Sometimes I think of the political blogosphere as a huge commons. An individual blogger can gain in readership or influence by attacking or ridiculing some enemy, but at the cost of making that enemy stronger in the world as a whole.
That is Tyler Cowen.
3 Responses
I’ve changed all kinds of my opinions by reading ridicule (dsquared was a good one for this, now Coyote blog). Heck the commenters on Marginal Revolution have ridiculed me into backing down from several things.
Tyler’s big assumption here was that most of the voting public (or, in his example, those that might vote for tea party candidates) actually read that many blogs. That’s pretty fanciful.
errm, doesn’t that suggest that bloggers should pretend they are each other’s enemies and systematically attack each other? Mutual hostility pacts, here we come. Starting with Bill Easterly (http://aidwatchers.com/2010/09/%e2%80%9cproofiness%e2%80%9d-trashing-back-on-fao-hunger-numbers/)