The Shotgun Blog
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Wednesday, April 20, 2005
The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy
For the past week, I have been making my way through Byron York's Vast Left Wing Conspiracy. One of the main things I noticed straight away - and it is especially relevent in our pre-election frenzy here in Canada - is that it is a veritable "what not to do" for any election. In outlining the tactics (or antics might be a better word) of MoveOn.org, George Soros, Michael Moore et al, York makes the point that they were "preaching to the choir". Money was raised and used to make ads and movies geared towards those who had already decided to vote for Kerry. It was a giant Democratic circle jerk, with very little chance of persuading the red-staters to change their minds. Being very left coast and left brained, they were content to pat each other on the back, and think that that would be enough to win the election.
Is what we're doing in the blogosphere any different? My own site, Girl on the Right, is right-minded, and read by other right-minded individuals. Likewise The Western Standard/The Shotgun. It is by us, for us. In the end, whose minds are we changing? Are we really making any difference to the Liberally-biased political landscape in Canada? I would strongly recommend that anyone who plans to be involved in what promises to be a very mucky election campaign should pick up this book and give it at least a perfunctionary read.
For example, Michael Moore touted his Farenheit 9/11 as being the biggest movie in America, and actually believed (publicly, anyway) that it would turn the political tide in the Democrat's favor. Not only did the tides not turn, but the dollar value of his film, versus the very conservative Passion of the Christ, were truly telling. The numbers are broken down, in comparison, in the book. However, if Canada had been allowed to vote in the 2004 Presidential election, Kerry would have won. Which says something about us, as well.
I'm a little more than halfway through the book. I should have finished it by now, but I no longer read political books before going to bed. Gets me too riled up to sleep.
Cross posted to Girl on the Right.
Posted by RightGirl on April 20, 2005 in International Politics | Permalink
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Comments
Oh, I guess I was wrong. Looks like the left do read our blogs. Well, carry on then, folks.
RG
Posted by: RightGirl | 2005-04-20 1:15:47 PM
Blogs, like newspapers, like books, like journals, are not about changing minds but are about informing minds. Each of these informational systems operates within a single perspective and analysis. The book, the article, the blog, can't be 'everything to all'; it has to have a singular point of view. Openness comes from the wealth of different perspectives offered by reading many articles, or many books, or many blogs. No individual lives isolate but within a 'community of thinkers'.
If the mind is open to change, it will do so; if not-..then it won't.
You can see this in Robert McLelland's posts to this site; he's not interested in 'being informed' to increase his own knowledge of a situation. Nor is he interested in changing his perspective; he simply makes ad hominem insulting comments about other's posts. What a waste of his, and our, time. I think that his phrase 'you blogging whories' is unacceptable and he should apologize.
What blogs in particular do is gather, analyze and debate information. That's an enormous service to people, for this input moves the individual out of their informational isolation and adds others' (plural) perspectives, knowledge, analysis.
The unique nature of a blog is its speed and breadth of access. A blog, unlike mass media, gathers and spreads information rapidly - and - the fact that a blog links to other blogs means that the information moves amongst diverse perspectives. So, right wing and left wing perspectives can appear on the same blog. Such diverse contacts, via links, adds depth to our knowledge.
Yes, blogs, like all informational systems, are operating within a 'point of view', but again, knowledge isn't derived from one person but from many..
Posted by: ET | 2005-04-20 1:37:14 PM
It's nice that Robert drops by to show everyone just how classy he is. I hope that most liberals are not as rude as him.
Posted by: jhuck | 2005-04-20 1:40:07 PM
Robert - insulting people (you blogging whories) is not indicative of someone who is interested in information. It is instead an act of bullying, for it defines someone else as evil.
If you consider that this site provides no information, and is pure demogoguery, then, you should simply list it on your site as such - and, if you do make comments here, try to inform the readers. But -leave off with the bullying insults.
Posted by: ET | 2005-04-20 1:58:45 PM
The Shotgun is always interested in being informed. Hence the diversity of links on it's site. But Robert's site is not about informing people, it's about pounding the bully pulpit and telling everyone how evil the right and everything associated with the right is.
Posted by: jhuck | 2005-04-20 2:20:05 PM
A rule of blogging thumb. If someone says something sensible, respond with something sensible. If someone says something assanine, then ignore it and him/her. Responding will only encourage more of the same.
Posted by: Jack | 2005-04-20 3:10:45 PM
Classy.
The TRUTH. Only Liberals know the truth.
It wasn't anti-semitism when Robert spray painted "F**k the jews" on a wall because he said it wasn't. That's the truth.
Posted by: jhuck | 2005-04-20 5:01:32 PM
Back to Right Girl:
Persuasion of opponents is one purpose of writing, but only one. We also write to share information and hone one another's thinking.
Posted by: Pete E | 2005-04-20 5:46:00 PM
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