Evidently they read Frank's poll on a related subject, and now need another let's-pat-ourseves-on-the-back session to recover.
kentuck (71,296 posts)
What does DU do best??
I know we are very good with petty arguments and snark but there is more to DU.
Since it's inception, it has been an honest and open discussion board. It was more for progressive thoughts and truth than it was for the Democratic Party. It was meant to change the Democratic Party - not to agree with it. Of course, that has been much more difficult to do than anyone imagined.
DU has been one of the best places to go to interpret the news in LBN. Original thought has always been a premium with the folks at DU. It is easy to post links to the mainstream media and pretend they have more legitimacy and intelligence than the long-time members of DU. That is not necessarily so. There is a lot of wisdom at the DemocraticUnderground. It should be used and appreciated.
Anything that is reported is open to interpretation. Interpretation has been a mainstay of DU since its beginning. It is much more difficult to read between the lines.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025462464#post18 
shenmue (11,231 posts)
1. Be awesome!
That's it. We're good at awesomeness!
KansDem (26,622 posts)
4. Questions "authority"
If I hear or read a news item, I go to DU to check its validity.
Also, DU is a great place to improve one's vocabulary. If I see a word I'm not familiar with, I write it down on a piece of paper and put it in my "vocab box" (cigar box) that I keep on my desk.
I suppose that "vocabulary" would include terms like Chimpy, house negroes, ammosexuals, white privilege, stochastic terrorism, Old White Guysâ„¢, and jorno.
steve2470 (23,122 posts)
7. Collective knowledge and wisdom, on many topics
Never found a better place on the net.
NYC_SKP (60,546 posts)
21. Props. The best of DU are those compositions unique to DU.
Hard working, investigative, thoughtful, and provocative. And backed up by original source materials.
Cheers, KoKo!
"Original source materials" being spittle-flecked rants by other, equally clueless bloggers.
Oh, and Jon Stewart, of course.
DrDan (15,971 posts)
petty arguments and snark
At least one gets it.
WilliamPitt (57,122 posts)
25. Once upon a time
Back in the summer of 2002, me and several DUers from the Boston area - Matcom was the copilot - put together a flyer about the Bush administration using 9/11 against us, and about the onrushing war in Iraq. We reprinted a thousand copies or so, stood out on the street, and handed them out all day long to whoever would take them, and talked/debated/argued with anyone who wanted to talk.
It's hard to remember 12 years later, but we were cat-nervous, and the simple act of handing out flyers and speaking political heresies out loud felt brave, because WE ALL HAD TO GET IN LINE AND YOU ARE BEING WATCHED AND PATRIOTISM AND SHIT. It was an astonishingly paranoid and fearful time if you weren't "on board" with the program, and actually had the gumption to say so in public. The swelling from 9/11 had not gone down very much, and people were still very sensitive and definitely locked into OBEY...and I don't know if we changed any minds on the spot with those flyers that day, but we made more than a few people think, which was the point of the exercise...and, also, we felt definitely emboldened, and took it from there.
When we were done, I posted both the story of our day and the flyer we handed out here at DU...and over the course of the next days, weeks and months, DUers posted their own stories about handing out our flier in their own towns and cities, the reactions they got, and the small bit of good it did...and they felt emboldened, and took it from there.
The summer of 2002.
THAT is what DU used to be about.
Once again, Pitt has to make it all about himself.
unblock (25,658 posts)
28. news aggregation. it all goes back to kephra
he set the tone in the early days of du. he usually had most of the posts in "latest breaking news" the way the beatles once had the entire top 5 singles to themselves.
many others have carried that torch, and to this day, it's rare that i spot a story elsewhere without coming here and finding a thread on the topic already, usually with more than a few replies.
If only that were true, you'd
all be sitting bloated and at room temperature in front of your computers.
Jeff Rosenzweig (24 posts)
45. Congratulate itself n/t
Jeff, we hardly knew ye.
