Lately, I’ve been delving more and more into the TPMCafe Book Club — I’m pleased to see that they’re veering more and more into both books on politics from across the ideological spectrum, but also throwing in the occasional novel (specifically, Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland). I have, though, noticed some hostility from the comments section when books or authors are discussed who don’t necessarily fall neatly into certain political categories. (Note some of the responses to the discussion of Bill Bishop’s The Big Sort or Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam’s Grand New Party. I’m a fan of civil political debate, which is why it saddens me to see some of my fellow lefties doing their best to be uncivil.)
As a side note to my earlier post on responses to criticism, I wanted to volley out a general question: do you think there’s a connection between the two mindsets? Or, given that sites I read ranging from Brownstoner to The AV Club are beginning to regulate their comments sections more, is this more emblematic of a general unrest/rise in the desire to, well, talk shit?