I track a lot of political blogs, on both sides of the aisle, and today has been quite a day for discussing a single Washington Post article. Richard Cohen's "Digital Lynch Mob" shares the shock of a liberal journalist who makes the mistake of offending the left-wing bloggers. Now everybody's talking about it. Memeorandum lists the following sites discussing it so far:
I've broken the conversation down into three main groups:
Mainstream journalists, who think it proves all bloggers are barbarians.
Left-leaning bloggers, who think Cohen is a cry-baby.
Right-leaning bloggers, who say Americans don't like hate.
Americans don't like hate. If somebody says something right (even if it's completely by accident!), make it a point to send them a nice note. Link to their (one) good post. If they say something ridiculous, speak charitably and offer them hope.
Jesus tells us to love our enemies. That's inspired, but it's practical, too. In the blogosphere, love will beat out hate every time.
Note how Blue Crab Boulevard made it a point to comment here! Blue Crab is a perfect stranger to me, but he (?) knows the value of acknowledging a link. Now I'm off to learn more about who this Crab is.
That's how you make friends and influence people in cyberspace.
