As part of our ongoing series on reflection and sweet reason, and why so many bloggers hear those words and flee in the opposite direction, here’s a pointer to Darren Barefoot’s I Hate 99% of All Political Blogs:

The disease Polariza Americanus grew out of the American Mid-West in 2004. It’s now become a pandemic, infecting every corner of the globe.It affects normally rational people, turning them into radicals who believe anyone who thinks differently is a gibbering idiot.

The main symptom of this ailment is red-hot hate. On both sides of the political spectrum, it kills any reasonable debate, ensures that bloggers only speak to the choir and renders the writer as the Glowing Light of Truth. You can often identify these blogs by the ridiculous array of badges, buttons and banners espousing their viewpoints.

He has a good point. But I’m not sure U.S. blogging culture is completely to blame. (I’d also be less than honest if I said I thought that progressive bloggers were just as guilty as the more reactionary folks — some are, but many people come philosophically to the left because of an openness to other points of view and a tendency to place issues into broader contexts. But that’s a post for another time.)

I’ve found vituperation online for years, from flame wars on BBSes to vicious pitched personal battles on internal party mailing lists (a big shout out to all those ZooDemocrat alums out there). Maybe it’s the lack of face-to-face contact that gives the id permission to take control of the keyboard; maybe it’s the lack of nuance in text communication that means we miss subtle cues that help ease out the bumps in everyday dialogue. For whatever reason, we end up screaming at each other.

Incidentally, don’t think I want to strip passion out of politics. There are folks who have no interest in politics and current events and who are baffled that anyone else does… let alone that they feel anything strongly about it. Well, political decisions have consequences: bombs exploding in Baghdad; kids dropping out of overcrowded, underfunded schools; untreated effluent pouring into lakes and rivers. Draw the connection between the politics and the practical results, and you, too, might feel some emotions stirring.

The question is how to channel those emotions into positive change that advances the debate (and, given my profession, helps change people’s perspectives). In the comments area of Darren’s post, I suggested “speed bumps” that could encourage blogging communities to spend a little more time reflecting before chiming in. In practice, I’m nearly certain the hotheads would quickly come up with a workaround.

So here’s another proposal. Set aside a day or a week every year, and call it the Blogging Armistice. Whether you’re blogging about WMDs or Macs vs. Windows, for the duration of the armistice you commit to making your posts and comments utterly positive. Promote your own ideas… or find something worthwhile about your opponents’. Congratulate them sincerely on a particular bit of courage or creative thinking.

Or maybe just develop a tag for posts that cross political boundaries: “blogging armistice”. That ought to make for one interesting feed…