Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Why I Quit Blogging: UPDATED

I haven’t been around recently. I’ve been travelling, working, and been downright busy.

I came back this week to check out what’s going on and as usual I came to the blogs, where I have been participating since 2004.

In the less than 12 hours I hit the blogs, my blood pressure went sky high and I’ve come to the realization that the blogsphere is another world completely disconnected from reality. I didn’t really want to write a GBCW diary, it’s so 2007, but I will anyway. It’s time for me to hang up the keyboard and move on.  

If it’s not the purist crap on Open Left, or the echo-chamber on DailyKos, or the fact that every diary in MyDD is hijacked by the same person who proceeds to belittle you because he knows it all and you disagree with him. The blogsphere just isn’t what it was when I started coming here. It’s no longer about thinking about policy and exchanging ideas, it’s about battling egos and settling scores. It’s just not worth my time anymore.

I apologize for my rant, but Moose has been the only place on the blogsphere that seems rational. It seems fitting that it would be where I say goodbye. Maybe I’ll pop in from time to time, but it just seems that if you really want to have a political discussion nowadays, you need to do it around a table over drinks, not on a computer in your living room.

UPDATE:

louis is right that I shouldn’t let the others ruin it for me…also I feel that Moose needs it’s circle of sane writers that it thrives on, so if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to stick around here. Unfortunately I have another couple of weeks of work coming up; Spain, Morocco, then back to Rome for Holy Week and Israel for Easter, followed by a trip back to the States, so I may not be present often enough.

I appreciate the kind words.  


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 13 Comments

13 comments

  1. John Allen

    but have to agree with much of what you say. There are still small pockets of sanity on the web. We are trying to do our small part. Hope you do pop in from time to time. Please chime in if you see us drifting off course.

  2. louisprandtl

    Please do come back and talk to us anytime at the Moose. Lot of us here, I’m sure, would like to read your writings and appreciate if you share your thoughts..

     

  5. Chris Blask

    It does cross my mind to consider the risk of falling into an echo-chamber mentality, but the Moose just isn’t very echoy.  I have been debating one thing or another all of my life and it is not difficult at the end of the day to discriminate between a conversation that is a True Believers’ Dittofest and one which is a rationally controlled adult conversation.  The Moose – for reasons worth unraveling – is the latter, and I always enjoy those whatever form they take.

    It is interesting that this topic is so topical at this time, when I am pondering my approach in discussing some very sensitive subjects with a very good friend of mine who is, nonetheless, the only person whom I have allowed to shout at me in my adult life.  After several days of introspection I have decided that one of the first things I will share with this person is that – regardless of the reaction this person has to what I have to say – I will discontinue the conversation immediately if the method chosen for communicating with me is to shout.  I have decided that I have been shouted at for the final time in my life.

    There is no subject or person so important that I will willingly communicate in the manner often common for this dear friend of mine – much less will I spend any time entering debate with someone who is not so close and who is not capable of maintaining a sincere and adult tone.  Those days of childish ways are behind me and leave me no regrets as they fade into obscurity, the remaining years I have left are too precious to spend that way.

  6. Peter Jukes

    Whatever the current dysfunctions of the liberal blogosphere, it isn’t going to go away. I pondered, as I’m sure we all have, saving our blood pressure, getting out of those pointless soul-destroying fights, and hanging up the keyboard.

    But if people like you go, what is left of rational debate? The playground is dominated by the bullies. The empty street is the dangerous street.

    I’m personally chuffed, and I’m sure most other Mooses are, that you’ve decided to come back to the Moose when you’ve had a break. Of course, you could dismiss this as vanity (he wants to be in ‘our’ gang), or self interest (though none of us here have a financial or any other stake).

    No, the reason I’m heartened is that I thrive on diversity, and hearing new points of view and different histories, interests, and stories here. Your absence is all our loss. And just as the fact a politician wants power should cause us all to pause when supporter him or her, the fact a blogger like yourself is tired of the fights and egotism, that makes them a PRIME CANDIDATE for the Moose.

    Come back soon, even to tell us how much we suck

    Peter

  7. HappyinVT

    on a blog.  We all come from different backgrounds, experiences, and points of view.  Some are more hopeful while others are more cynical.  Some expect complete agreement while others look for a balance of opinion (funny how each of those describes a past and a current president).  But we all have feelings.

    I hang out at various blogs for information.  Generally people do a wonderful job gathering info and presenting it to their audience.  Of course, frequently they choose information that suits a particular POV.  It’s sometimes hard to know the difference unless/until a pattern emerges.  I’ve learned to take it all with a grain of salt and avoid those people with whom a civil disagreement is impossible.  When you are afraid to submit a comment for fear of being called names or HRd, it is time to step back.

    That’s why I like it here so much.  I feel like I can share opinions that are either not widely held or are half-formed without name calling.

    Stay around.  As others have said, if you leave they’ve won.  You are too important.  BTW, I’ll gladly be a companion on any and all of your trips.  I’m potty trained.  ðŸ™‚

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