The "professional left": a bunch of "firebaggers"

[LWolf]

19. Have you noticed

that people who may not be the "denizens" of fdl, who may not ever have even visited their site, get called "firebaggers" when they take a position that some don't like?

I find it problematic to be a "fan" of any political group or political personality. When a poliltician or group says or does something I agree with, I agree. When they say or do something I don't like, I oppose. Agreeing with fdl or HRC or Barack Obama on some things doesn't make me a "fan" or a "firebagger." Disagreeing with any of them on others doesn't mean I'm a "hater." Being an outspoken leftist doesn't make me "professional."

Personally, I find those kinds of attacks to be no better than the average freeper that DUers love to hate. When some less aware republicans tell me that they love and trust Beck, because he tells the truth and has their back so that they don't have to inform themselves, or when they tell me that Obama is a socialist, that gays want us to be able to marry animals, or that Obama is coming after all of our guns, or that they hate the liberal media, etc., etc., I am deeply embarrassed for them. When some DUers mirror them, I am thoroughly humiliated and glad that I have a nice anonymous user name.

I think DU has always had the same internal conflict between partisan party politics and left/liberal politics. There's going to be conflict when DU labels itself "left-wing" (before DU3) or "liberal" (now) and mandates support of Democrats. The Democratic Party is clearly not left-wing, and is not very liberal, either. So DU has 3 distinct groups: the partisans that will always put party before issues, that will vociferously defend all criticism; the leftists who are not at all partisan and don't allow partisan concerns to moderate their positions; and the liberal/left partisans that will, softly or loudly, criticize until campaign season, at which point they shut up and get in line.

The partisans in the first group are those likely to hate fdl, and to call anyone who expresses agreement with something found on fdl to be "firebaggers." They are haters of all dissent, and dissent has to be put down, no holds barred, no intellectual integrity required.

None of that has to do with you, though; you just pointed out what a term refers to, leading me to spend some time thinking and typing a long-standing frustration of mine.