Edited and revised from a comment I left at the Confluence this morning.

Chicago Dyke is right to point out that sometimes when everyone in the room is in loud agreement, even if the points being made are valid and the emotions displayed are sincere and civil, the room can still start to sound like an echo chamber. It's not that dissent is unwelcome here at Corrente -- Leah, ChiDy, Xan, Xenophon and other top-shelf posters have written several vigorously discussed pieces recently. The danger to a site like this is that we become boring. We repeat ourselves. We get used to the sound of our own voices, and as virtual alliances and sympathies bond us together we begin to self-edit and become timid about being bold thinkers and commenters. Read more…

Yes, I suppose we do.

Partially in response to Bringiton's earlier post about, as I interpret it, the complacency of comfort. Perhaps it's not merely laziness. Perhaps, after 2000 and 2004 we had come to expect a reliable, pro-democracy media critique from the Boiz on the blogs. Perhaps the missing media critique by the Boiz has contributed to large swaths of the democratic base not really knowing what's going on in Florida and Michigan. Perhaps the Boiz, as a group, have been more responsible than the republicans, the media, and the competing candidates themselves at dividing us.

We all know the media isn't going to do democracy any favors. That's what the glorious media critique was supposed to accomplish, right? Read more…