Tensions are running high at TPM this weekend. There is a lot of conversation about what the Cafe is and who should be here and who shouldn't. Whether there is more value to some posts and posters than others...

I find it all a bit sad.

My understanding is that Josh intends for it to be a cyber "coffee house" where people mingle and discuss...We don't have to believe anything in particular, we can be wingnuts on either end of the spectrum or somewhere in between. We can be intellectuals or hillbillies, atheists, Christians,  Buddhists, gays, straights, blacks or whites, dressed in pajamas or suits and ties...it just doesn't matter.  We can discuss anything we want, it doesn't have to be all about the headlines of the day. I mean, after all, as important as it is, health care 24/7 can be a bit draining. All he asks is that we be relatively respectful.

Some people here are good at taking personal confessions and turning them into relevant discussions on the state of the country. Some want no more than to put their poetry out there for others to critique. Some are howlingly funny and can have you squirting coffee out your nose and onto the keyboard over the most ridiculous subject matter. Others are great, serious researchers and teachers. Still others just want to lob grenades and watch to see what kind of collateral damage they can do. Some seemingly have little purpose other than to take up space. I suppose it can be a little clickish at times, but, some of us just really LIKE each other. Anyway, it's a big Cafe, and there is room for all. No one "group" owns the place.

I've only been here a little over a year, so I don't know what it used to be like. Maybe y'all used to never talk about anything but politics and the REALLY important stuff. I know a number of people who were here when I first showed up have left to start their own blogs, others just disappeared. Some of them I miss and I visit them on their own sites from time to time. I thought others were just grouchy intellectuals that couldn't be bothered by the stupidity of the masses and although I miss their perspectives on occasion, I don't miss them. There are lots of new people, and many of them have made tremendous contributions.

The TPM Cafe is a constantly changing place, as would be a cafe in the real world. People move, tastes change...for whatever reasons, the patron's faces change over time. If you don't like what it has become, open your own, or move onto one that suits your needs. We are all here by choice. The trick is to join in where you want and ignore the rest.

I like the diversity of TPM ; the diversity of thought, of style, of subject matter. I lived in white, Christian, republican seclusion for far too long. Being here has opened up a whole new world to me. My being here may have diluted the intellectual purity of the site for some, but it caused me to grow in ways I never would have without it. And for that I'm grateful.

Thank you, Josh, for not making me take a test before accepting me here.