Democratic Underground Administrator Posts Absurdly Detailed Rules to Micromanage Dissent

June 21st, 2010 9:23 PM

The leftwing blogosphere has a big problem: dissent. Last week we saw Keith Olbermann leaving the Daily Kos because he was attacked there for mildly criticizing Barack Obama. And this week, the administrator of the Democratic Underground, David Allen aka Skinner,  was forced to deal with a recent wave of purges (tombstoning). One reason  was due to simple liberal crackup temper tantrums among the DUers as happened when their most prominent member, William Rivers Pitt of Karl Rove indictment hoax fame, was tombstoned last month for threatening physical violence upon a fellow DUer who turned out to be a homeless woman. More serious is the current wave of dissent from DUers who are expressing dissatification with Obama's poor performance as president.

In order to stifle more dissent, Allen has set forth an absurdly detailed and lengthy set of rules for posting at the Democratic Underground. The result is pure comedy gold. So enjoy this small sampling from the buffet table of Allen's obsessive micromanagement down to the smallest laughable detail:

 { } Inappropriate attacks against Democrats
- Insults against prominent Democrats, such as "F--- Obama."
- Name-calling against prominent Democrats. Calling Barack Obama "Barry" or some other name.
- Repeating Republican partisan attacks against Democrats.
- Broadly suggesting that there is no difference between Barack Obama and George W. Bush, or that there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans. (Arguing that specific policies are the same would be permitted.)
- Suggesting that President Obama has perpetrated a "con job" or "fraud," or similarly over-the-top assertions of bad faith.
- Advocating voting against Democrats, or in favor of third-party or GOP candidates.
- Broad-brush smears against Democrats generally. Broad expressions of contempt toward Democrats generally. 

From there, Allen becomes even more hilariously compulsive in his obsession for order to the extent of even quoting objectionable phrases:

{ } Personal Attack - When discussing individual DU members, the following are considered personal attacks:

- Personal attacks, name-calling, or other insults.
- Telling someone to "shut up," "screw you," "go away," "f--- off," or the like.
- Calling someone a liar, or calling a post a lie.
- Calling someone a conservative, disruptor, or similar.
- Calling someone a bigot.
- Belittling someone for being new or having a low post count.
- Negatively "calling out" someone who is not participating in the discussion. 

I've barely scratched the surface of Allen's voluminous list of rules of order so I'll give you one last sampling:

{ } Insensitive - Includes bigotry, hate, ridicule, stereotyping, or insensitivity based on:
- Race or ethnicity.
- Gender (women or men).
- Sexual Orientation.
- Religion or lack of religion (Christians, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, Agnostics, etc.).
- Geographic region or place of origin.
- Disability (mental or physical).
- Weight or other physical characteristics.
- Use of insensitive terminology ("c---sucker," "c*nt," "bitch," "whore," "retard," etc.).

Allen's complete set of DU posting rules plus the reaction of several skeptical DUers are chronicled in more detail at the DUmmie FUnnies. It is probably the funniest DUer comedy material since William Rivers Pitt posted his partial birth non-apology for perpetrating the Rove indictment fraud.