Reading the comments section for Save Fitchburg in the past I always thought it seemed like a slightly odd community of fairly humorless people, but I figured they were relatively sane.
However, after creating a blog and finding myself with an account, I figured I might as well post there (anonymous posting is disabled and I was too lazy to make an account before). Apparently I created some sort of shitstorm with an offhanded dig at conservatives and the crazy idea that Deval Patrick is going to win the election easily. (Polls here.)
For whatever reason I've now been repeatedly accused of being either a toady of Dan Mylott, Dan Mylott himself, some sort of Fitchburg insider, a SOSO (I still don't know what that is), a graduate of FSC (I actually know some very intelligent graduates of FSC, but I'm not one of them), and possibly a few other things by now. Apparently the cognoscenti at Save Fitchburg have an unhealthy fixation on Dan Mylott. They also seem to believe I'm running for office, which I'm not sure whether to take as hilarious or insulting. Right now I'm going with insulting.
Apparently these nice folks think that writing about local politics means you want to be a local politician. I shudder to think what they believe now that I've written about sexual predators.
Rest assured, I'm neither running for office nor preying on anyone.
On the plus side, this did effectively reinforce my belief that there needed to be another outlet for political expression in Fitchburg.
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3 comments:
Welcome to the crazy world of central Mass. blogging. :-) Nice to see another progressive voice here in the wilderness.
I lurk at SF for two reasons. First, I don't live in Fitchburg, so I don't know all the ins and outs of the local politics, but my son does go to school in Fitchburg, so I like to keep up on what's going on.
Secondly, the noise to signal ratio at SF is just way too high. I'm sure now that anonymous posting isn't allowed that will improve.
So again welcome and don't forget to join LeftyBlogs. It will improve your traffic. :-)
Despite his protestations to the contrary, Jason's apparent political leanings are decidedly to the right. I've only been reading Save Fitchburg for six months or so, but in that time he's never advocated for a single social justice issue or spoken favorably of a progressive candidate or cause.
Save Fitchburg amounts to a near-daily bitch session on the state of affairs in the city, which explains why it is so popular with the perennially negative townies.
This is fine, of course - and is more or less in line with the sort of discourse one can expect to find on a blog, or on the internet in general. What I have found consistently frustrating is the gross oversimplification of nearly every issue: that crime can be solved by a heavier hand, that jobs will appear by adding this road or closing another, that if we can just throw the bums out, then everything will get better - that there was some magical golden age of Fitchburg somewhere between 20 and 50 years ago that we can return to now if only we elect candidate X.
These ideas are inconsistent with reality. We live in the present, and these are complex issues. Unfortunately, attempts to address complex issues with systemic solutions are usually met with derision.
I'm excited about the opportunity for diversity in local discourse - hopefully others will take your cue.
susan,
Thanks for the welcome. I'll give it a couple of months (per their requirement) and join LeftyBlogs. Sounds like a good place.
Agreed about the Signal:Noise ratio at SF. With lurkers like us there though, I do have to wonder how many other progressives might wander through there only to find the level of discourse unwelcoming. Good motivation not to stop what I'm doing, I suppose.
70's lincoln,
In agreement as well, though if I'm not mistaken Jason has expressed he personally prefers Patrick over Healey. On the other hand, he posts hit-squad emails from pro-Healey groups in their entirety with very little criticism.
The oversimplification is certainly rampant, which is pretty typical of right-leaning blogs (and politics in general). I'll try to avoid such things here.
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