Been getting a lot of messages asking if I have given up my long tradition of showcasing and summarily obliterating the fools and bullies who flaunt and attack with their foolishness and stupidity. The answer is both “no” and “never”. I still love a good slicing and dicing of someone so stupid that they’ve decided to be hateful about it, but… I’m sorry guys… I just haven’t gotten much haters lately. It’s tempting to go looking for them, but I must follow my Batman code and never do that, for if I did, I would break my psyche and never be able to come back after blurring the line between the defensive attack and the offensive shit-stirrer. Especially since [dumb] people will accuse whomever is crushing the shit-stirrer of being the REAL stirrer of the shit, which is of course just a way to say “I don’t care who started it – I just don’t want to deal with this right now!”.
Don’t worry, chaps. Bullies and jerks will find me eventually. Lets not go wishing for it, shall we? I really only post that stuff out of a Batman sense of obligation, anyway. I’d be 100% satisfied if everyone was pleasant and respectful, open minded and tolerant of other views but able to identify their own errors in judgement or faulters by way of poor behavior quickly. That is the ideal, don’t forget. I know you enjoy seeing a take-down, and I enjoy it on a level too, but i’d still much much rather stick to doing that kind of thing to much larger issues instead of 1 on 1 spars with my fellow man. The only reason I even do it is to post the exchange for entertainment purposes. I’ve been doing that for almost 10 years now and I still don’t understand why the hell anyone else does it.
Do you know? Because it’s not a rhetorical question. I really have no idea why the hell anyone bothers responding so long trying to tear people down on the internet. I don’t even understand it in real life. In fact, I understand it less when on the internet because it’s usually only you and the other person experiencing the exchange. So why the fuck do you care about what this one person is saying? It makes no sense to me and I’ve tried to figure it out every time it happens in the past decade. I’ll be putting some dope through the wood chipper and I keep thinking to myself “…I’m doing this because I’m going to post what we’re both saying so everyone can see how stupid the things you’re saying are..but….why…is this person saying those stupid things?”. Only once or twice have I broken character and actually asked someone and they didn’t answer. That one hippie douche on facebook that is reliable for a crybaby hate-rant knows I take down attempted bullies like him as a hobby and yet constantly comes back for more punishment only to leave in an emotional and angry huff.
That’s the key, kiddies: the “never say die” aspect to it. I’ll respond until the end of time because I argue from dispassionate logic so I have a literally endless fuel supply – but the other side – the douchey hater types who invite these conflicts like bullies on a school yard – they have a very limited fuel supply of emotion and indigence so in addition to the punches and jabs, its largely a game of rope-a-dope. They come on strong but fizzle and pout as they fade and I guess that’s what you all love about me posting those conflicts so much.
Its like a 21st century version of gladiators… kindov.
But why DO they care so much? Why does anyone bother to respond more than once to someone? If I don’t find entertainment value in something someone says (ie: when I can tell that someone is trolling on purpose and isn’t a true believer) then I just drop it and the exchange never enters my mind ever again. But these people… they get so outraged and go to wikipedia and google and history recourses and use desperate ad hominem personal attacks with violence and profanity and on and on and on. for what? Am I on a blog version of the Truman show and they are really posting this stuff to THEIR websites as well? to show what? how easily manipulated they were? how they were a total jerk to a stranger over shit that doesnt matter or affect their daily lives whatsoever but they HAD to respond with increasing hatred because some unknown being somewhere on the planet DARED conflict with their opinion about something? Jesus….
I dont instigate fights or play devils advocate or go looking for any of this stuff but when I come across gold, i certainly dont say no.
I know why its fun for me (because I enjoy mental puzzles and figuring things out and people going on offense about something false or logically weak is an open invite to play + my Batman duty to hold mean people and bullies to public scorn and ridicule) and I know why people love reading it (because everyone likes to see a take-down, even in text and theres an audience thats fascinated by my persistance) but I remain to have no god damn clue why anyone anywhere bothers to engage so long in these things.
Oh well. I still stick to my rule of eternity: “respond until the end of time… or until the other person gives up, retracts their statements or clarifies them to a logical degree that clarifies their position or the situation (I prefer clarity to agreement).”
Barbossa: So what now, Jack Sparrow? Are we to be two immortals locked in an epic battle until Judgment Day and trumpets sound?
Jack Sparrow: …Or you could surrender.
Leave a Reply