Reader Stille left a link to a really great article on aggressive policing that goes on in blogging communities. Here is an excerpt:
What aroused my concern was the fact that there are too many people, in the trans community alone, who feel like they are unable to call it their community and find shelter there because the tenor of discourse is so corrosive as to be just as stressful and antagonistic as the outside world. I hear this from a number of people who are close to me and have contributed mightily to activist communities with labour, art, and struggle– and I hear it from neophytes and outsiders who wish to join but find themselves put off by the rancour they hear from within.
This talented blogger is talking about the trans community but the passage works just as well if you substitute “trans” for “academic” or “feminist”, just to name the two blogging communities I’m most familiar with. I’m sure there are others.
The moment I smell even the teensiest whiff of a self-righteous tone in a comment by somebody who staggered into my blog by accident and decided that it’s a good idea to tell me to “check my privilege” or use some other equally idiotic platitude on me, I kick that loser off my blog. I’ve seen many good blogs turn into veritable cesspools where a badgered blogger keeps apologizing profusely for hurting the imaginary sensibilities of some unhinged busybody. The need to belong is so intense for many people that they can’t even conceive of telling the policing losers to stuff it.
This happens all the time on the Liberal side of the blogosphere where many people are terrified of offending the Gods of political correctness while others appoint themselves to be the enforcers of the “correct” way to worship the jealous deities. I don’t know if the same happens on conservative websites or if people feel more entitled to shut up the defenders of The Only True Way to Opine.
Clarissa's Blog 
Unlike left wing blogs, most right wing blogs I have seen are quite small. Mine is unusually minute in having only 7 readers. But, most others I have seen are not too much larger. So there is not much commenting period yet alone any argumentation.
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Do you consider yours a right-wing blog then?
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Yes, isn’t it obvious?
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No, not at all. It’s way too smart for what we are used to seeing as right-wing these days. 🙂
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I hope the word has not gone completely mad and writing about crimes of Stalin does not make one a right-winger…
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I am opposed to the use of revolutionary violence to radically transform traditional societies along “progressive” lines. I would say that has pretty much been the international definition of Right Wing at least since 1917.
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Do you support revolutionary violence to radically transform progressive societies to make them conform with “tradition”, though? 🙂
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No, I am not a supporter of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
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“No, I am not a supporter of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
– Cool, then we are all on the same page here. 🙂 A clumsy pun intended.
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Why is progressive in scare quotes?
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Because the kind of “progressive” that is introduced by violent revolutions often turns out to be as retrograde as anything it tried to subvert. Take the USSR, for example.
This is my guess, of course.
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Or Cuba with its morality police, incarceration of gays, persecution of writers, etc.
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This is mildly amusing:
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I mean the reviews
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For instance this review:
By Austin McCrabb – See all my reviews
This review is from: THE CONSERVATIVE REVOLUTION (Paperback)
As a narcissistic soulless prat with no moral centre, a deep resentment toward nearly everyone I’ve ever known, and a hankering for the values that made Germany so great in the 1930s, I felt this book really spoke to me. I don’t claim to be intelligent, but I do wish to impose archaic strictures on others based on my limited understanding of human nature. I certainly don’t wish to allow individuals the same freedoms and choices that I would allow to, say, a corporation. Bernardi’s book covers the bases for me.
I like the message: externalising your self-loathing can lead to a moderately successful political and writing career. And the title is clever too. A conservative revolution is an incomplete one, better known as a back-flip, which is a suitable description of most of what’s going in the Liberal Party at the moment. Kudos to you, Mr Bernardi. Your hatred of yourself ought to be suffered by as many people as possible, and this is a great start on that journey.
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Truly an inspiration.
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OK, who can say the following seriously: :”An unapologetic advocate for mainstream values”? If these values are mainstream, what is so brave and special about defending them?
Jeez, some people.
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I go with the flow, Joe.
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Comments on “progressives” are interesting. It used to be an OK word, but now it’s used by everyone who doesn’t want to be viewed as conservative or old-fashioned. In U.S. Politics, it’s often used by Democrats who are scared to death of the word “Liberal.” Personally, I’m proud to be a Liberal Democrat and a liberal thinker.
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