Lubbock Left

I suppose it was inevitable.

One of the worst habits on the internet — trolling — is gaining momentum as a mainstream political tactic. From the more benign forms like, “Hey everybody! Let’s all vote in this online poll!” to the lame-but-tolerable “I’m going to post my opposing viewpoint all over the other side’s blog/forum/whatever!” we now have officially sanctioned Chinese pro-government trolls:

Comments, rumours and opinions can be quickly spread between internet groups in a way that makes it hard for the government to censor.

So instead of just trying to prevent people from having their say, the government is also attempting to change they way they think.

To do this, they use specially trained - and ideologically sound - internet commentators.

They have been dubbed the “50-cent party” because of how much they are reputed to be paid for each positive posting (50 Chinese cents; $0.07; £0.05).

What was once the domain of sleazy advertisers is now the technique of choice for the Chinese authoritarian government. I look forward to the Chinese government’s inevitable next step of stimulating their business sector through the factory-efficient spamming of gullible citizens of Western nations. (”I won the Chinese lottery? Hooray! Let me get that routing number…”)

One other item of trolling in the news that I want to mention is the recent organized trolling of Team Sarah, a website based around the ridiculous notion that Sarah Palin could run in 2012. The trolls’ goal was basically to act like ignorant racists in support of Palin by posting ignorant, racist remarks. This is, without a doubt, a terrible thing to do to any website, and I would never condone it.

But.

The trolls made their point, because the comments were not policed until it became obvious that the site was being trolled. In other words, the trolls succeeded in demonstrating a tolerance for a certain level of ignorance and racism at the Team Sarah website. To the credit of the Team Sarah website, they have since put in stricter controls and prominent statements affirming that courtesy, respect, and decency are required.

What an age we live in.

I Am Progress offers a great opportunity for action has presented itself this week in the form of fighting for equal pay for equal work.

The House of Representatives will vote this week on the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. The Senate will vote next week. These bills will help make pay equity a reality, not just a theory. Let’s make sure the House votes FOR fairness to women and FOR helping American families.

And, like any good political action group, I Am Progress and their friends have encapsulated the issue into a funny 1-minute YouTube video:

Holy economic justice, Batman!

I had a few moments today to stop by the Save KTXT Rally put on by the intrepid members of the SAVE KTXT 88.1 FM Facebook Group (nearly 5,000 members!).

I just want to say kudos to everyone involved in the rally. You guys have the right approach — we just need more, more more to make it work.

Why do poverty and obesity go hand-in-hand? This humorous video explains why:

Dallas Penn of DallasPenn.com and Rafi Kam of OhWord.com illustrate the finer points of the Bodega Food Pyramid. I believe that such a disgusting food life exists because we help it to exist. Our policies regarding food are heavily slanted toward big business, which is interested only in maximizing profit. Our farm bill has a lot to do with it too — we subsidize certain crops, and food manufacturers will find ways to mass-produce products based on those subsidized crops.

What if we subsidized locally grown fruits and vegetables, or offered a way for small farmers — or even middle class homeowners with “victory gardens” — to sell their crops to local schools? There have got to be any number of creative ways out of our mass-produced food crisis.

Let me be blunt.

I don’t think enough people realize how much of an absolute revolution in openness and transparency that the Obama transition team’s website Change.gov is. We are witnessing the first transparent Presidential handoff. You can contact the transition team directly and ask them questions. The contrast with the previous administration is so stark — I can’t believe more peple aren’t talking about this. Maybe everyone’s jaded by these comparisons already…

If you’ve got the time to watch it, this recent video by Lawrence Lessig (another personal hero of mine) does an excellent job of explaining how the change.gov website is setting the standard for a hybrid between control and sharing as well as how that fits in with the bigger picture of contemporary culture:

Around 30:00 into the video is where the Change.gov discussion really gets going, but the whole thing is extremely relevant to your life and better for you to watch than anything on TV right now — trust me. :)

If you’re excited like I am about government transparency, I recommend also checking out the Sunlight Foundation and their exciting projects like Party Time! which tracks who attends parties where elected officials make appearances, and Earmark Watch, which helps pin down who added what earmark to which bill.

The key to American success is going to be getting every citizen excited about participating in their own governance again. The technology and ideas about how and why to do this have been out there for years now, but it looks like we finally have the leadership necessary to make it happen.

Via Prodigal Son over at Panhandle Truth Squad:

Conservatism 2.0 Conference - Uniting the Next Generation Online

The C2.0 Conference will bring a fresh, broad spectrum of grass-roots activists, bloggers, students and scholars to Washington, D.C. to focus on online empowerment and new media strategies for shaping the future of conservatism.

L to the O L is all I have to say about that.

Right-wingers should stick to talk radio, which they have down pretty well. The internet belongs to the Left.

Burnt Orange Report continues their excellent Texas House Speaker Race coverage with the reasonably happy ending: Joe Straus will be Speaker of the Texas House with a 150 - 0 vote. Straus seems to be interested in preserving openness, transparency, and fairness that should come with a good Speaker. I hope that the leadership style we had under Pete Laney (and lost under Tom Craddick) will return.

Even though Craddick is a Texas Tech grad, I’m glad to see him gone from the Speaker’s post. He is largely responsible for the greatest 21st century political crime in Texas — the mid-decade Congressional redistricting orchestrated by Tom Delay. West Texas would have the ranking member of the House Ag Committee (Charlie Stenholm) if Perry and Craddick had not rammed the redistricting through the House that stuck Lubbock and Abilene in the same district. The disasterous privatization of the Texas Children’s Health Insurance Program happened under Craddick’s watch as well.

Like the departure of Bush from the national stage, the end of Craddick’s reign over the Texas house — in spite of every conservative pundit in Texas saying that it couldn’t happen — is worth celebrating.

I want to share this speech given by Christian Lander, the author of the wildly successful blog Stuff White People Like:

It’s a long video clip, but very funny and insightful.

One point that Christian made is that the success of the blog is partly due to the desire of many white people to disassociate themselves from the image of white people who voted for George Bush. Yes, his blog is satire, and yes, it’s pointing out what are basically negatives of the stereotype, but by fleshing out this stereotype it necessarily draws a contrast with the carefully constructed stereotype that the GOP has crafted and targeted with its messages since the 1960s.

Also, I am reflecting on Christian’s point about authenticity, genuineness, and passion being the tools that cut through all the BS on the internet to make a successful website.