One of these things is just like the other...

[mediumdave]

First of all, {{very positive vibes}} to gunderpants, who is having a rough time of it at present. Hoping for better news, Gun.

Now on to the thing that's giving yours truly a headache: The brouhaha among right-wing bloggers such as Dan Riehl and Michelle Malkin after liberal feminist blogger Amanda Marcotte (best known for her writing at Pandagon was hired

Comments

[paperdol]

Political blogs/communities are fandom. Seriously. They wank with the best of them. The hysteria at Americablog, the Hysteria at Little Green Footballs, all tastes the same. Aravosis and Malkin, both batshit crazy in their own special ways that all smell like Spuffy or Buffy and Angel 4EVAH!. Never the twain shall meet and there will be handwringing and hyperbole all the way to the funny farm.

It's fandom. They're just watching politics instead of teevee, and they worship politicians instead of Joss Whedon.

[mediumdave]

You've got that right! And one could reverse the statement and say that we fans often approach fannish issues with the same intensity that political junkies bring to discussions of civil rights, health care policy, war, etc.

Which isn't necessarily crazy; I think a lot of fannish controversies are political ones in drag. BAngel vs. Spuffy might be a trivial thing on its surface, but underlying it are some pretty serious issues: Gender politics, love, sex and violence, friendship, forgiveness, anger. Etc. OTOH, a great deal of the sound and fury was simply trivial, and sorting out which is which is something I'm not gonna try. In this post, anyway.

I don't know enough about Aravosis to say if I agree with your opinion of him, but I'll give his writings a look at some point. In general, though, I respect the person who's loud and demanding in support of civil rights more than the person who's loud and demanding in opposition to them.

the only problem with Aravosis

[bellatrys]

is that where it doesn't involve GLBT rights, he often doesn't care, or not very much - former LCR, DC insider still very full of white guy privilege mentality.

That, in itself, would not be so much of a problem, if his response was not to delete comments pointing this out and, in some cases, take the entire post down without explanation or apology. That's the former-winger in him coming out, and a *lot* of us liberal blogosphere citizens have stopped reading his blog - regretfully, despite his former good work in re Katrina and on GLBT issues - due to his sexism and racism.

I've been calling politics just another fandom since the start, myself.

Re: the only problem with Aravosis

[mediumdave]

Ah, that makes sense. Far too many liberals (especially guys) are like that: Good on some issues, but otherwise self-absorbed and intolerant of other viewpoints. I recall that occasion at TBogg when the Biting Beaver controversy was the topic (hmm, another case of a feminist blogger being savaged by the attack poodles), and you (IIRC) objected to some of the commenters referring to Michelle Malkin as a cunt, and they hit the roof. Clearly, you just didn't understand the depth of their outrage, which simply couldn't be expressed without using a vulgar term for vagina. Yep.