…ECHO…echo…et co. [DOT 17/2/20]

…feel free to take this with the requisite pinches of salt…it is not lost on me that the combination of a surfeit of low-hanging fruit & a degree of laziness on my part means that the DOT is frequently a fine example of what I am about to bemoan

…indeed that alone might appear to be prima facie evidence of levels of cognitive dissonance &/or deafness to the sound of one’s own voice fit to rival the most all-in of supporters of his orangeness the pomp of our current circumstance

…I may need to impose some kind of self-censorship deal…despite getting a pass on the DOT for a few days courtesy of Meg I’m afraid there’s a bunch of bemoaning of billy barr with my name attached to it still liable to surface of a morning…although for at least one block of that I did manage to use real actual grown up punctuation & syntax & hardly any ellipses at all, really

…but in all honesty I’d be surprised if any of that came as news to any of you…which makes sense to me on the basis that I don’t think what we’ve been doing here…always assuming that we’ve been doing anything at all…is about providing “the news” so much as shooting the shit about one thing or another & a bunch of those things being things that do qualify as the news…mostly on account of there being a lot of that sort of shit floating about & a lot of it seeming like it needs a bit of talking about if we’re all going to maintain our tenuous hold upon sanity through November…but at least we can hope “it’ll all be over by Christmas”?

which has me thinking a couple of things…I forget which of the multiplicity of threads & channels I’ve been just about keeping up with had the discussion I’m thinking of on it but there’s a degree to which it appears that some find the preponderance of posts &/or comments being in agreement (broadly speaking) on the topic of the modern day GOP being essentially synonymous with a criminal enterprise…with de facto material assistance from hostile entities that run the gamut from the classic cold war useful idiots all the way up the corporate &/or political chain (or trail of radioactive breadcrumbs as the case may be) to the likes of the Murdoch, Mercer or Koch families…or to a man named Vlad whose vision for his own nation is terrifying enough without getting into what he’d be happy to see happen to the rest of the world to…well…echo a little

…& I really don’t think he does…or would do if he were so much as peripherally aware that this place even existed…but I guess I do to one extent or another because personally I find it hard to deny that if I sit down at a keyboard with the news somewhere in my vicinity the results tend to skew heavily towards a disbelieving kind of plaintive venting very much fitting that pattern…but all the same I think it might be worth thinking about ways we could adjust the ratio of stuff it might be nicer to talk about?

…I know there’s a conjunction of largely technical issues currently causing myopicprophet a fair degree of consternation so I don’t mean to suggest that we attempt anything drastic or expect the instant granting of any technical wishes

…but truthfully one of things that lured me below the line to the comment sections of Kinja was a degree of sparring perspectives that arguably we might be missing out on on account of the aforementioned sense of general agreement lending itself to the appearance of preaching to the choir…& thereby losing the more distant elements of the congregation who are arguably a good bit of the point of the exercise…after all, it’s called a healthy debate for a reason

…so, speaking for myself…which, again, is pretty much all I think most of us can claim to be doing on here…& much as I’m already grateful to all the folks who find the time to post things in this vicinity that I get to read…I’d be happy to find an even broader range of fare to scroll through hereabouts…& indeed if anyone feels like putting themselves forward for putting that first foot forward with a DOT to kick things off of a morning I hope you’ll bear in mind that contrary to appearances I’d take reading over writing for preference most days

…so don’t be backwards coming forwards…particularly if you’re feeling bashful because your thinking isn’t lining up with what you’re reading?