Illiberal Discourse

I was sufficiently optimistic to suppose that once the election was past that the overheated rhetoric would calm down. For some, sadly, it has become even more heated. A liberal blogger that I have enjoyed following for some time today compares modern conservatives to the slave holders of 1861, and equates Republican leadership to the mass murderers of 9/11. When I said I thought he was going to an extreme, his response was to "stand by what I said." He has a right to do that of course, and I have a right to quit reading him and to remove him from my blogroll.

Blogging is becoming more difficult these days, in part because of the environment in which I do it. Writing is hard work, and too often any more the only ones willing to engage in it are people whose source of energy is irrational rage directed at anyone who disagrees with them.

I have always tried to inject a note of reason into heated discourse, but increasingly discourse has strayed so far from reality that I am sensing that reason is not wanted; that irrationality has become the purpose of discourse. I may write less frequently for a few days and think about why I'm doing this.