Apparently, Erick Erickson (pun removed, due to lameness :) [of PeachPundit.com and RedState.com] has found himself in hot water over a certain "joke" made at that "conservatives" conference. What he really offered was an illumination of the mentality of what passes for "conservative", and really hints at the core principles of their movement. When asked about the relative weakness of "conservative" influence online, Councilman Erickson (yes, someone actually elected this guy to an office) gave us this gem:
{conservatives have more free time, because conservatives} "have families because we don't abort our kids, and we have jobs because we believe in capitalism."And here we see a propagandist declining to confess his faction's invalidity, instead casting his impotence as a function of falsely asserted behavior of apostates. Accordingly, "conservatives" are supposed to be disadvantaged online because of all the children they raise, and because of all that hard work they have to do. I.E., non-"conservatives" have an advantage online, because they shirk (through abortion) their family obligations, and by avoiding work, like the bunch of commies they are.
The underlying truth is that the Internet is an information sharing medium, not an information broadcasting medium. So, Internet's users will have meaningful discussions on their own, outside the confines necessary to maintain propaganda. The entire "conservative" movement, as are most propaganda-based factions, is built on broadcast media -- controlled channels between propagandists and the targets they seek to influence. Political factions such as these cannot function in an environment in which propaganda can be tested, and the Internet is (until recently) just such an environment.
So, a more correct answer to the question would be "...because the FCC took so damn long to pass that 'net neutrality' ruling."
