People like opinions, Internet. Actually, check that: People like their own opinions, but generally hate other people’s opinions. In fact, lots of people hate that other people even have opinions. It’s the old George Carlin chestnut: everybody on the road driving slower than you is an idiot, and everyone driving faster is a maniac. The only acceptable opinion is the one you were already thinking.

According to this article found on Digg.com, Digg has been under a attack by a Conservative “Patriot” group who’s goal is to make Digg a Conservative website. Was Digg a Liberal website to begin with? Well, a quick Google search shows that more people think it is, at least more people than the ones who think it’s Conservative. Does that prove that a Liberal bias was in place, or that users of Digg.com have stronger Liberal leanings than they do Conservative? Was this an issue that needed to be addressed? It doesn’t matter, because a group decided it did need to be addressed, and they were the ones to do the addressing. The Digg Patriots know what’s best for us.

Every now and again when The Redhead and I return home from dancing, work, or working at the Dance Studio, we’ll turn the TV on. In some of those cases one of us may have been watching a quality family film like “Straight Talk” or “Neighbors” earlier in the day, and didn’t change the channel. Now in the evening, the channel will have naked boobs on it. Even though we both came home at the same time, turned the TV on together, and haven’t changed a channel, The Redhead will accusingly look at me and say, “What the hell is this?” No matter what tack I take, she has gained the “moral high ground” by stating in her actions, “I am anti-naked boobs on TV.” No matter what argument I choose, even the obvious one that I have nothing to do with Cinemax’s programming schedule, I somehow land on the side of having to defend Cinemax’s right to show naked boobs. (Okay, I actually don’t. I could just join her outrage and immediately switch to Nick at Nite but I like to debate, being the son of a Lawyer.)

My point is that when a Political Movement like the Conservative Movement annexes certain words as their exclusive domain, words like “values” and “truth” and “family,” they have no choice but to say the opposition is against these things. You can’t tell people that you have the truth but that the other guy has a different kind of truth. The other guy has to have lies. After all, you are the dispenser of truth, the one who’s opinions are correct, so naturally the other guy has nothing but deception and trickery in store for the populace, and you must stop him at all costs. How, though? Since “conservative” is now good, “liberal” has to be bad, and we all know how to treat bad guys: exterminate with extreme prejudice. (Obama is the Commu-Nazi Joker!) Even the most pious crowd smiles when Yul Brenner is drowned in the Ten Commandments. So clearly, the other side has been completely brainwashed at this point and may not even be worth talking to. The best solution will be to forcibly push our ideals on them so they have no choice but to adapt. After all, how can evil Liberals be liberal if there’s nothing liberal to influence them? Genius!

Oh, wait a sec. Now we’re kind of talking in a double standard. All that “Obama is a Communist/Fascist” talk may come back to haunt us in the end. (Nevermind that saying someone is both a Commie AND a Nazi is like saying someone is obese AND emaciated.) The Conservatives don’t like Barry Obama because they believe he is eliminating our freedom of choice as Americans, so they go out and try to eliminate any choice in information that disagrees with them. You see, they’re protecting us from Fascism by using Fascist censorship to protect us from “lies.” There’s just no arguing with some people’s opinions when they are the holders of the “truth.”

There is still one issue nagging at me: how am I going to apologize to The Redhead for the Cinemax story? Why is Digg a “Liberal” website? Digg is a social network that allows readers to “vote” or “dig” stories to the top of the page, essentially becoming a poll for what is the most interesting or most viewed story of the day. Sometimes it’s something about kittens. Sometimes it’s a trailer for Tron. Most times, you can see content outright plagiarized and put on random blogs. (But really, who would outright steal a style and delivery from somebody else’s website? Did they think nobody would catch on? We move in the same circles, for crying out loud!) For the most part, it seems like people vote things higher or lower on Digg based on one important criteria: whether or not they dig it. There’s no liberal agenda implied in the voting, it just is what it is. I’m sorry if they’re not the stories that YOU PERSONALLY would want at the top of Digg, but that’s what happens when you live in a society with other people, also known as a “community.” (Egads! Communism!) I may personally prefer the naked-boob channel 24 hours a day, but I’m not the only one here. If I want to continue living with The Redhead, we’ll have to work out a mutually agreed upon schedule for naked boobs. I don’t get to declare, “I like naked boobs, so there will be NO shirts worn in this house, EVER!” Just because I prefer something doesn’t mean I’m entitled to it exclusively, and all others must fall in line.

Freedom of Speech is the greatest freedom on the planet. You can mostly say whatever the hell you want as long as it’s not detailed plans to ________ the ________ of the ________ _______. (I said YOU can say whatever the hell you want. I’ll try to stay out of prison, thank you very much.) With that freedom comes the possibility of hearing stuff you’ll disagree with. Maybe you’ll REALLY disagree with some stuff, but it’s part of the fabric of a community to tolerate and coexist with its other members. We’re still new to this internet thing, Internet, so there’s going to be some shakedown time. We’ll learn to let people have their corners, eventually. Who knows, maybe if you let the opposition talk at length, they’ll shoot themselves in the foot and you won’t even have to try and shut them down. Look at Sarah Palin. Or Mel Gibson, for that matter.

Of course, this is all just my opinion.