Off topic, but I think it needs to be said. The delayed "moderation" on Althouse Blog is a good thing. When I was a practicing lawyer for 20+ years, (as a prosecutor for most of the time), I never had the time to read the comments here. I just read what the Professor posted. which is what I wanted to know. Some of it was political. Other post[s] were popular culture or related to the arts. I loved this. That's why I came to this blog, and it is why I still read this blog. But since I retired, I started reading the comments here, and the comments posted here are often way out of line. Some people here are just people yelling in an echo chamber. Some of them are left wing, but many are "always Trump or the highway," or followers of the John Birch Society, Alex Jones, Gateway Pundit, or other dubious ultra conservative sites. They post here the very same posts they post on all of these other sites. It's like they are trying to take over this blog, which I truly love. I don't want them to succeed. Some of those people here keep accusing our host as being a "white, college educated white woman," as if this is some kind of insult. I consider it a virtue. Which is why I will continue to read and post on this blog.
You can, obviously, comment on this post. For those who don't do comments, you can also e-mail me by clicking here (and find that email link in the future by clicking on "Who is Ann Althouse?" in the sidebar).
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134 comments:
Is the John Birch Society even still around in any meaningful capacity? It seems like shorthand for wingnuttery to a certain generation. Even wingnut itself is now dated, a relic of the younger Bush years. What is the most current label for the angry right?
I take the other view. It's true that we used to watch you struggle with trolls and in the new system, we don't see what you go through keeping the comment section on point. If this works better for you then we have to live with it.
But the comment section used to feel more like a community with give and take between commenters. That is largely dead as the delay makes it very hard for us to talk to each other. You also regularly see large numbers of commenters saying exactly the same thing because we can't see as we type out our comment that pretty much everybody else is also saying it.
The comments are the best part.
I don’t read the comments anymore but I come here every morning. I’m going on another two week dopamine fast starting now, though, because as soon as I started ‘using’ again, progress on my novel ground to a halt.
In all fairness, I recall a time (call it "the early Wisconsin-Walker era," which transcends well beyond just Scott Walker) when Althouse was even less shy about personally weighing in on issues of controversial current events. And while sometimes contentious, the comments were very good.
Things fell apart in the Trump era. I would resist any blaming of "conservative," or "ultra conservative," versus "progressive. It's Trumpism versus the world. Which isn't just a matter of differing ideas; it's a difference of rationality and fundamental civility.
And in further fairness to lonejustice and Althouse, I think that they both recognize that.
The person has his opinion.
I have no idea how long I have been here. Followed an Insty link, years ago and keep coming back. Maybe 15 years, 20? But I find the commenters here the most articulate, intelligent commenters of anyplace on the web I visit.
Sorting the chaff from the grain is not too onerous a chore. Maybe this commenter will become more proficient as he gains some time here.
This encapsulates the perception
accusing our host as being a "white, college educated white woman," as if this is some kind of insult.
I don't see that as an insult. If they think it is an insult, they dont know our host. It is pointing out the leftists lazy tactic of labeling those they disagree with, but lack the intellectual heft to engage on the topic.
But like the rainbow, ALL the colors are what makings beautiful
...entitled to their opinion...
...credit to the poster for recognizing 'college educated white woman' is intended to be an insult. Many of us recognize the destructive and enabling nature of the illogic, inconsistency and asymmetry of beliefs, the inability to recognize the destructive shifts in present day humanity. The vigorous defense of their beliefs is enabling the destructive behavior. We can't use Hitler references so try Ghislaine Maxwell, those screwed up child daycare hunters/brainwashers in the 90s or the people who defended the pedophile priest in their parish.
At a time when we need a historical flushing of the bad actors they are critical to keeping the destruction together...
I disagree with you lonejustice. The delay with moderation takes away the give and take between commenters. The back and forth is what brought me here. The delay largely hampers that. Further, from my view the number of comments per posts has declined in a dramatic fashion. As a result, I don't check in as often as I used to. It her blog, she can do what she wants.
As an aside, the John Birch Society? Are you kidding me? Your slip is showing.
...and I've long bored of those insisting public comment boards be pristine. They are what open discourse looks like- it is messy, unfocused and full of stuff you don't like. Learn how to extract what you want instead of insisting on sanitation...
Letters to the Editor is something else entirely. That something else is not anything...
Too bad lonejustice (Gad, what a comic-book handle!) has retired. His phrase, "dubious ultra conservative sites" (his hyphen is missing, not mine) is what the poker players call a tell. If I was planning an axe murder, I'd want lonejustice prosecuting. Definitely not a DA with a Prison Planet user account. I'd get the chair and the gas!
Having read many blogs, I keep returning to Althouse's blog precisely because of the high quality of many of the comments. I have learned to skip over certain commenters, who, in my view, add little to no value. For me, it's a couple of people who consistently write in incomplete sentences and incorporate many of the same words in each comment no matter the topic of the post. I have been tempted to complain about these comments but have refrained from doing so, as I am not some sort of blog comment monitor. I figure that if Althouse wants to let a comment through, who am I to complain?
It's sort of turning into Isben's Doll House now.
What Mr Majestyk said: It's pretty easy to see who writes something and roll my eyes and move on.
Also, I often type out a whole comment, and then think "Never Mind" and delete it. Why be argumentative with someone who will not be arguing in good faith?
My hometown paper is the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The paper was founded by Richard Mellon Scaife, a hard core conservative. He was an heir to Andrew W. Mellon, Treasury Secretary to Presidents Harding and Coolidge. The paper was a conservative beacon for decades. It has swung to the left. I would frequently comment on their articles. Comments were a spirited give and take. Well, can't do that anymore. Sometime around January 2021 *cough*, no comments permitted. So I now email the authors. And of course it's like emailing my two liberal US Senators, no response.
Note: An amusing anecdote, my friend and I inadvertently trespassed onto the Mellon estate in Ligonier while hunting as teenagers. They politely kicked us out. In our defense, in was dark when we crossed the boundary.
Does anyone under a certain age even know what the John Birch Society is? I wonder what the general cut-off age is. It's got to be up there a ways.
[shrug] It's Althouse's blog, and she has decided to moderate comments. Naturally that means I can't know what she's decided not to allow through, but certainly it's clear that she doesn't "censor" people who insult her (I agree with lonejustice that there are a vocal few who seem to do that all the time, and I find it annoying).
But I don't come here just, or even primarily, really, for Althouse's posts. I come here specifically for the comments, or more properly for the interplay between the posts and the comments. This isn't true of every blog I visit - Instapundit, for instance; I almost never dip into that deep and murky pool, though I do go there every day or two to see what the rightosphere is talking about. Powerline - ever since I was banned a couple of years ago for using the word "asshole" in good context and not aimed at any person there, back before they made their "no foul language" warning large and obvious, I go there only for TWIP and that comment thread, because I forward the memes that amuse me most to my kids and sometimes the commenters have good ones.
But here, and neo - often (not always) the comments add so much to my enjoyment and edification that if comments disappeared, I'd follow suit. When Althouse did away with comments for that period last year or however long ago it was, I did leave, checking back occasionally to see whether they'd been reinstated, and returned gladly when they were.
But it seems to me a good part of the life of this blog is the thing lonejustice seems not to like - the presence of commenters at the extremes (though I have to say, I've never heard anyone self-identify as a Bircher here). For me, anyway, those whose positions are farthest from mine make me think about why I hold my positions, and those who are nominally on my side but who are more extreme than I am make me have to find arguments to defend my side. I find the mental exercise interesting.
I would say that I sometimes find myself slumping into a simple and old habit of the same sort of comment about the same sort of topics. Not that you only post the same topics, but that I tend to comment only on the same sort of topics. Not always, but often. We all do. So many of your commenters do. And while I love the commenting community you have here, and have learned much reading both you and them, it does get stale on some topics. Stale and predictable.
And since I retired about a year and a half ago, I have other things I want to get to now. Things I'd been putting on hold for some time. I find that my commenting here, and on other social media has become a massive time suck. Yes, I've got things to say and obviously need to sometimes get them out. But enough. It's so much pissing in the wind.
I will continue to read Althouse regularly. I will not, however, continue to comment regularly. I need to break it up. And you need new commenters with other views. I'm not sure I bring in anything new to this area that isn't already said in other words from other people. I've been thinking about this for awhile. I need to cut back or cut off my commenting for a bit on this and other sites, so that I can productively spend more time on my own stuff.
I'm 69. I've got projects in mind for myself that I want to get done while I'm here. I don't want to be in my last minutes on my bed or the ground or sitting in a fucking airport with my last thoughts being, "Shit...I didn't get to comment on that post from Althouse about Gavin Newsom." Or Donald Trump or some other self-absorbed hairdo.
So, all that said, I'll probably show up on the next post. But I hope not. We all need a break from me.
I see the Althouse blog like a jazz band or basketball team. Ann is the piano player or point guard. She starts the show with a riff or calling a play. Then then rest of us feed off of Ann's lead and create something of beauty and art. A rare thing.
The interesting variety of the blog articles and quality of your observations about them is what brings me and others to this blog. The variety and quality of the commenters and their comments is what keeps me here.
"college educated white woman"
She didn't just go to school for a long time; she's actually educated. She engages in critical thinking, has amassed a broad fund of knowledge, and can express ideas clearly.
I work full-time and so I'm a dabbler here, read some, write some but not every day or even every week. I don't especially like the moderating but given what does get through I assume that Althouse is screening out some truly terrible and possibly legally actionable commentary. If I remember correctly that was part of the issue, getting flagged by Blogger, etc., but maybe I have that wrong.
I am curious how lonejustice knows that what some commenters post here at Althouse is exactly what those commenters are posting elsewhere, at those "dubious ultra conservative sites", Gateway Pundit and so on. I think you'd have to be a regular consumer of the material at these other places to be able to match up comments, wouldn't you? That seems a bit, I don't know, masochistic? Or maybe lonejustice is just keeping an eye on the neighborhood crazies so he can know when to head for the bunker.
There are commenters that hit the same theme every post, or are off-putting in other ways (e.g., all caps, italics overuse) that I just skip over. When I see their screen name, I just move past them. No big deal.
I agree with lonejustice, but we've been on this merry-go-round before. To moderate or not to moderate (or even keep a comment section). Some people are plainly rude. (What did Meade say a week or so back? Althouse was beginning to find Chuck boring? Tedious?) Personally, I would like to see anyone who regurgitates the "white woman" trope banned for life, but it's not my house. At a certain point bad manners become tedious and the comments lack freshness or a sense of engagement with the topic. The worst is how often commenters think Althouse is "catching on" to the Left's agenda. It's insulting and incurious.
lonejustice is right. The endless comments against fluoridation of our water supply are tiresome. And why can't these John Birchers accept the defeat of Goldwater? Once your ideas have been declared dubious, you have a duty to die and get out of the way!
"white, college educated white woman,"
I, for one, prefer my white women to be white.
I prefer less moderation and more conversation, but I appreciate the blog either way. Not my blog, not my rules.
Althouse's voice is unique, and so is the Gestalt of the commentariat. Worth coming back to.
An undercurrent in many comments, sometimes explicit, sometimes expressed in shorthand, is a disagreement between righty commenters and Althouse herself about how to assess current trends (as in the Stanford episode). The tension itself is worthwhile, and for now fairly free speech prevails.
You're way behind the curve, Gerda Sprinchorn.
I think the main issue here is that Blogger doesn't thread comments or allow upvotes/downvotes to sort them. Althouse has 6-12 resident partisans who routinely lob grenades and fight trench warfare against one another. Read 1-2 sets of comments and you'll quickly realize that every conversation that follows will be the same. I ignore predictable bickering because it adds nothing. I don't engage with hard partisans, and don't waste my life spitting in the ocean.
Still, anyone who drags the John Birch Society out of the graveyard is stuck in history themselves. None other than Rush Limbaugh trashed the Birchers decades ago. They were the right-wing weirdos of a prior era.
I'm here because Althouse has a reputation as being a heretical academic. She's often mentioned in the same breath as Jordan Peterson, Steven Pinker, Jonathan Haidt, Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi, Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, Krysten Sinema, Bill Maher, Howard Kunstler, Joe Rogan, and others who call out the establishment. I think all of them are 1960s lefties at heart, but certainly not 2020s woke lefties.
Many people today hold onto old party labels ("liberal" vs "conservative") but both the left and right wings have rotated into something new.
- Today's left is characterized by green globalism, technological totalitarianism, and denying the rights of opponents to speak or hold divergent opinions versus their newly created morality rules. This is pretty much identical to how 20th century Germany, USSR, and China went off the rails. It's a new case of regression to the mean -- the children and grandchildren of lefties are not actually left wing at all. They act and think like conservatives but don't have the traditions and nuances of true conservative to help detect and stop errors. Nor do they have compassion for people who they've cartoonishly demonized for two generations. So, they go woke and scream like toddlers when they can't get what they want. 90% of the time new ideas fail and must thereby snap back to sustainable traditions.
- Today's right has dropped most of its moral imperatives and focus (e.g., anti-abortion is fading fast), and are now the "tolerant, open-minded" libertarians who want local control, freedom from globalism, and ways to fight off the techno-totalitarians (e.g., guns, Rumble, Gab, Parler, etc.). But, they are often very naïve. They fail to grasp the economic realities of China and India (2.5B people) living a US lifestyle, as there isn't enough coal/oil for all; forget global warming. The are way too passive and avoidant of daily governance (e.g., little Deep State participation), and are thereby gonna get run over or eaten as hamburgers unless they engage. They might bring over many traditional lefties to center-right coalition, but have remained stuck presuming shared (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) values that are no longer dominant or shared with the majority.
I've heard references to the great conversations between commentators before, but it was before my time. What I have seen over the past six - 7 years is not what I would call great. But there are individual commentators, often not regulars, who offer insight I don't see elsewhere. I'm embarrassed but I think I read the comments for mood affiliation, a small affirmation that my views are held by others, that anything else. Im not certain that informative conversations are possible anymore, if indeed the once existed. Too many people just want to yell into the void.
I guess that serves its own purpose.
Do miss the rat drawings though.
Interesting thought experiment to all meet in a bar someday, only rule being that you have to have a nametag with your commenter name. See if people in person act the way (and say the things) you expect them to based on blog comments.
Comments add perspective. Some funny, interesting, educational, and thought-provoking, and some rote, predictable, and boring. Worthy or not, they let people blow off steam.
My preference is the opposite of lonejustice’s but I can think of several reasons that Althouse might be choosing to moderate less frequently and that’s her prerogative.
I also disagree with lonejustice’s characterization of the commenters. I imagine that if you’re a left-leaning person you wouldn’t like the comment section here because the conservatives far outweigh the liberals AND the few liberals are mostly ineffective. Personally I find some of the conservatives off-putting and ineffective too but I usually just skim past those.
Big Mike!
Don't fuck with Althouse. Apologize!! Or you will be out on your ass.
Smells like civility BS.
"So let's focus on the most extreme case: are any commenters on this blog actually paid to post comments here?"
Gerda's even further back than I imagined.
Paid blog commenters were from the beginning mostly denizens of the partisan's fever dream. Today, there are bots who do such grunt work for less than nothing... less taxes and Social Security.
First, I was more disappointed Althouse on that same open comment thread didn't pick up on my comment re: SNL's cold open "Trump is like Jesus" sketch :)
Next, I found lonejustice's comment incoherent and slightly concern trolly.
The delayed "moderation" on Althouse Blog is a good thing... Some people here are just people yelling in an echo chamber.
I'm not passing judgment either way on the practice, but as a factual matter, doesn't "delayed moderation" increase the "yelling in an echo chamber" effect? The more delay before a comment is posted, the more delay before the commenter receives reaction, and the more the commenter is left stewing in his or her own thoughts, with less discussion and feedback.
Maybe what lonejustic meant is there is less tit-for-tat back and forth bickering when comments are delayed?
Some of them are left wing, but many are "always Trump or the highway," or followers of the John Birch Society, Alex Jones, Gateway Pundit, or other dubious ultra conservative sites.
A rather broad brush. The John Birch Society, really? Did you mean to criticize adherents of those sources, rather than followers, because to even make the charge lonejustice would have to "follow" those sources.
They post here the very same posts they post on all of these other sites.
I'd be more dubious of someone tailoring their beliefs based on the forum.
It's like they are trying to take over this blog, which I truly love.
Do really you mean to say take a comment thread off-topic?
Some of those people here keep accusing our host as being a "white, college educated white woman," as if this is some kind of insult.
Intersectionality and implicit bias analysis is all bad? Something we can all agree on? Well, maybe not to the few problematic commenters who are perhaps "left wing."
This is my first blog every day. I read it as a source for the nonsense offered by the leftmedia and I'm grateful for that and Althouse's comments thereon. I realize my own comments are sometimes trollish, but it is rare for posts here from the left to warrant serious comment.
The Professor and lonejustice may regret that so many of us are from the right, but of the several blogs I read daily the comments here are more thoughtful than others.
I don't like long delays between comments, but I assume screening them is tedious.
Alas, human nature cannot be deterred and thus comments must be moderated. I do think the general quality of comments is high and worth at least a quick look.
I do hope rhhardin's assessment is overblown. It would be really depressing if Althouse became all Nordic, glum, and depressing.
Someday, I'd like to direct a comedy version of A Doll's House. In the final scene, I'd have my Nora, fully prepped to depart with valise and parasol, open the front door only to be confronted by Bozo the Clown armed with a cream pie, cocked and ready. I know this seems divergent, but I have a point about comments that are much too solemn rather than serious, not unlike Henrik Ibsen, himself, a barrel of laughs judging by his portraits. I avow not in jest that Duck Soup is higher dramatic art than A Doll's House.
Well. LJ. I've been a machinist for 40 years and I'm not supposed to have an opinion? I can't disagree? Or agree. Of all those things you mentioned; I think the last two John Birchers died last year. I have only seen Alex Jones once and decided he's bipolar and not worth listening to. As for the others like gateway pundit. Have you visited "the Daily Kos" or "The Democrat Underground"? The "Gateway Pundit" is tame compared to those.
The world. Your life. This blog is never going to be precisely what you or I want it to be. In the real world, the world ordinary people live in, not all opinions deserve equal weight. The trans movement is a form of mental illness. I'm not obligated to interact with crazy people. Abortion. You're killing another human being. Commit to that fact and then we can have a discussion on when and how.
All this stuff is messy. There are going to be arguments. Some of them loud. Your only concern should be the when you are prevented from voicing them.
Piss off Chuck.
I do hope rhhardin's assessment is overblown. It would be really depressing if Althouse became all Nordic, glum, and depressing.
Someday, I'd like to direct a comedy version of A Doll's House. In the final scene, I'd have my Nora, fully prepped to depart with valise and parasol, open the front door only to be confronted by Bozo the Clown armed with a cream pie, cocked and ready. I know this seems divergent, but I have a point about comments that are much too solemn rather than serious, not unlike Henrik Ibsen, himself, a barrel of laughs judging by his portraits. I avow not in jest that Duck Soup is higher dramatic art than A Doll's House.
If the poster never had time before to read the comments here, how does he or she know that the comments posted here are the same as those posted on other "ultraconservative" sites. It doesn't seem like lonejustice has made a comprehensive study of what gets posted on the internet. Most of it -- right or left -- is much worse. Often just insults. It's actually a lot better here. More thoughful.
If you want a reasonably accurate picture of how people are thinking, a certain amount of abuse and stupidity necessarily creep into the picture, but I came here because I was dissatisfied with the low level of discourse at other sites, and so far, I haven't been disappointed. Clean up all the messiness and disagreement and you don't have anything resembling the real world anymore. Throw out those whose point of view one doesn't agree with (and to me that seems to be where lonejustice is headed) and the site won't be as interesting as it is.
"What is the most current label for the angry right?"
Republicans.
Today I’m thinking maybe the reason I shared so personal stuff last night is because I might’ve felt safer with the comment shackles. Didn’t think of it until today. Part of overcoming fears is the attempt to own them and sharing them is part of that.
I changed my mind about moderation … I guess.
I don’t engage much with other commenters here… so, my objections to moderation might be purely virtual signaling. I have to look at that, I can hear my sponsor say.
Rh lol.
>lonejustice said:
I just read what the Professor posted. which is what I wanted to know...That's why I came to this blog, and it is why I still read this blog.<
Lonejustice wants - and seems to have found - an Oracle, while most of us are here for a discussion. To each his own...
lonejustice has been giving off very strong "LLR" vibes and has demonstrated a propensity to copy the very tactics as a particular "LLR" of note.
For instance, lonejustice swooped in just prior to the Bragg corrupt indictment and accused Trump of creating the indictment threat out of thin air as a pure grift.
Very "LLR"-y.
Lots of other examples but others can make their own judgements.
Like lonejustice, I read Althouse for a long time while ignoring the comments.
Eventually I started reading some commentators, and have come to seek out their comments specially as being insightful and/or a well stated explanation.
The ding comments make it real. Without them, we know it's heavily edited, and we know that heavy editing implies bias. When we can read (very quickly) nutty comments, we have confidence that few if any dissident comments are being censored.
I feel thankful for Althouse/Meade's time in ridding the comments of pure carp, which is way different than radical or poorly thought out attempts to participate. I'm imagining everything from "I make $400/hour" to vulgar personally harassing stuff. Sort of like following the mounted parade to clean up, not the fun part.
I am just going to say it again- the blog isn't worth reading most days without some back and forth with the commenters. No one is individually interesting enough all by themselves to carry a blog. When you shut down the comments a couple of years ago, I stopped reading after about a week, and I am starting to drift away again the last few days.
No comment.
I’ve commented here for a long time. I only have a small problem with content moderation in that I don’t see any comments for most of the day, including my own. Otherwise, it is the host’s blog, and she can and will do what is best for her and the blog. If I didn’t like it, then I wouldn’t be here.
That said, I don’t recall lone justice as a commenter in the past except for this past week. I also don’t recall anyone saying the host is a “college educated white woman” in a negative way. She is all those things plus a law professor, and people poke her to opine based on that identity of her, but she does Althouse.
I moderate my reading of comments on my own.
I am less enamored of the longer delay in moderated comments. I do not blame Althouse. She was forced by disrespectful trolls. She had a lot of patience with them, but her commitment to free speech meant she took more guff than many others might. I do miss the more vibrant back and forth that can come from more rapid posting of comments, but I don't miss some of the more personal comment "tea parties" that occurred. No easy answer. I do like to read other perspectives, so even delayed comments are better than none. In my ideal world a blog would have the author, blue-check commenters (Judged by historical lack of Trollishness rather than and $8 fee, of course), and then non-blue-checks that can post but can be filtered by the click of a checkbox. Then with high quality commenters not being subject to moderation, we could have good discussions about the issues posted.
That is my vision of an ideal blog.
There is only one other Althouse commenter I have read over the years, other than lonejustice here, that has repeatedly referenced "The John Birch Society" in criticizing non-leftist posters while simultaneously attacking any number of conservative websites while offering zero criticism of leftist websites, and, quelle surprise, that is LLR-democratical Chuck.
Oh, coincidental only no doubt...(wink wink)
We also know, from court records no less (see Reid Hoffman and the Alabama Senate Race case) that the democraticals and their faux-conservative allies, also paid by the tech left (The Bulwark, The Lincoln Pedophile Project, The Dispatch. A growing percentage of the sinking National Review, et al) create online groups that are paid to push narratives supportive of the democratical policies by supposedly "muh principles!" FakeCons.
And here we are at Althouse blog, a very popular and many would say influential, blogsite heading into an election year.......hmmmm.
A conspiratorial mind might easily conjure up a scenario whereby a pathetic FakeCon that had spent years attempting to build a "True Principled Conservative" brand persona on a particular blog, (lets just randomly call him "Bhuck") in order to help his dems by attacking "from the right" had so thoroughly self-immolated that he was no longer remotely effective in any way whatsoever and needed some sort of reinforcement that would utilize the same terms, same lines of attack, sane rhetorical style, perhaps even the same supposed professioal background., etc to attack "from the right" (wink wink).
Lets randomly call this hypothetical reinforcement "NeverAloneInjustice".
And this conspiratorial minded bloke might also make note of the fact that the White House has established a war room on the premises for social media influencers already AND the lefty billionaire funders of so many FakeCon publications are rapidly increasing their total spend and activities already for 2024.
My goodness, thats alot of very interesting data points floating about......
No comment.
yes bring us better trolls, they are well paid and yet they read from the same blanc pages,
America is the last hope of people on earth, and it has been looted bled out it's citizens minds twisted, the bodies of children warped, every timber of our foundation is being rotted, but we must civil about it, is that it,
Thanks go to Althouse for her delayed publishing of comments, which I’ve appreciated since it’s inception. The comments sections are more readable and posting a comment is more worthwhile. Despite some commenters complaints about the delayed comments, I trust Althouse to know that her moderation technique has been a success and will continue it.
Wish there was an option to direct reply to a comment rather than have it show 10-15-20 comments down the chain. It would foster better interaction. Several Substacks to which I subscribe develop these very thoughtful sub thread in the comment section.
the comments posted here are often way out of line
Oh crap, it's the (ex)police! Everybody act normal!
Some people here are just people yelling in an echo chamber
Well that's undeniably true, but so what? Skip those. Nobody's making you read any comments.
They post here the very same posts they post on all of these other sites.
How do you know? Do you read the comments at those sites? Are you trying to get the commenters in line over at those places too?
Some of those people here keep accusing our host as being a "white, college educated white woman," as if this is some kind of insult
Wind blows. Grass grows. Some people say stupid shit in comments sections. And some people want opinions they don't like silenced.
The idea that commenters, or anybody for that matter, could take over Ann Althouse's blog is pretty funny. How could you read this woman and think that would be even remotely possible?
Most places on the internet don't attract or allow much opinion latitude. Althouse is famous for doing the opposite. She's defied a lot of pressure to conform. I consider that a virtue.
I appreciate the tremendous time and effort it takes for her to keep the comments section going. Maybe some of us should think about that more before we post, but people are people. We all love our own opinions the most even if they don't make sense.
There are a lot of great comments here and a lot of smart people. It doesn't take long to figure out who is who. You don't have to read them all. Professor Althouse on the other hand, does. We should all keep that in mind.
You're not the only one who truly loves this blog. Do you really think we all need to shape up or ship out because you've retired and started reading the comments? Who is it that's trying to take over the blog?
"But since I retired, I started reading the comments here, and the comments posted here are often way out of line."
Here's my civil response: Fuck you, Lefty.
We live in a leftwing echo chamber, where almost every MSM Media outlet hates Trump and his supporters. They move in lockstep on almost every issue, and toe the party line. But, when a few conservatives show up on the Althuse blog, Mr. Lefty gets upset. Oh my, its "Just like the John Birch society". People are "out of Line".
Gosh, what riff-raff, Ms. Althouse has let upon the world. Will society survive?
As for the "Shouting". Its gotten better. Or maybe its just that i've gotten better at ignoring the standard "Boomers playing Crossfire". I find most of the back-and-forth with Leftists like Chuck or whoever, the dullest part of the comment section, but then that's me. To each his own.
BTW, this is not shouting.
THIS IS SHOUTING.
I agree with tim maguire @ 7:42 am. I love the comment section here, learn a lot, and don't really like the delay, but understand it.
The comment section is the best part of this blog.
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
(me excluded)
LoneJustice has certainly got my number. TheGatewayPundit.com is my first stop most mornings. In fact, I just hit "t" in the browser bar and I'm there. "A" gets me here. Perhaps LoneJustice should check it out. I often read stories there a week, or a month, or even years before the Fake News finally gets around to admitting that they're true. Hunter's laptop, for instance. Gateway pundit covered the NYPost's excellent coverage, back in 2020, while the Fake News was actively suppressing the story. Who can believe those transparent liars any more?
LoneJustice can! Hey, LJ, don't stop believing! Hold on to that white, college-educated white woman feeling!
I am drawn by the intelligence and insight of many commenters. I am put off by the professor's inability to ever admit error in her opinion despite the strength of arguments against her.
Safe to say no one paid Drago for that.
Temujin, you are one of the commentators I look for when scanning for reactions from the Althouse salon. I appreciate your informed and well-written thoughts.
First, I was more disappointed Althouse on that same open comment thread didn't pick up on my comment re: SNL's cold open "Trump is like Jesus" sketch :)
Next, I found lonejustice's comment incoherent and slightly concern trolly.
The delayed "moderation" on Althouse Blog is a good thing... Some people here are just people yelling in an echo chamber.
I'm not passing judgment either way on the practice, but as a factual matter, doesn't "delayed moderation" increase the "yelling in an echo chamber" effect? The more delay before a comment is posted, the more delay before the commenter receives reaction, and the more the commenter is left stewing in his or her own thoughts, with less discussion and feedback.
Maybe what lonejustic meant is there is less tit-for-tat back and forth bickering when comments are delayed?
Some of them are left wing, but many are "always Trump or the highway," or followers of the John Birch Society, Alex Jones, Gateway Pundit, or other dubious ultra conservative sites.
A rather broad brush. The John Birch Society, really? Did you mean to criticize adherents of those sources, rather than followers, because to even make the charge lonejustice would have to "follow" those sources.
They post here the very same posts they post on all of these other sites.
I'd be more dubious of someone tailoring their beliefs based on the forum.
It's like they are trying to take over this blog, which I truly love.
Do really you mean to say take a comment thread off-topic?
Some of those people here keep accusing our host as being a "white, college educated white woman," as if this is some kind of insult.
Intersectionality and implicit bias analysis is all bad? Something we can all agree on? Well, maybe not to the few problematic commenters who are perhaps "left wing."
We right wing nuts might just be dedicated to pointing out the false narratives that seem so nice to believe in. Having Peace in the valley is better for most.
Comments are the best thing here, with all due respect and gratitude to the Prof who makes it all possible.
If--imagine such a thing--comments were shut down or stringently moderated (I have no idea what doesn't make it through, of course) then there would be little reason for me to visit.
(I would certainly never consider, or expect, extensive private emails with the Prof as a way to spend my own time or hers.)
To echo others, it's as easy to select or ignore posts and comments as it can be. I do it all the time.
The old whiners and the new should start their own blogs. I'm sure our gracious hostess would allow them to comment here, where their Blogger profiles can be accessed by those who crave more.
Commenting here is pleasurable for me because it gives me a chance to think through what I actually think about something, to take the gooey thought blob in my head and shape it into declarative sentences that I agree with. That makes me feel good, not just because I get to see my ideas stated clearly on the screen, but also because I sometimes surprise myself.
The fact that I can do it under the relative anonymity of a pseudonym allows me to express myself without the interpersonal, social, and economic impacts that would ensue were I to engage in edgy political, social, or ethical discourse with neighbors or co-workers. Many people have strong opinions that cause them to refrain from social contact with those who tell them that their views are poorly reasoned. I'm happy to deal with people whose views I deplore, as the role of those people in my life has little or nothing to do with those views.
I prefer the moderated time delay because it greatly reduces the knee jerk abusiveness of many political comment boards that do seem to be populated, in some part, with paid trolls who write as if it were a win to call some other poster a "cuck" (a term of abuse that expresses anxieties that sound weirdly Eastern European to me).
More than half of the comments that I read on this blog are interesting or even insightful. That's an unusually high percentage. We should enjoy blogs with commenters and commenting policies like this while we can, as I imagine that international hostilities will inevitably occur, and will include an info wars component in which venues such as this will be choked by AI glop dished out by a North Korean, Chinese, Iranian, or Russian computer.
@Humperdink: The delay with moderation takes away the give and take between commenters. The back and forth is what brought me here.
I'm with Humperdink on this. The latency between posting and appearing is so lengthy that it absolutely kills conversation. Putting up with the occasional troll is, to me, a small price to pay.
@Temujin: I will continue to read Althouse regularly. I will not, however, continue to comment regularly.
I, for one, will miss your comments — always on point, and well written. You, Greg the Class Traitor, and Yancey Ward are two others who reliably add value.
IF a person only read Althouse's posts, and None of the comments.. It would take what?
about 10 minutes.. a WEEK to read a week's worth of posts? If that?
Professor Althouse, if You Really Believe, that the reason people come here, is to see your daily shots, of the same lake. Just QUIT accepting comments.. You wouldn't lose viewers.. or Would you?
I love this blog and the care behind it. I did visit less when the give-and-take with fellow readers ended. I got over it and come here every day, but the inability to interact is a loss.
I truly enjoy reading the comments on the posts that interest me. I learn a ton. I would like to read your thoughts on those blog topics as well, lonejustice.
I preferred the old, primal way of no moderation. It had more entertainment value. I don't think consensus was ever reached on any issue, but it was interesting to observe the process. Some real effort was put into some of the arguments and to thinking up some final, definitive insult or argument that would close all further discussion......I recognize this is not an open forum and Althouse has no obligation to supply one-- especially since some commenters took it as an opportunity to insult her in the most scurrilous ways possible....I'll continue to read her observations and occasionally weigh in. I prefer the old ways, but life will go on and this is not a harbinger of doom.
"I have learned to skip over certain commenters,"
We can do that? It's almost like freedom of choice trumps "moderation".
Trite and oblivious.
He's playing you.
I haven’t noticed any improvement in comment quality since moderation was imposed. I don’t see how it decreases your workload, since you still have to read all the comments and trash the ones you don’t like, it’s just that now you do it before they post instead of after. And it does remove the possibility of interaction between commenters, which was sometimes interesting in the past.
If you wants moderation, then moderate! I figure you're doing a great job putting the blog together in the way that pleases you. That accounts for 99% of justification, in my view (which by the way is the other 1% as far as I'm concerned).
I very much appreciate the value & structure that you bring to the conversation.
"... utilize the same terms, same lines of attack, sane rhetorical style, perhaps even the same supposed professioal background., etc to attack "from the right" (wink wink)."
Well. Except that LoneJustice is not claiming to be an LLR, and in fact is signaling a bit Lefty.
Now, you take a thing like Igna, a straight-up cut-and-paste artist, except that she frequently gets out over her skis and tries to wing it. Must be very frustrating to her handlers, if they even bother to monitor her output.
How much do you suppose Team Biden have budgeted for Althouse blog? You know it has been discussed. You'd think they could afford something better than Igna.
I came for the commas and stayed for the chameleons.
I haven't been here in a agess. Apparently, Ann is still fighting the same battles.
"credit to the poster for recognizing 'college educated white woman' "
I prefer the shorthand version -- Karen.
Dittos to Bob Boyd at 10:25.
I'll just add that we've seen these self-anointed white knights ride in before and try to "save" Althouse from people commenting, by which these "knights" seem to mean people who they don't like posting here. So in a way they have a point about the Long Pauses of 2023: it is deterring the lively activity the blog used to have and thereby reducing the number of posts that offend the blog police.
I agree that the comment community here is a major draw.
I once was a loyal reader of Richard Fernandez's Wretchard blog- it had the same high quality of commenters, and many of them were technically competent in relevant fields (military, IT, education) producing enlightening discussion. It is now paywalled and hard to read despite my PJMedia VIP membership.
Is it technically possible for our hostess to give certain commenters "Gold Cards" that would allow them to post without moderation delay? That would allow more back-and-forth discussion without opening it to spam and name-calling. Not saying I would qualify for said Card, but I'm willing to go through the vetting process.
These are facts:
1. I personally do not post on other blogs and very rarely post on social media.
2. Even when I attempted blog I posted more here than on my own.
3. So called right wing news sources have a tiny but powerful footprint on the Web but are very necessary for the informed reader because the overwhelming majority of "news" and "opinion" published,, and almost all of Althouse's usual sources of quotes for this blog, are producers of left-wing hooey meant to obscure, misdirect and/or embellish the facts and not to enlighten news consumers. Usually the goal is emotional with State-friendly media: to anger, or scare or guilt the reader, not to inform. Right wing sites write with far fewer and much more rational emotions.
4. I do not appreciate the long-form moderating pause, and will echo some who already noted the lack of lively discussion. Yes it has discouraged me from even commenting on most articles. Many times I don't even bother to click for more lately. Mine isn't the only behavior that changed.
5. While I do not feel personally targeted by point 4, I do think the desired effect was achieved by Althouse. She has taken moderating steps in the past, signaling her intent, and it was obvious to me Althouse was growing frustrated with the high volume of pushback to her stances and choices of block-quotes on free speech and transgenderists over the last few weeks.
I'm only 59 so the John Birch Society is not something I'm familiar with. I didn't really know about this delayed moderation stuff. I assumed Althouse was just busy doing Althousian things and would get to my comments in due course.
I'm also not really interested in back and forth with the other commenters. I normally read, comment, and then never look back at the post or comments a second time. Maybe that puts me in the minority. There are commenters that I enjoy reading and who I try not to skim past. You know who you are.
There are some good comments at this location. There are some not-so-great comments here as well. There are some commenters who I will go out of my way to read, like Temujin. I don't comment very often, as, most of the time, someone else has already said what I had in mind. That said, it works for me, and, if you (Ms. Althouse) can deal with it this way, that's fine.
"The idea that commenters, or anybody for that matter, could take over Ann Althouse's blog is pretty funny."
Actually, I seem to recall Althouse saying at one point that she was deeply surprised by the course the comments on her blog had taken, and the sort of commenters she had attracted. This was years ago. I gathered that she had thought she was starting a little boutique law-and-literature blog, and she was not prepared for the knuckle-dragging idiots savant who materialized out of the bozoosphere to do battle in her comments section. Perhaps I have that wrong. Anyway, I hope she has had as much fun as I have.
I have two concerns about the future of this blog and its commenters: 1) will we be able to discern the difference between topics and analyses provided by Althouse versus AI and 2) will we be able to discern the difference between comments made by real people versus AI. Hmmm...maybe it is already AI and Ann and Meade are on a road trip to Alaska!
lonejustice writes, "Some of them are left wing, but many are "always Trump or the highway," or followers of the John Birch Society, Alex Jones, Gateway Pundit, or other dubious ultra conservative sites."
For "them" you may read virtually anyone who can articulate a point of view. Ultra-conservative is how guilt-ridden fence-sitters describe anyone with opinions to the right of their ever-equivocating views. Tack on dubious and you're skating close to the hate speech precipice.
I absolutely disagree with this complaint. I love this site and I love the group that assembles here daily to pontificate. So does my wife. And we often have enjoyable dinnertime conversations about Ann's entry and some of the key commentators we like - Temujin being tops, but with many others as well. Unlike all the other comments sections I see on the internet, this one truly is a sustained community of communicants. I am pretty sure if it were ever to go away, we likely would also. I do not care much about the delayed moderation, but if it eliminates the usual empty-headed internet potshots I am for it. Just do not try to do without this assemblage of oddballs, vagrants, cowboys and dime-store philosophes and theologians. They are what this damn country is all about, or used to be.
i did a google search, for althouse.blogspot.com + "lonejustice said..."
it was surprising what Chuck (sorry, i mean lonejustice) has commented about, that google found.
There WAS one posting about vinyl records, and dropping acid...
EVERY Other post i found, was a post damning Trump (and/or drago).
EVERY Other post.. EVERY ONE.
"But since I retired, I started reading the comments here, and the comments posted here are often way out of line."
I call civility bullshit.
To be honest, I enjoy the comments more than our hostess' predictable postings from the NYT, WaPo and New Yorker and similar dubious left-wing rags. As other commenters have written, it's exceptionally easy to skip over coments one doesn't wish to read. Alas, it seems many of the commenters here from the left are not at all uncomfortable with ever-tightening curation. It certainly seems that our friend lonejustice leans in that direction. While it's Althouse's blog, the defensiveness and delayed curation certainly make coming here on a regular basis much less appealing.
I started reading Althouse.com because of Prof. A's posts -- both the political and the cultural ones -- For example, it was on this blog that I first heard of Lady Gaga. There was a time when the comments added a lot of value -- some because they were cogent, some because they were clever. But a lot of the comments were noise. And some of the noisy ones hurt Prof. A, and from time to time, she banned comments, or restricted them. The current practice here on comments seems fairly reasonable, but by now a lot of the best commenters from the past are gone. I don't comment much, never did, but I comment less now because there doesn't seem to be much point when several hours have to pass before a comment appears in print. I'll still check in from time to time, but I miss the old days.
Blogger gilbar said...
gilbar: "i did a google search, for althouse.blogspot.com + "lonejustice said..."
it was surprising what Chuck (sorry, i mean lonejustice) has commented about, that google found.
There WAS one posting about vinyl records, and dropping acid...
EVERY Other post i found, was a post damning Trump (and/or drago).
EVERY Other post.. EVERY ONE."
Its easy to discern some patterns and modi operandi.
Let's compare this site to another site hosted by a preeminent lawyer - Jonathon Turley.
Turley (or his assistant) does not seem to moderate the comments although some of his leftist critics complain he censors free speech. If he is moderating the most egregious comments, they must be pretty bad. If Althouse is moderating comments, I suspect the same.
The leftists that viciously attack Turley are obvious DNC operatives who spout the party line of the day, whether it is on or off topic. The leftists here (with the exception of the awful LLR) do not strike me as DNC operatives, but as sincere commenters.
Althouse has not veered nearly as far from the liberal plantation as Turley has, so she does not receive the venom that he does. All in all, I often find both sites annoying and/or boring at times. However, I am much more likely to spend time here than I am at Turley's site.
How much you want to bet the first thing lonejustice did after he retired was start cataloging his neighbor's covenant violations and insisting at meetings the homeowner's association address them.
… after all, Easter is an anniversary- of sorts.
I’ve adapted to the moderation. I’ll always miss those voices I appreciated from before the winnowing- Mockturtle and AllenS and others. I’ll forever be headshy of being given a 12hr notice and then dumped.
I came crawling back.
This space. It’s not an echo chamber, not to me. If I’ve heard it before- I briskly read- if it strikes a chord, I reread. Sometimes I screenshot. I’m curious about new things b/c of the Althouse perspective and the comments resulting. I don’t think one is nearly as good w/out the other. Like pancakes w/out maple syrup.
It’s continued learning. I love hearing about where everyone lives, what experiences shaped lives&opinions, what lessons I can add to my repertoire. Or playlist(I don’t really have one of those- I just go to YouTube). I feel invited to share- just by clicking the word: comments.
I enjoy every single sunrise photo. Even when it isn’t.
And I’ll tell you all: my name is karen. I hate the meme. When I introduce myself to others: I cringe. I can’t help that I was given this name: G*d love my parents. And feel free to keep using the meme to discredit those who deserve it, I guess. Or credit. Idk- I’m not much of a finger pointer.
To end: our last boil was today. Something like 24 or so gallons. We tap very late and never once did the sap cloud up. Made fancy for the 1st time and were tired and grateful.
---So let's focus on the most extreme case: are any commenters on this blog actually paid to post comments here?
I do get payments. Two cents per comment under my pillow every morning after a day on which I've commented. Once they left a note saying half-deduction for any comment mentioning either Amelia Earhart or Paris Match. That's why I steer away from those pretty hard, as you may have noticed. It's not a lot of money, but, when I asked about it once, I was told it is Fair Market Value.
Althouse and her posts + comments on posts are usually ahead of the pack. So if there's turmoil and unease, you have to ask: is it the blog or is it the times reflected in the blog? I would prefer to make jokes but I can't evolve them anymore on the Ukraine war or on the terrible dangers that now surround young women and teen-age girls as shown by their suicide rate or on the danger from fentanyl or on the Milwaukee murder rate. It's really only the Democrats and their pretentiousness that I can count on for a laugh.
I used to spend a lot more time here when I could interact with other commenters, and sometime Ann. Now I just check in once a night and rarely leave a comment. When I do, it's like putting a note in a bottle and dropping it in the Mississippi River. I never expect to hear about it again.
This is one of the very few blogs where I have read the comments regularly. There was a golden age of Althouse comments over a decade or so ago, likely longer, where it seemed like no matter the topic there was a world-class expert showing up to share their thoughts and there was a great mix of characters, perspectives, and such. Althouse loved her comments so much she even married one!
But, good conversation depends on respect and etiquette. I'm honestly shocked how there are a number of folks who have been explicitly told they're not welcome continue to comment. Not just for a little while, but for years and years and years, like rats always on the lookout for a way into the house.
Considering the wide difference in political views between our host and the majority of commenters, I think Althouse has been extraordinarily gracious and I suspect sacrificially so for her reputation among some peers. I like that I don't always agree because that helps me think better, but I also like that there's a willingness to call things out on both sides. That's an integrity so, so few in popular media not only lack but often explicitly reject for the sake of profit and access.
I think Blogger is really mostly to blame, as it just can't offer the sort of tools needed to balance the conversations and block those who really do want to ruin the vibe or insult our host. Nothing really to do about that, as attempts to migrate to a more functional platform ended with frustration all around.
Still there are good folks around here and I enjoy the curated topics and most of the comments.
"are any commenters on this blog actually paid to post comments here?"
Not in cash, but in Althouse Bucks, which we can save up for special prizes at the end of the year. Last year I didn't comment as much so only was able to cash in my A-Bucks for a Paw Patrol pencil and eraser set.
"Lonejustice wants - and seems to have found - an Oracle, while most of us are here for a discussion. To each his own..."
Or maybe some folks want a lecture, where the professor can extend involvement to asking pointed questions and getting limited responses. Or maybe a conference session, where 1 or a few folks present their thoughts and there is limited space for questions afterward.
Others want a seminar, where one person presents on a topic for a quarter of the time and the rest is filled with lively discussion.
I've always liked the latter most. But the latter only works when folks are informed and committed to learning together.
"are any commenters on this blog actually paid to post comments here?"
There was a fellow who was awarded a big ass bottle of Gin for temporarily restraining his Trump bashing.
John Birch Society? Alex Jones?
It's like we're not reading the same blog, lonejustice.
I have been a daily (literally, devotedly) Althouse reader for going on 20 years. My wife (who I have been with almost as long) rolls her eyes when I mention something "this professor from Wisconsin wrote" ("Oh, Ann? You mean, Ann. I know who she is."). I rarely ever even skim the comments. I don't think they should be gone completely because on those occasions that has been tried it somehow feels like there is some spice missing from what Ann writes, even though the commenters rarely are directly addressed in the posts themselves. But they are not the reason why I am here, and the crowd that thinks their circle-jerk is meaningful should take their show to a dedicated platform. Nothing is stopping them. I'm here for Ann until there's no more sunrises.
Those who like to resort to personal attacks seem to get a lot less out of the current comment pause.
Despite being a target, I don't think those comments add much to content here. I can tell you that they have driven off plenty of commenters and make most on the left prefer to throw bombs as honest discussion is impossible with the amount of attacks, putting words and intentions onto people (See: Achilles, Big Mike, Drago, Greg the Traitor)
Civility bullshit is right. I am not surprised that Althouse is tiring of these stupid shenanigans.
Farmgirl,
Mockturtle in on our Discord. You can e-mail me for an invite if you like.
Well that was successful. She threw us a bone. We chewed it over garnering over 100 comments. Interesting.
That’s funny. It was at 19 comments this morning when I stopped by. It’s at 119 now. Looking forward to what the other 98 or so comments are.
I am in agreement to another poster. The commenters on Althouse's blog, (for the most part,) are smart, inquisitive, and educated. I learn from reading their comments. For a short period, all comments were suspended, and I did note the difference in my experience in reading the blog. It wasn't the same. I did understand why Professor Althouse did so, however, as some back-and-forth unnecessary insults were becoming more regular, unfortunately. But when she allowed comments again, my experience was as before, better I think.
So, thanks for allowing the comments to pursue. It is unfortunate that there are those who persist in being contentious and obstructive because it ruins it for the rest of us. Mostly, I think others may do what I do, and just scroll past those who do so.
Dumb Lefty Mark appears unable to defend his many earlier dumb and transparently false comments and appears to want others to never reference those earlier dumb and false comments.
I'm afraid life doesn't work that way.
Original Mike: "John Birch Society? Alex Jones?
It's like we're not reading the same blog, lonejustice."
But it is very much like lonejustice and LLR-democratical Chuck ARE reading the same blog.
Feel free to draw inescapable conclusions.
Drago, thanks for helping ruin this comment section with your endless personal attacks and posts that don't even discuss the subject at hand.
Your fixation with trying to 'out' Chuck in this thread is a perfect example of the content you contribute here.
Enjoy 'winning' your game here. How great it will be when you finally create a perfect echo chamber in the comments here ... which should be a nice solace when you guys get electorally smacked around due to your recent platform of requiring teenage incest victims to carry all rape babies to term.
Temujin said...
I will continue to read Althouse regularly. I will not, however, continue to comment regularly
I get it, but this comment section will be poorer for it.
I was a regular reader for years, so far back I don't remember how I even found Ms Althouse's blog. Drifted away for awhile, IIRC probably starting around the no comments phase. It could be that I'm just ADHD but once commenting became a thing on blogs I really wasn't that interested in the hot-take style of blogging (There's only ever going to be one Instapundit) as opposed to longer form essays. I've come back as much for the comments as anything else. Moderation really doesn't bother me (her blog, her rules). I don't expect a response to my comments, and rarely if ever check for one.
As to the ideological bent of my fellow commenters and its impact, most of the lefties posting here are some combination of trite, cut-n-paste, predictable, whiny, rarely insightful or interesting, and it's pretty obvious that not being able to dominate the conversation on a (cruelly neutral) liberal's blog just pisses them off.
Mark said...
"Those who like to resort to personal attacks seem to get a lot less out of the current comment pause.
Despite being a target, I don't think those comments add much to content here. I can tell you that they have driven off plenty of commenters and make most on the left prefer to throw bombs as honest discussion is impossible with the amount of attacks, putting words and intentions onto people (See: Achilles, Big Mike, Drago, Greg the Traitor)"
That's funny. Because we have yet to see an honest reasoned argument from you. Present a case that hasn't been filtered through Blueanon.
I'll say this. I'm not accusing you of this, but a lot of the argument presented here by the left is just talking points they picked up on whatever Blueanon website they visit.
Here's a question we can discuss; Why is every solution to our domestic problems posed by the left framed in punishments and not incentives?
Dumb Lefty Mark: "Drago, thanks for helping ruin this comment section with your endless personal attacks and posts that don't even discuss the subject at hand."
Leftists, particularly the dumbest ones, become extremely upset that all public forums are not strictly curated to silence those not on the left.
Any blog where non-leftist voices are heard are invariably labeled "ruined" by these weak-of-mind adolescent types.
"As to the ideological bent of my fellow commenters and its impact, most of the lefties posting here are some combination of trite, cut-n-paste, predictable, whiny, rarely insightful or interesting, and it's pretty obvious that not being able to dominate the conversation on a (cruelly neutral) liberal's blog just pisses them off."
To me, it is glaringly apparent that the chronically angry (and often nasty) commenters here are predominantly of the political orientation of most (by far) of those posting here: right wing or extreme right wing.
Actually, the John Birch Society is alive and kicking, and a great deal of what they predicted about the impending disaster of communist takeover of the schools and Democrat-led cities, social unrest, globalization, family disintegration, and the harm of illegal immigration, crime, drug legalization, and federal police forces is unfolding before our eyes. I don't think they do a good job of organizing in the states -- they've always been too top-down, but their publication, The New American, might surprise you. Their "Support Our Local Police" campaign was prescient and is still around. And once The Venona Files (KGB records of infiltration in the States) were made public in the 90's, boy were the Birchers (and only the Birchers) vindicated in their efforts to expose the extent of Communism infiltration in our government, military, foreign service, and universities -- and also how far up in government that infiltration had risen.
Predictably, Buckley was too much of a bad actor to apologize for slandering them.
And the Birchers integrated black membership before either major political party did and certainly long before Buckley took that step.
Turns out the really paranoid conspiracy theorists were the ones peddling conspiracy theories about the Birchers. That's not to say I march in lockstep with them, and they have moved away from some of founder Welch's positions -- but not others, over the years.
I seriously doubt anyone still condemning them after Venona was decoded has any idea what they're talking about and probably hasn't read the books written by credible historians exposing those damning KGB files. Don't believe everything you read in the MSM, National Review ... or the Nation. Especially when they're all saying the same thing.
"... which should be a nice solace when you guys get electorally smacked around due to your recent platform of requiring teenage incest victims to carry all rape babies to term." Opposed to your platform of helping human traffickers and abusive men force women into the sex by getting rid of the evidence secretly??
“Drago, thanks for helping ruin this comment section with your endless personal attacks and posts that don't even discuss the subject at hand.
How great it will be when you finally create a perfect echo chamber in the comments here ... “
I recall Althouse expressing concern that there were commenters that would ruin her hard work in the continuation of her Althouse Blog. If anyone would/could ruin this blog, it would most likely be a Drago type. When the last liberal finally stops commenting and Drago’s and Michael K’s triumph happens, the voices in the echo chamber will get so loud that no one can hear themselves, then the comments sections will be truly unreadable.
It's too bad the comment section can't be hosted somewhere else. Then Althouse could just ignore it all and not be weighed down by the task of moderation.
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