I’ve been banned from more blogs, forums and bulletin boards than anyone I know of. And it has extremely rarely, and not in many years, been due to any incivil attack or “trolling” in the true definition of the word. No, the most common reason for my banishment has been that I have disagreed with some scrap of cherished dogma, or even that I was not doctrinaire enough in my agreement. I rarely curse, or even use exclamation points, for that matter. I am interested in discussion, and dialog based on evidence.

What I care about most when I study any topic is the evidence. As much as any human can, I separate my feelings and that which I wish to believe from what the evidence I can find indicates.

Can any human completely achieve this ideal? No, of course not. But it is worthy to try — or so I think.

Judging by the behavior of many bloggers and their myrmidons, however, dogma is more important than truth, and swallowing the party line more important than possibly having a treasured, long-held opinion altered by valid facts.

Some of my favorite blogs, such as Pandagon, I am unable to comment on (without IP address hackery) because I espoused views that deviated from the supreme soviet and apparatchik party line.

While every blog, and every mind, is a private place, allowing views to be squelched, even the views of one’s allies, seems to me not be very convivial to the idea of actually making any difference in the world. All one needs to do is to take a look at a thread like this to see how a discussion can devolve into something that has little hope of resolving anything — and these are my people I am criticizing; that is to say, liberals, concerned with the world, and with making it better and more free.

To say that the liberal left in the US is a mess is a bit of an understatement. They have the organization of a roomful of cats who all despise one another. Single-minded fanatics, god-infused Republicans and the like, will always be more effective, even if incompetent, than the people you see arguing in that thread — and that hardly represents a full range of arguments on the liberal side, as many people like myself have been banned, and have no voice there at all.

It’s discouraging to realize that the people you most strongly identify with also care about evidence and reality just as little as those you oppose. Later, I will go exploring the reality black holes that both liberals and conservatives tend to fall into, but for now suffice it to say that I will never set up my tent in either camp as neither one really cares about evidence, and instead more about sophistry and belonging, especially these days.

For the record, no one will ever be banned for disagreeing with me on this blog. Rather than do that, I’d just turn off comments altogether. Personal attacks will be decided on a case by case basis, but only spammers will be banned.

The best way to fight a bad idea is with a better idea — not with a ban button.

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