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Are Huffpost columnists required to make a crack by paragraph two that alienates anyone except hard-core MSNBC Democrats? Actually, after its second paragraph, Robert Koehler’s “A Shortage of Mercy” is a good Huffpost column.The problem is paragraph two, in particular the highlighted (by me) section:
As the economy twists downward for most of us — as the politics of money tightens like a noose around everything we love — I think about the disintegration of human values, which insane logic and the Republicans tells us we can no longer afford.
So I respond in (something like) the following comment, which is then censored:
Mr. Koehler, nothing you write has anything to do with “the Republicans” and everything with the bipartisan neoliberal pro-austerity, anti-social-safety-net consensus. Your argument is completely voided when you make it clear in paragraph two that your ‘solution’ is to elect more of one of neoliberal austerity parties.
Koehler’s next paragraph goes like this:
A few days ago, Paul Buchheit wrote on Common Dreams about the poisonous nature of the ongoing privatization process: the inexorable corporate takeover of the human commons. As markets expand, the public domain — physical, social, spiritual — shrinks. It’s not simply that public land is auctioned off or that water rights are taken away from us, but that our right to care for others, to organize society around a modicum of compassion, is being confiscated in the name of “sorry, can’t afford it.”
What the hell does that have to do with making this a fake partisan issue? The corporate Democratic party led by President Obama can’t be any more pro-privatization. And by letting him and his corrupted cabal off the hook you let him cut cut cut away at all the good programs you supposedly are writing the column to defend. But of course you’ll whine, he can’t be as bad as “the Republicans,” who are in favor of “the disintegration of human values.” Maybe not, but both parties are fighting for shortages in mercy and everything else that costs the rich money.
In America’s feeble post-democratic and heavily censored discussion space, Huffpost is not worth the time. I’ll stick to commenting under Yahoo! articles. No censorship there and a lot more readers.
8 Comments
The second rule of propaganda.. If you can’t change their minds with facts… revert to hate.
I preregistered and was there the first day Huffpoo came on line, but I haven’t posted there for over 4 years because of their censorship and audience in general. For an indicaton of the deep and profound intellect of their readership, just peruse the list of top stories on any given day of the week… such and such shows too much cleavage, blah blah Kardashian, Lindsey Lohan’s crackpipe up for auction, and wtf ever else.
If I end up reading a story (I refuse to read the blog posts), I try to link to the original source and I NEVER read the comments. It’s like a King-of-the-Morons popularity contest where any rational discussion is either censored or vastly overwhelmed by idiots, sycophants and party hacks.
With regard to politics, it is truly a medium put in place to manipulate public opinion. So while I agree with your post, I have to say, expecting an open forum at Huffpost is like expecting the pope to publish a list of all the pedophile priests the catholic church has shielded and enabled over last hundred years. It ain’t gonna happen.
I agree, was just surprised the blatant nature of the censorship. Any disagreement with the Democrats are the solution line is forbidden thought.
And, wanted to shame the hypocrite Robert Koehler, as best that can be done when he’s allowed to write in a criticism-free vacuum.
Am I the only one to notice that Arianna Huffington looks a lot like Ann Romney?
He also posts at Smirking Chimp and you should find it easier to post a comment there.
If it weren’t for confirmation bias where would the Dims be?
Huffington Post uses an absurd “community moderator” system, which is capricious and inconsistent. It’s not just the Democrats though. There are an awful lot of Republican commentators that team up and flag things not for being offensive but because they are losing the argument. For that reason, as well as the ones you cite, I only rarely comment there.
Where would our country be? Not staring in the face of the bipartisan austerity juggernaut …