If you're a leftie and you know it raise a hand
Is it just me or do there seem to be a lot less left commenters around the blogs than there were a few months back?
I feel as if whenever I post something political most of the responses are from right wingers (hence a certain feeling of frustration and demotivation to post) and I've notic
ed a similar trend over at Capitalism Bad. No Right Turn has long attracted commenters from all over, but there too I feel as if there are considerably more right than left, in an imbalance not so noticeable in the past.
Partly I wonder if the advent of Public Address System will consolidate many left wing commenters in one site, although from what we're seeing so far there don't seem to be too many of the usual suspects from here over there (although the request for real names makes it hard to tell).
Anyway, that's my impression, based purely on not much at all. What have other readers observed? Has there been a left exodus off the blogs?
I feel as if whenever I post something political most of the responses are from right wingers (hence a certain feeling of frustration and demotivation to post) and I've notic
ed a similar trend over at Capitalism Bad. No Right Turn has long attracted commenters from all over, but there too I feel as if there are considerably more right than left, in an imbalance not so noticeable in the past.Partly I wonder if the advent of Public Address System will consolidate many left wing commenters in one site, although from what we're seeing so far there don't seem to be too many of the usual suspects from here over there (although the request for real names makes it hard to tell).
Anyway, that's my impression, based purely on not much at all. What have other readers observed? Has there been a left exodus off the blogs?
16 comments:
I'm still around, but just haven't felt like saying much recently.
I have not commented as much of late, we have all seen the echo chamber that kiwiblog has become. all this wailing and nashing of teeth really does nothing to motivate me to comment.
Sonic deserves a medal for continuing to post with all the personal abuse he gets just by putting an alternative view point.
Yeah,
I noticed the drop off as well.
Kiwiblog is a good reason why there should be a rallying point for the left to establish some competition to him. When I started blogging, there were loads of good left wing blogs that I could read and have fun with.
Sonic might be doing a grand job, but he will argue anything just to get into a fight. :)
Well I think the number of lefties who have commented here says it all. (Although thank you to those who have bothered)
Is blogging kind of yesterday now?
Or is this just a bad time of year and it will pick up again after Xmas?
My view is many on the left have up on blogging and have given up on trying to engage with the blogging right. Arguing against the adolescent, peurile and frankly creepy people who make up most of the right blogsphere merely serves to give their (mostly) jeuvenile and mysoginistic rantings credibility. Many on the left have moved on to real world jobs in union and politcal areas were they are making concrete differences to real problems. and if they are anything like me are simply no longer interested in lowering themselves to argue with people who appear to have a mental age of 14. Often I'll still comment on the right wing blogs, but only to annoy the right wingers because thewy bite so beautifully and it causes me much merriment during the working day. Personally, if I were Jordan Carter and Tony Milne et al, I'd just ban most of them and keep left wing sites left wing.
Well, I read your blog, and I'm left-wing. :) I usually don't leave comments on blogs, because my broadband connection is annoyingly slow. I don't get many comments at all on my blog these days, because I disallowed anonymous comments and turned comments moderation on in response to some scary, stalker-type trolls. (Some of whom are stupid enough to try to stalk me from their workplaces. All I can say is that Sitemeter and my techie friends are beautiful, beautiful things, and I am very, very patient.) It's frustrating, because I know there are lots of really cool, sympathetic, like-minded people who read left-wing blogs, but like me, they normally don't feel moved to comment.
When I first saw your headline I put my hand up "Yes I,m a leftie" (being left handed and all) then I realised that is not what the term leftie means anymore.
Yes there has been an exodus.
But not for the reasons Sanctuary raved on about (that was an as juvenile comment Santuary complained about right winger's comments)
Where are they all? Depends on which blogs you go to.
The two Labour blogs of Tony and Jordan are simply mouth pieces of a authoritarian regime that is just a teensy bit left. (authoritarian as witnessed by the stadium fiasco and that they magically have a billion dollars for a stadium while we have sausage sizzles to raise funds for a friend to get her breast cancer drug from Australia)- (the bad side of capitalism where a corporate can profiteer so much from a medicine and the illness of women and men) - (as a male having had breast tissue removed because of benign lumps - dont those mammograms hurt!)
Their postings are set up to receive the trolling comments they get.
No right turn is about the best left blog with the added bonus the I/S actually answers any queries that you may put to him. Not many trolling commments on that blog.
Blogs like Maia's are feminist left blogs which only cater for a small selection of the left vote and she is simply not interested in reasoned argument from a male perspective.
Other left blogs like Santuary's one are just as bad as the right blogs. Full of acrimony and spite plus a holier then thou attitude (the right bloggers have a mental age of 14?)
Blogging is totally dependent on how a post is worded.
Go with a "stealing body parts shows capitalism at it worse" post is going to get you trolling comments (of which I was guilty)
Maybe a post on how much profit should a drug company make after having recovered their R&D investment from a breast cancer drug? One could have a seriously good discussion on that.
Span, maybe you could have a post asking for topics to dicuss. I'm sure that you would get heaps of suggestions that way.
I haven't noticed - but mainly because I haven't been paying much attention to comments recently (part of the problem). But in general, I think that responding to right-wing trolls is a waste of my time, and I'd rather be researching another post, not banging my head against a brick wall.
Well, I still feel like I qualify to raise my hand - I've just been snowed under the last couple of weeks. Actually, I'm still snowed under but I'm sick of it and seeking refuge in blog comments.
I'm a right wing reader and the only leftwing blogs I normally bother with are Tony Milne's and Jordan's. In both cases I've noticed that comments from the left seem to drop off as they lose the debate or more info comes out that leaves them cutoff. Also on those sights Jordan and Tony have probably lost some cred by being primarily mouthpieces rather than independent debaters.
As for juvenile comments they come from both sides of the spectrum but personally I just ignore them in favour of the people wishing to be constructive and dealing in facts, points and ideas rather than name calling, like some of the people to comment here before me.
[Raises hand]...but I'm selective about the issues (and people) I engage with because I have limited time and there is a lot I just don't care about. Nothing political is grabbing me much at the moment. I'm guess I'm in a space where other interests seem more interesting right now but I haven't gone away for good or anything.
I agree that responding to trolls (right wing in my case, left wing for others no doubt) is a waste of time. That's why I'd like more left wing commenters around to converse with.
But I've realised I haven't really been doing much commenting elsewhere myself, since I wrote this, so I'm going to try doing a bit more leading by example. Probably mainly on Capitalism Bad, NRT and the new Public Address System for now, as I have similar problems to MTNW right now.
Perhaps part of the equation is simply the time of year? As the stadium kerfuffle shows, there doesn't seem to be much else going on out there in the real world.
Thanks for coming out of the shadows folks, it is much appreciated.
(And Gerrit, there are many English words that have more than one meaning, leftie being but one. No doubt you are also aware of the derivation of the word sinister?)
Like Span, I shall be doing my best to spread my leftwingery around. Say what you like about the righties, but at least they bother to comment.
"No doubt you are also aware of the derivation of the word sinister?"
No, new on me. Pray tell.
Gerrit, the English word sinister comes from the Latin sinistra, meaning left, and unlucky.
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