Life in the Echo Chamber
One of my colleagues brought up the meme that bloggers are echo chambers, reading like-minded blogs, sharing similar ideas, and amplifying the importance of an opinion within a small group that doesn’t withstand outside scrutiny. This is a common idea that has even been proven by analysis that looked at the agreement vs. disagreement in the comments sections of various blogs. I too have noticed that in general the first comments of a post tend to agree with each other, with dissent appearing later followed by a period where dissenters outnumber supporters and finishing (if the comments thread is long enough) with a mix between the two.
But does analysis of the comments section accurately indicate the existence of an echo chamber? My colleague questioned whether an echo chamber could exist across a group of blogs, in particular the Watchers of Weasels Council that I belong to. Members of the Council pointed out that while there is broad agreement on key issues such as the war on terror, security of Israel, and the failings of the Obama administration, the blogs varied in tone, points of view, and a divergence of less important issues.
But her comment was a good one, and as a writer I believe that it is important to question one’s assumptions at times – to do a “gut check” and consider whether our little coven of malcontents was kicking the same ideas back and forth between ourselves. Then as I read about an elderly drag queen’s opinion of Sarah Palin, it dawned on me that we conservatives already lived in an echo chamber – a huge one that dominates our lives.
Conservative writers are in the minority on the Web. The Left-wing blogosphere is vastly larger than the conservative one, and Leftist blogs like the Huffington Post and ThinkProgress outrank conservative sites like HotAir and RedState according to Technorati. HuffPo was used in the analysis cited above, and in it did support the echo chamber thesis of the paper.
Moving off the web, Conservatives have Rush Limbaugh on the radio, Fox News on cable and the Wall Street Journal newspaper. But the Left has NPR, PBS, MSNBC, CNN, the three networks CBS, NBC and ABC, the New York Times, USA Today, the Washington Post, most big city dailies including the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, the Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Boston Globe. Leftist politics dominate smaller newspapers in St. Louis, Kansas City, Hartford, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Portland and Seattle.
Liberals dominate pop culture. John Stewart and Stephen Colbert from Comedy Central held a Government Doesn’t Suck rally over the weekend where Republicans were portrayed as Nazis and conservative Sarah Palin and Christine O’Donnell made the butt of sexist jokes that had Republicans made similar jokes about Hillary Clinton or “Madam” Barbara Boxer would have lead to NOW-led boycotts and editorial page rage. Republicans and conservatives are regularly portrayed as crazed and violent anti-abortionists (as on Weeds) to immoral fascists (Oliver Stone’s Wall Street 2). Oprah pushes her leftist agenda on day time TV, and members of the View won’t even listen to Bill O’Reilly.
Rolling Stone has had Barack Obama on six of its covers. Vanity Fair regularly attacked President Bush and has taken the fight to Republican leaders including most recently Sarah Palin.
Liberals dominate academia – from pre-school through graduate school. Surveys have shown upwards of 87% of Ivy League professors and 72% of professors overall identify themselves as liberals. I have butted heads with my child’s teachers on everything from the banning of the sale of marshmallow shooters (a toy – not a drink) to most recently the celebration of Memorial Day which his school did not observe. And I live in one of the most conservative parts of the Bible Belt.
Conservatives live in a society dominated by leftists from the members of their local school board all the way up to the presidency. We live in a cacophony of leftist ideology from TV, radio and newspapers. Yet for all of the attacks, the constant barrage of post-modern liberalism, we continue to exist – even thrive. President Obama has been one of my greatest inspirations as a writer, which my productivity on this site since his election will attest. The liberal echo chamber even manages to pump out conservatives. I’m an ex-Lefty and I’m in good company. Dennis Miller, PJ O’Rourke, and David Horowitz are all ex-liberals who found themselves on the Dark Side.
So yes we conservatives live in an Echo Chamber, but it’s not the one that liberal elite thinks. And it is nowhere near as effective as the elite would like it to be.
Joseph:
Everyone lives in a bubble. Some bubbles are just larger than others. The UN declares itself the representative body for all of humanity. The citizens of Kosovo would disagree with that claim. You are quite right about the nature of the Liberal echo chamber. Liberals have the official mouth pieces via the media, academia, and government funded programs. That is why they convince themselves that their beliefs are the only valid ones. They don’t have an echo chamber; they have an echo palace.
2 November 2010, 7:31 pmJack:
Scott, it’s pretty obvious that the country is far more conservative than liberal and talk radio, from the local programs to the national programs, are almost exclusively conservative so I’m not sure what you’re talking about.
2 November 2010, 8:34 pmScott Kirwin:
Jack
The only institutions that I can think of that are dominated by conservatives are religious ones. According to the New York Times, most union members are now government employees, and their union the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) supports progressive causes such as Obamacare and increased government spending. So does the American Federation of Government Employees – the union representing federal workers. So government institutions are no longer non-partisan – not that they ever were to begin with.
And the military… One would think that the military was still conservative – and it is to a degree. But even the military is becoming increasingly politically correct – and I’m not talking about Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell the repeal of which I support. I’m somewhat troubled by the counterinsurgency strategy that sees us accepting human rights abuses as “cultural differences.” We accepted them during the Cold War as a matter of expediency but today it’s the philosophy of PC that demands that all cultures are equal that stays are hand. I have a problem with cultures that sew their women in bags and kill gays.
Then there’s Hollywood. How many conservative actors are there? Clint Eastwood? Dennis Hopper RIP? Then consider the legions that support the Democratic Party – and don’t get me started on Oliver Stone. Granted the man hasn’t made a decent movie in 20 years but seeing him and Danny Glover kissing Hugo Chavez’s ass only reminds us how liberal Hollywood is.
Being a conservative in our society isn’t easy. The Bush jokes. The Palin jabs. The constant rain of ideologically-based abuse; one has to laugh it off and wear a thick skin because the only other choice is to grab a gun and move… to someplace…. like where I am now…. Hmmm… 😛
2 November 2010, 10:00 pmJack:
Scott,
The upper echelon of many institutions and organizations, such as labor unions and government employees, as you state, are liberal, but that’s meaningless. You have to look at the individual employees themselves.
Every single blue collar union worker that I personally know is politically conservative. Every. Single. One. Every single local, state, and federal employee that I know is politically conservative. Every. Single. One.
Granted, you might say that’s anecdotal evidence, and it is, but it’s significant. And I know hundreds of people. The vast majority of this country is conservative. Pretty much every government worker and every blue collar worker. That idea that if one is in a union they are liberal is laughable. They might vote democrat because they support the unions but it absolutely stops there. In every other category they are conservative.
Hollywood and academia aside, the country is mostly conservative. Being conservative in our society is the easiest thing to be. The vast majority of my friends are conservative. My entire family is conservative. And even the vast majority of my colleagues in the film industry (the filmmakers themselves aside) are conservative. That might come as a shock to you but it’s true. It’s not a shock to anyone who’s actually IN the business; only to the uninformed outsiders.
The few liberal friends I have are pariahs at their places of employment. For a conservative, I think life in this country is pretty easy.
3 November 2010, 1:00 amWatcher of Weasels » Watcher Council Nominations November 2, 2010:
[...] The Razor – Life in the Echo Chamber [...]
3 November 2010, 7:49 amScott Kirwin:
Jack
Wow I have had the exact opposite experience. I can’t talk politics with my family when I go back to St. Louis (except with my mother – who regrets her vote). My sister even yells at my mother for watching Fox News, so she tapes Glenn Beck and watches him during the middle of the night when everyone else is asleep.
I am probably the only registered Republican among my 30 Facebook friends. I have stopped talking politics since I got into an ugly row with a high school friend over Israel, but much of the activity of my 30 friends is progressive. When I lived in Delaware my car was vandalized for having a McCain/Palin sticker on it in the parking lot of the bank I worked at.
As for the unions, I see what you are saying but I don’t get why that would be. All the attack ads this election cycle against Republicans were funded by unions, and the unions trumpet their progressive causes on their websites. So why are the rank and file putting up with it? Probably because they have no choice – which is why I’ve turned against unions.
3 November 2010, 11:42 amJack:
Scott,
Today at the university I teach at, politics briefly came up. Its a very small class and one of my students voted Republican. He said he doesn’t discuss politics at school because there are so few conservatives. I was a little surprised he was conservative since he’s majoring in something that is a den of liberalism (I’ll just leave it at that) and he seems just… well… very, very liberal.
However, he was in the military for six years (he’s almost 30) and worked in government in civilian life for several years. I told him about your blog (without mentioning you or the blog by name) and the message exchange we had.
He commented that even though the military has adopted more liberal policies the vast majority of people (in his experience anyway) that are in the military are conservative. And that experience sort of contributed to his conservatism. And he had the same experience as a government employee. The conservative government employee (which is the only kind of government employee I know) always makes me chuckle. My conservative government employee friends will rant and rave about smaller government without a trace of awareness or irony.
Anyway, my student is the perfect example of conservative military and civilian government employee. That being said, he apparently has the same experience you do; more of the people in his life are liberal.
Hmmm… maybe you and I should swap friends and family. Yeah… that’s the ticket!!
3 November 2010, 4:41 pmScott Kirwin:
Jack
Funny, I thought the exact same thing!
Thanks for bringing the issue up with your class.
3 November 2010, 8:50 pmWatcher of Weasels » The Council has Spoken 11/05/2010:
[...] Fourth place with 1 vote – The Razor – Life in the Echo Chamber [...]
5 November 2010, 7:48 amBookworm Room » The Guy Fawkes edition of the Watcher’s Council:
[...] Fourth place with 1 vote – The Razor – Life in the Echo Chamber [...]
9 November 2010, 9:12 am