I’m not really qualified to comment on the Weigel kerfuffle because, frankly, I haven’t paid much attention to it. Some things are described as “Inside the Beltway.” This seems like “Inside the Beltway” for a size 23″ belt… or maybe 14″. It’s cinched about as tight as it gets.
Nevertheless, reading Ezra Klein’s apologia pro vita listservers in the WaPo this morning, one thing struck me – how naive these folks are. From the perspective of someone on the Left Coast who is in his sixties (okay, send me off to the glue factory… but first beat me in singles) I was stunned how out of touch these people are with the digital age.
The most obvious, first and inviolable rule for the Age of the Digital Machiavelli: NEVER PUT ANYTHING POTENTIALLY DAMAGING IN EMAIL. Never, never, never, never. It’s indelible. And stay clear of IM as well. It’s also indelible with only slightly more effort for the retrieval.
Second rule, IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING IMPORTANT TO SAY, SAY IT ON THE PHONE. And preferably a landline. Yes, I know “the government is listening in.” But, hello, most of the time, they’re way too busy with significant matters to concern themselves with, say, what Dave Weigel thinks about Ann Coulter. In fact, scratch the “most of the time.” They’re always too busy.
Anyway, that’s my two cents on something that is of lasting unimportance. My last piece of advice: Reread Machiavelli. He’s much more interesting than Saul Alinsky, also a much better writer. Don’t believe me? Read his play Mandragola – a masterpiece. Alinsky couldn’t write that if you put a gun to his head and gave him five thousand chimpanzees as assistants.
You could start every post off with:
“I’m not really qualified to comment on…”
and nobody would disagree with you.
Yipee, a troll!
Why do these people have such a low level of invective? Whatever happened to Oscar Wilde?
I love people like this guy…I get them all the time on my little blog…some are even brave enough to email me (it’s there for all to see)…but what I love is that they so bravely post “anonymously” or with a cute little nom de plume.
If you’re brave enough to say it…put your name on it and own it you chicken $h1t!!!!
Yes . I’m sure you get lots of trolls on your blog. By the looks of your site meter, I’d say tens of them every month. It must be because you are so manly and write under your own name.
Saul Alinsky did have 5000 chimpanzees as assistants. They all left Chicago and went to work in the vast and growing government bureaucracies of DC. How else could these 2000 page unread House bills be turned out so rapidly.
I want to know if TBogg had an actual complaint or if he just did a drive by, cut and paste, not so clever, insult.
Reagan once said that a government program was the closest thing to eternal life that we would see on this earth.
I guess I would have to add cyberspace to that.
When it’s out there, it’s out there forever. Scrub all the caches you want … someone, somewhere, will have archived it.
And those chummy fraternal rules about “what happens on the list, stays on the list”?
HA.
Yeah, actually the more the lists are scrubbed, the worse the danger, because then someone, somewhere, could fabricate a damaging quote and it would be harder to prove it was false.
“This is a thousand monkeys working at a thousand typewriters. Soon, they’ll have written the greatest novel known to mankind. (reads one of the typewriters) ‘It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times’?! you stupid monkey! (monkey screeches) Oh, shut up.”
In the internet age with u-tube, facebook, twitter, etc. One must
follow simple rules:
Keep your mouth shut.
If you’re a man, keep your johnson locked down.
If you’re a woman, keep your legs crossed.
Every document is public and for those documents that are not supposed
to be public, there are corrupt public sector workers who will make
them public, for a price.
I think we share the same vision of antiquity, to wit being born in the late 40′s, etc. What we are seeing hear is youth in an echo chamber with no benefit of adult supervision. Putting more on it is a waste of time.
“Alinsky couldn’t write that if you put a gun to his head and gave him five thousand chimpanzees as assistants.” Snort.
TBogg is merely a lesser known blogger, punching up in order to garner attention.
So…..with this slight acknowledgment, let us commence the full ignore.
Cordially
Compared to Arianna Huffington, every blogger is “lesser known.”
Do try and follow the discussion. The people responding to Tbogg said NOTHING about Huffington’s readership – they were trying to explain why (s)he [Tbogg] is threadjacking. Your response: “But my blogger is bigger than your blogger!” Good for you.
Please get your facts straight. It’s ORANGTANGS, not Chimpanzees! Orangatangs wrote Alinsky. Chimpanzees wrote the screenplay for AVATAR. Also EARTH IN THE BALANCE (The Gorillas worked for Tom Clancy.)
I like Roger’s point of view and writing, but that conversational affectation of “I’m not really qualified to comment” definitely does not work as the first line of a written opinion piece. It stopped me cold and I had to force myself to read the rest. Not the best technique to get your ideas out.
Beat you in singles? That’s dominoes, right?
If you play dominoes with a Babolat Pure Drive Roddick Plus strung at 58.
Roger,
When you’re a serious recreational athlete, it’s poor form to drop elite equipment names on the general public. Most people don’t know what you’re talking about.
I could go on and on about how much I like my Litespeed (and while you’d have me running ragged on the court, you’d be asking for mercy after 25 miles) but most folks would have no idea what I’m talking about.
To most folks, your Babolat is no different than a Wilson on a shelf at KMart, just as to most folks my Litespeed is indistinguishable from a Huffy (well, till they pick it up and it’s half the weight).
I play dominoes with a fifth of Macallan. Ohh forget the dominoes….
David Weigel is a snake who exploits conservatives to enhance his niche image. Everybody must have a gimmick. He wants the MSM to perceive him to be an expert on the alleged weirdos. This increase Weigel’s chances of earning an annual six figure income. He should never be trusted.
Yeah, digital age and this Weigel guy is pretty young looking, but he still screwed up.
And who uses Listserv anymore? That is technology from the Reagan years. Nostalgic, like Leave It To Beaver, but not as interesting.
It took them this long to do something about his unsuitable writing? Yeah, because probably nobody was reading his posts to the Listserv. Why would they?
AND: who is that narced on Weigel? Somebody that accidentally read his posts and thought he needed to be put out of his misery? By definition, it had to be some liberal journ-o-list that narced the little guy.
If you broadcast something to more than 400 people? It’s not a private communication, dummy.
Pretty much what I said, except I’m not nearly as optimistic as you that a phone conversation is safe; there are way too many ways to record that now. (“Record politically damaging conversations? There’s an app for that.”) I think the only safe way to operate is to assume that anytime you communicate with anyone beyond the confines of your own home, someone, somewher is capable of recording you. And I wouldn’t necessarily trust anything in your own home.
The old saying is as true as ever: “Three can keep a secret, if two are dead.”
You’ve got a good point, LP. I would amend and extend to say that the landline is the best of a bad bunch of insecure communications methods. Be wary too of any Skype calls, since automated recording methods (Call Recorder, in my case) are often activated on the callers end. Don’t know about other VOIP methods, since I don’t use them.
Leftists are so out of touch with reality, and so used to the politically conforming mores of their milieu that they didn’t anticipate that any of the 400 members of the mailing list might reveal its contents. They think that everyone on their side is, like themselves personally, a true believer.
Of course, only a true believer would ignore the fact that two can keep a secret only if one is dead.
Also understand that while the MSM might be politically on the left, there are few cohorts of people with greater career ambitions than left wing journalists. They’ll gladly slide a knife into a fellow lefty’s back if it means they’ll get a plum assignment or an offer to host on MSNBC.
Maybe I should be outraged at this Journolist thing. But I can’t work up any. We are at the end of an age — the age of Progressivism — and all sorts of silly, stupid things are happening. Reality is in the process of asserting itself and nothing the Progressives can do will stop it. So hang on and take good notes. Since I live in the South, I am glad that my stash of Confederate dollars is safe.
“Reality is in the process of asserting itself and nothing the Progressives can do will stop it.”
Wisest words I’ve read in a long time. I live in the North, I hope the dollar survives.