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Scandalous Ranking on ‘Top 50’ Website List
One of the most exhausting features of the political Internet is the “Outrage of the Day” culture it perpetuates. In order to generate traffic, blogs hype even the most minor of scandals to SHOCK and APPALL their readers into leaving furious comments and angrily sharing the post with friends and family.
The Outrage Industrial Complex on the Right will launch a half-researched story on a little blog which gets fed to the larger sites, appears on talk radio the next day, and (fingers crossed) Fox News by week’s end. Then the Left reacts to it with mockery and contempt, which gets fed to MSNBC, and (fingers crossed) “The Daily Show” the next day they tape. That’s when the original blog insults Jon Stewart for getting all the details wrong and the cycle starts again.
It’s a pretty good content-generation system if your heart can take the stress and your brain can stand the dumb. Now that all the bloggers are on Twitter and Yik Yak (and whatever the crap Meerkat is), the firehose of outrage is blasting 24/7.
For all these reasons, as well as my delicate constitution, I’m not a fan of outrage culture and only allow my passions to roil over real, life-or-death outrages. Such as our recent website ranking.
A so-called conservative outlet released a so-called list of the so-called Top 50 Conservative Blogs. They listed Ricochet at… um… well, at a ranking considerably below the logical choice of Number One. If memory serves, we were ranked somewhere below “Teenage Republicans for Spiro Agnew” and “Anarcho-syndicalist Horticulture Fortnightly.” Seriously, check out this outrage.
What say you, Ricochetti? Were we robbed? Because I think we were robbed.
I’ll check back in a few hours. I’m heading to Whole Foods so I can flip over a Volvo or two.
Published in General
“Ricochet encourages heavy reader participation.”
Win!!!
I can also testify to this. My default nature would normally condemn me to a life under a bridge.
Noticed no one else commented on this brilliance.
Things are moving quicker now than ever before, which keeps me wondering if somewhere during internet age, I became A.D.D.
The damage is severe. Any number of true scandals (opposite of those “fake scandals”) now have shelf lives of expired milk.
Guess who benefits?
Of course you realize: this means war.
Good. I could do with a chevauchée right about now.
Jon, I have a quibble with your post. Yes, we could go to Whole Foods and flip some Volvos, but there is a protocol to follow here.
First you flip the Priuses, then the Subarus, THEN you flip the Volvos.
Smart Cars can simply be crushed underfoot like beer cans.
Rate them by podcasts and Ricochet would be #1.
Or #2 behind Atlas Scruggs — nothing beats libertarians playing the banjo.
Of course, instead of outrage, there’s another possible reaction: We could work harder to make the site even better.
Indeed!! Death, to all Priuses!!!
Dude, hands off my Subarus. Yes, I know they’re lesbian cars, but if the glass slipper fits . . . .
Subarus plural? So, like two of them? In the same garage? I am shocked. Shocked!
Cato – don’t park it at Whole Foods
I thought owning a Subaru was a violation of the CoC…,
Seriously. We had this discussion on another thread recently. We are a two Subaru household. And they live in the same garage. We’re hoping they’ll breed and we can go into business. :)
This other thread — I wish I could remember which one it was — but it veered off into a discussion of Subarus and I can just tell you, if owning one violates the CoC, there are a lot of violaters among the membership of this site.
My explanation was simple — Subarus are a very conservative choice: economically priced, solid transportation in all conditions, including the rugged conditions we conservatives favor, long lasting and retain their value much better than most brands. What’s not to like, as a conservative?
Oh, and if it makes you feel any better, I absolutely cannot abide “Whole Paycheck.” Why anyone would step foot in the place is beyond me. But then again for the longest time our lone local location here in downtown Chicago was always getting shut down for health code violations. It was filthy and disgusting, in addition to being overpriced. They’ve now popped up all around us and I assume they’ve gotten the sanitation problem under control, but I still won’t step a foot in the place.
But if they’re both lesbian cars…
Well, maybe with a mechanic’s help…
I knew that joke was coming Midget. I was tempted to just write it myself, to get it out of the way. :)
Sorry! But what would Ricochet be without the immaturity of its members?
(Hopefully the answer is not “more famous”.)
BOOM!! Robert Spencer’s “Jihad Watch” clocking in at 15. Awesome job Mr. Spencer.
Guys I own a Volvo. I love my Volvo. You might try driving one before surrendering them to the Left. Plus, mine has a butt warmer for the winter. Trust me, you are slumming it if you don’t have a butt warmer and you live in a cold climate. Love my Volvo.
My Volvo is engaged in dark ops. Shhh.
Ditto our Subarus. Butt warmers in both. Love butt warmers. (No jokes please.)
Goodness – the Soob & Volvo drivers have thin skins! ;-)
At some point in time, I was a regular at a number of them. After November 2008 most went bat feces nuts often with made up stories or linked stories with subtle changes to hype them up a bit.
Most of them are designed for maximum outrage. Breitbart & Redstate have got to be two of the worst offenders with half truths and things taken completely out of context.
Atlas Shrugs is one of the worst of the lot. If Pam had had her way, Bachman would have been the nominee for 2012.
Don’t get me started on Palin, socialist legislation but plays the yeehaw I’m the most conservative there is to adoring morons.
I would just note that not one comment thus far has defended the thrice-cursed Prius. I like you people.
One of those was blocking me into my parking space at Camellia Grill in New Orleans today. It was illegally parked with the driver just sitting there looking dumbfounded.
Fair enough. You keep amusing yourself, I’ll go back to having cordial conversations behind the scenes about photo sizing.
I don’t see why the two have to be mutually exclusive.
The attitudes are mutually exclusive. I remember in the 1980s much was made of the contrast between striking US workers and striking Japanese workers. The U.S. workers who believed they were underpaid would cease working to show their indispensability. The Japanese workers would tie on their headbands and double their efforts, showing that their productivity made them more valuable.
Let’s tie on our headbands, write better and more interesting posts, and make our site the indispensable place for conservative commentary!
1) Does it still count as a strike if you continue to work? I thought the point of a strike was to not work.
2) I don’t consider outrage and determination to improve the site to be mutually exclusive. Motivation comes in several flavors, and outrage is one of them. “How dare they rank Ricochet that low! Newsmax will rue the day they wrote that list! Rue it, I say!” That was a little mad science-y, but I stand by it.
3) I checked the store, Ricochet headbands are not yet available. Until that happens, it looks like “better and more interesting posts” is the order of the day. (I think Ricochet is already indispensable when it comes to conservative commentary)
Newsmax, despite its ginormous advertising budget, is still the grocery checkout aisle magazine of conservative websites. Who cares what they think.