When I started writing here (seems so long ago, March 18th, 2009) one of the things I wrote about was my experiences as a commenter on the partisan website Huffington Post.I find spending time on an interactive liberal website such as HP productive from time to time. I believe it not only keeps me informed to the ideas being discussed by the political opposition to most of what I believe, but it also strengthens my knowledge and wit.
There are many crafty commenters on Huff Post's chat threads, many of whom must either be paid operatives or have completely irresponsible lives, because it seems no matter what time of what day some of them will be logged on and commenting.
Regardless of Arianna Huffington's payment or non-payment of commenters, I always find it amazing how the majority of liberal commenters use emotion as a tool for persuasion in their effort to debate a point. This is the primary distinction I find between personality types from liberal to Conservative; liberals function in a realm of emotion and the desire to please all, Conservatives function within the confines of law and structure as provided within law.
That being said, this weekend liberals all a-flutter with Glenn Beck and Van Jones articles, and of course the accompanying comments for said articles.
Here is a synopsis of some of the most interesting commentary from Huffington Post:
iceage7 said: "Smart, intelligent, knowledgable, inspirational...Jones will be the next Martin Luther King for a Green movement."
{Yes, I see a national Van Jones Holiday in our near future. Sure.}
Pupadup4oBama said: "I have to say, he is a VERY handsome man....like a young Denzel. I believe he will go places... :)"
{Yep. Really said it. Not to take away from Jones, but they mock Sarah Palin for her appearance. Perpetual double-standard, fo sho.}
In an interesting discussion, staytotheright said: "Actually, Van Jones is a self proclaimed Communist."
To which collima replied: "Is that supposed to be a bad thing? If so, why? That sounds almost as bad as saying, "Obama is a muslim" Both statements seem extraordinarily ignorant IMO... Which explains why so many republicans are comfortable using these statements quite effortlessly."
{Really. Click the name, it's a link. You can't make this stuff up. These comments really came from someone who seems to believe they are informed about politics}
And the always astute jerrygarcia1 added: "I say people start keeping a good track of who Beck has on his show and use the same standard of guilt by association to get his show cancelled. He has plenty of closet racists and homophobes on his show every week. That should bring talk radio down a notch."
{Nothing like comparing being the host of a radio show to President of The United States. }
However, one of the most interesting things said actually does not come from a "regular" citizen, but instead from a rather prominent media personality. ESPN Sports analyst turned (failed) political pundit Keith Olbermann wrote on The Daily Kos:
"Find everything you can about Glenn Beck, Stu Burguiere, and Roger Ailes.
[...] Tuesday we will expand this to the television audience and have a dedicated email address to accept leads, tips, contacts, on Beck, his radio producer Burguiere, and the chief of his tv enablers, Ailes.
[...] This becomes necessary after this in order to prove various cliches about goose and gander, and to remind everybody to walk softly and carry a big popsicle, and most particularly to save this nation from the Oligarhy of The Stupid.
I keep wondering if somewhere somebody named Ollie Garhey thinks he's in charge now. Or, even more entertainingly and societally satisfying, if somebody named Ali Garhi does.
Despite the worn-out snark above, I am in earnest here."
Needless to say, it's going to be a very interesting week...
