Many of us are aware of the various tactics of the right, whether official, clandestine or freelance. But it doesn't hurt to remind us that the two people fighting might be there just to suck others in.
From a Kos diary by publiusJ
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/5/02632/84007/663/490550...Because of the free and open nature of our blog sites, these people encourage democrats to openly fight with each other whenever they can. Usually, two of them will work together on a single blog to create the illusion of a Hillary supporter vs. Barack supporter argument that turns ugly. Other real democratic bloggers then jump in to the fray and choose sides in the fight that was simply created to drag democrats in.
Republican logic: the losing side of the Democratic primary will be so angry that their candidate wasn't nominated they will walk away from the party, or give up politics altogether. The "Dead Giveaway" by these chaos sewing bloggers is that they either swear off politics, or declare they will vote for McCain if their candidate isn't the nominee, or take the time to rip apart the policies of one candidates proposals without touting the positives of the other. They also fight with each other and hope to drag you in to it, so be careful. There aren't really Hillary supporters out there who think Obama is a racist. There aren't many HONEST Obama supporters or HONEST Hillary supporters out there who are going to vote for McCain if the he or she doesn't get the nomination.
The entire idea of some sort of democratic revolt during this protracted race is so ridiculous it's funny, with even the mainstream media buying in to the notion that there are a large number of Obama or Clinton supporters who are going to support McCain if their candidate loses.
If this is the only line you read from this blog, remember that the person you are debating online may be a Republican who is trying to piss you off, and just may be trying to turn you against the other candidate. If you find one of these diarists and are suspicious, call it out, and tag it Operation Chaos.
When an outrage reaches a certain level of stupid, or when a particular theme pops up simultaneously from several people at once, it could be a coordinated assault. You can often see clues, or copy a phrase and paste it in google to check if it has been copy/pasted from a nefarious source, etc. But what is the best reaction to these things? Do you join in, ignore, just laugh and push it toward the silly/surreal? I really don't know the best answer, and perhaps it is some combination of the above. regardless, it is wise to keep these things in mind, and try to discern underlying motives. Try to find ways to reach out to those you KNOW are good dems, and minimize the escalation of rancor, so that we can fight together for a dem victory this fall, no matter the nominee.
Let's keep our eyes on the prize.
The stakes are too high for anything less than a repudiation of Bush v3.0.
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