On March 4, kos announced an upcoming narrowing of the spectrum of tolerated discourse on this site, with a particular focus on “malicious criticism” against Hillary Clinton. All this, conditional upon the primaries results of March 8-15 not presenting a Michigan-like upset on an even larger scale. If such an upset does not materialize, then per kos’ analysis (which is in line with all expert analysis, including, btw, MattTX’s scenarios posted Feb. 26, which are endlessly cited as a rebuttal), per kos’ analysis the campaign enters Garbage Time, formally known as General Election Mode. Which means that below-belt hitting, slide tackles, [enter favorite sports analogy here], etc., against both candidates and their supporters, and in particular against the front-runner — will all be strictly forbidden.
This announcement has aroused a wave of comments, response diaries, and protest among the site’s Bernie-supporting majority, a protest directed at kos’ tyrannical tendencies, his muddled thinking, the Clinton cabal controlling the site, and so forth
Obviously kos’ original announcement was, at the very least, poorly worded in parts. This and the ensuing protest, have required kos to issue clarifications and molifications, which has done relatively little to quell the fire, especially given Bernie’s stunning March 8 upset victory in Michigan. If anything, it seems that after a brief relative lull, diarists (and diary rec’cers) have doubled down on the Hillary criticism over the last few days.
This type of image comes up when you search “malicious” on Google. Seems appropriate to me!One thing that is completely missing — at least I haven’t noticed it — is any open process of introspection. A lot of derision and umbrage was thrown at the term “malicious criticism”, as a catch-all Patriot Act style term, that can be used to shaft anybody and everybody.
No time or words (not that I’ve seen, at least) have been spent on pondering whether there has been, indeed, a pattern of “malicious criticism”, in a simple straightforward sense that the common reasonable person — once removed from the heat of partisan fights — would agree is indeed malicious and unhelpful in any case, and not worth setting up barricades for, because Good Riddance.
As someone who is (yes, still) undecided in these primaries, and is not part of site management in any shape or form, I will try to help you recognize it. A simple direct test. Here goes.