Oh no! We’re doomed! Microsoft is sure to gain control over our most private thoughts by offering us bloggers a tempting deal:

If you’re a blogger, MSN might come to you and say, “We want to distribute you. We’ll send you traffic and we want you to run these ads on your site, and you’ll get a share of revenues on that.” That’s probably an offer that many bloggers are going to be interested in because they don’t want to have to invest in creating that kind of infrastructure, and they would value the traffic.

Some of the comments in response to the post were quite revealing. For example:

Ever since the Internet began, Microsoft tried to control it. They got rid of Netscape because it had a browser everybody was using. They tried exercising control through their operating systems. This did not work. They are attacking Open Source. We must make sure it does not work.

Now Microsoft is trying to gain control of bloggers. At the present time, bloggers seem to be a truly independent group of people. Some are liberal, some are conservative, some are religious, some are amoral, some are just independent thinkers, some are mostly emotional. They write about what they damn please. Microsoft does not like it. Somehow bloggers must be made part of its system so that it may exercise control.

All members of the Internet must fight Microsoft on this. We want to keep the Internet Open and allow every single person a voice. This gives strength to the little guy against the powerful. It is one of the few remaining strengths for the little guy.

Don’t allow Microsoft – or any other powerful entity – control over bloggers. I am one blogger that will have no truck with Microsoft.

As someone else asked, “Is Microsoft directing traffic to blogs anymore corruptive than newspapers printing op-eds or columnists?” More generally, why value the voice of the little guy in a free society? Why do the meek, small, and easily corruptible have some special value that must be protected? (Answer: The ethics of altruism.)

In any case, blogging is hardly an egalitarian medium. In fact, it’s quite the reverse. The more talented and interesting writers generally rise to prominence, while the idiotic boobs and partisan hacks saying nothing noteworthy generally sink into well-deserved obscurity. The blogosphere is a generally fluid, friendly, and speedy medium, not some sleepy small town filled with Mom & Pop Shops run by Little Guys and Their Wives. Its readers generally value innovation in thought and clarity in writing, not whatever it is that “the little guy” is supposed to bring to the table.

Oh, but I forgot, Microsoft wishes to crush us all. Silly me, I thought they were merely a software company attempting to sell us their wares, not an Evil Empire of Destruction Hell Bent On For Its Own Sake.