On a recent Chicago business trip, I saw a sign in a retail shop window proudly proclaiming “We Accept Competitor’s Coupons!” As it does each time I see this sign, my heart fell as another Capitalist wannabe fails the test. There are few things worse, in my opinion, than failing to bring to market a product that speaks for itself by attracting consumers based on quality and then compensating for that failure by parasitically attaching oneself to the efforts of another, better man who has succeeded where you have failed.

A companion strategy involves criticizing and savaging your competition as a form of self promotion. If you lack personal strengths and values, you disguise that disadvantage, not by developing some, but rather by disparaging your opponent’s strengths and values. The attacks need not be true or accurate, they just need to be implemented. Any ol’ savaging will do.

While this practice is in evidence on both sides of the aisle, and is distasteful wherever it is found, the political Left in our country has honed it into something of a profession. Unable to develop and bring to market viable and vibrant policies of their own addressing the issues of the day, they choose the option of trying to destroy what they cannot defeat. Should they happen upon a good idea and promote it, if their opponents agree and implement it, then it, too, must be savaged. Think I’m making this stuff up? Two words – The Surge!

Digg.com is one of the net’s most popular sites for grassroots promotion of online material. If a person likes a story or video he sees somewhere; if he digs it as they said in the 60s, then he can “Digg” it at Digg. That means he can vote for it showing his appreciation of the material. With enough Diggs a story makes it to the front page of Digg.com where it garners a lot of traffic, exposure and promotion. There’s also a feature at Digg.com to weed out duplicate stories which dilutes the efforts to promote the original submission. That feature is called “Bury”.

Anyone can Digg a story they like and anyone can Bury a story that is a duplicate. Unfortunately, the Left has swarmed over Digg.com, abusing the system, and groups, known as Bury Brigades, vote down stories. Not for the legitimate reasons posted at Digg.com but based on the content of the story. Liberal material gets Digged – Conservative material gets Buried. It’s a straight one to one ratio so one Bury cancels out one Digg.

While it’s odd to those of us with jobs and lives that a group of people would have nothing better to do than patrol a website looking for stuff they don’t like and then getting all their friends to join in disparaging the object of their displeasure, that is exactly what is happening. It’s successful, too. So successful that the practice has spread to similar sites such as Reddit and Newsvine. All it takes is a couple of complaints for a post or a video to be suppressed. The offended party can complain about his unfair and harsh treatment at the hands of the community and the site. Nothing will be done about those complaints.

Similar tactics involve complaints against or the incorrect classification of material being posted which results in the restriction of or outright banning of a site or forum from being available on the internet at all. For a host of examples of this in the area of the War on Terror, visit 1389 blog. Destructive efforts in this area include coercion of website hosts to take down sites entirely and the decision of WiFi providers to popular internet locations such as Panera Bread and others to block access to some sites, classifying them as “Hate Sites” among other things.

Not content to have their intimidation limited to cyberspace, such thugs are making their presence known and felt in the real world as well. Death threats and intimidating visits by opponents of a particular view to homes and businesses are becoming increasingly common. The news cycles have picked up the story of Jay Grodner, an anti-war Chicago attorney, charged with keying a BMW sporting a USMC decal and doing $2400 worth of damage to the car and then stretching out the legal process until after the offended Marine is gone on his second tour of duty in Iraq. Across the pond, there is actually a warrant out for the arrest of a blogger known as Lionheart upon his return to the UK for the charge of ‘Stirring up Racial Hatred by Displaying Written Material’. His crime? Exposing and highlighting dangerous elements in the UK’s Muslim community. Check out his blog and decide for yourself if the charges are justified.

The common threads here are not truth, evidence, dialogue, review and consensus and a reasoned, rational response accompanied by explanations to arrive at a legitimate conclusion. On the contrary. The common elements here are unilateral actions to perceived insults that are undertaken anonymously and which are intended to have a chilling, emotional effect on the people and communities so treated with the desired end that fear and mistrust are produced and that the views and opinions, the rights and liberties of those they oppose are trampled , suspended and revoked. It’s the Politics of Terror and it’s the playground of the Left.

Wondering what sort of surge will be needed to oppose this terror threat …

Blue Collar Muse