It took a special kind of clever to write something as moronic as the Forbes piece. Here’s something. Change the word blogger to “black” or “Irish” or “Jew” or “Catholic” or “Protestant” and tell me it doesn’t read as something that would be classed as incitement of hatred.
The forbes article is a witch hunt, same as the RIAA attacks on individuals that download illegal music. A stupid attempt to somehow stop the tide.
Emotional language is used throughout the piece: Attack threat virulent strain lynch mob hate
There are some quite amazing statements:
“Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo.”
Google and other services operate with government-sanctioned impunity, protected from any liability for anything posted on the blogs they host.
My first reaction was “Jesus Christ, a journalist is arguing against freedom of speech and freedom of the press.” Hello? Irony alarm broken?
The article talks about disease, about toxicity, about a stealh creeping attack about a group of people the vast majority of people do not know about. It is a rally against them and the Government who apparently are standing idly by. It seems to be saying to remove or regulate them for the safety of the nation. Forbes and the Big Lie.
“Suddenly they are the ultimate vehicle for brand-bashing, personal attacks, political extremism and smear campaigns”
But even the Constitution doesn’t give a citizen the right to unjustly call his neighbor a child molester.
The new Godwin’s – talk about child molestation. Nothing creates instant fear than the idea of child molestation or the fear of wrongly being accused of being a child molestor. This was very much a political rallying cry to appeal to the ignorant and those who do not understand this new form of communication. There’s money to be made and power to be attained on appealing to the ignorant and unaware. Forbes is doing a superb job.
How can you stop bloggers though? They have a built-in policing aspect to them via comments on their blogs or other blogs commenting on them. They really aren’t anonymous and they won’t get as much respect if they are, unless they are whistle blowers. There are cliques and clubs and affiliations but there is a standard out in the ‘sphere where you just can’t get away with bullshit and lies forever unless what you say is such nonsense that nobody listens.
Chris Pirillo came up with the Blogger’s Manifesto but I’ve been more of a fan of the Hacker’s Manifesto. I reckon this should be reworked for Bloggers.