I feel so violated!
Today, I encountered what was quite possibly the nastiest exchange I have had in my adult life! Some of you warned me it would happen but I truly didn't see it coming. It was with a stranger who commented on a blog.
Imagine yourself standing in front of the Campbell's soup section in the local grocery store and scanning for tomato soup when out of nowhere someone runs up and starts screaming at you, shouting expletives and cursing the wretched state of the meat department. Wouldn't you call the manager and, perhaps, the local mental health facility?
And yet this is is the style of too many people who post comments on weblogs. They jump into a conversation and use expletives, never really addressing the topic du jour, but being incendiary and obnoxious. Didn't their mothers teach them not to call names?
It is an interesting phenomenon. For some reason the anonymity of the internet has driven all civility from our culture - our online culture anyway. Why is that? Here we are with unlimited time to think about and edit our posts. Seconds, minutes, hours to evaluate the effect of the words we choose. Best of all, if someone says something we don't like, we can choose to walk away - something that in a physical confrontation might not be socially acceptable or even feasible.
Here, with time and so many options at our disposal we could be our best selves. Putting forth reasonable debate about complex issues and seeking the truth behind the difficult dilemmas that our society, our government and the world faces.
What a shame that even though our faces are to the screen all anyone gets to see is our backside.
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Comment by A Conservative Realist— 2006/01/27 @ 07:33 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Cate— 2006/01/27 @ 07:48 PM — (Reply)
HAHA, gotta watch out for those hatemongering trolls! Don't feel bad; I'm kinda surprised Millard hasn't hazed you 'in person'!
Comment by C-Mom— 2006/01/27 @ 07:58 PM — (Reply)
Comment by C-Mom— 2006/01/27 @ 08:02 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Cate— 2006/01/27 @ 08:04 PM — (Reply)
Comment by A Conservative Realist— 2006/01/27 @ 08:16 PM — (Reply)
Comment by C-Mom— 2006/01/27 @ 08:18 PM — (Reply)
You've got a tough skin, your a military wife. Still notwithstanding Louise's (probably Millard in a very poor disguise) comments you should know that you can get used to it after awhile. They have no argument other than "we hate Bush". No ideas, no imagination can only take them so far. Their arguments are as shallow as their cause.
Comment by Elmers Brother— 2006/01/27 @ 10:38 PM — (Reply)
I'm sorry that adults with seeming intelligence decide it is necessary to blurt out vulgarities. I remember being taught that workds like those were spewed because the speaker was not smart enough to say anything important. So ignor it all as unimportant, and therefore not worthy of your time.
Comment by Verity— 2006/01/29 @ 04:01 PM — (Reply)
Comment by A Conservative Realist— 2006/01/29 @ 04:28 PM — (Reply)