This isn’t so much a post as it is a short rant. About – what else? – the 2008 presidential race.
I understand that after the last eight years, we’re all starving for change. Us Web 2.0 people probably feel that more than most, because we see how fast the world is changing every single day, and we’ve had a chance to experience that and be a part of it ourselves.
I like Obama. I really do. I appreciate what he stands for and what he does.
But why, internet folks, is this spilling over into hatred of Hillary Clinton?
Out of the first ten results I get by searching “Clinton” in Facebook Groups, six are ANTI-Clinton groups, including the first three. The most disgusting of them all is the third, “Hillary Clinton: Stop Running for President and Make Me a Sandwich,” with 33,731 members at this time of posting. Its description: “Dedicated to keeping Hillary Clinton out of the Oval Office and in the kitchen.”
Do you know how sick I feel when I look at that, as a girl with high aspirations? What kind of a world can I look forward to when I graduate, where a woman campaigning for the highest office in America is mocked for it and told to get back in her kitchen?
I could shrug it off more easily if it weren’t one of the top three groups to come up when I search her name on Facebook. The top result, “Stop Hillary Clinton,” has 788,487 members, and gives no reason on the group’s page for hating her.
It’s not just the conservatives that join these kinds of groups. “Stop Hillary Clinton” claims to be bi-partisan on the front page. Digg, which is from my experience mostly liberal, has not dugg one pro-Clinton item to the front page in the last month. I see at least half a dozen anti-Clinton items come in every day, while the top ten list is always filled with praises for Obama. In the comments on the anti-Clinton items, anyone that makes a positive comment on her behalf is dugg down into the negative hundreds. Digg, and similar online communities, have such a staunch pro-Obama/anti-Clinton stance that it’s dangerous for your reputation on those sites to dare support or even defend Hillary Clinton. Most disturbing, misogynistic comments are the norm.
I like Obama, really. If he became president I couldn’t complain, and if he follows through with what he’s promised it could be an inspiring four – or eight – years.
But the anti-Clinton bent that some of Obama’s supporters have been taking online, especially the misogynistic anti-Clinton bent, and especially on Digg, is frankly disturbing. Not to mention distressing, to me at least, who has to see good, liberal-minded people taking to bashing a female candidate simply because she’s female, and not Obama.
I feel the same way about Obama as I do about Jesus. Great guy, good message, but his more extreme followers are freaking me out. If you support Obama, good for you. Myself – he’s not my cup of tea. I have my own reasons for it that I’ve devoted a lot of time and thought to. If he’s elected and does a great job in office, I’ll be the first to change my mind.
So please support Obama (or McCain) as much as you want, but keep it clean, and not misogynistic. Digg and Facebook seem to have a problem with that.
While I too agree many of these groups are not approaching this rationally and are attacking the person, rather than the candidate.
However, I see no problem with being anti-Clinton. (I myself am) If you do not think someone is the right person to run the country, then you have every right to work upon her getting into office. Why do I oppose her? I don’t want to build a bridge into the 20th century.
Also, from a purely political standpoint I think she is much less electable in the general election than Obama.
Sometimes it is worth campaigning against someone, because you truly think they are the wrong direction for the country. (Though I do detest the sexist tactics which many anti-Clinton camps are using.)
Finally someone who says the same thing I do about Digg. While I love it for the technology content, I get sick of seeing pro-Obama story after story while constantly bashing Clinton. It’s like he’s a frickin’ American Idol or something!
was really hard to find an article on this and i totally agree. Digg has become one big obama website. Its disgusting. Techmeme and delicious is now 100 times better than digg. Even with a proxy kicker to amp up its traffic. I see Digg heading down the shitter unless Kevin does something about this quickly. Maybe Obama paid Digg or is paying people to digg… who knows, buts its certainly not “the people site” as what digg should be. Its more like a censorship of all things considered. I guess thats why Kevin Rose himself admits to get his news from all things considered.