I Am A Blogofascist

Humorous reactions everywhere regarding New Republic "culture editor" Lee Siegel's description of the progressive online community as "blogofascists," and then providing an origin of said blogofascism.

Can anything really be said about this that doesn't include laughing hysterically and spitting out whatever drink you had just ingested before sitting down to read? People like this think they've earned the right to give their opinion to a dwindling group of thousands, and HOW DARE the regular unwashed masses so much as attempt to give theirs, or worse, talk back to them? I was disappointed to see a lion of the Left like Alexander Cockburn reach basically the same conclusion, in the process lumping Jason Leopold in with the entire progressive blogosphere when he was almost wholly rebuked by it. And how different is an online news site like TruthOut from Counterpunch, anyway? I like Cockburn's writing, generally, but I fail to see how it helps him to be this disdainful of his readership.

I read The Nation for years and years and saw it generate a lot of clucking assent from its small circle of readers and listeners. It inspired me to do almost nothing but despair. After a couple years of participating online I've contributed to campaigns, gotten active in others, honed my arguments and messaging down to a fine-tipped spear, and found thousands of others who have done the same. What is wrong with that? Maybe we haven't "paid our dues" at liberal weeklies and swept up recyclable materials off the floor or something, but the notion that American debate must be closed to a professional class is not only absurd but deeply alienating. The 2004 election had more participation than 2000, and I fully expect 2008 to be even higher. Passionate, insightful, knowledgeable individuals are taking back their democracy one step at a time, and using the people-powered publishing tools to spread the gospel. I can't for the life of me think of a reason anyone would want that to stop. Unless their job security depended on its ouster. Which is clearly the case. Not just from journalists, but the entire Establishment itself:

This is something new, or at least different from what we've become accustomed to. I think it highlights the speed with which the lapdogs of the so-called liberal media are evolving (or I should say devolving) into the watchdogs of the political status quo -- in this case, the ossified and increasingly dysfunctional status quo within the Democratic Party. Kos, and his blog allies and followers, appear to have touched an extremely raw nerve with tribunes of modern neoliberalism (like neoconservatism, but without the strength of its convictions.)

If that is blogofascism, Lee Siegel, stating in plain English what I feel is best for the country, and getting involved to do something about it, call me a blogofascist. I'd prefer "participatory Democrat," but it's your term, so use it well.