I, for one, support our new cultist overlords
Posted on 08/04/2006 1:12:45 PM PDT by AmericanMade1776
The more time I spend in the blogopshere, the more it seems to me that many blogs are merely online cults.
It's an easy comparison to make. Notice, for example, that blog audiences simply do not cross over. Most people who read and contribute to Free Republic stay away from DailyKos, and vice-versa. Once in a while, some brave soul wanders over to a rival blog, as it were, and is invariably banned by the owners of that blog; more rarely, there is a full-fledged flame war in which members of rival boards virtually invade each other's territory with the goal not of exchanging viewpoints but of causing maximum damage.
Notice how this behavior is perfectly typical of what, in the real world, we call cults.
*Cult members do not leave their own cognitive and/or physical environments. Online, this means spending most, if not all, of your time in the echo chamber of blogs aligned with your point of view. This has the benefit of inoculating you from even the possibility that your position might be wrong or at least in need of more nuance.
*Cult members have no empathy for rival views or the practitioners of those views. Opponents are devils; sympathizers are angels. Orthodoxy is all-important; dissent is unthinkable.
*A cult represents organized commitment to small-picture idiocy; a gang of what Berlin called philosophical hedgehogs (those who know only one big thing about the world). Overlay this with tribal ingroup-outgroup biology and you get the inescapable conclusion that a blog, far from being a progressive community of seekers, is more often a kind of prehistoric hunting expedition determined to go after big game.
(Excerpt) Read more at line56.com ...
Agenda, Agenda, Agenda. By this definition, a political party is a cult.
For service above and beyond the call of duty, on behalf of Free Republic I am honored to link you to the famous "che-che" posts for your next mission:
"I don't think I've ever seen such a look of misery and dejection on the face of my daughter as I just did a moment ago" ...when we discussed...
"domestic telephone surveillance"
and
Don't forget to read the replies!
Not really there are some very distinct differences. Randians are more law and order friendly (maybe friendly is the wrong word its possible they distrust the law in a different way), they tend to be better able to understand monetary systems there are other distinctions. Randians also have failed to create their own political identity outside the Republican party and therefore you get statements like Libertarians and Randians are virtually indistinguisable.
Some folks lead sheltered lives.
>>Yeah, it would really help if people who write about blogs knew what a blow is.
----
Some folks lead sheltered lives.<<
Oh man... what a horrible typo... :(
Although there may be some truth in that anyway...
I actually went to the link and read the guy's blog (sic) article:
Apparently he reprinted a blog article by some guy named Nicholas Carr (with attribution), got told to take it down by Carr (which he did, to his credit), but meanwhile Carr's blog-audience proceded to say all kinds of mean nasty uncalled for things about Mr. Barlas. This has offended Mr. Barlas' tender sensitivities.
Welcome to the Internet and the unplumbed depths of Computer-Mediated Communications, Mr. Barlas!
Unfortunately, the two systems are not compatible.
Thanks. I've added it to my list of "posts to remember".
I've heard of Line 56. It is an online magazine for business technologists. As I recall, the title refers to the "to be or not to be" line in Hamlet
I don't think the Jamestown colony drank the Koolaid!
In 1609?
Wow, 95 posts and everybody's in agreement!
When you're right, no one remembers,
When you're wrong, no one forgets!
When I think of cults, I think of islam.
I have no empathy for those who would subject me and my family to economic and political slavery. I'm not a cult member. I'm an educated, free man and I WILL NOT SUBMIT to the cult of socialism / communism.
Orthodoxy is all-important; dissent is unthinkable.
On this forum? LOL!! If you come over here stoned and spouting Bush sucks, sure, you'll get banned. But we've got Buchananites, Libertarians, neo-cons, paleo-cons, and a few ex-cons. They give each other hell, but it's all political debate. The bottom line issue is that this guy just can't stand the thought of open political debate.
Well, at least Clinton does.
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