"Contempt and Compassion"

Respected (and at one time, arrested) journalist Valerii Panyushkin published an article in Vedomosti two Fridays ago which became quite controversial in the Russian blogosphere. Panyushkin decided to use some of his free time during the May holidays to read some blogs on LiveJournal and write about what he saw. He made it clear that he wasn't focusing on, "how shall I put it, the 'leaders' of Internet public opinion, all those 'tysiachniki'[1], the pro-Kremlin or anti-Kremlin Internet screamers," which according to him was because such bloggers are professionals whose writings have nothing to do with their actual opinions ("if a person is a janitor, that doesn't necessarily mean he is a neatnik").

Instead, he focused on the blogs of people who leave comments on some of the more popular LiveJournals. His article, titled "Contempt and Compassion," was hardly a flattering look into the RuBlogosphere. The first sentence read, "People, I've read your diaries. You are non-entities." I'm pretty sure there have been similar snarky commentaries about bloggers in the American mainstream media, but I'll leave it up to you to find them.

As for Panyushkin's article, I decided to translate just one paragraph:

My little male bloggers from time to time also write in their blogs about patriotism. Their patriotic outpourings usually have something about the demeaned and insulted Motherland. But other than the Limonovtsy, I didn't see a single patriotic blogger who had sacrificed anything of substance for their demeaned and insulted Motherland.

Bloggers' reactions to Panyushkin's article at one point occupied 15 of the 30 top spots on Yandex's "popular posts" list. Presumably those reactions were mostly negative - if you're interested, you can follow some of the links below.

[1] тысячник - a "thousandeer," a LiveJournal blogger with 1,000 or more "friends."

Презрение и сострадание Валерий Панюшкин об интернет-дневниках У пользователя «ЖЖ» годами может не быть ни одного всплеска отчаяния, только вялое нытье Далее Эта статья в блогах [?] tema, radulova, tanyant, evil-ninja, dolboeb, m-yu-sokolov, doctor-liza, olegart, sermal, skuzn, prof-rabotnik, barabanch, oleg-kozyrev, ivand, _kutuzov, golishev, kovanova, turova, rostovsad, guruken, penguinny, antusha, anashulick, ms-lizzy-bennet, zurfreude, pe3yc, kamrad-kats, maxim-kononenko, neznaika-nalune, kozenko, scottishkot, lvoropaeva, 1755078, dobrokhotov, ladoga, cybervantuz, namarsh_ru, shurics, obezyana, kolezev, youzef, krasovkin, _kogan_, pigbig, ru_politics, epliss, sexfunk, fomenko, shurko, winnukem, roman-shurukhin, kookoondra, e228, bekara, mosmellowman, robyana, allan999, blue-olusha, t-link, yuozik, ulixes, doronin, d-eva-chka, rigello, 1447, davelee76, peresedov, thecheshirecat, aisatu, in-b, evi-19, berlinka, trigg, worvik, sling, der-wish, nataljusha, rajaka, rimona, uncle-thompson, _ko_alla, stuart1861, chiifa, nedolboeb, dmih, feeling-of-void, anykeen, richard-grm, dorothy91, stas-kulesh, guralyuk, hate-daily, the-jove, shirly-noclaf, missseeya, dobrotolubie, cesurka, paufnuty, yangel, hollandrat, sinnieonfire, kliuv, hiddenmit, 1684702, alderina, diksi, partr, kozhev, kaizer-84, theeinstein, q-marik, chemodanov, cka304huk, captain-memo, zubkoff, maliar, kinshik, tapirr, melnikoff, lunaire, glint-way, lilit-boo, talismanser, ermouth, tr00per, h-op-e, anutka-il, anglus, catpad, todofmm, moon-live, gella4ka, psychomodo, kototuj, lyamur, zzerzonat, freken-boo, contra-ventum, 944340, izbuh, yandex-top-ru, topbot_flashr, _elhana_, roman-n, tanast, soboleva-t, alex-celly, prime12, rozanof, lunar-mist, olamia, goodwin45, surjojo, kilya-ya, bezumnypiero, satanya-chan, snadworm-arr, _kv, superina, nikitina-mama, chmv_, spirit-of, ultroliberal, elena-hochnadel, nu-i-shto, freya1, _starley_, dzz, pani-janna, mortang, alexey-viper, myem, vs-beloff, mark1992, al-manama, oxxx, trauch, witard, as-ne4aev, sergius, fedor-shilov, interviwer, zlaya-koroleva, vitaliy-fadeyev, viking-nord, djdrive, die-tier, asya-kareva, mamacholy, marish-plohish, yandex-top5, v-l-a-d-i, zakharov-m, wegg, ksyuhin-i-ya, el-periodista, inosmi_ru, arcaim, perlovka-blog, 45878, yandex-top10, kinomonster, soamo, kotarko, gmz, zen-buddha, demset, gatazo, alextr98, svinka-majalis, mind-exploded, jarolep, hitin, bp21, marina74, otshelnica, roma-2, aledr, g-r-p, moorca, kerlangua, odozmorov, brain_marrow, alexandra-junne, bigshaft, kottega, vialla, tinskaya, dn-d, lazy_rabbit, nadeyka-sh, leonsija, ervix, violent_vertigo, ajde-jano, readership, silberwe, tribunus, innomini, lisusha, rodoss, reistlin, male-x, sjevn, dobroslav, kumaxx, smolyak, hermangen, sceptic-rus, domkin, 986667, ivan-laptev, mikrukova, mont-blanc, mcarrow83, niotkyda, da-het, la-asteria, fagot99, nicodim-from, anhela-l, lovely-witch, adora-m, beobaxter, tommy-art, alliruk, mikhail-golub, hermionita, erenko, onsamyi, valnaya, emia99, doobydoom, dolgova, kfadffal, nexxon, catbayan, faiman, webalkach, mangusta, bagbier, ljoshkina, khorkoff, 2308342, cold-n-sour, neumno, zverozyab, ailoyros, tverdyi-znak, 2289491, vewwww, andrey-fromfili, lafdanov, mechanician, rachelka, idillliya, docent-07, duhonavt, hozhai, lafdanov, visvit, belko-i-pr, ollia-lukoye, ray-binko, semtn, m-oduvanka, 5fjord, thecrazyelf, lera-posmitnaya, psy-afterdark, marzipanela, dad_s, rotwain, dsa-blogspot, rein-bl8d, vinokurov, caesar-magnus, dazor

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