blogging for me is like talking to an answering machine: nobody is really home, or they're hiding from you, or listening and snickering. the feeling you get from blogging is similar: you know noone is listening, but you're trying real hard to get past the voice in your head that has you questioning your tone and forgetting the reason you called in the first place. this awareness can be pretty creepy, especially when compounded, globally! ahh! holy shit! the whole world is listening; good god! what shall I say? typical blogging is about as satisfying as masturbation: you know what the outcome is going to be, and hopefully nobody is there to witness your throes of self-inflicted agony. most people are pretty content seeing the words they type magically appear on the internet. some of it is real good, some of it is real bad. pictures help. it is important that the author(s) recognizes the inherent self-aggrandizing nature of the medium; witness their propensity for vanity and understand the absolute futility of one person reaching out and writing to an entire world - on the internet, no less! the blogger, no matter how good they are, must realize that they're special and unique, just like everyone else. for some this is not enough. witness:
One of my pet peeves has long been a certain strain of defeatism.
Understandably we all feel defeated at times, but there's a certain
kind of defeatist out there on the internets, people who spend most of
their time chastising others for thinking it's possible to have any
influence and attacking the "stupidity" of those who even bother to
try. Maybe those people are right. Maybe there never is anything to be
done. But if that's the case, get a new goddamn hobby. It's rather odd
to spend all your time following political news and blogs if the only
reason to do it is to provide justification for your view that All Is
Lost. Just go out and have some fun instead.
wow, a pathetic diatribe attacking trolls. a troll, to trolls! from, get this, an internet troll! to paraphrase Atrios: get out, you fools! and let the professionals get r done! seriously, people, listen up! how will we ever reach a consensus with all these damn people kicking my shins and tripping me up? do they not fathom the importance of this, that which I just wrote, and the movement, man, the freaking movement. so what if I'm wrong? you're the one's who are slowing down the structure and mechanisms of real motherfucking change, yo! begone! we, brothers, we have the power to affect, and effect even, real change...if only. if only!
if only, Atrios, you didn't suck large donkey dong.
you'll note that we've been blogging here at Defeatist Central for about 3 years now, and we're as organized as a bunch of old college roommates trying to get to the homecoming pre-game parking lot party. we've organized nothing, contributed little, snarked and poked and slipped and joked our way through the tubes, creating a vast log of half-thoughts, some semi-truths, but mostly we've just generated ironic and back-handed insults and wise-cracks laid in disgust. and that's about as good as this gets, or is supposed to get. there's no rallying spot. this shit is digital, man. people don't run home to check out the hot blogging action at Kos or whatever. (I myself am a 43 year old, 400 pound, blonde tipped, brunette at the roots, female shut-in, to, I am sure, many people's surprise. there's not a lot of rushing going on here.) and yet, we're as relevant as the next guy. which is cool. if there is anything blogging, and the internet for that matter, is good for, it is bringing down the median, and highlighting just how exciting alienation can be. dude, we just don't want you to get all power mad and actually believe you influence change, any more than the rest of us. shouting into the `tubes is not sane! no one cares. and your final ascension into an influence peddling corner of the empire will not be blogged; nor will the revolution. thankfully.
so, you win, dude. you're the King of the Internet. let the rational polity and organizing begin, hencewith! forthwith! bitches! over yonder and under the bridge and through the river and yada, freaking, yada.
we seriously. fucking. give up.
(the fact that some of the pointers that have led me in the past to Eschaton were to little nuggets of Atrios snark, is itself, not completely lost on me, in the realm of teh universal.)
Comments