My conservative counterpart Donald Douglas of American Power has apparently laid down his guns as far as our latest blog feud is concerned and I've decided to follow suit. As such, I'd like to offer the following apology: I'm sorry. No, I'm not sorry for anything I said to Don or about Sarah Palin or even about any of the photoshopped images I've created over the past few days. I said what I felt had to be said in the face of his lies and personal attacks and I appreciate the solidarity of everyone who had my back when things started to get really vicious.
The apology I'd like to offer is to say that I'm sorry to the readers of this site. This latest rhetorical scuffle between Don and myself was mean and it was ugly and I'm sure that it was hard to read about at times. I'll admit that I wrote some fairly unfriendly words in the course of things but I still feel justified in the stance that I took and I still stand behind every word that I wrote. I realize that by this point in my life I should be able to resist getting dragged down into the gutter by someone with Don's level of intellectual dishonesty in the blogger world but for as long as I can remember I've always had a problem backing down from an argument when I've known that I was on the right side of it.
For those who are interested you can read Don's final indignant words to me and my admittedly long winded reply in this comment section. I've decided to take a break from his site for a while, partly to focus on some more positive and uplifting subjects and partly to test out the veracity of this statement that is not original to just myself:
Without commenters like myself and repsac3 and all of the other "radical, godless nihilists" stating actual opposition to the things you write your comment sections have digital tumbleweeds rolling through them with occasional "Great post, Donald!"s echoing off the walls.While I do like to stir shit up over at his site it's become quite obvious that the comments left by myself and others with political views similar to my own are really what drive the conflict and discord that Don's conservative readers seem to thrive on. True, there are a few level-headed Republicans to be found amongst the frothing masses but experience taught me long ago that trying to engage most of his readers civilly is an exercise in futility. And since his last post concerning the Palin photoshopping story, the only post to garner more than two comments is a round up of "leftist" reactions to the recent Supreme Court overturn of the Ricci case decided by President Obama's nominee to that court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor. It seems that his acolytes were quite happy to swarm all over that one, if only to agree with Don and each other whilst getting their partisan jabs in.
So, it's time here to regroup, recharge and reassess what's going on in the world and why some of those events are important/interesting enough to post and discuss in this forum. As always, thanks for taking the time to stop by and read Brain Rage. I always appreciate it.
9 comments:
I understand your desire to apologize, but really no need. I too have to take a break from Dr. Douglas's hate-filed screeds. I really think his traffic thrives on people like us stirring it up, though, and notice that his comments are rarely that active unless we are involved. You can count on the nice, but misguided, Philippe to thank God for Donald's every utterance, but that doesn't fly with the rational, thinking mind. Everyone there is so entrenched in their mindset that it's really not interesting. The only thing the commenters rebut with are new names for us "libtards." These people are pretty cretinous, actually. I don't hate them per se, like I know they hate us. They just BORE me stupid.
Bottom line, your blog is more fun, interesting, and funny. So, I read it. Donald's, I skim. It deserves nothing more, as it's just the same thing every day. Different headline, different choice of words courtesy of a big, fat, PHd-certified thesaurus.
I agree with you on the "bore more than elicit hate" tip, Tim. Thanks for the compliments.
I basically agree with Tim. We all have the feeling that, if we leave these guys alone, they are just free to breed in the dark, like maggots. But if we engage them intellectually, we are, in a way, lending their statements some sort of legitimacy.
I have been following right wing fringe groups for forty years now, and periodically emerging to fence with them. I must say that, after all that time, I still have trouble finding a middle ground to openly deal with them.
So, don't feel the need to apologize. They devote their whole intellect (such as it is) to finding a way to maintain their delusions, and none of us is going to devote himself equally to knocking them off their ludicrous pedestals. You are never going to find a perfect way to strip away their lies, but imperfection is far superior to nothing.
Yeah no apology required. It's hard to do this.
AmPow's coterie of demented hangers-on are still frothing that there is Left-wing conspiracy to do something evil to handicapped children. They'll cherish that delusion now.
It's very hard to know how much to tackle this sort of nonsense, and how much just to say "I'm not granting it the discourse it does not deserve" and move on. And if you do tackle it... if you do talk to the "points" that these morons think are real... you can end up feeling a bit tainted. That they have sucked you in to their pathetic little worlds where they are pure and righteous and everyone else is trying to steal from them and do evil things. You can get real fatigue from having to shovel back their horseshit.
Thanks Green Eagle, and I hear you on "fatigue", quietmagpie. The day Don posted his first rambling attack on me (admittedly, after I dared him to) I had come home from having cocktails with some friends. I was all ready to pop open a nice bottle of wine, throw a movie on the TV and doze comfortably on my couch with the AC blasting.
Then I saw Don's post and literally thought to myself, "Dammit! Now I'm going to have to spend my evening responding to this garbage..." As I said in my post, I have a hard time backing down from an argument. I'm sure that it's something I should probably work on.
Thanks again, guys.
Good luck to you on taking the pledge, JBW. The home blog advantage is pretty much insurmountable in debates, particularly if your opponent chooses to be willfully ignorant and contextually dishonest.
Brain Rage is always interesting, no matter what the subject, neocons or manakins.
Thanks, ex DLB. It was actually your comment about the Manakins being a welcome reprieve from the pugilism that helped to shake me out of my myopic, contentious frame of mind.
poison has to get customers. you just engaged in it. sensible to stop.
Never said that I was perfect Steve, but I'm always trying to improve. Thanks for stopping by.
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