Bloggers consider forming labor union.
CHICAGO (AP)- Do bloggers need their own Norma Rae?
In a move that might make some people scratch their heads, a loosely formed coalition of left-leaning bloggers are trying to band together to form a labor union they hope will help them receive health insurance, conduct collective bargaining or even set professional standards.
A blogging labor union... Whoever thought that one up is as dumb as an acre of fungus. Who are you going to wield your mighty collective bargaining power against? Your readers? "I'm not typing another post until I buy myself some decent health insurance!" Good luck with that.
"I think people have just gotten to the point where people outside the blogosphere understand the value of what it is that we do on the progressive side," said Susie Madrak, the author of Suburban Guerilla blog, who is active in the union campaign. "And I think they feel a little more entitled to ask for something now."Ah, there we go. "Entitled" to "ask for something". That's what these folks see a union as: A magic wand they can wave to Get Stuff. Look, Susie, it's a blog. It's like a diary for exhibitionists with egos. You're just nattering on the internet, and if you're good at it, you'll eventually get noticed, and if not, then it doesn't matter whether you've reciprocally blogrolled everybody on the planet and hung little banners all over your WordPress template, nobody's going to read your crap. It's as pure a meritocracy as the planet's ever seen, and no union card on earth will change that. (Maybe you can get President Hillary to call for a "Fairness In SiteMeter Results Act" or something.)
I hope they succeed in forming their little union. With any luck, the new Bloggers Union will do for the progressive side of the blogosphere what the UAW did for General Motors.
Just call me a scab.
(H/T to Michael Silence.)
6 comments:
Even leftish Gawker isn't having any of this: they filed their story on it with the tag "IDIOTS" and closed with this emphatic declaration:
"Jesus Christ. LABOR UNIONS ARE TACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS TO DEAL WITH MANAGEMENT, YOU UNEMPLOYED SADSACKS."
So there. (Link here.)
Maybe they were just trying to use a more progressive word.
They probably meant that they were forming a guild, or perhaps even incorporating. Either of those arrangements would let them bargain collectively for advertising revenue and health benefits.
Maybe they're going for union style recruiting tactics:
"This is a nice blog you've got here. It'd be a shame if anything happened to it."
Numbnuts the bunch of them... again they show their total lack of having any vestige of grey matter left in their trepanned skulls. At least this last stunt was amusing to all other people with fully functioning common sense! :-)
"Union of Anarchist Bloggers". Hmmmmm, somehow I just don't think that has legs.
They just want an excuse to wear a Union Suit! And go out on strike.
Haz any of these people ever y'know, worked in a union shop? I s'pose the unicorn fartin' rainbow skittles would look good in place of draught hosses in the Teamsters logo.
Meritocracy?? But that's so unfair!
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