Nevada County Internicine Warfare in politics turns really nasty sometimes

Reading some of the local blogs is an entertaining endeavor.  We have all sides of any issue or proposal discussed and fought over on a daily basis.  In the old days all this played out in the local papers, public hearings and the radio. The words written in these blogs, including mine, are there forever.  So when fights breakout all of what we say is available to readers.  They will judge whether we are relevant or not.

On my blog I created it to put my opinion out into the world.  I think I know something about most anything so I bloviate.  Usually I will read-up so I am not coming across too uninformed and the thousands that read me can at least glean something useful.  One of my big deals is pointing out hypocrisy. 

Sure I am not perfect and I make mistakes and there are plenty of folks who point that out.  Just like the section in the paper called ?letters to the Editor" and "Other Voices".  Write anything there and letters of corrections come flowing in.  We have comment streams that allow people to correct or argue the points. 

I have been in some good pissing contests with locals, and sometimes I allow anonymous people to comment as long as it is not nasty or really  uncivil.  If they want to post their real name and address then I usually allow a comment.  Lately I was getting spammed by some nuts who loved the "F" word and called me and my readers some pretty vile names.  This caused me to have to "moderate" comments and just lately I turned off moderation.

So what happens in these blogs that gets people all worked up enough to almost threaten someones life or livelihood?  Words, exposing hypocrisy.  Most people can't take the criticism they dish out so they retaliate with more words trying to one-up, and put the other party in its place.  Take the RLCrabb blog for instance.  Though he has few readers he has a certain puffery that is fairly comical.  Of course he skewers others with his "sarcasm" and God knows we need some of that.  It makes people who think they are hot shit into regular people.  But there is a downside.  The blogmaster there thinks because he is clever in his sarcasm he can get away with skewering and there will be no blowback.

Well, people don;t necessarily defend themselves from that kind of "sarcasm".  But when they do, all hell breaks loose and feelings get hurt.  I got into a back and forth there and the reason was what I deemed the "hypocrisy" of the commenter and the blogmeister.  I used no foul language but simply pointed out their hypocrisy on the topic.  Well, the blogmeister told me to go F myself and I unfortunately returned the favor.  Then I pointed out the hypocrisy of his statement and he went into some sort of physiological babble that I thought I was important because I was once a County Supervisor.  I said, OH!  Now I see the reason the fellow dislike me.  He is jealous.

Then we have the leftwing blog "Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report".  The fellow I have written about more than once in my blog.  He is obsessed with the former Editor of the Union Newspaper.  He was a Editor there and he did not last very long.  It was common knowledge he was a "unlikable" fellow and his attitude about our community was there for all to read about.  While claiming he is a "middle of the road" person politically, his comm enters and his opinions are always leftwing and radical.  But after a back and forth a few years ago he decided I could not post on his blog anymore because I was disruptive.  I simply defended those people and policies I liked.  Funny how both of the blogs I have spoken about here have something in common.

They skewer people and policies and then when someone comes to defend, they go off their rocker.  What do they expect?  If I like a certain candidate or business and these two "lovelies" cream them. I will defend them.  Most people are silent but I found out a long time ago that silence is acceptance.  Sure, when I defend the things I like from them, that creates heat sometimes.  But in the case of RLCrabb, I have actually defended him, his cartoons (he drew me as the devil once) and have always been courteous in public.  He apparently can't take what he dishes out though.

There are other blogs I read and perhaps the best local blogs are by George Rebane and Russ Steele.  We have similar political leanings and I do like the comment streams on their blogs.  George lets most comments on and many of us get into some pretty heated discussions.  But isn't that what it is all about?  I think the exchange of ideas, the disallowing of bad or made-up facts and the attempts to disrupt people's livelihoods are important topics to discuss and make right.  When Pelline tried to usher in a boycott of local radio station KNCO over the Rush Limbaugh exposure of the phony-baloney Sandra Fluke, many of us fought back their attempts (the left) and KNCO still broadcasts Rush.

There are many other examples of the hypocrisy of these lefty and so-called "moderate" bloggers but I will stop here.  The bottom line in the world is we all have a bias, we all have the ability to be a hypocrite and we all have a "flame" point.  Having been called every name in the book over the years I would suggest these other bloggers get a thicker skin and a smaller mouth and then jump back into the arena.