This place has really gotten out of control recently. I went into this primary season thinking that the Democratic side would be a relatively calm affair, and that the real fireworks would be on the other side. That feels as if it were years ago, long before I was completely turned off by supporters on both the Hillary and Bernie “teams”. Its gotten to a point where it seems like people have completely fucking forgotten the issues surrounding the campaign, the reason why they support their candidate, and all they have left is personal attacks. Someone like me, who dislikes pissing matches and drama, just leave. Completely. My participation here has dropped off a damn cliff just because I don’t feel safe to disagree with anyone.
The new leap in high flying rhetoric took a turn for the worse with all the paid shill shit. I thought that shit was completely fucking off limits here at dailykos without extraordinary evidence and without naming names. Even if you have meet those two criteria, you are supposed to take it to admins and helpdesk first and keep that shit out of the community pages of dailykos. Nobody fucking cares if you think someone is getting paid for their work because of their join date, newbie status, or particular opinion of a candidate. If we can’t all agree that taking someone as honest until they prove themselves otherwise (and no, a taste of candidate is not PROOF of paid shilling, jesus fucking christ people), we don’t have a community. Its gone.
And don’t tell me I am some shrieking violet and to get out of the kitchen cause I can’t handle the heat. Even in the bloodsport that is politics, accusations of shilling without a shred of evidence is just bad form.
But now because of a couple of articles about paid trolls, we are all suspecting each other of being paid. Well guess what, believe me I am not paid to do this. I am a legitimate fan of dailykos, and mostly my writing here does get some attention, but falls down the memory hole long term. I have been here a very long time, written over 200 diaries, and I am a Sanders supporter. And I am here to tell you, the accusations and innuendo about people who support Hillary and Bernie need to stop. All it does is amplify the distrust and division between supporters of both sides and inflame. It produces 100% heat and no light, and does absolutely nothing to further the conversation. It needs to stop.
That and about 1000000 other things that go on in the “safe spaces” for both candidates.
You know, we have an embarrassment of riches on our side. No matter how acrimonious it has gotten between Hillary and Bernie, it has largely stayed above the fray. You wont see us talking about hand size and giving each other third grader names like “Lyin’ Ted” or “Dastardly Don” or whatever the idiots on the right are doing. We have two candidates who have real platforms, real disagreements, real difference, both who are strong, intelligent human beings who care about the direction of this country. Neither are sociopaths are fascists. In the game of comparisons, we have everything and the republicans have a clown show.
Yes, I have been disappointed that some of the bad blood and acrimony reached the candidates by the last debate in New York. It was the only debate I had to turn off because I was disappointed by BOTH candidates. But for the year that this race has really been on, both candidates have been great compared to the idiots in the republican party.
I just think its a damn shame that we have to tear each other apart supposedly because we support either one of these individuals. Can we not hash our differences out without the claws and knives coming out? I mean really, I know these issues are heated, but it isn’t worth trashing dailykos over it. I legitimately want to read a lot of election diaries and read the comments attached because I love getting different takes and heated intellectual debate can be quite riveting, but this season its just fucking trash. The bar is lowered, and we are all dumber for it. Seriously. Thats the way I feel.
And now, with all the paid shilling accusations flying with seemingly no one stopping it, the comments sections of a lot of rec listed diaries are just fucking unreadable. Completely unreadable.
We are better than this. Seriously.