Letters to the Editor

• @Uncle Fester

  [Read the article: Thank you, Rush Limbaugh!]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I started posting because I really appreciate honest discussion. And as geeky as it sounds, I really like it when someone can change my mind, or at least get me to questions my opinions, using logic and facts.

  What I found instead were posters who are so intrenched in their positions that they find it acceptable to lie, to insult and to berate. After 10 back and forth posts with ShawnWM where he called me a black bigot, and insisted repeatedly that black incomes had increased $17,000 per year under Bill Clinton (for a total median income of $142,000 in 2000?!!?), I realized that, like other posters, the arguments I was getting into were making me angry enough that I was seriously considering not voting for Hillary if she gets the nomination. I had to take a step back and separate how angry I was about the things I was reading from how important it is that either Hillary or Barack get into the White House next year.

  While I wish many of the posters here were more interested in civil discussion, fairly or unfairly, I place the blame on Joan. In the years that I have been reading Salon, first sporadically and now daily, it seems to me that Salon has stopped posting articles that provide the kind of left leaning analysis and insights that I was looking for, and now seem to be more interested in increasing page views and provoking readers. It can't be a coincidence that every Friday at around 4 or 5PM, Joan or Alex posts something incendiary that keeps an argument going all weekend. And posts like "Why Hillary Clinton Should be Winning" and "Americans more ready for a black president than a woman?" just do nothing for me. As a former sociology and American studies major, there is so much fascinating stuff happening in this election, stuff that has the potential to really change American culture in the 21st Century and Joan doesn't really seem interested in covering it in a meaningful way.

  So, I will keep reading Glenn's column and I will keep reading Machinist and if The Wire ever comes back, I'll be there in a heartbeat.

  Permalink Tuesday, April 8, 2008 08:46 PM