Bush supporters' aftermath thread

Why does there appear to be such disdain for "right-winged blogs"? It isn't as though the "left-wing" has a vacuum in the blog department.

The Dailykos for example. A prominent blog that gets quoted on A2K quite often. So does Raed and all his spin offs like riverbend, where's raed, raed in the middle, etc... I have seen ample quotations from those sources.

This whole discussion about an acronym seems somewhat silly. Who cares where it came from? Really. Who cares.

I agree with McG.

The disdain shown for Right-wing blogs is built upon the fact that they don't have communities built up around them at all, because they don't allow comments and participation in the open way that Liberal blogs do.

Dailykos, which you pointed out, has spawned dozens if not hundreds of other blogs by the members of the site who attracted a following amongst fellow members for their clear writing and ideas.

Out of the top right-wing blogs, only ONE allows for comments and that's Redstate.org. That's pretty much it. This does not build a community but instead allows the writer of the blog to say pretty much whatever he wants, lie, spin, whatever, and noone is there to call him on it; from his party or the opposing party. This leads to self-reinforcing memes and inaccuracy repeated as if it was fact.

Right-wing blogs are also derided for their express wish to go to war, to kick Korans, to kill Hajis, but not to actually sign up themselves to do such things. Merely send others to do their work for them. I and others have no love for the Fighting 101st Keyboardists.

Having no place for real discussion-style blogging means that the majority of those who do wish to discuss in that style on the Right end up in two places: Little Green Footballs and Free Republic. And you know what kind of discussions go on there... people try to act as if these are just the radicals of the Republican party who post there, but the truth is that they are representative of the level of discourse the Right would like to hold.

I can't think of a single 'Liberal' blog that doesn't have comments enabled.

Cycloptichorn

ummmm... Isn't that what a blog is for?

Many on the left see a blog as being a meeting place for discussion on one's ideas instead of merely being an echo chamber for the writer.

It is unsurprising that those on the right don't see it that way at all; they are much more interested in hearing what they have to say themselves than in hearing what others have to say, or in having their facts checked.

Cycloptichorn

Since Cyclops holds all libbies up as paragons of free and open expression and debate, I must take this opportunity to advise of a contrary experience I had prior to coming to A2K. Prior to the November, 2004 election, I joined a forum apparently designed for liberals only. I was clearly in the minority there as a conservative poster, and was promptly booted (read "banned") after they had all they could take of my conservative slant (about 3 days worth). So much for your generalization, Cyclops.

There are of course forums intended for only liberals or only conservatives. I never tried to imply that there were not. Take yer straw man elsewhere; one forum that you got booted on has nothing to do with the majority of Liberal blogs.

I can easily name 15 liberal blogs that allow comments and posting. Hell, 30 of them. Can you name 10 Conservative ones that do? 5? I doubt it.

Cycloptichorn

A weblog (usually shortened to blog, but occasionally spelled web log) is both a web application used for entering, modifying and displaying periodic posts (normally in reverse chronological order) as well as the totality of content constituted by these posts. Initially, weblog content was manually written on personal web pages, but soon after their appearance, weblogs began to be implemented from web-based software, and this is the norm today. The term blog came into common use as a way of avoiding confusion with the term server log.

Blog implementations run from individual diaries to arms of political campaigns, media programs and corporations, and from the writing of one occasional author to the collaboration of a large community of writers. Many weblogs enable visitors to leave public comments, which can lead to a community of readers centered around the blog; others are non-interactive. The totality of weblogs or blog-related websites is often called the blogosphere.

It appears as though blogs take many different shapes and sizes.

My experience was the same Tyco. I don't want to play on all conservative BLOGS, though I don't know of ANY that forbid liberal comments that are provided objectively and respectfully. But preaching to the choir loses its zest very quickly.

I really don't think you can consider any site a BLOG, however, if comments are not enabled. A BLOG that doesn't create a log is an oxymoron.

It isn't that Conservative blogs forbid Liberal comments, it is that so many of them forbid ALL comments, whereas there are practically no liberal sites that forbid all comments.

It is important to note the difference between Comments and Posts on a blog; the writer of the blog typically makes a Post which is then Commented on by the readers.

Cycloptichorn

From what I understand, not many of the conservative posters here frequent blogs, so to come up with a list of blogs would seem meaningless.

But, the few that I do visit are listed below;
http://chrenkoff.blogspot.com/
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/
http://rightwingnews.com/

(I also read this one, but it's not really right-winged... http://www.mikemcbrideonline.com/blogger.html)

All have comments enabled.

What will you do if I'm able to name 10? I don't frequent any blogs, but if it's worth my while, I'd do it just to prove you wrong, Cyclops. ..... If you are actually interested in my doing it, that is.

Tico - LOL! That would be like taking candy from a baby

<Carry on>

Go for it, though I will say that my contention isn't that you couldn't find 10 right-wing blogs that have comments enabled, just that you/others couldn't name them off of the top of your head.

Now, if you don't frequent blogs, then that would automatically mean that you probably cannot name 10 of them. My mission isn't to send you on a scavenger hunt in order to find websites, but to point out the fact that there is a large disparity in the Blog world when it comes to comments and soliciting information and viewpoints from others.

Cycloptichorn

Well, I named 3 from my bookmarks. Anyone have any different ones?

Cyclops said:

Out of the top right-wing blogs, only ONE allows for comments and that's Redstate.org. That's pretty much it.

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What criteria do you use to determine what is and what is not considerd 'top' right-wing blogs?

Membership and number of unique readers.

It is without a doubt that certain right-wing blogs are far more popular than others. Which would you put at the top?

Cycloptichorn

Geez, who hasn't heard of the Freepers? And I don't have them bookmarked, but I'm pretty sure I have visited at least 10 right wing slanted BLOGS in the last several months. I have a friend who is actually doing a research paper on the BLOG phenomenon, however. I'm hoping he'll share.

I want to make it clear that I don't have a bone with the blogs themselves at all; just that they don't have openings for comments.

It allows one to make, well, whatever claims they wish without being able to be effectively called on their inaccuracies.

It increases the echo-chamber effect tremendously.

It does nothing to promote actual critical discussion of the viewpoint being offered. This, I feel, is extremely important in the process of honing one's ideas and arguments to good levels.

Cycloptichorn

Foxy - I don't have that one bookmarked either and I'm pretty sure the last time I read anything from there was a couple of years ago when I was researching info on immigration.

I actually stop by both Democratic and Republican blogs -- probably about half and half, since it pays to know what the other side is thinking...and plotting LOL.

Just yesterday I was reading a Democrat lamenting the fact that it may be decades before the Dems win again...and except for DailyKos and DU, some aren't totally skewed.

LittleGreenFootballs is another that I don't have bookmarked (yet...time constraints), but I think they'd rank pretty high since I believe the founders of that site were instrumental in proving that the Rathergate memo was a forgery.

I have most all of the major newspapers in my list of favorites and two or three good search engines. That alone takes up whatever time I'm able to allow for reading ... political or otherwise.

To be honest, most of the so-called 'blogs' I read aren't political at all, but geared more towards interests, hobbies, and career.

Oh...I think WaPo did a 'reader's choice' awards thingy on bloggers once, too. IIRC (hehe) quite a few of the 'winners' were right-wing LOL.

<Don't quote me on that...will look it up later>