Left Dislocates Collective Shoulder Patting Itself on the Back Once Again

A survey -- all self-reported, of course -- says that left wingers read more right wing blogs than right wingers read left wing blogs.

The left is going apeshit, as usual, complimenting themselves on their intellectual courage and maverick open-mindedness.

First, there is the pure statistical problem -- only 6.6% of blog readers read "the other side" at all. Within this tiny fraction, leftwingers claim they read rightwing blogs at a 4:1 rate over rightwingers crossing over the aisles to get their information.

So, first of all, 98.9% of leftwingers are partisan hacks only interested in cocooning on friendly sites that will not discomfit them with contrary narratives. How on earth this is some source of pride is beyond me.

Besides that, there is a structural difference in leftwing and rightwing blogs. Rightwing blogs and blog-readers read and critique leftwing bloggers all the time -- but these bloggers are more generally known as "reporters for the MSM." We are reading an awful lot of left-wing propaganda already. We don't need to go to leftwing blogs to do this. We can dial up the New York Times.

Many leftwing bloggers and blog-readers do read rightwing blogs -- but for the same purpose we rightwingers read AP. To critique us, to insult us, to mock us. There's a cottage industry of leftwing blogs that do almost absolutely nothing but cover what rightwing bloggers are writing, if you can imagine something so pathetic. Sadly, No, Alicublog, T-Bogg... a bunch of bottom-feeding leftwing blogs covers the rightwing blogs the way the rightwing blogs cover the media.

There is really no analogy like that on the right. Sure, we all run over to Democratic Underground to find the nutroots celebrating the latest US combat death -- it's an easy post, always fun -- but there are no rightwing blogs (that I know of, at least) whose core mission it is to read leftwing blogs.

So leftwing blogs frequently cite and quote (and send their readers over to) rightwing blogs. We do that on occasion, but not really that often.

Rightwing blogs are working the refs -- the media. We're pushing back against their liberal bias.

Leftwing blogs -- many of them, at least -- are working those (us) who are in turn working the refs of the media, trying to push back against the pushback against liberal bias, that is, push the press to being even more liberal by denigrating those of us who critique the MSM for unfairness.

Given that basic structure, of course more lefties read righty blogs. But they don't do so to enjoy opposing viewpoints or join interesting arguments; they do to mock and troll, because Sadly, No! told them to.

We on the right are too busy doing something similar with NBCNews. We really don't have the time or inclination to carefully patrol whatever the fuck Sadly, No! might be writing about today.

Who cares?

As I've said before, the rightwing blogosphere is the leftwing blogosphere's MSM. They can't really critique the media, because they know it's very leftwing and they don't wish to undermine it all that much. They count on the MSM to deliver their messaging for them. So instead they attack the MSM's harriers, the rightwing blogs, the rightwing blog commenters.

But, of course, the left is once again very, very impressed with itself for... well, pretty much anything at all. These people don't take a wet shit without gazing wistfully at their highly nuanced discharge.

posted by Ace at 04:46 PM

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