Why would you read a RW blog?

[harpo]

I see posts on here all the time of the freepers said this go look...and the other people are saying this go look.

Do we really give a crap what they think? Don't we have our OWN agenda? Why give their sites any hits?

These questions consume me...why do people do this?

[Catherine Vincent]

1. Like watching a car wreck, I guess.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[harpo]

33. LOL

[Bacchus39]

2. the same for Fox news

why anyone watches O'Reilly and Hannity is beyond me.

[harpo]

5. I use parental controls..fox is blocked @ my house ;)

[MadMaddie]

21. That's a good idea....I will have to do that!!!

[harpo]

26. I did that so I didn't "accidentally" end up there and get sucked in

to some BS conversation topic that they are defining.

[MadMaddie]

3. I think for the same reason people rubberneck at car wrecks

and train wrecks.....

It's human nature to watch the train wreck while it is happening...and to view the aftermath.

It's grotesque and gory but we still look don't we? Some of us will rely on first hand accounts of the wreck.. instead of actually viewing it...but we unconsciously want the details...

Just an oppinion.....

[murielm99]

7. So, RW blogs and Hannity and Fox News are

nothing more than gapers' blocks.

[bryant69]

4. Because I want to understand

And the simplicity of our shared freeper stories isn't satisfying to me.

Also, I kind of hate myself.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[BlackCoffeeSound]

6. well..

The same reason I visit and enjoy this site even though I'm a hardcore libertarian. I like seeing both arguments. I don't really buy into any political philosophy entirely. Freepers are way creepier than you guys though. ;)

[Mythsaje]

20. ROFL

Much appreciated.

I'm married to a Libertarian, so I get where you're coming from. Don't necessarily agree, but I understand.

It's good to know an outsider finds them as creepy as we do.

[MadMaddie]

25. Thanks for the compliment....we do have a great bunch of

folks here...


Welcome to DU:hi:

[Katherine Brengle]

8. "Know Thy Enemy"

That said, I only do it occasionally.

[ProfessorGAC]

28. We Must Disagree About That KB

They haven't said a single thing new in over 10 years. I know all i need to know about people that phobically averse to progress, knowledge, and change. To do it to know them would be a complete waste of time.
The Professor

[harpo]

30. I agree with the professor

[jedicord]

9. Because my repub friends do.

Actually, I don't read the blogs, but I do listen to Rush, Savage, et al once in a while. This allows me time to find ammunition, get prepared for the almost daily AM radio recitation I get around here.

I can shut them down quick this way!

Besides, isn't "Know thine enemy" a tenet of "The Art of War"?:applause:

[AnnInLa]

10. A better question:

Why would you NOT want/need to know what the "other side" is saying/doing?

If you recognize that there IS a civil war going on in this country, and the goal of "our side" is to Take Back America, then why not peruse what the opposition is saying? Progressive blogs/sites are now influencing the debate within the Dem party and inside of our country. It is only reasonable to assume that RW sites and blogs are doing the same.

Would you rather that we remain in a bubble of our own making, just as we accuse the bush admin of doing?

IMHO, it is up to each DU member whether he/she can stomach reading the RW sites/blogs. If you can't stand knowing what they are saying, then don't click on the links.

[harpo]

12. because I have my own agenda...and it doesn't include the other side

building a strong democratic party doesn't have to be about "war" with the repukes...it has to be about building OUR party with OUR values with OUR people and OUR ideas. I think people get sidetracked caring too much about what the other side is saying or doing...Nixon did that.

[cali]

18. So in that case, shouldn't you quit worrying

about what others are doing?

[harpo]

24. I worry about what other dems think, not the repukes

[meegbear]

11. When a need an online ipecac

[carboncat]

13. It's silly to 'count hits'.

We gotta know what the opposition thinks. I'm SURE they know what the left thinks.............................

[cali]

15. Sure, part of it is the car wreck aspect

but more importantly it's to understand what the wingnuts are thinking and saying about any given issue. It gives us a heads up as to what issues and arguments we need to counter. I can't understand the people that don't want to know. I not only read freerepub, I read RedState and comment, with a slew of other liberals, on a wingnut blog.

[harpo]

17. I think when you do that...you let them drive the conversation topic...

instead of defining the conversation ourselves...always putting us behind them.

[AnnInLa]

22. I think the RedState comments are absolutely fascinating!

To me, they have the best debates of any online political community....they always try to out-do each other in their supposed conservatism. To read comments there gives you a good idea of the "shades" of conservatism. (They are not very tolerant of dissent....but then, neither are we.)

16. I like reading other people's opinions once in a while

they are not all dunces or "evil". You can actually learn some things from different perspective, and you can separate good argument from false argument if you use reasoning ability. Much of the discussion on DU, is just emotional venting anyway, not clearly made points.

[lectrobyte]

19. It's kind of like when I fall off my bike and get a big patch of road rash

-- no matter how hard I try, you can't help but peel back some of the edges of the festering scab. But seriously, it can be entertaining, and it can help you to understand the talking points and framing.

[harpo]

27. ewww....but I get your point

[Minnesota Libra]

23. We should care what neocons/fundies think so we have a..............

....heads up on what they are planning. My stomach is too queasy :puke: to go over and check it out for myself, so I depend on others to do the checking for me.:pals:

[sakabatou]

29. For a larf, I guess

Fun seeing the irrational online.

[noamnety]

31. Communication and framing

I noticed a thread about the walk to New Orleans got picked up over there, and knew to expect a few freepers along the way. We had 4, I think, total, during the trip - not a lot. But anyway, my daughter dropped out of the walk to go say hi to them, and ask why their sign had an odd grammar thing going on. The sign holder laughed, and said he guessed he needed a new sign maker. It was just a funny little conversation, and on the one hand we were kind of smirking about their language skills. But on the other hand, it was an excuse for some person to person contact, and a chance to have a nonhateful conversation - a chance for us to humanize each other. Without going into my mixed feelings about that, I think it's enough that they came out, they had a normal jovial conversation with a person from our group, they were left not filled with rage and bitterness - the two sides had a laugh together.

I dropped out at one point and spoke to some bush supporters, and while we didn't agree on the war at all, we talked past that, let the disagreement float by in the conversation, and moved onto other things, and it was a sympathetic conversation that ended with them wishing us well on the walk, me wishing them well with their house situation. We laughed about their flamingo mailbox in the midst of the rubble.

Another guy came out to voice his disapproval, and had a long talk with one of our people - he protested Vietnam back in the day, but didn't place Iraq in the same category, since they "bombed our country" and all. He ended up understanding where we were coming from and took some literature from us, although initially he wouldn't even speak to us, except derisively.

To be able to push a conversation in the direction where you can meet in the middle, you have to understand what their concerns are. Not what they say their concerns are, but what's driving them deeper down. Is immigration a concern for them? Why? Because of racism, or because of underlying concerns about our economic situation and their own job security?

John Ashcraft (running for office in Michigan) was talking about that Saturday, about giving a speech at a local economic club filled with republicans, and finding a way to frame the issue so they could understand how it affects them. He was talking about health care, specifically, and you can't win them over by trying to convince them that even poor people deserve life-saving medication. You just can't do it. But you can make a compelling argument that health care costs being tacked onto corporate payroll affects stock holders - and that if we had a federal health care system that wasn't tied to corporations, Chrysler expenses would go down $1500 per car (I forget his exact figure), stocks and profits would be up.

I don't go over to the RW forums more than two or three times a year, based on a recommendation here, but once I do go over, I might click around for a bit to see what their issues are.

A cynical person might say I'm looking for a way to exploit their weaknesses. An optimist might say I'm looking for a bit of common ground that we could begin to build a foundation on.

[Burning Water]

32. Ya gotta know

what the enemy is up to.

Ya gotta know how they think if you want to defeat them.

[Nederland]

34. Because I have an open mind

...and unlike our President, I'm not absolutely I'm certain I'm right about everything.