Blogoshere Kabuki

"Does it really matter, most of what is said there?"

That is what I asked when the discussion was about the Leftist activists that populate some of the Progressive, Democratic blogosphere.

Many of these proclaimed activists appear as caricatures, playing a role as if in a theater, treating theory as if it were reality.

Predicatbly, They go nuts over Israel, indiscriminately and disproportionately. It's like the approach of the UN. The ADL informs that:

From 2009-2010, the U.N. General Assembly (GA) continued to spend a disproportionate amount of time focusing on Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, passing 22 resolutions which are one-sided or blatantly anti-Israel.

Indeed, of 10 emergency special sessions called by the GA, six have been about Israel. No emergency sessions have been held on the Rwandan genocide, ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, or the two decades of atrocities in Sudan.

According to nongovernmental group UN Watch, which monitors the Human Rights Council’s activity, prior to its 16th session (28 February - 25 March 2011), 51 resolutions were approved dealing with individual countries, out of which 35 were about Israel. (Jerusalem Post) That is a mere 70%.

The blogoshere activists are even more out of balance. Much more. At perhaps the largest of these blogs, Daily Kos, it's not even a close call. It puts the UN to shame.  
 
Many of these actors stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel's adversaries, and stand silently by at the massive mistreatment by adversary regimes of their own populations, millions of human beings, especially women and children.

And then they lecture about human rights, throwing out information and theory as though perfect truth, as they turn their backs to human rights foundations based on universality and dignity of the individual.

I find it odd that some people who claim to care about others so much as humanists can so easily tarnish those that disagree, quite inhumanely, whether Christian, Jew, neocon or whatever.  They spout the evil of the other side in no uncertain terms, yet act no different from them when it comes to conduct, particularly tolerance of expression. Should the fact that others behave badly justify one's own bad behavior? Treating people with respect goes a long way to show what a person is, and in this case too many fail the test.

(I am tempted to post an illustrative You Tube here that I watched this morning, but will refrain.)

To me, an effective way to confront such actors, and convince Democrats that they should not listen to these people, is to point out the disconnect, that their theories and behavior contradict liberal principles and free expression. The regimes they help enable hate not only Israel, but our country and its liberal foundations and ideals, and even them! If only they took the time to discover.

As for Americans and our government, we may not be perfect. Far from it. But who is? Those who lecture us at the UN where the OIC has a bloc of over 50 states and pushes an agenda that restricts human rights? Compared to what exists out there on the planet, even our imperfect ideals do not matter, based on actual practice in one state after another, to the sadness of us all. Ideals of democracy and self-determination of individuals mean more than just winning a vote.

To me, most internet actors I describe are insignificant and self-important.  Far reaching discussions occur elsewhere, not from them because their imbalance does not allow for discourse. They exist in an echo chamber, but they do little harm regurgitating among themselves.

The battleground on campus, however, is where I think there can be a greater emphasis to help make change in the dynamics. This is the venue that requires more attention, to open the doors to knowledge for students who are currently deprived.