General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Has Daily Kos been overrun by xenophobic racist trolls? [View all]daredtowork
(3,732 posts)Even my small city newspaper comment section is daily bombarded with their "viewpoint". I'm convinced that at least a portion of them are paid, like China's "water armies". Hell, some of them might even be FROM China (lower pay rate). At any rate, there is a dedicated effort to prevent the Internet from becoming a "voice of the people" by washing out any Signal with a lot of Noise. If a popular consensus can't be formed online/then the people remain divided, as they are in the real world.
As for Kos, I'm extremely disillusioned with him. He lives in my city - in fact he lives in my Council district. He is pro-property and is vocal about trying to get the left progressives off the Council. He promoted the pro-business law against people sitting on sidewalks (except all the trendy hipsters who get to sit around when they eat their artisan pizza, of course) - and he made the B.S. claim right on Daily Kos that it was because his wife felt scared walking around the city (I've lived here over 25 years and have never felt nervous walking downtown at night) - and he made several dehumanizing statements about the homeless that showed he had a stereotyped view rather than an educated view that is required by the complex situation here. Markos seems to be Third Way in his personal views, at least at the local level.
By the way, I also abandoned Daily Kos a few years ago because people were trolling my diaries about welfare. They ought to give diary-writers the power to mute comments to their own diaries there unless the diary is promoted to "Recommended" level. Then, if it's treated as an article, it should be open to public comment, with standard moderation.