That's the ratio of potty words on "left," as compared to "right" blogs. Based on my own reading of both kinds, it doesn't shock me. I wonder if it says something about relative emotional maturity?

Sex and Violence ! Sex goes to the Left, Violence to the Right?

I think when, on a deep, almost subconcious level, the realization dawns that one's arguments are a bit weak, there's a tendency to try and punch them up a bit with shocking language.

Was it Churchill who observed that if you are not a socialist at 20, you have no heart, and if you are still a socialist at 40, you have no head?

Younger people (one is tempted to say children, but that would be unfair) are more likely to be intemperate in their remarks, and enjoy the frisson of shock that occurs with the f-bomb or a s***storm.

So, it'd be interesting to correlate cuss words w/ not just political leanings, but also age of the bloggers.

Part of it is that the left blogosphere is simply bigger and more popular than the right blogosphere, so in particular it has a bigger "deep end" where you might expect curse words. DailyKos is a huge site with an enormous number of total words, as well as possibly a higher fraction of curse words.

You can restrict attention to the more sedate blogs like TPM; even just these are comparable in size to the entire right blogosphere. Of course, the blogs on the right, you included, have no incentive to pay attention to well-reasoned blogs on the other side. You can convince yourselves much more easily if you mainly respond to clowns on crack. So it's DailyKos said this and Cindy Sheehan said that, and TPM might as well not exist.

Either way, this is the "new media" for you. The right is a minority holdout against the left. Same goes for Wikipedia. The Republicans' real stronghold is not the Internet, it's television and especially radio. That's despite the Republican theory of media bias. A lot of people conclude that there is deep media bias because their own favorites on TV and radio repeatedly tell them so.

Was it Churchill who observed that if you are not a socialist at 20, you have no heart, and if you are still a socialist at 40, you have no head?

It would have been bizarre for Churchill to say that, because Churchill himself was a conservative at age 20 and a liberal at age 40. The quote is a convenient American conservative myth, also attributed to various other people.

People here really ought to check Wikipedia and Wikiquote more often.

Daily Kos alone makes it 7:1, and if you compare Kos to the top 5 "right" blogs, it is almost 100:1.

Wikipedia = MiniTru
You are right about the quote, but that's about where the truth ends. You might try fact checking wikipedia every now and then.

You are right about the quote, but that's about where the truth ends. You might try fact checking wikipedia every now and then.

I am right about the quote, and it's not where the truth ends. It is only reasonable to fact-check Wikipedia, but that is completely different from ignoring it.

Regardless, even if Wikipedia were 100% fabrication, it would still be more influential than the right blogosphere. Welcome to the real new media.

Regardless, even if Wikipedia were 100% fabrication, it would still be more influential than the right blogosphere. Welcome to the real new media.

Wow... I don't know whether to continue laughing or simply thank you for admitting you are a moron willing to be misled if only to be popular.

I dasagree with its assertion the left blogosphere is bigger, that is nothing but wishful thinking.. There are far more right blogosphere sites. The left is concentrated into Kos, Glue Huffers Post and DU mainly.

Therefore, any objective individual can reasonably conclude there is simply a far greater diversity of opinion on the right that the large kool-aid watering troughs on the left.

As to Wikipedia and the left influence. Blame that to the low time demands and universal access of the internet for left leaning academia. Most of the zealot editors can be traced back to that source.

I wonder if it says something about relative emotional maturity?

F@#&ing A right, Jack.

Seriously, tho, a simple statistical analysis is incomplete. The most recent appearance of one of the "7 words" on a conservative blog which I happened to notice was in an example quotation from a leftist screed. How should that correctly be counted?

I don't know whether to continue laughing or simply thank you for admitting you are a moron willing to be misled if only to be popular.

I have no particular interest in being popular. Wikipedia is useful and has a lot more truth in it than the blogosphere does. It's true that it should be checked, but it's a good starting point.

And yet, so sad, so sad, it's biased as all hell.

"The Republicans' real stronghold is not the Internet, it's television..."

Television??

That's delusional!

Television??

Yes, I mean parts of television. They have Fox News on their side, and they have a number of shows on other channels too, like Lou Dob.bs and Tucker Carlson. And, equally important, those shows deepen Republican influence by labelling the rest of television as biased. In fact, the rest of TV is generally bland and stupid and gives freebies to both Republicans and Democrats.

So yes, on balance TV is more useful to Republicans. They can use it to both broadcast their own message, and label a shabby middle ground as purely leftist.

"They have Fox News on their side,...those shows deepen Republican influence by labelling the rest of television as biased. In fact, the rest of TV is generally bland ...and gives freebies to both Republicans and Democrats...So yes, on balance TV is more useful to Republicans."

The usual anti-FOX news hysteria with no conception of the relative audiences of something like a cable news channel vs the audience of CBS news. And of course CBS news isn't biased, it's just bland and plays equally!

Yep, delusional.

The usual anti-FOX news hysteria

It's not "hysteria", it's just the way things are, that Fox News is useful to Republicans. It's no more "hysteria" to say that than to point out that the Rush Limbaugh is conservative. After all, he calls himself one all the time.

And of course CBS news isn't biased

I didn't say that CBS news isn't biased. It certainly is biased, but it's biased in both directions at different times. When CBS has a liberal bias, Fox News and the right blogosphere and so on counterattack; but when CBS has a conservative bias, no one says a whole lot about it. This is part of the basic asymmetry in television news these days.