Speaking of geeky libertarian circles, what is your take on this:

http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/002089.shtml

Yay news on the internet!

"I can almost forget that a world exists outside my geeky libertarian circles..."

This is a problem. I think it's one that we all have to fight with, from time to time, but it is a problem nonetheless.

There is a famous quote regarding the '72 Presidential election, wherein Pauline Kael, upon hearing that McGovern lost remarked, "How can that be? No one I know voted for Nixon."

We all get to be in danger of sitting in the Echo Chamber every once in a while. Some more than others, and it's not a problem that is unique to any one political position, or indeed of any other persuasion. Chicago Cubs fans are renowned for their ability to, "Wait 'till next year." (And I mean that in the nicest possible way, for any Cubs fans in the audience.)

Dammit, Patri, this merits a blog post on Catallarchy! (Or at the very least a cross post.)

And in response to Robbbbbbb's argument (which I think is quite similar to the critique of the Internet made by U of C law prof Cass Sunstein in one of his recent books), you have to consider the alternative. If there were no Internet, it isn't as if people like Patri and me would be relegated to watching MSNBC as our only other option. I probably wouldn't watch the news at all, and thus get no information about the outside world at all.

To take an example close to (Patri's) home, here's David Friedman being interviewed by Brian Lamb: http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1332

LAMB: How close are you to politics?

FRIEDMAN: Very far. I usually don't vote for the sorts of reasons I was discussing before. When I do vote it's mostly for the fun of it. I don't spend a lot of time -- and I don't watch television at all, I don't own a television. But I read the newspaper when I have nothing else to do and I listen to the radio when I'm driving to work. But I really am not very interested in current politics. Well, putting it differently, I'm interested in using economics to understand the political system. But having done so, I think that most of the time there are good reasons why the two candidates for President aren't very different and therefore it's a little hard to get excited as to which one you'd vote for.

LAMB: If you don't watch television, does that mean you never see these people speaking or interacting?

FRIEDMAN: That's pretty close to correct. That is to say -- yes. I occasionally hear somebody giving a speech on the radio and sometimes it irritates me or doesn't. I seem to have gotten on the mailing list for a Republican group that sends out cassette tapes and I occasionally listen to them. I think Newt Gingrich is clearly a more interesting person to listen to than most politicians. I don't always agree with him, but he's clearly, sort of, a smart and interesting and odd guy. But, no, I mean, certainly, I couldn't recognize most national politicians if I saw them on television.

The thing is, even those people who get all or most of their political news from sharply segregated Internet forums like Democratic Underground or FreeRepublic still get information about opposing viewpoints. It's just that these viewpoints are presented in order to ridicule or critize them. Which is not all that different from getting one's news from Fox News or CNN.

My policy - when in doubt, post.