In praise of Scoble
In a week in which bombs in Tel Aviv, Istanbul and Baghdad have killed a hundred people; in which the Chinese President is meeting Bill Gates to discuss further extending their respective power monopolies; in which neo-Nazis are murdering foreigners in France, Germany and Russia; in which yet another typhoon is growing off the north shore of Australia; in which the US government seriously proposes a nuclear first-strike against Iran while still bogged down in the civil war it created in Iraq:
in just such a week, dear readers, nothing seems more important to the Internet than that one blogger has announced that he is tired of insulting, abusive comments and will delete them in future.
The strength of the (insulting, abusive) reaction to this has amazed and disappointed me. The common attitude appears to be "I cannot be honest without being rude and/or vicious," as though truthfulness had no other use than as a weapon.
I think that this is a life-imitating-art effect of television: you see people throwing chairs and screaming at each other because the situation rewards them for doing so, and think that this is how normal humans should communicate. Well, I beg to differ.
Scoble further said - and this is where the fur really began to fly - that he would in future associate by preference with happy, positive people: "I realized I had been listening to too many people who were deeply unhappy and not bringing any value into my life." An astonishing number of commenters outed themselves as deeply unhappy by reacting to this as though it were a personal attack. The common attitude here appears to be "happy people are either stupid or dishonest," which could be summarized as: I suffer, therefore I am better than you.
The reactions weren't all just childish screaming tantrums, there have also been a few sensible, intelligent responses. Kathy Sierra's post is definitely worth reading, going beyond the narrow issue of restricting comments to discuss group emotional dynamics and the contagiousness of un/happiness. Today's recommended reading.
I am fortunate that my blog doesn't attract loudmouthed fools and bigots, and treasure the interactions of my readers. However and notwithstanding: I too will delete comments that I find unacceptable. If you find that unacceptable, then please feel free to go elsewhere.
posted by Udge @ 10:23
4 Comments:
I have never understood how anyone can sit at a computer and type vicious things. My whole viewpoint has always been if I don't like something, then I hit the little x button in the corner and go on to somewhere else. Simple and to the point. I have never felt the need to bludgeon someone over the head with my beliefs.
I applaud the decision. It is possible to make an opposing point about something without being a jerk about it.
I have done it myself bfr and will surely do it again, though I too do not attract many trolls. Hardly any ever really. Life's too short and our blogs too ours for there to be any doubts. Calimeros are the pits!
"immerse yourself in love" -Radiohead
Me too, without a second thought. I don't want to foster anger, in myself or in anyone who might want to defend me (or attack me, for that matter.) The best response to abuse is just to erase it and go on. The idea that anyone will miss a learning opportunity could only live on in an unexamined mind, I think. Nobody learns when they're angry; it's the worst possible state (with the possible exception of terror, and certainly not excepting sleep) in which to learn.
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