re: #40 freetoken

That wasn’t too much information at all! Fascinating!

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.
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.

Interesting….I don’t have time for Kos or HuffPo either (in the sense that no matter how much time I had, I wouldn’t read them). It’s especially interesting that you can get a feel from talk radio where the conservative portion of the web is. Just as the right dominates talk radio, the left dominates the net, and I’ve often observed that the right on-line is very like right talk radio— and this is one of the reasons why the online right isn’t as successful. Talk radio is a very top-down process: one person controlling the dialogue, talking selected calls. The right tries to run their blogs like that too; it doesn’t work. Online is one area where the squabbling and divisiveness that infect the left actually turns out to be fertile, resulting in many blogs and many voices.

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.

Also true.

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.

I have to think about that; it’s a good point. The conventional wisdom is that the culture wars are over and the religious right lost— but maybe you’re right and they’re just morphing slightly. The climate change debate is an excellent example.

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.
Which is very dangerous. A lack of flexibility in thinking and in the ability to respond to changing conditions is a bad thing for us.
The inflexibility I’ve observed, especially on the hardcore right of late, makes me worry.

Thanks for the reply!
(PS— RedState is a boatload of crazy and you’re not missing much, believe me)