I like my job. I really do. But it makes me sad to pop open Bloglines, scan down the new Nashville blog entries, only to find this:
"Michael Fox is a uselss [sic] idiot dupe of the Democrats. He is pathetic and his disease gives him no excuses."
I would never have read this hateful and ignorant blogger if it weren’t for the Nashville Is Talking gig. I’m not sure if I was better off not having to ingest this sort of nastiness or if I’m a bigger person because of it.
All I know is that it makes me sad. The vitriol and venom that some of these folks put forth on a daily basis makes me wonder how toxic they must be in real life. And miserable.
6 comments ↓
Agreed. When I’m forced to read something like that (my brother occasionally sends me this stupid shit), all I really feel is pity for how sad and disconnected their lives must be.
If the Internet (and blogging in particular) has done a singlular disservice to all of us, it’s in providing the ‘illusion of anonymity’ that gives way to this kind of vitriol. Chances are, if you met the person who wrote that post in ‘real life,’ you’d never know how venomous s/he really is because I can’t think of anyone who’d actually say something like that in public, no matter what he or she actually thought. It was a little nicer in the days when we could pretend that only the very worst people of lowest character thought these things - but the illusion of anonymity that the Internet creates serves to remind us daily of just how nasty many of the people we interact with actually are. But that’s not always a bad thing, either. If the Internet (and blogging in particular) has performed a single service to our culture, it’s to show us how many of us *really* think - and knowing this is the first step in addressing the problems that clearly are all around us, but that many of us refused to acknowledge for decades. Just my $0.02.
I consider that one to be one of the more seriously unhinged ones in the local blogtopolis. It’s sad, really.
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Hi Brittney,
Chris Wage has used the very apt expression “Don’t feed the trolls” at NIT. Why do you even give idiots like this “air time”?
Surely you have editorial control of your content (your “colleague” certainly does at VV). I’d be happy as a clam if you dumped her weblog from your roll and never mentioned her junk on your site.
(I say this realizing full well that people could request the same of my blog –c’est la vie.)
Tim
I DIDN’T DO NOTHIN’
Also remember how Fox came to be famous playing that famous liberal Alex P. Keaton? He was always bashin’ the right wing, non-stop. Man, those were crazy days.
You should read about your friend’s photo-op with Laura Bush. It sounds like she just about pooped her pants with excitement.
Oh, and check out her articulate response to a comment in the thread about MJ Fox. She’s quite a lady.
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