks of blogging that you are only wasting time trying to have a debate with people who have no use for opposing viewpoints.
UPDATE: Ace asks Bill what took so long…
wasting time trying to have a debate with people who have no use for opposing viewpoints
“The kettle called, he wants his pot back.”
Are you afraid of something Matt… Maybe… For instance:
The Truth?
Matt Margolis is clearly terrified.
ha! please… I live in Massachusetts, no liberal scares me.
From a guy who gained his 15 minutes of fate by way of a union beat-down, accusing someone of fighting a “constant struggle for relevancy in the blogosphere.” is quite laughable.
You could respond to this, but since you’re probably busy searching out more unflattering pictures of liberal politicians, I won’t be holding my breath.
…15 minutes of fame, although fate may fit as well.
Respond to what exactly? I don’t quite see what a fight that happened almost a year ago has anything to do “relevancy in the blogosphere.”
Besides, my other site did far better than ODub’s during the 2004 campaign. I don’t need to compete with him for relevancy.
“…you’ve come to understand how pointless it is to even try to have anything resembling reasoned political discourse with him.”
Oh please, Matt. You’re the founder of Blogs For Bush and GOP Bloggers, where a troll is just someone who doesn’t support Bush. There is not even an attempt for discourse there, just a bunch of Rightist back patting and boo hooing over how sad the Democrats are because the Republicans rule the universe. You make me laugh.
Tough Love for ODub
Bill at INDC Journal has made some blog rules about giving attention to Oliver (I’ll give you a hint – don’t give him any). I swear if I didn’t know Oliver, I would have thought he was some sort of…
I think it’s worth noting that while libs like Willis accuse righties of “living in an echo chamber”, the same may be said of them. The fact is, 90% of ALL people surround themselves with those who “echo” their sentiments. It’s only natural for a person to associate with like-minded people and read or listen to like-minded commentary. Willis, like most of us, only visits the opposition in order to find fault on which to base an attack.
Matt, I tried engaging him in a civil debate via email, but he never would respond. I called him on his penchant for half-quotes and misquotes, but he was as quiet as a turkey farm on Thanksgiving day.
Marcus, I get a lot of email daily. over a hundred usually, if you think i can reply to all my e-mail then you don’t know my schedule. i can’t read and reply to every email i get. it’s unfortunate, but that’s just how it works. not hearing back from me means nothing.
Adam, it’s hard for me to even humor you when I get complaints from people that the liberals aren’t kept under control. So don’t try to pull this crap that liberals are censored or whatever you’ve brought yourself to believe.
Oh for God’s sake, Matt. Read Adam’s post again. He says nothing about liberals being censored. He’s simply pointing out the predominant discourse of these blogs – namely, smug backslapping. The response I typically get when I, invariably, disagree with you, or Kahn, or whomever is commenting, falls along the line of “Sore loser!” or simply changing the subject. Blech. If I want reasoned, intelligent debate from the right, I read the Economist. I only come here for easy targets.
MATT!!
Read my post again. I’m on YOUR side, dude!
“Matt, I tried engaging HIM (Oliver) in a civil debate via email, but he never would respond.”
I know your busy, but please read more carefully.
Matt:
The liberals are under control at your sites now alright. Just like the liberals are under control at all the Bush speeches. Out of sight, out of mind. Just smile, and say, “Man, how these people love us and support Bush!” I haven’t seen more than a few liberal commenters over there in ages. It’s not because we don’t show face. Your team banned us all for disagreeing and you know it. This isn’t the first time you’ve been accused either. Everybody knows your sites don’t resemble “reasoned political discourse.” Why would you even try to pretend that Oliver is the bad guy here?
You are not wasting time trying to have a debate with people who have no use for opposing viewpoints? You make me laugh again. Oliver was right. The kettle wants his pot back.
I’m already banned from GOP Bloggers after one comment where I asked for information on the Washington election problems, since all you guys say is, “Oh those Donks just steal everything!” Of course, your glorious band of readers told me that asking for facts to back up their writing was just me pretending to not be liberal, but of course they’d all seen my website, so they knew the truth. I was really just a sneaky liberal trying to start a fight. They also said that liberal and criminal is the same thing. So I had to go.
You accuse Oliver of having some sort of ADD for bloggers (which really doesn’t make sense as far as real ADD goes) while he has no “reasoned political discourse.” The only difference is that you have a million readers, and no “reasoned political discourse.” What’s different?
I agree with what marcus said about the echo chamber. It’s just the nature of people who are passionate about the things they believe. Just don’t act like you aren’t a victim of that curse. Don’t pretend like having a million readers makes your pack patting and high fiving anything better than Oliver’s.
Sorry Marcus.. it soundsd as if I was the subject of your comment, not the person you were speaking to. On that note, I have no idea how much email Oliver gets, he’d have to explain himself on that one.
I’m not into traffic pissing matches, but I’d like to note that Blogs 4 Bush had to have a ton of bloggers and “legitimization” by the RNC to get the traffic it did. OW.com is just me.
“‘legitimization’ by the RNC?” not quite sure what you’re talking about, but if you think we got traffic because Ed Gillespie posted a comment one time in the first month or so of the site you’re delusional.
I don’t claim B4B was the most influential site, but for a site to get as far as it did in less than a year i think is pretty good.
Funny how you didn’t want to get into a “Traffic pissing match” then sought to make excused for B4B’s success.
You got that right.
Because I think there are other sites, even on the right, who have done much better without institutional support.
I don’t really consider b4b to have received institutional support. A couple of times even the official George W Bush site referenced blogs in one of their blog entries, but not B4B. I think the Bush brand made them reluctant to have any association with us. we be we weren’t a part of the campaign.