Consider: In Berkeley, an event featuring three authors whose bestselling books at least touch on the Bush presidency (generally critically) drew 3,600 people who paid $15 a ticket. The panel featured Al Franken, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman (“The Great Unraveling”) and former Republican strategist Kevin Phillips (“American Dynasty”). Proceeds went to KPFA-FM radio and Global Exchange, an international human-rights group.

Tickets sold out immediately, said Bob Baldock, the station’s public-events producer and a former bookstore owner. “I think people are hungry for information,” he said. “They want the opinions, not just from hacks that go on television all the time. Secondly, they want to be together in large bodies because it counteracts that sense of alienation you get from television. We had trouble getting people to leave the auditorium.”

I think there’s been a trend toward bunching or finding tribes for a while now – social networking software is just a part of this.

Air America listeners like me “bunch” or “herd” or sort ourselves into groups to interact with each other while listening to or discussing the show. There are several chat room options (fan created, such as at the Liberal Voice or via IRC on the Undernet (various IRC chat clients). The comment thread for Majority Report’s blog got 1030 posts long on April 7th, forcing MR to open a new thread for every hour of the show.

They really need to start a true discusson board, or direct people to Liberal Voice.

Conservatives also bunch. The instincts on both sides are the same; gather together for support and information and mock or engage the opposition.

There’s a lot of scary shit going on in the world these days. Maybe it’s just that I’ve been reading or listening to non-US news sources for a while now (such as BBC News World Services).

Political? Moi? I guess I am. Now, that is.