Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Tired and/of Trolls

Busy.

Busy busy busy. Busy.

I think I really need to stop reading the news. I just can't cope with it anymore.

No -- what I need to change is when I read the news. Ordinarily, the first thing I do after shutting off my alarm clock is sit down at the computer, open up my RSS feeds, and inform myself about the world while waiting for my brain to get readjusted to being in it. This now seems very foolish to me. On any given weekday morning, the very first information I consume is invariably a collection of headlines going like, GLEEFUL, AGGRESSIVELY IGNORANT LUNATICS SEIZE POWER IN AMERICA; SUN TO SWELL INTO RED GIANT AND GOBBLE UP EARTH BEFORE UNITED STATES ECONOMY RECOVERS; HUMANS AND BEDBUGS TO BE ONLY SURVIVING ANIMAL SPECIES BY 2030, BIOLOGISTS WARN; CHINA OUTSIDE, PUTTING BOOT ON YOUR CAR.

Waking up in the morning -- especially this time of year -- is already hard enough. Why would the first thing I do upon getting up be something that compels me to go back to bed?

No -- that's not it, either.

What I really need to stop doing immediately is finishing a story on the Washington Post or New York Times and clicking on the "comments" tab.

In the old days, before journalism went digital, I imagine it was possible to put down the paper after reading some heartbreaking article about the latest environmental catastrophe, egregious act of ignorance and injustice, or foreign bloodbath, eat a few Prozac, and assure yourself that the cleverness, generosity, and fundamental decency of the American character would bring about a righting of wrongs, a promise that the mistakes of yesterday would not be repeated, and an example set for the rest of the world -- even if it might take another few months, years, or decades to see it happen.

And then the Internet appeared. And then the Internet Goober Gallery came along and destroyed my faith in the American populace.

Actually, that's not entirely fair. We certainly can't blame the Internet if the people take advantage of this unprecedented age of instant global communication to demonstrate how fucking awful they are.

Over the last few minutes I've browsed the comments sections of a few Washington Posts pieces pertaining to the economy, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Afghanistan, and race. Let's see how the public feels about these difficult and multifaceted issues:


I have zero doubt that the failed 0bama administration orchestrated this. The pitiable part is that even if she knew that as a fact she would still vote for 0 just for his melanin content.

* * *

After 9 years of trying to bring Democracy to these ungrateful savages they have given US very little in return. I would suggest that we withdraw our ground forces to Pakistan and employ our much underused B-52's. Carpet bomb the entire Afghan region until every last one of these maggots are dead and leave their carcasses for the motherloving rats and buzzards. These people want a fight US than we'll blow them straight to hell. Once all is said and done with we can use their mineral resources to pay off the cost for all the time and money that's been wasted trying to help these cave dwellers.

* * *

Observation...Why is it that females seem to be so much more tolerant of homosexuality than males???? Soft Values have been the root of decay in numerous societies in the history of the world. Why should we embrace soft values in our society???

* * *

I don't hate the sob. I simply "don't like him." I wouldn't hurt him. But, I wouldn't recommend that he be allowed in presence of our Soldiers, when they're armed.
O'bama "cannot" be as dumb,as he appears. He went to school, and graduated college. Can he be dumb enought to believe that we, or any Nation, can borrow itself out of debt, or spend it's way back to prosperity? Even Jethro, of The Beverly Hillbillies, could Cypher, better than that.
So, if he's not dumb, that only leaves deliberate intent. He doesn't know how to "feel" or to "be" American.
He's living his Father's, and hid Grand-Father's dreams. He's still figting, and opposing Imperial Colonialism.
He's getting even with European Anglos, who had, at one time, imprisoned his Paternal Grand-Father.
His aim, is to destroy America.
It cannot be accidental. You're hoping that he Succeeds???

* * *

DON'T YOU DARE COMPARE THE IMMUTABLE TRAITS OF SKIN COLOR AND RACE -WITH THOSE WHO PRACTICE THE SIN OF SODOMY!

* * *

look, I'm not a racist, I try to be tolerant.
But this is our country.
They are right.
America is our country. Americans are mostly caucasians, and some blacks, who of old fought with us in the revolution, and in the Civil War and later wars and some mexicans we adopted later, and some native americans we adopted, and everybody was integrating, if especially slowly in the case of the blacks.
So yes, there is just one America. Our America. In this case, if almost no other, I will stand and fight with Palin and Beck.
The rest are unasked for but tolerated immigrants to our country. You can always go home, if we offend you.

* * *

It is us against you and you are losing big time. Make no mistake about it, I would not give you or any other liberal the time of day if your life depended on it. In fact, I would run ahead of you and destroy clocks just to hasten your demise and then laugh about it. I want you and people like you crushed and utterly destroyed, just beating you is not enough. You greatly underestimate the hatred many, many of us have towards anyone who supports the Marxist in the White House.

It's bad enough reading about how much worse off the world is today than yesterday -- that the barbarians are crowded round the gates, putting ever more chinks and cracks in the wall that stands between enlightened civilization and a new dark age -- but thanks to the Internet, I am also discovering every day that another sect of barbarians is inside the gates, hammering away at the walls from behind.

To me the Internet is seeming less and less an engine of education and community than a propagator of demagoguery and non-information. Perhaps Tolstoy wasn't completely bats when he derided the printing press for promoting ignorance and self-assuredness.

*ahem*

And I guess that concludes my Internet blog post about how clever I am for observing everyone else's silliness. Sheez. I'm going back to bed.

6 comments:

  1. I was actually just pondering this the other day. I feel sheepish over how much time I spend reading comments sections as opposed to actual news articles. Sometimes I'll only read half an article and then skip right to the comments. An why? I'm never surprised by what I see. I know what's going to be there, but I'm severely curious which flavor of comments are going to get the most "likes". I'm trying to wean myself off them but it's like a freaking addiction. There's something about watching humans arguing rubbish that is just fascinating.

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  2. Have you ever read the Glass Teat by Harlan Ellison? You probably haven't, because its hard as balls to find, but believe me, things used to be much, much worse than this. Typically though, it is usually only assholes that comment on these things. Either way, it is usually best not to read comments on articles on mainstream news sites.

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  3. Look, I'm not a racist, but I have zero doubt that the failed Obama administration orchestrated this post. Even Jethro, of The Beverly Hillbillies, could see the folly, in the opinions, of, O'bama.

    Or maybe it was those frothing, anti-intellectual, latently racist, easily-manipulated Tea Party dolts.

    Point is, everyone except me is wrong about everything. Eat it, Internet!

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  4. I've got a friend who's a sports nut. If "we" don't win he gets all emo about it for until the buildup to the next game. I used to be the same about politics, current events, "how generally shitastic everything is", or however you'd want to put it.

    Then, I stopped.

    Don't sweat the small stuff and don't get all bent out of shape over things you have absolutely no control over. The world's always been a pretty horrible place. Just make the best of it for yourself and those around you.

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  5. America will collapse/fall long after we are all dead.

    So don't worry about it now. Evolution has obviously provided you with a superior mind by which to judge those hapless dolts who somehow cannot distinguish propaganda from fact.

    If those barbarians, as such, are responsible, why not remove them from the gene pool? That would seem the only logical way out. Reason and discussion certainly aren't going to get you anywhere.

    All this compassion and silly games certainly aren't going to remove that 77.3% of the population, those "internet users", that muddy up the water. Useless notions like "equality" and "empathy" aren't going to get the job done.

    Am I being sarcastic? Maybe. But you might want to come down from your ivory tower a bit. Dismissing people outright is a sweeping generalization at best, and ignorant at worst. They have reasons for why they act as they do, even if they aren't reasonable, or logical. Most of us think with our feelings; it's not like that isn't how the American Revolution came about, either.

    Unless you want a Platonic Republic, buck up and get used to it.

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  6. Long after we are all dead? It'll probably fall apart well within our life time. It may not disappear, but then again, neither did Great Britain. (Great Britain now is hardly the same country/globe-spanning empire that Great Britain was.)

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