Bloggasm

When you follow politics enough, you begin to pick out news pieces and rhetoric which have absolutely no substance whatsoever, things that are nothing but white noise. Let me show you an example– in which not only has the news source just wasted about sixty seconds of your time, but the person quoted in the source is nothing but a political pawn who has absolutely nothing to say at all: Feminist Camille Paglia Attacks Liberal Media

Camille Paglia, the famed, feminist social critic that calls herself a Democrat, gave an interview to The Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin, recently (hat tip to Radio Equalizer) in which she attacked a wide array of American media icons. For instance, she stated that the writing of The New York Times was, “‘Upper middle class comfortable elitist liberalism.’”

She then blamed a lot of the left’s difficulties on Hollywood: “‘It’s the reason my party, the Democratic Party, is in such bad shape. It’s because of the insularity and the arrogance of those views.’”

Ok, first let’s establish the news organization’s subtitle: “Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias.”

Pundits on both sides love to do this. They pick someone from the opposite side that criticizes his or her own political bias and uses this as anecdotal evidence to support one theory: “Even [insert person with political bias here] is criticizing his own party.” And since there are literally thousands of prominent political figures on each side, it’s not hard to find someone to do this. It’s one of those logical black-holes that every pundit loves and refuses to let go of.

Now, let’s get into the meat (or lack thereof) of her statements:

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Feministing has noticed that many of the women who make it onto Woman of the Year lists made it on their partially because of their marriage to a man:

Not saying these honored wives weren’t worthy of recognition for other accomplishments outside of their marriages. But it certainly seems like the best way to be noticed for your achievements is to marry a prominent man… or divorce one

Simon Owens: Which conservative bloggers do you think create the most spin? And if you had to pick a conservative blogger to label a worthy adversary, which blogger would that be?

Echidne of the Snakes: The spin created depends on the particular topic we are discussing. The ones that create spin about the Iraq war, for example, may not be able to create spin about something else. Drudge seems to have a lot of power, but I’m not sure if he is regarded a blogger as such. Andrew Sullivan is fairly widely read, too, and so are InstaPundit and Powerline. Bloggers like Ann Coulter or Michelle Malkin appear to me to try to create a lot of outrage.

Simon Owens: As a feminist, how do you view women who tend to be conservative? Do you consider them naive people who aren’t looking out for their own interests?

Echidne of the Snakes: I view all women as individuals who differ from each other as much as men differ from each other, so the conservative women tend to be like the conservative men. They value the same things in life. They may feel that the current society has dealt them a good hand, for example, or they may be very religious, and religions tend to be fairly anti-women in their preaching.

I don’t think that they are necessarily naive, though all sorts of people can be naive. What makes any person tick is really hard to decipher from outside, but I’d say that “looking out for ones own interest” doesn’t make for a good understanding of wider policy dilemmas. Because as I said, people are individuals with more or less in common, and we don’t want to make the world based on only our own life experiences.

Simon Owens: What are some of the main problems females face now in the 21st Century?

Echidne of the Snakes: This depends on the part of the world we are looking at. In Africa, the main problem of women is to try to stay alive and healthy. AIDS is a serious problem for all Africans, but it is an extremely serious problem for young women in countries where women don’t have the right to refuse unprotected sex. And then there are medical conditions such as fistulas. Google them to find out the kinds of horror stories that are daily life for many African women.

In some extremely Islamic countries women will have to fight to keep any of the rights we take for granted: the right to travel without a husband’s permission, the right to have a job, the right to inherit.

Family violence is a concern in many countries. Wife beating is culturally sanctioned in quite a few countries.

In the United States, the major problem women face today is the pushback from those who would like to reverse Roe vs. Wade. If this is combined with an attack on birth control we are fairly close to a world where women can’t decide on the timing and spacing of their children. The ability to do this seems to me to be a precondition for gender equality.

Then women will also have most of the same problems men in the same countries have, of course.

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs everyone should be reading (besides your own)?

Echidne of the Snakes: This is a tricky one to answer, because there are so many good blogs out there, and because the blogs I read for writing purposes are not necessarily the same as the blogs I read for pure entertainment or in order to learn more about something. But if we limit the question to political blogs from the left blogosphere, I’d recommend Digby (for deep analyses), Eschaton (for an unerring finger-on-the-pulse type of news), James Wolcott (for excellent writing in irony), Pandagon (for posts about feminism, racism and homophobism especially) and the Suburban Guerrilla (for just good reporting and analysis). But I could immediately write another list of five and so on…

You can find Echidne of the Snakes over here.

Simon Owens: Which conservative bloggers do you think create the most spin? And if you had to pick a conservative blogger to label a worthy adversary, which blogger would that be?

Lindsay Beyerstein: Generally speaking, the conservative blogs don’t create their own spin, they perpetuate the spin that’s created by the higher ups in the GOP message machine. Powerline and Michelle Malkin are among the top spin perpetuators.

John Cole of Balloon Juice is a worthy adversary.

SO: How powerful do you think political blogs will become (in terms of readership) before we see a plateau in readers? Is there a much larger potential readership than we have now?

LB: I think there’s a potential for a much larger readership than we have now. Total readership is only one measure of the power and influence of the blogosphere, however. Blogs aren’t just a publishing medium like magazines, they’re also a means of organizing people and channeling resources. For example, blogs are becoming focal points for activism within the Democratic party, and not just because a fair number of registered Democrats read blogs.

SO: As a female blogger, do you feel that you are out-numbered by males? Is it any different to be a female writing in the blogosphere?

LB: I’m definitely outnumbered by male bloggers, but that doesn’t bother me. I haven’t felt discriminated against. When I first started blogging, there was a lot of controversy about “where the women bloggers were.” At which point dozens of female bloggers stood up and said “AHEM.” At that point almost all the A-list liberal bloggers were male, and most would probably have described themselves as feminists or feminist sympathizers.

These guys were genuinely perplexed about why they weren’t encountering more women doing their kind of blogging. I think they were embarrassed by the outcry from the women bloggers who accused them of being blinkered on gender issues. The problem was mostly human nature rather than real sexism–being in a rut about who you link to, being overly rigid about what constituted “serious blogging.”

To their credit, the liberal blogosphere really cleaned up its act on the whole “woman blogger thing”. At first, popular male bloggers made a conscious effort to seek out female bloggers and lend them exposure. Now, I think that it’s not even an issue. The great thing about blogging is that it’s a conversation. It may take some effort to the conversation started, but the exchange takes on a momentum of its own when you realize that you had a lot to say to each other all along. Now, I think the liberal political blogosphere is unusually receptive to feminism compared to other media in this country.

SO: What are the five blogs everyone should be reading (besides your own)?

LB: Pandagon
Lawyers, Guns, and Money
Talking Points Memo
Unclaimed Territory
Hullabaloo

You can find Majikthise over here.