…further explanation from what i gather– received a few questions and seen more than a few raised eyebrows when the category presents itself.  this is not a blog about dudes gathering in a circle and jerking one another off.  i am sure connoisseurs of such activities can find what they’re looking for elsewhere on this world wide net of ours but this blog ain’t it.  “circle jerk” is utilized purely as an analogy.

the analogy is this: the way i see it, most discussions in the left/ liberal blogosphere  are akin to circle jerks.  it is as simple as that.

or the blabbers of teenage girls.  which, at the end of the day, is yet another circle jerk.

ashley, amy and meg are hanging out in meg’s room one tuesday after school.  they’re braiding each other’s hair, shuffling through the pages of meg’s mom’s cosmopolitan, painting smiley faces on their toenails, pumping justin bieber on the boombox and having this fine conversation:

-oh my god, isn’t justin so hot…

-oh…..my….god, he really is..  reminds me of josh johnson.  he is soo hot..

-oh my god, josh is like such a dork..

-no he so is not.  he is hot.  don’t be a bitch.

-he is alright i guess but he is not josh campbell.  oh my god, josh campbell, i would soo jump him. like right now.

-oh my god, you know josh is taking ashley johnson to the prom?

-no, the cheerleader?

-um, no, josh johnson’s sister ashley.  you know, like with all that henna..

-oh my god, she is such a slut.

-guys, have you like seen the thong she was wearing today.

-oh my god, that was soo lame.

-oh my god, you won’t believe this: i was sitting right behind pete strickland in ms. klein’s class.  pete was like staring at her thong for like 10 hours..

-eww, he is so gross..  but, um, what you think about the cashmere sweater ms. klein had on today?  it was like tight..

-i mean, bitch, you’re like large or at least like medium.  hide those boobs, gross..

continues like this with giggles, ewws, grosses, and oh my gods sprinkled carelessly for good measure until all are satiated and can go home and stomach their gross parents..  that, my friends, is a circle jerk…

now, for the sake of the argument, let’s change ashley, amy and meg into stefan, richard and helen:

stefan is an african history professor, a self proclaimed atheist and a card carrying trotskyist vegetarian; richard does outreach coordination for a civil liberties organization, is an extremely secular reform jew and a meditating locavore, he and his partner sam are founders of their neighborhood co-op;    helen is a research associate at a non-profit dedicated to latinos struggling with HIV, volunteers as a rehabilitative art teacher at an at-risk urban youth center, practices yoga and pilates, is known to wear a sari daily because she once dated an indian post-grad, is a practicing buddhist and a non-compromising vegan.   needless to say, all three have graduate degrees from prestigious institutions.   religious, political, etc affiliations were tweaked a little to protect the identities of the inspirations for stefan, richard and helen…

they’re in stefan’s virtual room.  he just posted a link to an article on, say, the teaparty from the nation on his blog or facebook wall.   here is how the essence of the conversation, without the polysyllable words and articulate language, would go:

-oh my god, did you read what palin said?

-oh my god, i can’t believe the words coming out of that woman’s mouth!

-gosh, she is such a ditz..

-they, like, act like they’re there for the people but, i mean, they’re all about themselves?

-check.  i don’t get it– um, like all the disenfranchised masses, i mean they believe in them, right?  despite their best interests?

-no shit.  all double standards.

-oh my god– like all those homophobic evangelist leaders getting caught with gay escorts, tweaking in hotel rooms.  i mean, like, what about them?

-eww, that’s gross…

-i’ll tell you who is not gross: julian

-assange?

-hell, yeah! he is hot.  i mean, wikileaks…

-yeah, but, that hair?

-too warhol for me…

… continues like this with tons of sardonic chuckles, ewws, “change”, “disenfranchised”, “chavez”, “neo-con”, “palin” and oh my gods sprinkled carelessly for good measure until all are satiated and can go out and stomach their gross capitalist regime..

compare this with bunch of nekkid boys circled around jerking each other off until they can all walk out of the locker room all satiated– i implore you, where is the difference?  liberal blogging and commenting, my friends, is a circle jerk…

i consider myself fairly liberal.  though i consider belonging to one and only one camp to be fatally stupid.  there is sense and wisdom, albeit occasional, on the other side too…  i wouldn’t deny, and would rather adopt those anomalies, instead of shrugging them off because i labeled myself a “liberal”.  that would be stupid.

where we fail, as liberals, is this circle jerk: instead of learning to communicate with the “masses” and getting our point across strongly, we preach to each other until each one of us creams their pants.  we think that, because we’re more “articulate” with larger lexicons, we’re making the strongest points and impact and people would be fools not to be convinced by our polemic.  that is bullshit– the way to get our message across is not through preaching to the choir.  it is through going to the lowest denominator and breaking it down the way he or she would understand.

that is what the other side is doing and that is why they’re getting stronger by the second.  yeah, it may not be noble or it may sound unethical but that is the ground rule of this fight.  it is a dirty fight… and wasting time, jerking each other off, will get us no where..