{"id":3972,"date":"2007-02-15T12:02:10","date_gmt":"2007-02-15T20:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2007\/02\/15\/are-diggers-the-internets-neocons\/"},"modified":"2019-12-20T11:46:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T19:46:00","slug":"are-diggers-the-internets-neocons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2007\/02\/15\/are-diggers-the-internets-neocons\/","title":{"rendered":"Are &#8216;diggers&#8217; the internet&#8217;s neocons?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:6114,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/digg.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260304044302\\\/https:\\\/\\\/digg.com\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-08 18:35:55&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-01 10:15:27&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-01 10:15:27&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6115,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/digg.com\\\/users\\\/djwudi\\\/news\\\/dugg&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/digg.com\\\/users\\\/djwudi\\\/news\\\/dugg&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6116,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/wilwheaton.typepad.com\\\/wwdnbackup\\\/2007\\\/02\\\/what_happened_t.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20250911150637\\\/https:\\\/\\\/wilwheaton.typepad.com\\\/wwdnbackup\\\/2007\\\/02\\\/what_happened_t.html&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-08 18:36:01&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-01 10:15:28&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-01 10:15:28&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6117,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/windycitymike.com\\\/2007\\\/02\\\/14\\\/our-culture-of-nurtured-beloved-hate&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6118,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/del.icio.us\\\/WCityMike\\\/neocon&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260308183959\\\/https:\\\/\\\/del.icio.us\\\/WCityMike\\\/neocon&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/del.icio.us\\\/WCityMike\\\/neocon&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6119,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.google.com\\\/search?num=100&amp;hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;newwindow=1&amp;safe=off&amp;as_qdr=all&amp;q=McCain+transformation+moderate+extremist&amp;btnG=Search&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.google.com\\\/sorry\\\/index?continue=http:\\\/\\\/www.google.com\\\/search%3Fnum%3D100&amp;q=EgTP8eE6GImxt80GIjDA1Q4WNI6jqMOIE2MVo_dcyaUvELuMKXqXGuCXoUXTX-wtdr5dvz2RxZ6y7NlR5jQyBmpjbmRyUloBQw&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6120,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.google.com\\\/search?num=100&amp;hl=en&amp;newwindow=1&amp;btnG=Google+Search&amp;as_epq=&amp;as_oq=&amp;as_eq=&amp;lr=&amp;as_ft=i&amp;as_filetype=&amp;as_qdr=all&amp;as_occt=any&amp;as_dt=i&amp;as_sitesearch=&amp;as_rights=&amp;safe=off&amp;as_q=Romney%20extremist&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20001206170100\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.google.com:80\\\/search?num=100&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-08 18:36:20&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-08 18:36:20&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>A couple of disclaimers to start with:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>I don&#8217;t use <a href=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/\" title=\"digg\">digg<\/a> (outside of <a href=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/users\/djwudi\/news\/dugg\" title=\"digg \/ djwudi \/ news \/ dugg\">setting up an account<\/a> which has rarely been touched).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>The analogy is probably quite strained, and I keep bouncing between two ways of expressing it, neither of which I think are <em>quite<\/em> right:<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>internet : politics :: digg : internet<\/li>\n<li>neocons : politics :: diggers : internet<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That said&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Wil went on a rant today about <a href=\"http:\/\/wilwheaton.typepad.com\/wwdnbackup\/2007\/02\/what_happened_t.html\" title=\"WWdN: In Exile: What happened to digg?\">diggers dragging the &#8216;net down<\/a> to somewhere below the least common denominator.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  I&#8217;ve been a Digger for a long time, and always felt like I could rely on Digg&#8217;s homepage to reliably and consistently direct me to interesting and useful content, accompanied by insightful, funny, and interesting commentary.<\/p>\n<p>  My, how things have changed in just a few months. The links (that make it past the bury brigade) are still pretty good, but for whatever reason, the maturity and behavior of the average Digger has evolved into, well, something resembling a middle school lunch room. While Digg has always been a great way to share your creation with a large audience on the Internet, the associated grief that frequently comes with being exposed to Digg&#8217;s userbase has lead to several sites blocking Digg, shutting off comments because of abusive Diggers, and using complicated .htaccess rewrites to send Digg&#8217;s traffic away.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This struck me as being the same basic premise of part of what Mike was talking about <a href=\"http:\/\/windycitymike.com\/2007\/02\/14\/our-culture-of-nurtured-beloved-hate\/\" title=\"Windy City Mike: Our Culture of Nurtured, Beloved Hate\">here<\/a> (some of which I mentioned <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2007\/02\/14\/hatred-fatigue\/\" title=\"Eclecticism: Hatred Fatigue\">yesterday<\/a>) only applied to neocons and the internet in relation to politics, rather than to diggers.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  I think this is a specific result of the rise of neoconservatives to cultural and political power. Note that I don\u2019t attribute this to conservatives or conservatism, but specifically to _neo_conservatives. I don\u2019t believe that the neoconservative political or social culture is interested in conducting their affairs with civility or <strong>with <em>any<\/em> degree of compromise \u2014 and therein lies the problem, as it creates a culture of war<\/strong>. I may not have written about politics in quite a long time&#8230;but during that interim, I\u2019ve constantly <a href=\"http:\/\/del.icio.us\/WCityMike\/neocon\" title=\"del.icio.us\/wcitymike\/neocon\">linklogged to neoconservatives\u2019 actions throughout the American political and social culture<\/a>, and they are always extremist and seemingly operating under the slogan of \u201cno quarter given.\u201d And although I had hoped this extremism might die with the end of Bush\u2019s Presidency, it seems as if moderates are willing to metamorphose into extremists if it gets them the power they seek (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/search?num=100&amp;hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;newwindow=1&amp;safe=off&amp;as_qdr=all&amp;q=McCain+transformation+moderate+extremist&amp;btnG=Search\" title=\"Google for 'McCain transformation moderate extremist'\">McCain<\/a>) or that other extremists are ready to jump into the situation the moment a void forms (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/search?num=100&amp;hl=en&amp;newwindow=1&amp;btnG=Google+Search&amp;as_epq=&amp;as_oq=&amp;as_eq=&amp;lr=&amp;as_ft=i&amp;as_filetype=&amp;as_qdr=all&amp;as_occt=any&amp;as_dt=i&amp;as_sitesearch=&amp;as_rights=&amp;safe=off&amp;as_q=Romney%20extremist\" title=\"Google for 'Romney extremist'\">Romney)<\/a>.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s that same all-or-nothing, no-quarter-given, us-or-them, black-and-white viewpoint that our culture is rapidly sinking into. No matter whether the arena is politics or the net, online or off, there seems to be no room left for people who actually want to <em>talk<\/em> to each other, <em>even if they don&#8217;t agree<\/em>. Respectful discourse, on the whole, doesn&#8217;t exist anymore &#8212; and how can it, when we&#8217;re too busy shouting down the opposition to actually listen to what they have to say?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s that same all-or-nothing, no-quarter-given, us-or-them, black-and-white viewpoint that our culture is rapidly sinking into. No matter whether the arena is politics or the net, online or off, there seems to be no room left for people who actually want to _talk_ to each other, _even if they don&#8217;t agree_.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2028,2042],"tags":[58,13,14],"class_list":["post-3972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","category-politics","tag-internet","tag-life","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}