How to Respond to Controversial Blog Posts
This week I posted an article entitled “I am Extraordinary,” which turned out to be more controversial than I thought it would be. Most people who know me would understand that this is the exact sort of thing that would come out of my mouth. For those on the internet, well, if nothing else I’d expect them to take it in a more satirical light and have a good laugh. Don’t get me wrong: I was completely serious, but when someone says these sort of things, it’s hard not to get a good laugh at it. It’s kind of like Stephen Colbert: insofar as he’s making fun of Conservatives, he’s being completely serious, yet it’s funny and even the most zealous find him funny.
Being controversial, I got a lot a few comments via the blog but as well as Twitter and Facebook. My friend Elyse and David both seem to get this, but I got other comments from people who didn’t seem to. Here are two examples:
Tired of your bullshit — spamcollector2008@yahoo.com
Masturbatory, largely false.
Only the sheer magnitude of your arrogance (coupled, perhaps, with a total lack of self-awareness) is extraordinary.
Please grow up soon.
da illest killa — powerman@yahoo.com
I’m better looking than few.
I’m smarter than uneducated loafs.
I’m funnier than a pile of dead babies.
I’m more driven than a gay guy’s b hole.
I have vision, which the blind will never have.
I’m immensely unhappy with myself, which most people aren’t.
And this is just a sample of the other kinds of comments I got. I didn’t publish them because it violated my terms for commenting (which just really boils down to don’t be an idiot). But I wanted to use these as an example of how to be a bad member of the online community.
If you want to respond to a controversial blog post, in either a positive or negative fashion, by all means do so. That’s the beauty of blogs: they’re an open media. However, do so without being vapid and incendiary; in short, don’t flame people because it doesn’t do anyone any good. Both of these people might have had legitimate claims—I’m not really sure the second one has a point—but they obfuscated it by proffering those inane comments. Instead, they should’ve posted a well-formulated response so that I could’ve engaged in a conversation with them.
Seriously—I do have personality flaws and I would at least take an opportunity to have a discussion, but not with them.
Basically, as long as you offer good comments, you’ll be a happy member of the online community and you’ll get the respect you want. If you don’t have the volition to make your comment publicly with your own name and email address, then it’s probably not worth your time to even write it. Go comment on Youtube if you want to make a fool of yourself.