http://www.robhyndman.com/2005/01/05/turning-off-network-tv-and-political-blogs/ any technology distinguishable from magic is not sufficiently advanced Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:32:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.robhyndman.com/2005/01/05/turning-off-network-tv-and-political-blogs/comment-page-1/#comment-73684 robhyndman.com » Blog Archive » Kathy Sierra, O’Reilly’s Code of Conduct and the Political Blogosphere Sat, 14 Apr 2007 12:47:02 +0000 http://www.robhyndman.dreamhosters.com/?p=118#comment-73684 [...] would be a little like pushing J. Alfred Prufrock into The Grindhouse. This is often Not A Good Thing, but it often is A Very Good Thing. For one thing, the visceral and urgent nature of it pretty much [...] [...] would be a little like pushing J. Alfred Prufrock into The Grindhouse. This is often Not A Good Thing, but it often is A Very Good Thing. For one thing, the visceral and urgent nature of it pretty much [...]

]]> http://www.robhyndman.com/2005/01/05/turning-off-network-tv-and-political-blogs/comment-page-1/#comment-36047 robhyndman.com » Blog Archive » The Unbearable Childishness of the Web Fri, 15 Dec 2006 12:20:28 +0000 http://www.robhyndman.dreamhosters.com/?p=118#comment-36047 [...] I’ve been here before (we all have, of course). Two years ago I gave up on the political blogosphere (as a reader; I was not a writer) for similar reasons; at the time I wrote “Next time, with adults”. Corrosive behaviour in the political ’sphere is not just about anonymity of course; there are many in that world who are quite delighted to take off the mask before they throw their Molotov cocktails. And it’s become trite now to comment about the loss of civility in political debate generally. That experiment was a profound disappointment, but a lesson learned. I love reading about politics, but shrill extremism, of any political stripe, is not my cup of tea. I saw then that the ’sphere, at least in its early incarnation, was not going to produce the political writing that I wanted to read (back to The New Yorker and newspapers). (And as for the rest, well, one can only stand by and watch as Demagoguery 2.0 explodes in the mainstream media - as a new generation of silvery-tongued pretend populists learn that the ordinary disappointments of a middle-class middle-aged life that so profitably fuelled talk radio can be exploited for TV profits also. These days, meanness is very profitable.) [...] [...] I’ve been here before (we all have, of course). Two years ago I gave up on the political blogosphere (as a reader; I was not a writer) for similar reasons; at the time I wrote “Next time, with adults”. Corrosive behaviour in the political ’sphere is not just about anonymity of course; there are many in that world who are quite delighted to take off the mask before they throw their Molotov cocktails. And it’s become trite now to comment about the loss of civility in political debate generally. That experiment was a profound disappointment, but a lesson learned. I love reading about politics, but shrill extremism, of any political stripe, is not my cup of tea. I saw then that the ’sphere, at least in its early incarnation, was not going to produce the political writing that I wanted to read (back to The New Yorker and newspapers). (And as for the rest, well, one can only stand by and watch as Demagoguery 2.0 explodes in the mainstream media – as a new generation of silvery-tongued pretend populists learn that the ordinary disappointments of a middle-class middle-aged life that so profitably fuelled talk radio can be exploited for TV profits also. These days, meanness is very profitable.) [...]

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