Tuesday, October 26, 2010


Palestine & the Daily Kos: Dog whistles? Or Google Alerts

I started blogging on the internet the day after George W. Bush stole the 2000 election. That Repug skulduggery really ticked me off. And the two things that I have blogged about mostly (and have pissed me off the most) since then are corporatist America and Injustice. Following up on these two subjects, I have traveled the world, blogging from Iran, Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine, Africa, Burma, Iraq, Las Vegas, Detroit, South Africa, Tibet and North Korea -- well not ACTUALLY from North Korea. They've got no internet access there.

And the diaries that I post on the Daily Kos are almost always written on the subjects of corporatist America and Injustice. (Well, sometimes they are about food. The Burma Superstar restaurant in San Francisco is fabulous, BTW. I just went there). And usually I'll get about seven to ten comments per blog on the subjects of corporatist America and Injustice in various places around the world, maybe 20 or 30 comments max -- except when I write about corporatist America and Injustice in Israel and/or Palestine. Then I get 200 or 300 comments on my diaries. Hmmm.

And in these comments (most of them negative and centering around personal attacks on my intelligence), many of these so-called Kossacks have accused me of using a "dog whistle" -- that is, using code words for my outrage at Injustice in Palestine and my outrage at corporatist America's role in perpetuating said Injustice.

How come nobody ever complains when I write about Injustice and corporatist America's role in, say, Cuba or Bolivia or China? Is it because they really like my so-called "dog whistles" there -- as compared to my "dog whistles" on I-P? Or is it because they never read the DK on a regular basis but only go there when signaled by Google Alerts? And only comment on my diaries after Google Alerts has told them that I have mentioned Israel or Palestine?

I've stopped writing about Israel-Palestine on the Daily Kos. The many names that I've been called when I do write on this subject make it just not worth it for me to write about it. Plus there are plenty of other places where I can write about Injustice and corporatist America's perfidious influence in I-P without alerting the "dogs". I don't need to deal with no stinking Israel-Palestine Google Alerts on the DK.

However I do still resent that my beloved Daily Kos is being flooded with commenters who apparently only read my diary when it pops up on their Google Alerts.

Dog whistles, my foot!