February 2006
I spent some time recently reading Daily Kos (www.dailykos.com), probably the leading Democratic Party "community" site on the Web. I didn't enjoy it, much; but it has been interesting. It gave me an opportunity to study at first hand the thought processes of basically well-meaning, left-leaning, far-from-stupid people who still can't quite get away from the Democrats -- like a middle-aged bachelor who's still living with his parents. A few observations:
I. Kosniks think they are smarter than other people.
It was proto-liberal John Stuart Mill, of course, who first said that the Tories were "the stupid party," and it remains an article of faith for Kosniks that stupidity -- other people's stupidity -- explains a great deal. A few examples of Kosnik thinking on this subject:
One aspect of the test needs to include a complete education in science, specifically biology.
Obviously, this idiot would fail the test.
ridiculous to you, perhaps,
Sadly, it's the loons at those other
The next comment responds to a post critical of the Senate Democrats' timidity about the Patriot Act:
And "eyes rolling" is good, isn't it? No need to explain why third parties are a bad or impossible idea. Smart people understand that already.
II. Kosniks believe in magic
A great many Kosnik posts begin with phrases like "We need to make them..." or "We need to demand..." or "Write your Congressman and tell him you want...."
There's something rather childlike and endearing about this; as if one had but to ask, or demand. Perhaps this is the outlook of the much-cherished children of the Spock generation. What will happen when the demand is ignored? Will they hold their breath? Will they fling themselves on the floor and kick and scream? Will they break a beloved toy? Throw food?
Alas, probably not. Kosnikss are too grown up for any such authentic display of feeling, but not grown up enough to disbelieve in magic, or in the omnipotence of their own desires, or to dispense with the projection of a virtual parent-figure onto some institution -- in their case, the Democratic Party. Caught in this contradiction, the symptom we see is neurotic perseveration -- a pathological, mechanical repetition of behavior that achieves nothing.
III. Kosniks can't imagine change
Here's another Kosnik exculpation on the Democrats' failure to kill the most obnoxious parts of the Patriot Act:
C. Wright Mills anatomized this kind of realism: "Crackpot realists are so rigidly focused on the next step that they become creatures of whatever the main drift -- the opportunist actions of innumerable men -- brings. In crackpot realism, a high-flying moral rhetoric is joined with an opportunist crawling among a great scatter of unfocused fears and demands."
IV. Kosniks can't think about Israel
Characteristic Kosnik responses to to a post about the Israel lobby's role in pushing the Iraq war:
Here we go again...
In more recent years, things have opened up a lot. You can now take a whack at Israel or the Israel lobby without getting tagged for life as an anti-Semite or a lunatic or a terrorist -- everywhere except in the Democratic Party.
As other constituencies and sources of funding have dried up or switched to the Republicans, largesse from the Israel lobby has become crucial to the Democrats. You might even say it's their lifeline; without the lobby's support, the Democratic party would undergo a sudden shrinkage, like one of those bloated red-giant stars collapsing into a white dwarf.
Yeah, the Republicans get Israel money too, and yeah, they've signed up for whatever the loby wants, too. But the difference is that the Republicans have other resources. The money pipeline from the Israel lobby is welcome and important to the Republicans, but it's not life-or-death as it is for the Democrats. Thus a Pat Buchanan has far more scope to speak his mind than anybody in the Democratic party has.
This censorship -- or self-censorship, really -- extends right down into the Kosnik basement of the party. Now many of the Kosniks are quite intelligent and well-informed people, and there must be a considerable cognitive dissonance between what they know privately and the party line they have to toe publicly. Perhaps this helps explain my next observation.
V. Kosniks are bad-tempered
The "vile piece of crap" comment quoted earlier is far from atypical. Here's another:
Alongside them are the almost equally maddening, easy-mannered, well-spoken, empty-headed scions of hereditary wealth. These parasites could never have gone to Harvard if they weren't "legacies". And yet such undeserving drones end up running the Foreign Service. What ever happened to that meritocracy thing? What is a cultured, hard-working, conscientious, well-read striver like me doing in this beastly... cubicle? Que fais-je dans cette galère?
VI. Kosniks are deferential to authority
Alongside ferocious contempt for the "ignorant" and the "idiots," Kosniks exhibit a grovelling obseqiousness to important people. Every so often a Democratic politican, like John Kerry or Barack Obama, will favor the Kosniks with a recycled chamber-of-commerce speech. The Kosniks quickly swamp the site with hundreds of fawning "comments" like this:
VII. Kosniks fear enemies in their midst
Most Internet mailing lists, newsgroups, chat rooms and so on get a certain number of insincere participants -- people who don't share the virtual community's values and are there just to make trouble. Most groups accept these "trolls" with a weary resignation -- the way picnickers think about ants. Experienced participants ignore them.
Not the Kosniks. The Kosniks are hypervigilant about intruders, wreckers, saboteurs, spies, provocateurs -- it's like the old days, back in some really paranoid ultra-Left cell worried about the FBI. Except this is the Democratic Party, for heaven's sake. Not exactly a subversive organization (not even an opposition, in fact; but that's another essay).
The Kosniks are really good at sussing trolls out -- as efficient and obsessive as Inspector Javert. If somebody makes 'em suspicious, they'll check the guy's IP address, his email address, his posting and comment history. They'll scrutinize his choice of words. (I wanted to quote here some of the very astute comments that unmasked one recent troll, within seconds of its appearance, but I find it has been removed without a trace from the site, like Bukharin from a Soviet Encyclopedia photograph.)
It's impressive, in one way, and sad in another. Impressive because it shows some very valuable talents -- a quick and accurate ear for the false note, a considerable technical sophistication, an eagle-eyed attentiveness. Some of these Kosniks would have made good textual critics.
The reason it's sad is that it's so pointless. They're manning the walls of a fort that already fell to the enemy. They're like one of those fabled Japanese soldiers on a South Pacific island, thirty years after 1945. He's lurking in a carefully camouflaged foxhole, eyeing jet airliners through ancient binoculars, wishing one of them would fly low enough for him to take a shot at it. He's set up booby-traps and punji-stick pits on the beach. They won't take him without a fight.
But of course no one wants to take him. He's defending an illusion. He's living in a carefully preserved dream about a war that was over a long time ago -- and his side lost.
This is why the trolls have to be exorcised so relentlessly. The Kosniks fight ferociously among themselves, but on a deeper level, they are collaborators in maintaining a necessary illusion.
My Japanese soldier analogy wasn't quite right. The Japanese soldier is alone, but he is still free, and could put up some kind of fight if anybody ever noticed him. The Kosniks, by contrast, have lots of company, but they've already been rounded up and put in Stalag 13 – or rather, they've put themselves there. They tell each other they're still fighting the war, but they're just going through the motions, drilling ragged, weaponless troops in the prison yard, while their captors look on, laughing, from the guard towers.
There should be a test
Kosniks think the Republicans are stupid -- which rather begs the question of why the Republicans have been beating the pants off "their" party for a century and a half. And they also think the public is stupid, to fall for the intellectually insulting hokum the Republicans dish out -- and this begs another question: what can you expect of democracy, if the public is stupid?
to prove that you are not an idiot, and until that point you should be assumed to be one.
and to other typically small minded and ignorant Americans . . .
sites you mention, as well as a good chunk of the American public at large, that needs this information the most.
maybe if you write enough "democrats suck" diaries the glorious third party revolution really will happen. <obligatory eyes rolling smilie here>
The reference to "third parties" comes out of nowhere; in the post it responds to, nothing was said about third parties. But there are no flies on this Kosnik. She knows what the original poster is really up to. He may try his best to conceal his true agenda, but she is too smart for him.
You clearly don't want the Patriot Act
Another, responding to a post about Hillary Clinton:
renewed in any way, shape, or form. However, it is already law. There is no going back on it. Repealing it would be very unpopular and would fail.
I don't feel guilty
A few years back, the corporate buzzword-du-jour was "think outside the box." The Kosnik culture prides itself on thinking inside the box, and the smaller the box, the better. Kosniks believe fervently in the immutability of the status quo and the rightness of received wisdom, and this belief they call "realism."
I get the point of all this, and yes it's too bad that politicians play these games, but..what..am I gonna vote Republican against Hilary? Can she possibly be worse than any Republican? Can she do more harm to this country than George has done?
I don't want Hillary to run. I hope she gets soundly defeated, mainly b/c there is no hope of her winning the general election. Nevertheless, unless the Republican party somehow changed itself overnight into something I could support (fat chance, I'd vote for her over any Repub.
this diary is a vile piece of crap
These two posts between them pretty much define the poles of permitted discourse about Israel among the Kosniks. It's like taking a little spin in the Wayback Machine to, oh, 1975 or so. In those days, if you said anything about Israel that strayed by a hair's breadth from the official narrative -- courageous, beleaguered, righteous Israel, and bestial, bigoted, sadistic Arabs -- you would find yourself marginalized pretty fast. And if you said anything about the influence of the Israel lobby -- why then, you were Julius Streicher reincarnate.
and that's exactly that I'd expect from you.
For the thousandth time, Israel never wanted or needed the Iraq war....The Iraq War is a major political liability for Israel because it fuels anti-semitism at a time when Israel is working very hard to combat anti-semitism. Israeli papers were hardly supportive of the Iraq War before and after, basically calling it a wash - any positive benefits would likely be weighed down by negatives....
I think the whole "JEWS ARE BEHIND ALL WARS!" nonsense is absurd but there seems to be no end to it.
I'm an engineer,
Smells like... status anxiety? Sociologically, Kosniks belong to the core liberal stratum -- people who are a little better educated than the average bear, a little more cultured. They probably got better grades in school -- partly, at least, because pleasing the teacher was more important to them. They bought into the theory of meritocracy. By rights, they ought to be in charge; and yet they are not. Ignorant, laughing, confident, unscrupulous Yahoos -- people who were 'C' students at best, and probably jocks into the bargain -- make piles of money and rise to lead large corporations.
and find your anti-science attitude profoundly offensive. Furthermore, you are an idiot. Evidently, you don't understand the meaning of the word "theory", as in Newton's Gravitational THEORY....
Has anyone ever mentioned to you that in the world of science and technology, we practice meritocracy? So don't even think of accusing me of being uncivil. Here's the deal -- if you step unto this turf, and cling to your ignorance, you're going to be called out, idiot....
Have a nice day, moron.
Senator, thanks for posting here. I am flattered that you chose to come to this forum and explain your position on the Roberts nomination, and I hope your comments are taken very seriously.
This servility partly reflects an excessive respect for institutions, which necessarily rubs off onto the people in control of those institutions. But the other component is a displaced self-regard. Obama is the liberal self writ large; Caliban thinks that the TV is a mirror, and Obama's handsome face is his own.
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