DU has incredible power for positive. But it also has the power to be

[Kralizec]

just as destructive. I must admit, I am a DUer in the sense that I read here daily for my news and the happenings about the election, which I am convinced has been stolen again. However, I don't tend to post that often (I have my sprees), but instead try to stay emotionally uninvolved in the debates here so that I can come up with a strong personal feeling on the issues.

When I first came to DU I was blown away with the amount of teamwork and focus that occured at this site. The amount of information that was sifted through was amazing. The results were always backed up with other sources, so that the only time DU information was wrong was when the sources themselves were wrong. To find this in a community of individuals, with no true organizational structure, is like finding that oh-so-hard to find needle in the haystack. I found it.

But this usually quiet voice must speak up, for I am concerned about recent events. Whether or not the increased turmoil in the 2004 Election forum is a result of freepers or saboteurs, the matter of the fact is how the real workers and volunteers of DU react. There are two options:
(1)Reactionary Responses: Get in the face of the person who posted a particular message that, for whatever reason, irritates you a little, and try to dissprove and belittle everything they post from that point and on.
(2)Patience: Accept that some people have particular feelings for certain topic(s) or people(s). In this case, Bev and Keith. Before reacting, think about what they are saying, and then think about whether it is even worth continuing or arguing their line of thought. You'd be surprised about how many times you'll find it isn't worth the time or effort to fight every little battle. You can still win the big one.

My observations on the whole thing: Both sides of the Bev/Olbermann debate can be correct. That's the whole point. Assumptions are being made and they are being passed over for facts. That is very dangerous. It is roaming into the territory of the new-cons. Truthfully, there aren't a lot of facts in the issue yet. The main reason for the arguments is that both sides of the argument are trying to convince the other of something that will or won't happen in the future!

My recommendation is to stop making predictions about what will happen. I think that the DU community needs to get their feet back on the ground and just deal with what we have today. Just look at it this way: If things break for us, we'll be here waiting as always. If things make a turn for the worst... well, let's at least be able to say that we didn't kill ourselves, and that we gave the best effort we could. Thanks for listening, I hope this helps.

[IAMREALITY]

1. KRALIZEC

"DU has incredible power for positive. But it also has the power to be just as destructive"

Unfortunately that's not just DU, but Human Nature Altogether...

I agree with you 100%

[Kralizec]

3. True that. n/t

[Mister K]

8. If you really are reality then what the hell are you doing in Jersey?

:)

[IAMREALITY]

10. At the Moment?

Freezing My Ass Off...

:)

[Mister K]

11. Yes...those PSE&G bills are gonna go through the roof this year

Oil heat is not much better either.

[Twist_U_Up]

2. very well said

Thank you

[pointsoflight]

4. Thanks for coming out of lurking and for your well reasoned post.

[rodeodance]

12. yes, I agree. We need to stand together--not knock each other down

[sui generis]

5. yes you've seen the circular firing squad thing we do here

sometimes some of us forget we're all on the same side, and it shows.

We look for an outlet to voice our frustrations, and when we can't address the direct cause, we unload on the first thing that moves.

I think if more of us were less snide, less thin-skinned and more constructive it would be a better dialogue over all anyway, regardless of whether we're on DU or not.

[papau]

6. totally agree :-)

:-)

[glitch]

7. kick! nt

:dem:

[PATRICK]

9. Internet discussion rooms

as much as any one of them takes pride in being "above all that" often exhibits the same dismaying attention to trivia, popular culture and personal friction as generally appears elsewhere.

Before the election approached BBV threads for example received little popular participation compared to the Peterson trial(with some DU resistance to both for critical reasons). While there is a core who moves things to the top that belong there, we also reflect the myopic and misled culture of America or the usual Democratic Party antics. Nor is that all bad were not the demands for more greater here than in our nationally sponsored aid to the Ukraine!

The elite here is not easily definable without engaging egos destructively, but like anything else in existence, it is the mustard seed that falls in the right place that eventually flourishes. Such is the power of truth and thought applied for the common good.

People ALWAYS get turned off and dismayed by the glut of waste, bickering and heat while Rome also burns. Without moderation it can and has been infinitely worse. Keep working yourself to improve and support the best, but this is a national forum and that is our strength as an honest mirror and rallying point as well as a braintrust or activist center(and we are are only part of that and only partly as DU).

This is worth engaging and gleaning. DU has responded very well as best it could, nearly alone at times in this crisis to keep research, blogging and dissent all together. In all of this I think we know our faults, and like anyone else don't like to reflect on them. But the deference to a treasonous, non-serving free press or media and a hijacked political scene grossly affecting all humans for the worse when the critical needs for our time demanded progressive cooperation- makes us too humble by far.

We are free to be right when so many are wrong. Free to be irrelevant when we are rendered powerless. Free to bitch when we are not responsibly served or led. When the moment shifts to a DU member like Bev who has a long history on this site it would be wiser to listen to those who have backed her up and followed the issues than any new posters, freeper or otherwise. Too many curse the media yet still take the side of the other "black box", the TV, when that self anointed arbiter of low quality disdainfully bears down on one of our lone rangers. The truth has has been abdicated and we pick up the pearls very easily. America is destroyed and we are at war- and we are very powerless to use those those same pearls even with our friends.

There are good people making peace with a critically BAD situation. That certainly is cause to divide. Making peace each time costs lives and hope and pieces of America. It costs us our children's future in measurable ways. Small wonder there are tensions to avoid a civil war while Bushco runs rampant, unchallenged.

I think DU is on the right track when it matters and the chips are down, and we certainly don't change spots very much. But we are not 100% pure righteous activists or liberals.

Dealing with the actual, as you finally state is paramount. That is the crying task for the day. Kerry as an issue has to decide his own destiny. We have to decide ours as Americans. We have been down the road or hope and scandals all too often to take any assertions TOO seriously. Results. Work and raising hell. Let the mumblers and muddlers control the empty box of the dead American scene and its betrayed forums. Here we live and think.