{"id":11783,"date":"2010-07-05T07:52:12","date_gmt":"2010-07-05T12:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=11783"},"modified":"2010-07-05T07:52:12","modified_gmt":"2010-07-05T12:52:12","slug":"deja-vu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=11783","title":{"rendered":"Deja Vu"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the local political listserve “E-Democracy” wanted to complete its slide into being a full-on DFL echo chamber, its management instituted a “civility rule” that, essentially, held that all criticism of liberal opinion was “uncivil”, you knew things were circling the drain.<\/p>\n

So it’s a kick to see the news that \u00fcberliberal haunt “Democratic Underground” – the Dundy, as some of us call it – is\u00a0h clamping down on criticism of Obama or Democrats<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“Forget about criticizing Obama,” warned PJ Gladnick, Examiner Opinion Zone blogger and operator of a blog called “DUmmie FUnnies” which pokes fun at Democratic Underground members.<\/p>\n

So, if you suggest “that a particular point of view is required in order to be a Democrat, liberal, or progressive,” call someone a conservative, make a comment that’s “too rhetorically hot, too divisive, too extreme, or too inflammatory,” prepare to be booted<\/p>\n

Here are some more samples of the ludicrous list of rules violations:<\/p>\n

“Telling someone to ‘shut up,’ ‘screw you,’ ‘go away,’ ‘f–k off,’ or the like;” “belittling someone for being new or having a low post count; “negatively ‘calling out’ someone who is not participating in the discussion.”<\/p>\n

That is just the beginning…<\/p>\n

Insensitivity, which includes “weight or other physical characteristics” and “use of insensitive terminology.”<\/p>\n

“Over-the-top assertions of bad faith” in Obama, or “advocating voting against Democrats, or in favor of third-party or GOP candidates; broad-brush smears against Democrats generally; broad expressions of contempt toward Democrats generally.”<\/p>\n

“A sustained or organized effort to demean, belittle, bully, or ostracize another person; digging up or posting personal information about any private individual, on DU or elsewhere; stalking someone across discussion threads or forums.”<\/p>\n

he final tally of new rules: 60. Whew.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check ’em out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The net effect of these overstated policies is to decrease discussion, Gladnick said.<\/p>\n

He said it’s pretty easy to tell what’s been posted before and after the policies went into affect \u2014 before, there was a lot of criticism of the president, especially regarding the oil spill. Now, you can barely find comments implying a misdeed.<\/p>\n

“Right now, you really see it about the Gulf,” he said. “Whereas before the rules, DU was rife with criticism of how Obama has handled the oil spill, now, such complaints have ceased.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, that’s the goal of campaign finance reform, the “internet kill switch” and the Fairness Doctrine.<\/p>\n

So maybe the Dundy isn’t so far off track after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the local political listserve “E-Democracy” wanted to complete its slide into being a full-on DFL echo chamber, its management instituted a “civility rule” that, essentially, held that all criticism of liberal opinion was “uncivil”, you knew things were circling the drain. So it’s a kick to see the news that \u00fcberliberal haunt “Democratic Underground” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lefty-alt-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11783"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11784,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11783\/revisions\/11784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}