Snark, Sass, and Destruction

No Blood For Hubris has an interesting story here about Kathleen Parker's evolving love for the blogosphere. NBFH links to Parker's own remarks, but excerpts enough to crack you up.

"Kathy warns regular people:"to beware and resist the ego-gratifying pack that contributes only snark, sass and destruction."
"This Southern blonde bombshell buxom-version clone of Ann Coulter decries "the less visible, insidious enemies of decency, humanity and civility--the angry offspring of narcissism's quickie marriage to instant gratification." Read it!!!!

Reflections on My Brief Career In The Blogosphere
Now while I can begrudgingly admit that she makes some points about the hit-whoring nature of blogging (puff in exchange for puff, etc.) I wonder what people in these little blog boxes think of her remarks?
Here is what I have observed- some good, and some bad. Like everything else.
Some bloggers chase the heavy hitters, hoping that their witty snarkalicious comments will attract the notice of the big shot blogger who might throw a bone or two in the form of traffic his or her way. These remind me of the fawning co-eds in college, struggling to dazzle the professor.
Some emulate the profanity and 'fuck yous" of the hip feminist bloggers, hoping to attract a slice of bitcherama for themselves. They even cover the same topics, like little clones. Sadly, some do not have the background of some of the heavy hitters to answer actual questions though. They just seem to repeat the same lines from the same script. That gets tiresome very fast.
Some recall the media coverage of the impact of blogs in elections and aspire to be the next Daily Kos (awesome, by the way). For most- ain't gonna happen! Kos is Kos for a reason.
Some chase the high traffic blogs, throwing hat tips, until (oh happy day!) one of them does the inevitable reciprocity pit stop to make a comment. Except they often seem to be too busy to read the actual post. Its like they need to do an obligatory round of "keep the peons happy". And again, more bone throwing. "You send me pings, I mention you." And so it goes until the referral radar loses you in the dust.
For some people in their living rooms, this is the closest thing they can get to their fifteen minutes of fame, their dreams of recognition tossed into the blogosphere like a buck on the lottery... for some, this is validation, these little rants- because they never seem to take it much further than trying to get out there and self promote. They don't actually DO anything, they just have a lot to say about those that do. blah blah blah about the republicans, the democrats...but work on political action? Who's got time? A blog is more than enough, thank you!
See I believe we all have the right to be critical. But armchair pundits are a dime a dozen. If just a few of them would actually engage, change would be more possible! We can use blogs to do this instead of whining alone. (gets down from soapbox)
The message I get from all this is competition. Sure, there's some mutual back scratching, some mutual admiration. But the underlying theme is the sense of "I need my own blog, I can do it better than her". It's not the gateway to conversation and action I hoped it would be.