Forgive me if others have already discussed this, but I wasn't aware that Markos had lost his fucking mind and declared Daily Kos a Texas-style free-fire zone until I became a target and was cut off from my own account for two weeks for no reason. I'm not okay with this state of affairs, with the mentality it represents, or with the people who allowed their own mere tastes to trump fundamental liberal principles - let alone with staff members acting like The Law rather than facilitators. Al Pacino said it best in Glengarry Glenn Ross: Your job is to help us. To help us. Not to fuck us up. This is not right by any stretch of the imagination, and not a recipe for anything other than the flight of all creative talent away from this website, which apparently began quite some time ago.
I. The Policy
I don't know what Kos or other staff members have said on this subject, but as someone who has personally experienced it, I'm going to explain the facts of this fucked-in-the-head Strangelovean policy - facts demonstrated in practice, regardless of the incompetent prattle or outright lies that might have been spoken. You may be banned due to a single person HRing a single comment. A single person HRing a single comment, no matter how many other people Rec it. Maybe they just fucked up on the technicals and didn't intend things to be this insane, but I don't care about your intentions when I confront you with facts and you lie to me in return. You own your own fuckups, I'm not going to do it for you.
This is what has happened to Daily Kos. I don't know if anyone has been banned as a result of this sickness, but it wouldn't surprise me. It wouldn't surprise me if any number of highly contributing members had been banned, or else driven away in disgust by a policy that rewards mindless, intolerant bigots and makes thinking people afraid to speak - a policy the staff defends and upholds, perhaps even lies about when confronted with the consequences.
Come to think of it, maybe Markos accidentally banned himself when this batshit policy came into effect, and just hasn't been able to access his own account to correct the policy. That what happened, fellas? Given what I just experienced, I can imagine his own staff being uncooperative douchebags if he tried to contact them about it. "Oh, I'm sorry, Kos, but it appears that you were HR'd by user zillionthadbot (UID: 71111322312323231231223123213345834852848342832482834832432) for your comment 'apple pie is nice,' so I'm afraid you're banned for life." Yes, that would be brilliant poetic justice, but unfortunately reality is untidy. Or is there some other explanation? Did you unwittingly install HAL-9000 software into the server?
Anyway, since this Michael Vick-esque policy came into effect, I've been silenced for: Saying that a diarist was just jerking off (you know, the colloquial human way of saying they're just making things up and addressing their own fantasies rather than reality); saying that a commenter should work on their reading comprehension skills after spouting a total non sequitur that had nothing to do with what preceded it; asking to what infallible authority figure I should defer my conscience; after (gasp) defending Richard Dawkins for telling the truth, etc. etc.
You know, really horrific, awful, anti-community stuff that absolutely necessitated that I not be permitted to communicate with others here. Kossacks must be protected from my thoughts lest they...share them. Guess I'm contagious. This is, of course, standard procedure for people protecting lies, but surely this was the rare exception where honorable people simply acting in good faith chose to shut someone up for telling the truth.
So when I contacted staff to correct the error, the response was to cite these previous instances of being silenced as a basis to justify doing it again. In other words, they cited their own fuckups as an excuse to perpetrate an even bigger and more fucked one. Authority really doesn't know when to step back and shut the fuck up, does it? Here's a free lesson: When you start treating the truth as an enemy, you're just declaring war on your own future. How dumb do you have to be to see this information as hostile? How blind do you have to be to think it's about the person you're talking to rather than about what they're telling you?
I'm sorry if my inconsiderate truth-telling is no longer in line with this website's BUSINESS MODEL, which obviously doesn't include the Democratic Party or liberal politics anymore. Speaking of which, mmm, I sure do love Coca-ColaTM and DoritosTM, they really Hit The SpotTM.
I do not accept your twisted "Zero Tolerance Policy" on rational thought and intelligent self-expression. It conflicts with my Zero Tolerance Policy on stupidity and authoritarianism. Who exactly do you think suffers more when this site is just a superfluous front page for the Huffington Post and the people who once contributed to it have scattered to the four winds and are busily driving the communities of other websites? I mourn this community's degeneration.
Here's another Glengarry Glenn Ross line: I'm here on a mission of mercy. You've shattered your credibility in my eyes, which means very likely you've done it in plenty of other eyes too. But see, I'm one of the people who contributes here - I'm one of the Netroots, down at the very fundamental foundation of what that term means. I create. Since I joined, I've participated in creating Daily Kos on a regular basis. You're pissing where you eat. If you'll turn on me, you'll turn on anyone else who makes this place something more than a link farm.
And I blame myself for your corruption, because that's what people who create do: Blame themselves. We can't very well blame the likes of you for your own actions, can we? You originate nothing. You reflect, pure and simple. We who contribute haven't done enough to make things better than this. And I personally haven't done enough to protect the other contributors who may have also been targets of this lunacy. I've been so concerned with my own contributions, I haven't protected others'. Haven't reviewed what gets posted to make sure other contributors aren't being bullied or silenced. Not all of them have my stoicism, and the thought of this staff or its bigoted homunculi shutting up people who have something to offer but lack the self-confidence to stand up to you, makes me sick to my stomach.
I'm a fool who takes this place seriously - not because the people who run it do, but because I choose to invest it with feelings that are serious. I choose. And given the stats on both my Recs and Google rankings, my choices have been profitable both for the status, the credibility, and the visibility of Daily Kos. Now you who literally profit from that, show some minimal recognition of that. Show everyone some respect. Show that you understand the basic principles of community moderation. Show that you're more than employees of a media corporation trying to arrogantly crack the whip on people who contribute their minds for free. That you're not just another iteration of dime-a-dozen archetypes that anyone could find anywhere on the internet.
The fact that you call this Solzhenitsyn face-stomping a "timeout" is just the first shot across the bow of Kossack common sense. Like you're the adults here. You. While you lie and spit in the face of conscience, and kick me in the nuts for offering to address the community constructively in place of a two week silence. You know what you are, and now so do I. The question is what you intend to do with that. Do you intend to improve, or do you simply intend to finally silence everyone who sees that you need to?
I'd like to be more conciliatory, but I can't. I can't. I don't believe you anymore when you claim to be liberals. I don't believe you when you say you're here for us. I don't believe you when you say you want a better world, because when you have an opportunity to demonstrate it in the slightest ways, you do the opposite. What do you want, really? Who is really running this circus? It clearly isn't anyone who subscribes to the doctrine of nurturing a reality-based community, so I'm at a loss.
II. The Dispute
The diary that led to a two-week timeout was just the culmination of the previously mentioned incidents, where comments that range from innocuous to mere social faux pas (an Aspie offending sensibilities? Say it ain't so!) led to daylong timeouts. Then I had the unmitigated audacity to criticize Republicans for taking America hostage with the phrase "Dollar-u-akhbar" to suggest they have a religion of money. But see, the reference was based on Islam, and the native bigotry on Daily Kos holds that particular religion to be above lampooning - obviously because some Kossacks think Muslims can't handle the mockery, which is what common sense would call prejudice.
Basically this place is really Islamophobic, frankly - it seems to think Muslims are the nutjobs who riot whenever someone says anything that might remotely be interpreted as irreverent toward Islam. And I said such claims were Islamophobic at the time. Funny how reason arises at the right moments, and yet is still ignored. Don't agree? Well try this little thought experiment out: Imagine instead of "dollar-u-akhbar," I used some phrase from Christianity or another major religion to indicate that Republicans have a fanatical devotion to money - are you going to claim that would have evoked HR's? If you do claim that, you are a liar. Or an idiot. Or both. We all know it wouldn't.
So basically that episode revealed something that Daily Kos needs to work on: I.e., not acting like adopting someone else's bigotries is the same thing as being tolerant of foreign cultures. Regardless of what it might mean among legitimate people who happen to practice Islam, "Allahu-akhbar" is also something that fundie terrorists among them declare as an inspirational message for their activities. That's a FACT, not a racial or demagogic fabrication.
You do not get to choose facts. You do not get to edit them for your comfort. You do not get to filter them so that other people will be deceived into accepting your worldview. Do you understand, you bigoted fuck? So when someone uses that FACT as a basis to criticize other forms of fanaticism, such as Republican Randian market-worship, you can criticize it, but you do not silence it. Not unless you're a liar, a hypocrite, and a useless piece of shit who is not really on board with criticizing Republicans in the first place. And you do not HR someone just because other people are doing so, or because it violates your sense of taste. What other people do has no bearing on the righteousness of something, nor does your level of personal gratification at seeing it. Capice, Einstein? You're not going to make religion sacrosanct on a website I contribute to, no matter what, do you understand? I have newfound appreciation for Colonel Mandrake in Dr. Strangelove after this episode:
Unfortunately, there was another thing beyond the title - I used the c-word to describe Republicans, because I was thinking in terms of how the British use it: I.e., a general epithet that has very little to do with gender or misogyny, in the same way that we (including the staff of Daily Kos, given the "DBAD" policy that they routinely violate) use penises as gender-neutral metaphors for bad behavior. This I understand and sympathize with a lot more than the previous issue. So I tried to explain where it came from, at least until the psycho auto-silencing policy came into effect and I was suddenly cut off from talking to anyone, even in private messages. Fine. I can understand and let go of the fact that a lot of people probably weren't aware this would result in my being unable to post here for two weeks, and perhaps were just acting out of an isolated principle without thinking about what it might mean.
Unlike the staff member, who shall remain nameless, who ignored everything I said about it and instead acted like their emotional reaction to it was sufficient grounds. For that person and for people like them, I would like to offer some educational information about British colloquialisms. There are many other British terms they are likely to hear muttered under the breaths of people they meet if they ever travel abroad: Terms like "pillock," "daft," "barmy," "bollocks," "bellend," and "shambolic." Obviously these words mean that the speaker thinks you are a brilliant, charming, and highly impressive person, so take no offense when you inevitably hear them after being yourself in their presence.
The lesson, kiddie-poohs, is that your personal, acculturated sensibilities are not cosmic laws - words mean different things to different people. And the fault lies with you when you fail to understand that. Otherwise you're just another asshole who thinks your ignorance should constrain the behavior of others. My failures at most rise to the level of Dangerfield-style social faux pas - yours, however, were the actions of Westboro Baptists in the level of douchiness involved. I'm right, you're wrong. This is objectively demonstrable to anyone willing to invest any level of thought and honest reflection. Try as I might, I kept reaching the conclusion that the faults of the group outweighed my own. You fucked up. You owe me an apology a lot more than I owe you one. And far more importantly, you need to stop undermining this community if you expect it to remain relevant.
III. The Thick of It
I don't have anything to prove here. This diary is offering the staff a chance to prove they know what the fuck they're doing and give a fuck about the people who make them relevant (hint: It ain't the corporations who buy banner ads). But nonetheless, I'm a generous spirit. So I'd like to offer some constructive thoughts, particularly as it regards to the effectiveness of the staff. For instance, you might want to look into all the vast assortment of ways that a person could change Daily Kos content without actually being an authorized member - i.e., if they were banned - because there are a lot of them, and most aren't even illegal or dishonest. For instance, Flickr and Photobucket images, or Youtube clips - or basically any embedded media that comes from outside. These are the kind of thoughts that run through an assertive person's head when they feel disaffected.
The stats aren't something I know off the top of my head, but a lot of the content here - especially Google search-ranked content - contains media of this kind. I think we should move immediately to implement an internal and mandatory Daily Kos media server, because if we have to deal with some asshole who bought up some nontrivial percentage of the external media accounts that feed into Daily Kos content, that could be a minor irritation. Banning an entire media account could work, but then what if this person only bought the right to deface a single image and you're sacrificing huge swaths of content? I think the staff should get to work immediately on this problem, and put in all necessary hours to make sure the vulnerability is addressed.
As someone whose account is rife with highly Google-ranked images and videos, this issue is one of nontrivial importance to me, so please act quickly to close this loophole. This shouldn't be a big deal, since you're far-sighted people who have no doubt already considered all the angles. I know the work involved might be tedious, but please believe we all have your back on this. We support the troops here on Daily Kos.
I could have been blogging about this here...
Or this...
...in the preceding two weeks, but instead you obligate me to focus on this bullshit. I'll never understand what motivates people who inherit a creative, dynamic environment and choose to turn it straight to shit by attacking the people who make it what it is. I have no sympathy for our resident Republican analogs, who receive everything and still feel cheated, who would silence others for the crime of saying something they didn't expect. I and anyone like me can and will make a go of anywhere we write, but you'll always just be trolls tearing down everything around you.
7:57 AM PT: If someone is willing to post a list of users who have to be treated with kid gloves because they're too sensitive to be treated like adults, I will do my very best not to say or do anything controversial in their presence. I'll just talk about ice cream flavors and gardening techniques. Because frankly this is ridiculous - I'm tired of certain people acting like telling them the simple truth point blank is some kind of assault. Please add some kind of special icon to their names so I know they're not to be treated like adults.
8:23 AM PT: I hate bullies.