Open Letter to E-Democracy -

Open Letter to E-Democracy - If you're not interested in the inner workings of a petty squabble between a hack writer and a faded email discussion group, then move on to the next post.

In about 1995, brand new to the Internet, I got involved with "Minnesota Politics", and email discusson group run by "E-Democracy," a local non-profit dedicated to furthering democracy via the internet.

For a few years, it was very interesting. Some actual politicians read the list. You could write something and feel (probably wrongly, but still) that you were making some sort of impact. In those pre-blogger days, it was a forum for a lot of would-be pundits. The lists were moderated - and blessed with some wonderful moderators.

Today, the MN-Politics lists are a few steps above Indymedia or Democratic Underground - which is damnation by faint praise. They are playgrounds for the local Greens and DFLers. Not that that's a problem; there's something indisputably fun about being an underdog minority, on the mailing list as in a state. However, it doesn't take long to notice that conservative voices are actively squelched.

So I resigned:

Since program asked why I'm unsubbing from MN-Politics, here you go.

I'm unsubscribing because MN-Politics has become a completely irrelevant exercise, because [longtime list manager] Terrell Brown runs it in a completely, utterly biased manner (reinforced by the biases of its founders), and because it's not even a faint shadow of its former self. Brown suspended me for six months last September for making three posts in a day, and for daring to respond to one of [a local DFL poobah's] insults. We conservatives better not get uppity, y'see.

There was a time when I felt that participating in MN-Pol was a useful pursuit. I learned things, I was introduced to new people, it helped me evolve in understanding politics in Minnesota. That ended long ago. Today, it's just another rantserve.

A thoroughly left-of-center rantserve, as it happens. Not that it was any different, ever - but it doesn't take a statistical [name of list statistician removed] to observe that EVERY right-of-center voice on these lists finds themselves suspended in short order.

Back when I cared about trying to "improve" e-democracy, I compiled a list that tended to show the unequal treatment received by conservatives; the likes of [Shoreview area pundit and former representative famous for condescending insults] and [St. Paul DFL/Green activist famous for spittle-flecked ranting] insulted and ranted and violated rules all over the place and yet posted merrily away (especially [Mr. Shoreview], whom Terrell Brown allowed to get away with years of personal, degrading insults vastly worse than those for which he documentably disciplined conservative voices). Interested in getting involved wiht E-Democracy at the time, I asked to see E-Demoracy's "disciplinary" records - and received a threat from one of E-Democracy's founders to unilaterally ban me from all E-Democracy activity forever if I got uppity again.

It was about then that I realized a couple of things:

1) E-Democracy isn't about democracy. It's about a few people feeling like they're doing something.

2) MN-Politics is irrelevant - even Phyllis Kahn doesn't participate anymore, and that's saying something. And it's irrelevant for a reason; it's become, after four-five years of Terrell Brown's hack mismanagement, a playground for people who...agree with or have something to offer Terrell Brown!

Blogs are the future of grass-roots political communication. They are decentralized, "do it yourself", inherently democratic. They reward merit - if you're good, people will come. If you spew dreck or bore people stiff, people who don't like boring dreck will stay away in droves. And they work - in the last year, compare the number of articles in the major media about the political and media impact of blogs with that of the email issues listserve. Blogs are inherently rewarding - and I have gotten more genuine feedback from real politicians and media figures from a year on my blog than I did from seven years on E-Democracy. Being as they're decentralized and unregulated, I'm sure they don't fulfill the hive instinct of those who prefer the comfort of a moderated email list - but they matter, which is more than MN-Pol can say these days.

I contributed a lot to MNPol over the years. I wanted to contribute more - time, talent, effort. I was treated like shit. It's offensive. And it's the sort of thing that will render MNPol - and probably the rest of E-Democracy, over time, as the "good" volunteers, like [the moderators of the Minneapolis and Saint Paul discussion lists, which are still excellent], get burned out and are replaced with the likes of Brown - equally irrelevant.

Good luck, and happy new year.

Mitchell Berg

Mitch unleashes the sour grapes? Sure, I'll cop to it.

The points, to the extent that there are any, are in the second to the last graf; when was the last time anyone wrote a news article about political email listservers? Conservatives tend to dominate the blogosphere, while moderated exercises in the collection of groupthink like Indymedia, Democratic Underground and MN-Politics either are lefty activities from the beginning, or morph into them over time.

I used to write an awful lot at MN-Pol - look through the various archives. I was probably the one conservative who managed not to get suspended the longest. I've watched it morph from a fairly interesting, left-leaning but modestly ecumenical effort with some integrity into a snide little rantserve for local DFLers and Greens. Which is fine - they need their place to play - apparently someplace safe from all dissent and real discussion.

But I'm having a lot more fun here.

Posted by Mitch at January 2, 2004 06:14 AM