So, an online analogue of an organizational meeting. I'm sure there are equivalents for those who are in opposition to these groups. The danger comes in polarizing to the point that the discourse doesn't take place at all - and in deciding who hosts the discourse, and the rules they follow, and who moderates it, because we already know from experience that an un-moderated forum will become an immoderate forum :)
I dislike the hijacking and propaganda-nature of labels: conservative, like that were an antithesis to progressive, just like "pro-life" as an antithesis to "pro-choice", both presenting a false dichotomy through use of a fake label. Each presents the "us" with a positive that tars the "them" with a profound negative. The opposite of conservative isn't progressive, it's wastrel. The opposite of progressive isn't conservative, it's static, as in, unchanging.
I think this is where political parties are actually useful - if they weren't allowed to become self-enlarging authoritarian structures which excessively concentrate and leverage power - because they let some of these different viewpoints come together. But when they stop being an aggregator and agency of consensus, become a dictator, they stop being useful and become destructive to the political process.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-02-11 07:14 pm (UTC)The danger comes in polarizing to the point that the discourse doesn't take place at all - and in deciding who hosts the discourse, and the rules they follow, and who moderates it, because we already know from experience that an un-moderated forum will become an immoderate forum :)
I dislike the hijacking and propaganda-nature of labels: conservative, like that were an antithesis to progressive, just like "pro-life" as an antithesis to "pro-choice", both presenting a false dichotomy through use of a fake label. Each presents the "us" with a positive that tars the "them" with a profound negative. The opposite of conservative isn't progressive, it's wastrel. The opposite of progressive isn't conservative, it's static, as in, unchanging.
I think this is where political parties are actually useful - if they weren't allowed to become self-enlarging authoritarian structures which excessively concentrate and leverage power - because they let some of these different viewpoints come together. But when they stop being an aggregator and agency of consensus, become a dictator, they stop being useful and become destructive to the political process.