BLOGSWARM!!!!!®

Here we go.

Jeebus.

Jane got her panties all in a wad because of an email that got sent out from the New Mexico OFA operation that linked to a blogpost at The People's View that got posted at Huffpost that called out some critics of the Debt Crisis Crisis Deal such as Paul Krugman and the "Firebaggers" and oh my has the shit been twisted and turned and hurled with furious abandon.

BLOGSWARM!!!!®

Of course damn few of those swarming have read the offending post in question, fewer still must have received the email from Ray Sandoval at New Mexico OFA HQ. Nor, I'm sure, have more than a few Swarmers read the follow up post at The People's View titled:

Too Bad for Huffington Post, but the "Dumbest Motherfuckers in the World" are Fighting Back

in which the author, Deaniac83 (who I seem to recall from times gone by, but who knows) doubles down and waxes quite wroth his ownself:

But Terkel did get something right. I mean, you know, credit where credit is due. She patiently explains to her readers - who I suppose she assumes are even more political novices than Krugman - what the term firebagger could possibly mean.

"Firebagger" is most likely a combined reference to the liberal blog FireDogLake, founded by Jane Hamsher, and "Tea Bagger," a less-than-flattering term for Tea Party activists.

Almost right. So close. Except FireDogLake is not a liberal blog. It's a Pseudo-Left-Libertarian extremist ideologue blog. But other than that, on the money. Why, yes, Sherlock, Firebagger is a term that combines FDL's hair-on-fire ridiculousness with Teabaggers (for example, opposing things just because President Obama supports them) - whom the FDL rah-rah types act like, only from the Left. It's a characterization that fits them perfectly - they are more interested in tearing things down than building a country up, more interested in ideological podium-pounding than pragmatic solutions. The bagger (both tea and fire) mentality is the reason our politics is in a rut. If one side was busy spreading hatred and propaganda to increase wingnut turnout, the other (firebaggers) side was busy spreading hatred and propaganda to subdue Democratic turnout. Oh, also, as John Cole points out, it's a name the Firebaggers gave themselves.

As if that weren't enough, he goes on to hurl his own incendiary brand of blog-insult by asserting:

Speaking of Firebaggers, her Majesty the Highness of FDL, Jane Hamsher, picked up on Terkel's article and went nuts with it. You know, the usual.

By the way, Ms. Terkel, you seem very upset about the OFA state director in New Mexico sending out an email pointing out the political and policy merits of the debt ceiling deal, an article that also calls out the firebaggers, but for some reason I cannot find our outrage article about Jane Hamsher - the Firebagger in Chief - calling Obama supporters the "dumbest motherfuckers in the world." Am I missing something or is your reporting just not objective?

Ou. Nasty. Meanwhile, the there's this throw-down to complete the sequence:

Let me send a message to Huffington Post, FDL, and all the ideologue havens in the Firebagger Lefty Blogosphere (that's right, I said it again): You have been propagating your anti-progressive, pro-dysfunction political message without accountability for too long. In President Obama's words, Enough! Count on us in the pragmatic progressive blogosphere to stand up and fight back. You do not represent progressivism or liberalism, and we are done letting you hijack it. You wanted a fight, didn't you? Well, you got one.

Eek. Scary.

All the supposedly lefty blogs have exploded in OUTRAGE!!!!!™ at this blogospheric INSULT!!!!™ from the OFA. They have DEMANDED!!!!!™ the immediate termination of Ray Sandoval, and the abject groveling and submissive apology to all the "Firebaggers" and their ilk who were DISSED!!!!™ by this no-account OFA apparatchik in fucking New Mexico, for chrissake. Doesn't he know who he is messing with?

God. The chins are pushed out, and RAGE!!!!!™ has gripped the entire Left-o-sphere. Everyone -- just everyone -- is posting on it, and at dKos (where Jane is not popular at all) there are at least four or five posts right now stirring the pot and intensifying inchoate rage at OFA, Obama, Ray Sandoval, and anyone who dares to support Obama (May you DIAF!!!!™) and defending Blog-Daughter Jane (misguided though she may be) -- and practically everything else on the face of the earth, such as the California Democratic Party's efforts to purge its Progressive Caucus for getting uppity, is being ignored.

I've posted on the Blogswarm phenom before, and I don't like it. Blogswarms tend to be ugly, vicious, and largely useless exercises in group affinity and mindless loyalty. Compared to the "tribalism" that many of the swarmers typically denounce -- as they are expressing their mindless loyalty to an individual or a blog that has been WRONGED!!!!™ -- swarmers are demonstrating the exact behavior they are so eager to denounce and condemn in others. The glaring hypocrisy of it all of course never, ever enters the consciousness of the swarmers until after their RAGE!!!!!™ is spent, and even then, the idea that they might have behaved inappropriately (heh) is often set aside in order to press some other demand elsewhere.

Oddly enough, it is from behavior like this that many on the "left" are considered to be tantrum throwing children who can be safely ignored. But I would venture to say that very few of those who participate in Blogswarms are leftists by any rational definition of the term.

They are, for the most part, "Internet Leftists and/or Progressives" -- which all too often means some variety of Libertarian.

And I note with interest that Deaniac83 calls out Jane and others for being exactly that.

On the other hand, I've made quite a stink over the California Democratic Party's apparent decision to purge the Progressive Caucus from its midst, and I do it in part because I know Karen Bernal, Chair of the Caucus quite well (though I haven't been in contact with her directly over this issue) and I know she is a genuine Progressive, not some variety of Libertarian trying to pass as "Progressive". She is deeply involved in labor and social justice issues, civil liberties, healthcare for all, gender equality, immigration reform, peace activism and on and on, as she has always been as long as I have known her. None of these issues are casual interests to her, not has she developed an interest recently. This is who she is. Her speeches have electrified the Party at their State Conventions, and she has built a very strong Progressive activist base within the Party that has successfully recruited and elected Progressive candidates and has pressed inclusion of Progressive agenda items in the California Democratic Party Platform.

And the Big Wigs apparently want to get rid of her and disband the Progressive Caucus (again, apparently) because they resolved to explore supporting a primary challenge to Obama -- for cause.

To me, this is a far more important and pressing issue than insults and dissing of "Firebaggers" from a blogger.

Priorities, people!



Sigh....
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My my my. All of a sudden, literally within an hour or so of Deaniac83's throw down challenge, the Swarm stopped.

This is a good thing in my humble estimation as there are far more important things to concern oneself about than the perceived insults to whomever on the internet.

Really.