Posted on 08/23/2007 2:07:23 PM PDT by neverdem
“The government and the corporate media,” declares a prominent activist Web site, have created a “propaganda machine whose goal is to continue the expansion of a (fascist) state and to control every aspect of our lives and fortunes.”
Sounds like one of a bajillion posts on a left-wing “netroots” Web site these days, right?
Wrong. It’s from 1998. And I cheated a little. I’ve doctored the quote. “Fascist” was originally “collective.” The activist Web site? The populist-conservative FreeRepublic.com.
The short history of the Internet is already long enough to repeat itself. In dog years, I’m 288, but in Internet years, I’m Methuselah. I was the founding editor of National Review Online in 1998.
Back in those days, when the Internet ran on a series of pneumatic tubes and hemp-rope pulleys, conservatives were patting themselves on the back for seizing the commanding heights of the digital frontier. The argument was that because the Liberal Industrial Complex maintained a stranglehold on the Old Media, conservatives had mastered the fledgling forms: direct mail, talk radio, cable news and Al Gore’s invention, the Internet.
But today we’re constantly told not only that it’s liberals who have conquered the Internet but that it was their destiny to do so.
Joe Trippi, Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign manager, described the Web as “a medium that abhors command and control.” He continued: “Two guesses: Which party is really good at command and control? The Republican Party. Which isn’t? The Democratic Party.”
Translation: Progressives are better at the Web because the Web is all about hangin’ loose, letting your freak flag fly and stickin’ it to the Man, and that’s what freedom-loving liberals are all about. “Web 2.0,” we are told, is ushering in a “new politics” of participatory democracy and a new Progressive age.
Enough with the metaphysical mumbo jumbo about how the Web and liberalism were made for each other. The real story is much simpler: Liberalism is having a nice moment — largely because the Republican president and the Iraq war are very unpopular.
The energy is on liberalism’s side — and that translates into success in the digital world. Conservative media and FreeRepublic-style activists prospered in the Clinton 1990s, because that’s when they were on offense. And it’s always more exciting and easier to be on offense. In the Bush years, it’s the other way around.
In 2000, John McCain was hailed as a genius for raising a lot of money on the Web. Four years later, Howard Dean was a revolutionary for the same reason. Today, Barack Obama is dazzling the pundits by raising huge amounts on the Web.
What do these campaigns have in common? Popular candidates. Ask yourself: If Christopher Dodd appropriated Obama’s or Hillary Clinton’s Web operation, would we now be talking of the Dodd juggernaut?
Lastly, the netrooters say the Web is hostile to established power. They also assert that we’re on the cusp of some grand progressive era in which the differences between the United States and Canada will be some spellings and the use of “eh.” If that turns out to be true (I doubt it), you can be sure that soon enough we’ll be talking about the right’s dominance of the Web. Again.
© 2007 Tribune Media Services Inc.
To reach Jonah Goldberg, send e-mail to JonahsColumn@aol.com. © 2007 Kansas City Star
Why?
Well here comes the ACLU wanting the membership list .....
“Liberalism is having a nice moment — largely because the Republican president and the Iraq war are very unpopular.”
Jonah fell for it. Congress is less popular than Michael Vick at an ASPCA convention. The nutroots liberals are enjoying a “moment” because the Old Media has discovered the New Media. Did he think they would write about Free Republic?
I’ve noticed that host papers use whatever title that pleases them for syndicated columns. That may answer my question about two copyrights.
It appears to be a quote right from the front page
http://www.freerepublic.com/about.htm
We, the People, are exercising our Constitutional right to freedom of speech and peaceable assembly to demand that our elected representatives fulfill their Constitutional duty.
~~ Jim Robinson, March 1999
Thanks for the link.
Was this headline proof-read by the College of Redundancy University?
Yikes!
I must be older than dirt in Internet years. I already had my CCIE (highly technical Internet certification) for 2 years in 1998. My first "touch" of the Internet was on a Linux 0.99 self compiled 386 via the DDN.
Oldtimer bump.
More truer now to most people than it was 10 years ago. I love the conservatives and John Birchers who originally joined this site.
btt
review
I am so sick of the term “Progressive”.
LAGS: “Leftist Authoritarian Groupthink Socialists”
‘nother oldtimer bump. *grin*
“conservative domination of the Internet dominance”
Oh, well written, Mr. Goldberg. NOT.
Lucianne was around a lot, I don’t remember seeing Jonah around much,
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