Interesting that the WADDYA crowd love a bandwagon about banning when it suits them and it concerns one they feel happy to clasp to their collective bosom, but they are never quite so sure when the whole thing is simply a matter of funny old principles and concerns someone they are actually quite keen to see removed from their little party.
The little screeches and parps of indignation range from the heady heights of AllyF all the way to, er, who is winning the competition of bottom-feeder of the year at the moment?
So, banning and the process of being brought back into the fold by begging to be forgiven - you know, like Galileo being forced to recant and retract, to prove that the sun really does orbit the earth - is something which is, like everything else in life, simply not a matter of principle.
We govern ourselves by expedience and whatever it takes to get ourselves back into the company of backslapper stardom.
In fact, advice is also given to simply change your name and go back under another pseudonym. Strictly against the rules and something which is always considered a sign of an utter wrong'un - unless it's your mates, then it's just what you do to stay in with the in-crowd.
So, as far as the WADDYA circus is concerned, banning is a mighty fine and useful tool when it picks off the people who comply with the rules but spoil the party - no comment other than you deserved it when this happens - but everyone presents an affronted face of united outrage when the vile and monstrous moderators clumsily pick one of the blessed.
Not that the CiFerati can be bought and sold like vegetables, of course.
Good observation.
ReplyDeleteIt's also interesting that having turned CiF into a private club from which the unwanted are hounded out by The Untrusted, its leading lights have discovered that the sterile debate that has replaced the vibrant exchanges of the past, are no longer attractive.
What a surprise.
'The heady heights of AllyF...'. Ouch.
ReplyDeleteI look in on WADDYA now and then, only to find myself utterly bemused/repelled by its cozy, mwah-mwah-luvvies-being-'controversial'-together atmosphere.
It's a bit like being hosed down with warm treacle. Alright if you like that sort of thing. I don't.
There was a documentary years ago (cannot remember what it was about, but let's say nuclear arms proliferation for the sake of argument) and towards the end, two elderly spinsters were wheeled out to give their opinions.
ReplyDeleteOne said:
"Of course, it's all about sex."
The other replied:
"Yes, it is: and sex always ends in violence."
"Yes, always."
The problem was - and, yes, they were meant to be ridiculed - their experience of life probably only really equipped them to comment about never having to work because you have inherited enough money; chintz; antimacassars; cats; herbaceous borders and tweed.
It is not that people should not be allowed to comment and signal to the world their ignorance or peculiar slant on life, but that CiF controls who can post what to such a degree that the whole conversation on its pages has now become the embarrassing spectacle of two old virgins pontificating about sex.
Of course, the clowns from the far right or anywhere else are allowed to contravene any and all of the guidelines, as long as they are sufficiently two-dimensional and clumsy to be the obvious focus of rage and ridicule, so that the inadequacies of the star writers and the tiny glittering specks of star commentators are not properly noticed in all their lurching, crippled ineptitude.
The problem with the spinster sisters is that they probably agreed on pretty much everything throughout their boring, uneventful and cosy lives.
The problem is that unruffled, untested and comfortable agreement is not the same as being right and CiF is hoping to be seen as right, simply by eliminating dissent.
As for AllyF, I have to say that I have nothing against him, so should not have singled him out, perhaps.
He seems entirely average, with average opinions and average abilities and he would probably not claim or pretend to be otherwise.
Ms Robinson, though, said that he could post "Two pints of milk" and would immediately receive sixty-five recommendations and a torrent of congratulations for being so brilliant, an audience with the Pope and a day named after him.
The point is, to the cliques which seem to run CiF and their scurrying ranks of Kapos who enforce its universal banality, it does not matter much whether you type your brainz or your backside, as long as whatever you spew is perceived as being golden and jewelled by them.
If you want hobbled conformity, which will never give you a nasty shock or sudden surprise or have the temerity to expect you to think, Comment is Free is certainly the place to go.
Once you have adopted the house style and blended in sufficiently to have become an editor's pet and a fluffy snuggle-bunny to the other posters to nuzzle in their comfort zone, you need never look back.
Keep your nose clean and become so blurred around the edges that you are, to all intents and purposes, invisible and they may even give you a blue sticker and make you a monitor.
"..It's a bit like being hosed down with warm treacle. Alright if you like that sort of thing. I don't.."
ReplyDeleteI liked that mish I have to agree.
Keep it coming atomboy the reading here is quality.
Regards.