"Does what we do at DU matter?"

Self-doubt can be a crippling thing. When one does not know whether what one is doing is making one iota's bit of difference, one begins to wonder: All the keyboard pounding, all the wailing and moaning, all the ranting and raving--to what end? Are we making any difference in this wacky world of ours?

So it is for our little friends in DUmmieland, as today we drop in on their latest exercise in navel-gazing, here in this THREAD, "Does what we do at DU matter?"

The DUmmie comments are in Bolshevik Red, while the commentary of your humble guest correspondent, Charles Henrickson, in awe of all that the DUmmies have been able to accomplish--namely, hours of endless entertainment!--is in the [brackets]:

Does what we do at DU matter?

["Does it matter"? Does it MATTER?? DOES IT MATTER??? . . . No.]

I wrote a similar headline a few weeks ago, only it bridged toward the negative, saying it didn't seem to matter. Not long after posting the OP I got my very first email from our commonwealths' senator, John Kerry. It might have been a coincidence; but I doubt it.

[John Kerry has your back.]

Along the same vein, signing petitions matters, so keep it up.

[Write a LTTE too! That'll get things done! DUAC! DUAC!]

I sometimes feel like we are just venting or talking to each other. . . .

[No way! You are reaching THOUSANDS of people--and giving them good laffs--through the DUmmie FUnnies!]

Some are paid to do so [read this stuff] and to try to insert RW talking points in threads with progressive ideas.

[No way again! Most LOUSY FREEPER TROLLS do it for FREE!]

Remember Elizabeth Edwards once posted here, so if she and John (in better days) were reading what we say, you can be sure many others are too.

[Elizabeth Edwards? LOUSY FREEPER TROLL!!! That's the real reason, btw, she and John are getting divorced.]

I suspect this is a training ground for Heritage Foundation (and the like) interns. Our current crop of "visitors" are fairly obvious, IMHO, but some are damn skillful.

[Thanx! And I say that on behalf of our VAST ARMY of LFTs!]

sometimes I get so filled with despair I want to climb under my bed and play with the dust bunnies.

[I'm glad you found somebody to play with, ben.]

Let me reiterate: PEOPLE IN DC ARE NERVOUS

[Let me reiterate: PEOPLE IN DU ARE NUTS!]

yes: the highly recommended threads _plus_ the galvanized actions of members

[Or, in South Carolina, their Alvinized actions.]

I've noticed what some people say here ends up in the press. . . .

[Like that Rove indictment, for instance.]

Think "6 degrees of separation". We're maybe a "degree" or two away from journalists, staffers, and lobbyists.

[Maybe you're a degree or two away from the men in the white coats.]

the pressure often comes from the internet before it hits the newspapers. When there is a buzz.

[The DUmmies often have a buzz.]

Before becoming disabled, I worked at 4 radio stations, a TV station and a newspaper.

[In other words, you kept getting fired.]

Yes, I am sure the big shots from the hill are all watching DU. Gosh they are dying to know the weather reports in various neighborhoods around the country, they need to read the 10,000 versions of the same thing (the oil leak is making me sad), they can't go on without reading how so and so's surgery turned out, hope to catch pics of cute animals. . . .

[I detect a note of sarcasm. Please continue, DUmmie JNelson6563 . . .]

Lord knows there probably are no drama queens on the hill so if one really needs serious drama, you just can't beat DU.

[I think Bawney Fwank qualifies as a queen on the Hill. But do go on . . .]

Sorry but one can witness self absorbed attention whores anywhere and as far as political discussion, unless they are looking for barbiturate left ad nauseum, hardly seems worth it for really busy people to get political feedback here. . . . Julie--who never ceases to marvel at peoples' self-important notion of DU.

[Congratulations, Julie, aka DUmmie JNelson6563! You win today's Kewpie Doll for this Brief Moment of Mental Clarity®!]

It's too bad that there are trolls on the message boards either by nature or paid by right wing operations who dilute our efforts to maintain a strong presence and who too often succeed in getting some of DUs more talented members tomb stoned over the years.

[Is that what got Will Pitt tombstoned? So are you suggesting that DUmmie bobbolink, aka Bobo the Hobo, is a . . . LOUSY FREEPER TROLL??? Where IS Will, anyway? Where is Bobo the Hobo? Still posting?]

I hope this is read. . . .

[I hope this is Red, as in Bolshevik Red.]

I had never known how wide a reach we have on DU until you google something & it comes up!

[I had never known how wide a retch we have on DU until you gargle something & it comes up!]

DU is referenced, I am sure, many times and google searches are full of them. . . .

[Now try googling "DUmmie FUnnies"! 55,000 results! Hee! Hee!]

Just because we may be Liberals doesn't mean we walk in lock step.

[No, we sit at our computers and stamp our little feet!]

For me, DU is an "information watering hole."

["Did somebody say 'watering hole'?" --Pitt]

The consequence of this burgeoning awareness shifts our sense of responsibility beyond simply fulfilling the common duties of a 'good citizen,' such as keeping ourselves informed through corporate media sources, supporting and voting for candidates that represent at least some of our interests. Now our responsibility is to inform ourselves through a variety of sources, to investigate for ourselves contradictory claims, to share information with others around us, to build bridges between otherwise desperate groups, to find common aims and strategies to not only inform ourselves and one another but to begin to build a new paradigm of political consciousness that can become a force. What we need is a critical mass of awareness that can begin to challenge the under belly of 'deep' politics, first by exposing it for what it is, how it operates, what its agendas and strategies are and, second, by finding alternatives to them.

[zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........]

I so often feel like Don Quixote tilting at windmills. . . .

[To dream . . . the impossible dream . . .]

DU gets my stamp of approval!

[The Good Nuthouse Stamp of Approval!]

meh.

[pfft.]

I wonder what could actually be accomplished with the energy that's wasted in all the furious posting?

[Think of all the basements that could be cleaned!]

It matters as much as a fart in a windstorm.

[Sorry, only one Kewpie Doll per thread!]