NP: Frank Zappa, The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life

Okay, so as a card-carrying member of the blogosphere, I guess I have to weigh in on Ann Coulter. I'm torn on this subject -- not out of any sort of defense for her, mind you -- because on the one hand, saying incredibly inflammatory things is what she does, so this doesn't even qualify as news on some level. But on the other, I have to wonder how much of this extremism comes from the fragmenting of, well, pretty much everything. Coulter's most rabid fans, no doubt, love every minute of her most vitriolic insults, and the fact that these sorts of ultra-partisans so rarely venture outside of their self-affirming cliques can't help but ramp up the rhetoric. If she ever had to explain her position to, say, Jim Lehrer, Coulter likely wouldn't be egged on to such lowbrow behavior.

This is part of what I see as the danger of the netroots movement on the left, as well. Hank's going to tune this out, of course, but the new crop of top-level diarists at Daily Kos seem much more strident than the last batch, because that's what provokes the strongest response. As a result, their marginalizing themselves. Joe Klein got in a lot of hot water last week talking about left-wing extremists online, but I empathize with him up to a point.

Every time I wade in these waters, I have to remind myself that the left is somewhat forced into this position after suffering withering attacks from the right for so long. I don't begrudge them their decision to fight back, but at the same time, the intrinsic disdain for tempering your argument to play to an audience wider than the loudest few that reinforce all your principle disturbs me greatly, no matter who started it.