Another insulting right-wing asshole, I guess
Richard Bennett posts inaccurately and insultingly about me, saying:
The Well is a pay-to-play gated electronic community for Marin County-esque hot-tubbing, partner-swapping left-wing Democrats who thrive on self-deception. Wellberts, as Well members are called, are the kind of people who claim to be passionate about civil liberties while expelling members from their community who don't follow the hive mind in all its excesses. Long-time Wellbert Mitch Ratcliffe has some bizarre observations on my observations on the Emergent Democracy "happening" that are so charming they deserve mention:
This is no Molière for our times writing here, though he plainly fancies himself a wit. First off, when I was on The WELL, it was WELLBeings, and I cancelled my account in 1993, making me a long-time former WELLBeing, not today's Wellbert.
Second, whilst I may have logged onto The WELL, I live 900 miles as the crow flies from Marin county and have never swapped wives or expelled anyone from a gated community, online or off. His portrayal of me is demagogic and distracting.
Finally, Bennett only proves my point that he hasn't evolved his political perspective since his teens. Rather than engaging in a debate, he cast aspersions to distract from the fact his arguments are empty and uninformed. He clearly doesn't understand that Joi's paper is built on a conscious decision to focus on tools for democracy; I have a lot of problems with the paper, too, but I don't think it is appropriate to be insulting as a way of dismissing someone's efforts at authorship. This, along with the repetition of his "credentials," most of which are pretty goddamn inflated, except for his systems design work, demonstrates that he doesn't understand how politics could change, is changing and has changed since he first starting combing his hair to cover the bald part, which I wager was about the time he was 17. Posting a picture of yourself on television doesn't make you a pundit, though I'm sure it has made Richard Bennett a legend in his own mind.
Posted by Mitch Ratcliffe at February 27, 2003 05:33 PM | TrackBack