Daily Kos, banning, diary deletions and Orwellian limits on free speech

About 5 p.m Central time Thursday, June 8, I posted, from my office, a diary on Daily Kos (deliberately not URL-linked) about the so-called “outing” of the corporate legal work and background of longtime Kos preferred diarist Armando.

After Game 1 of the NBA Finals was done, I got on my computer and got online, to discover this diary was not listed on my diary page. It was a big enough deal, that, before making any accusations, I drove back to my office to see if I had indeed posted the diary or just previewed my posting before leaving.

I had actually posted it.

So, I reposted, and added a line about being very angry about having the original diary apparently deleted.

The fur has flown, to say the least.

A fair portion of posters sound like they’ve been cultically brainwashed by Armando.

Many quite obviously believe that free speech is an Orwellian commodity to be doled out unequally. Most of that number has called outright for my banning from Kos. (They’ll have to do it, I won’t quit on my own.)

Many others have gone far beyond calling me a troll, literally calling me “shit” and other pejoratives. That really doesn’t surprise me; I’ve seen the almost rabid foaming at the mouth of many “Kossacks” (doesn’t the very name, and it’s willful self-adoption, smack of cultism?) any time I have mentioned my previous support for the Green Party. (This cultist mental lock-step is reflected in the great majority of those people not knowing that Ralph Nader was NOT the Green Party presidential candidate in 2004.

(I’ve also found out, via one post, that my original diary was indeed deleted.)

Well, if Kossacks want “trolldom,” I can provide that comment on what’s happened to me in my comments to various posts on other major blogs.

No, in the scheme of liberal/progressive blogging, it may not be much, but it is in terms of principle.

And, this incident, at bottom line, illustrates why I am the skeptical progressive self-identified as the Socratic Gadfly.

UPDATE: Five minutes after I posted this, I found out my second diary had been deleted. Sometime in the next 24 hours, if not sooner, I'll post a diary about censorship at Kos.