Standin' On Shaky Ground Ever Since You Put Me Down

 

That's some pretty boring reading out there today. Until I arrived at the Althouse, who really got things shakin' in an exchange with a reader, and revealed her chain-yanking ways:

"'A lot of bloggers tease their posts on Twitter and I think people follow bloggers on Twitter and then choose which post to click over to.' 

 

This doesn't work. I've tried it and there's virtually no traffic that comes through this way. I can see on Site Meter where my traffic comes from, and it's never from me teasing my own blog posts, even when I craft a tweet in a way that should be intriguing. I don't really think the readers are there. I think it's a lot of people trying to promote their brand, in competition with other promoters."

This makes me wonder what my fellow so-called "Hillbillies" were up to for all those years, because "teasing my own blog posts" was repeatedly charged as my behavior, whenever I'd make a point by linking to a post I'd created. It was, supposedly, the worst thing a blogger could do.   

But Ann can openly state she's intentionally done it ("I've tried it") and her readers don't blink. They even discuss how it works and what might be going wrong. They know her hook-up with Instapundit isn't designed to fix anything, solve problems, make America better, etc., but just to extend their reach - apparently into our wallets. 

They're frauds, this is a game, and whatever happens, happens.

   

 So was the whole thing with me. It was a set-up. A tactic. Something the "Hillbillies" intentionally used to try and get under my skin. Ruffle my feathers. 

Chase me away. 

 

Black guy gets hurt? Big deal. He talks too much.

 Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they ain't out to get me, huh? And for behavior that, still, drives me to say the whole cabal is dishonest. Funny how that works. It took 'em a while. 

And I love the ending:

   

 Based on Glenn & Co. saying the election's in the bag, the Hillbillies were screaming they don't need my vote - it was fucking beautiful. 

   

 Now don't get me wrong - whether looking at all of this as just a blogging matter, or (more importantly, if you want to get serious, and I do) also as a story of race in 2013 America, how politics currently "works" on the Right, an expose' on the deployment of cultish thinking (or the "groupthink" Robert Stacey McCain admitted to) or any number of other issues, discovered to be a "problem," on "our side" - none of that will ever make TMR as "brilliant" as Andrew Sullivan's online assumptions about the policy implications of President Obama's star sign. 

   

 Blow me. 

   

 I think, as a historical matter - since Ann agrees so vehemently that blogs are special - I've got the Right by the balls. 

Or something.

TMR ain't going away.

   

 Some of the tags I'm using for this post are "ann althouse," "glenn reynolds," "blogging," "politics," "race," "cultish thinking," "lying," "deception," "manipulation," and "exploitation".

   

 I think the evidence speaks for itself,...