| Subject: Fwd: I shall join you |
| From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> |
| Date: 1/24/10, 23:46 |
| To: Andrew Stein <steinlink@gmail.com> |
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Norman Rogers <normandrogers@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jan 24, 2010 at 11:44 PM
Subject: Re: I shall join you
To: Barrett Brown <
barriticus@gmail.com>
Mr. Brown,
Thank you for getting back to me. That's good reading.
My initial reaction is this--are you creating a thinking person's version of "Memeorandum?"
Memeorandum takes the top bloggers and aggregates responses to the top news stories moving through the political blogosphere. What would be useful is a tool that incorporated that but limited it to an accepted group that has bought into the ethics and the values of a group of individuals who have clear boundaries for tolerating dissent and leaving things open to a reasonable discussion. A few things try to emulate that, but in the exchange of ideas, when it becomes heated, attacking the credibility of a participant becomes standard fare. Anything that included known polemical bloggers, nope. I accept where Mr. Johnson is headed. I've praised him for it. He's interested in facts, I'm interested in facts, and I think there are plenty of people who can detach and move on from the slugfest and the immaturity of the blogosphere as it now stands. It's time to advance into the next era of blogging, and that would mean, at least to me, professionalization and detachment in pursuit of evaluating "bullshit."
This, to me, is the Internet/Blogging version of refuting "Bullshit" and I'm all for that.
When it comes to basic subjects--health care, defense spending, government policy--the lies tend to focus on what the media believes it can pass off as conventional wisdom.
Last week, I tackled this assertion from James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal:
Bushs proposal for partial privatization of Social Security had a lot in common with ObamaCare. It was not a response to an immediate crisis. Its passage would have realized a generations-old ambition of the presidents most ideological supporters. It proposed to change a system that, in the minds of most voters, seemed to be working well.
There are so many assumptions worked in there, but you could pursue a number of tangents. You could unearth polling. You could adopt an ideological stance and call it liberalism run amok. You could cite differences in health care issues amongst people of different classes. You could defend Taranto--surely, for wealthy contributors to the Wall Street Journal, there is no "immediate crisis" in health care. You could sneer at his blatant lie and go populist--tell that to laid off recreational vehicle assembly plant workers in the Midwest.
A blogger tool that tracked and provided the backup data to such assertions would be helpful. Wikipedia being compromised, that's not viable. I spend a good deal of time looking at GAO studies, but those are limited in scope. If I could go to a trusted source that compiled those items, pro and con, conservative vs liberal, and extract the arguments that helped me with my piece, I would be all for that. I would work to contribute to that. I would add commentary where possible.
I don't trust things that allow people vote or weigh in with their opinion--that can lead to "gaming" the system and abuse. I think that passionate arguments have their place, but in group consensus, I think it has to be detached and professional. The passion should appear on the blog; in the discussion of an academic point or widely held assertion, weigh in and back it up, and keep it clean, clear and concise.
Those are my thoughts, and I hope they help in some way.
Yes, I'll keep this on my radar and link to your next announcement.
Thank you,
Norman Rogers
On Sun, Jan 24, 2010 at 3:22 AM, Barrett Brown
<barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Mr. Rogers-
Thanks for getting in touch. Thankfully, there's been a lot more interest in the project than I'd expected at this point, which makes it all the more viable.
I'll provide more details on everything soon, but essentially, what I'm planning will require (a) a decentralized network of folks who agree that the media has to be turned inside out and soon, and (b) software that my friend Andrew Stein is creating which will facilitate the transfer of info around the internet. Things will launch in earnest this April. In the meantime, there's lots of preparation to be done, as well as plenty of thinking regarding the specifics. I know I haven't given you much information to work with, but please give some thought to what sort of features you would find useful in software designed to, say, feed raw information to your blog, as well as to allow you to "characterize" that information and transfer it to others. Stein of course has a plan regarding those elements, but he's not a blogger or commentator and thus you and I and others who deal in research and output and such things might have more insight into how blogs can be improved. Also, I'll be making a more formal announcement of the project through True/Slant and Huffington Post next week; this will include a bit of additional info for you. If you would, link your readers to that piece. Also, I can't tell if you collaborate much with other bloggers, but if you know any, please let them know about the project and have them e-mail me if they have any suggestions. There have been some interesting thoughts in the comments section of Balloon Juice, for instance:
I've also attached a couple of papers that have informed my thinking regarding the viability of this project. Long story short: orality to literacy is akin to literacy to the internet. I'll make this case further very soon.
Regards,
Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 9:01 PM, Norman Rogers
<normandrogers@gmail.com> wrote:
Mr. Brown,
What I do is feed the content beast. I post, I analyze, I have fun, but, mostly, I celebrate the American experience. I cut it down the middle and I give holy hell to both sides. I really do not tolerate foolishness or incompetence. I tear into the news, the events of the day, the foolhardy opinions of others, and I tell people what they need to know.
Granted, I'm weird. But, people seem to want to read my blog. It must be the hotties.
Anyway, please consider adding me to your venture. I own my own domain, I kick ass on a daily basis, and I can give as good as I can take. I have fifteen or sixteen other blogs that are pretty neat as well. You don't even have to pay me. I'm rich. Otherwise, why would I have a blog on Squarespace?
Very respectfully,
Norman Rogers
You can find some of my greatest hits by looking at the category of "The Best of the Blog."