"A Tale of Two Blogospheres": Liberals more open than conservatives online

[davidm]

@Beware_of_Doug

Conservatives want conclusions; liberals want conversations.

Conservatives have conclusions. Conclusions that aren’t, in their eyes, open to discussion. Liberals aren’t totally immune to this, but they do seem, in general. to be more open.

To be fair, we’re discussing the left and right in the US. Certainly a large percentage of party members in the old Soviet Union were every bit as dogmatic and unmoving as some of our craziest right-wing fundamentalists, and the far left in the US can also be dogmatic and unmoving.

Maybe what we’re seeing in the US is that the most dogmatic and unmoving conservatives have become the mainstream of the party, while the most dogmatic and unmoving leftists, while certainly existing, have been largely marginalized.

[Chronos]

Conservatives are individualists. Liberals are collectivists.

I would say just the opposite. Someone on, say, Rush Limbaugh’s blog is there for what Rush Limbaugh has to say. Someone on Daily Kos is there to say something for themself. The latter sounds much more individualist, to me.

[John_Mace]

@septimus

Odd conclusion to derive from that datum. I’d have drawn the opposite. :dubious:

Then instead of posting a “dubious” emoticon, quote the part from that link that supports your conclusion. I did.

In addition to what I already quoted from the OP’s link:

Many liberal blogs, it turns out, were created with platforms to host multiple authors and share attention with guest contributors. Conservative blogs, in contrast, often use technologies highlighting a single author…

Single author vs multiple authors. Which is the individualist and which is the collectivist?

[Chronos]

Easy, the individualists are the authors. So on a conservative blog, you have a single individualist, while on a liberal blog, you have many of them.

[septimus]

@John_Mace

@septimus

@John_Mace

One of the most striking findings is structural: liberal blogs provide audience participation options at triple the rate of conservative sites.

Conservatives are individualists. Liberals are collectivists.

Odd conclusion to derive from that datum. I’d have drawn the opposite. :dubious:

I’ve certainly noticed the tendency OP mentions. Liberal blogs are full of liberals arguing with each other, and right-wingers coming in to argue also. Conservative blogs and wikis tend to be heavily censored…

Then instead of posting a “dubious” emoticon, quote the part from that link that supports your conclusion. I did.

My reference was to the sentence from OP which I did quote, using cut-and-paste. I’ve done this again, above to clarify the complete subthread. (Perhaps your attention was distracted after clicking reply, since the reference then disappears?? )

The conclusion I draw from the fact that liberals like to debate, while conservatives just listen to their “mentors” seems logical enough to me. Your position seems to be the one that’s hard to understand.

@John_Mace

Single author vs multiple authors. Which is the individualist and which is the collectivist?

Uh, let me guess. Liberals are collectivists because they’ve collectively decided to debate each other. Conservatives, on the other hand, have individually chosen to listen uncritically to their intellectual role models. Is that it?

[John_Mace]

@septimus

My reference was to the sentence from OP which I did quote, using cut-and-paste. I’ve done this again, above to clarify the complete subthread. (Perhaps your attention was distracted after clicking reply, since the reference then disappears?? )

Oh, that was the same part I quoted in my post, so it wasn’t clear to me that you were quoting it also. Individualists do things on their own-- they don’t “participate”.

The conclusion I draw from the fact that liberals like to debate, while conservatives just listen to their “mentors” seems logical enough to me. Your position seems to be the one that’s hard to understand.

I was focusing on the people who are active in the blogosphere-- the people actually doing the blogging. Conservatives seem to be doing this more individually, while liberals are doing it as a group (call it “collevtively”).

But frankly, I’m not really tied into any particular interpretation of this data-- I’m more playing devil’s advocate to show that there are different ways to interpret it, and perhaps we choose the way that most fits our pre-conceived idea. Especially since what happens in the blogoshpere seems to not be happening the talk-radio-o-sphere, dominated by conservatives, and where the audience is encourage to call-in and participate.

[Squink]

@John_Mace

seems to not be happening the talk-radio-o-sphere, dominated by conservatives, and where the audience is encourage to call-in and participate.

What fraction of the audience actually does this? I expect it’s a tiny tiny one compared to the fraction of liberal blogreaders who write comments, at least occasionally.
Is not the purpose of the callers on talk radio to serve as a mirror from which the host’s brilliance may shine? In that case, the participation is more an enabling mechanism for the host, rather than a conduit for the individual caller to get his views out.

[begbert2]

@John_Mace

Oh, that was the same part I quoted in my post, so it wasn’t clear to me that you were quoting it also. Individualists do things on their own-- they don’t “participate”.
I was focusing on the people who are active in the blogosphere-- the people actually doing the blogging. Conservatives seem to be doing this more individually, while liberals are doing it as a group (call it “collevtively”).

But frankly, I’m not really tied into any particular interpretation of this data-- I’m more playing devil’s advocate to show that there are different ways to interpret it, and perhaps we choose the way that most fits our pre-conceived idea.

There’s only one way to interpret it - that many individual liberals come together to collectively contribute to the blogs, and that the conservative audience collectively listens relatively silently to the few individual republican professional bloggers. The only differences are which labels you are using to describe each group. I would say that the group which is more represented by people voicing individual opinions is demonstrating more individualism as a group, but that’s just me.

Also I’ve heard that conservative talk radio has a tendency to squelch calls that don’t align with the opinions of the host, but I freely admit that that’s hearsay and could be wrong. I listen to no republican talk radio (or any radio) myself.

[John_Mace]

@begbert2

There’s only one way to interpret it - that many individual liberals come together to collectively contribute to the blogs, and that the conservative audience collectively listens relatively silently to the few individual republican professional bloggers. The only differences are which labels you are using to describe each group. I would say that the group which is more represented by people voicing individual opinions is demonstrating more individualism as a group, but that’s just me.

Individualists, in the strictest sense, are not interested in other people’s opinions. One of Roarke’s famous lines from “The Fountainhead” when asked about being open minded was something like “I don’t know, I’ve never been open minded”.

[begbert2]

@John_Mace

Individualists, in the strictest sense, are not interested in other people’s opinions. One of Roarke’s famous lines from “The Fountainhead” when asked about being open minded was something like “I don’t know, I’ve never been open minded”.

I have a word for people like that, but it’s not 'individualist". There’s a difference between having and wanting to express an opnion distinct from the group, and having an opinion (probably largely given to you by somebody else) and not being interested in hearing other opinions (unless they agree with the one you already have/have been given).

[sqweels]

My experiene with conservative blogs is that it’s often difficult to get to the point where you can post and easy to get banned.