re: #7 iceweasel

On rare occasion I get to RedState. I limit my time on the crazy farm, for my own sanity. My quick take is that RedState has some posters who want to be more serious than, say, either the FreeRep or HotAir, though that doesn’t mean that the crazies don’t hide in the rafters there too.

Really, my touring of the far-right/rabid-right/crazy websites is coming to an end.

I first came across LGF during the 2004 elections, with all the news of Rathergate…. I tried to register then but living overseas my hours were quite a bit different than Charles’. I finally registered in 2006, though also overseas, I caught a window.

LGF was one of the few political/opinion blogs I read… along with WindsOfChange, and a smattering of other sites. I never knew of sites like VDARE, FreeRepublic, etc. until I saw them mentioned on this website. FWIW, I also never bothered with DailyKos or any similar site.

There is a lot of noise in the world. Frankly it is not worth my time to try and digest it.

My touring of the right-o-sphere has been to verify what others have claimed, and to see for myself what has become of the “conservative” portion of the web. I can get from talk radio pretty much a feel for where that crowd is… I was wondering what the more technologically minded crowd that inhabits the web are up to.

During my life there has been a shift in dialogue, but not greatly so, between people who are competing for the attention of Americans. The tools have changed but the topics not so much, and certainly the ingrained world views with which we Homo sapiens wrap ourselves have barely changed during my lifetime.

Real change in human society takes place over centuries.

Right now my belief is that the great Culture Wars are not abating but simply morphing to cover new topics (such as climate change). There is a very great disconnect between highly educated specialists and the general public.

My thought has been for sometime that the US is transitioning from a representative democracy to a meritocracy. During periods of Chinese history that country has been described as being run by a meritocracy - basically, the skilled and knowledgeable people, who pretty much controlled society for the masses.

From the ranting and raving on websites, especially the so called, self-described, “right”, I’ve concluded that the American populace is pushed to the limits of its ability to change and handle new ideas and situations.

What this means for me and my own life I do not know… I’m old enough to realize that even if I live to an old age (as many in my ancestral line) that human nature will not change during my life. It is with some trepidation that I look at my “golden years” before me, wondering to where I should move (if I want to leave California) and if I desire/am able to start a second (actually third) career in the hopes of weathering better the financial storms that likely are in our not-to-distant future.

So no, I don’t plan on spending much time at RedState.

/probably more than you asked