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Kos’ Top 16 Posts reflects DK Big Interests which throw shade over our Best Interests [1]
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Date: 2023-03-09
Being off-topic won’t stop it!
Kos’ Top 16 Posts reflects DK Big Interests which throw shade over our Best Interests
From both my ongoing survival based interest in human nature and my reading of DK comments over the years, I’ve come to appreciate some of the various reasons people are engaged in the site.
Curiosity, concern and anxiety, seem primary, as well as the need for clarification, stimulation and mutual support, all of which are provided by the politically oriented information, opinions and resulting discourse.
Many members display a sense of social responsibility and clearly enjoy the community-like connection provided by the comradery of like-minded individuals. And then there are those who appear to need to weigh in with opinions that display their intellectual prowess (or what they perceive to be as such).
While readers are more or less tough enough to weather the storms of political turmoil, there is also a tendency for a portion to preferentially seek information that reenforces their opinions; strengthening and preserving their comfort zone. Facts that threaten their inner cohesiveness and necessity for entrenched normality are apt to be avoided.
Often topical, ‘feel good’ posts can garner inordinate attention, not necessarily because the content warrants it, but because of the pleasure and reassurance it imparts.
On the other hand, posts that provide critically important information of a disturbing and untenable nature can often not fair well.
Last week, Kos, posted a list of the top 16 articles on Daily Kos from month of February.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/1/2155699/-Ever-wonder-what-people-read-the-most-on-Daily-Kos-Here-s-February-s-list
Both the content and the responses to it, unintentionally provided a sobering reflection of readership preferences that underscores the continuing level of climate denial on DK.
Ironically, the number one article, written by Kos himself, does reference climate change by inference, making it incidental to the actual subject of his post, which was essentially focused on the hypocrisy and self-serving of a community of “independents” in Arizona.
Like all of Kos’ posts it is a great read.
But while the content does obliquely allude to a serious consequence of climate change, that nevertheless remains the in background as the overlooked dish serving up a delicious meal of schadenfreude.
Predictably, most of the sea of comments it generated maintains that politically oriented focus.
None of the other 15 posts were environmentally related.
The majority were not surprisingly Ukraine related and although Russia’s illegal invasion has been an environmental disaster, that fact is seldom if ever directly addressed in the otherwise terrific coverage of the war provided on DK.
This omission continues, despite the fact that climate, because it overshadows and threatens all else, is the most important issue facing the planet without exception. If you think otherwise at this point, HEADS UP, you’re still in denial, inadequately informed and living in a ‘fool’s paradise’.
If it were not for denial engendered shunning and cognitive-disconnect induced deflection, the true importance of climate awareness would be properly recognized and engaged in on DK.
Sadly, in this regard, Daily Kos is continuing to fall short of embracing environmental awareness to educate*, coordinate and motivate action while there is still time to stabilize climate collapse.
Given the current state of the environment, I understand as well as anybody how daunting exposure to information about it can be. On a profound level, climate collapse is horrendously terrifying.
It can create a brush fire of destabilizing emotional responses that can be disorientingly painful. Often the mind responds by shutting down.
‘Flight’ is triggered and ‘fight’ obstructed.
Although in most situations this is a normal defense response, in our current circumstances it is fundamentally abnormal, as it stymies our primary imperative to survive. The only really effective way to overcome this paralysis is through the clarity imparted by knowledge and awareness. Being uninformed, ill-informed or misinformed only increases this debilitating emotional conflagration, because the drought of ignorance drys the garden of the mind, turning it into tinder.
About a year and a half ago I wrote a post chastising that portion of DK readership which were avoiding environmental issues. The latest U.N. I.P.C.C. Report on Climate Change had just been featured in an article that was largely passed over. After less than a day and less than 50 recs it was dropped. I was at a point where I found this deeply disturbing, upsetting and frustrating, particularly as this ‘cowardliness’ was thrown into high relief by the ongoing bravery being displayed by Ukrainians as the Russian invasion was unfolding. All of this, coupled with my profound understanding of the serious consequences of climate shirking, caused my post to be aggressive and lack diplomacy. When dealing with denial, a frontal attack can be especially poor strategy and I got blasted in the comments section. One of the comments that stood out, made the claim that DK readership was reading the climate articles (which was not born out by the numbers) and that everyone read Meteor Blades’ posts. At the time, Meteor Blades had been posting infrequently and he was barely familiar to me.
Once the the smoke cleared, I became even more alert to the level of traction of environmental articles, noting their quantity and duration as well as the number of recs and comments they received. My increased attentiveness just reenforced my concern. Although slowly, over time, engagement has been picking up steam, it remains woefully short of what is warranted by the magnitude of the crisis we are facing and Kos’ article exposes the degree to which environmental articles are still suffering from neglect by the majority of DK readership. If there were a properly informed awareness amongst readership, the majority of the top articles would be environmental. But people are afraid.
My purpose for addressing this deficiency of commitment is to highlight a clear example of its manifestation, in an effort to undermine the level of climate denial still ruling Daily Kos.
If this can help stimulate awareness and prepare people for the revelatory disasters to come as the our world collapses, perhaps that will partially buffer the shock when it does. Even better, if I can provide information that aids in steering a few clear of denial or despair towards proactivity, that would be optimum as we still have time to stabilize climate collapse by curbing our consumption to necessities, instituting climate shutdowns to buy time and pushing for legislation that supercharges the shift to sustainability.**
And the best way to start is by reading and supporting climate posts.
*Many comments to climate posts are still riddled with disinformation and denial ridden statements.
**This remarkable comment to one of my posts gives me great hope for the possibility of reaching others in this way:
“You have described me pretty well — I don’t read all the melting ice-caps diaries because they just increase my anxiety and I feel I can't do anything about the problem beyond what I am already doing.
I can see, however, that government-mandated shut-downs would make a difference and can see that we have reached a moment when that action is likely necessary.
I will start reading all the environment posts so my dialogues will be better-informed. Silence = Death.”
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/9/2157107/-Kos-Top-16-Posts-reflects-DK-Big-Interests-which-throw-shade-over-our-Best-Interests
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