February 21, 2003
From the desk of Jane Galt:Return from Coventry
Hello, everyone.
Can I just mention that I love you all? Even -- no especially -- the readers who brewed up 277 comments arguing that
a) I shouldn't have talked about violence at the anti-war protests, because there wasn't any, ergo the potentially violent protesters were just a figment of my sick, right-wing imagination
b) It was very, very wrong of me to advocate the pummeling of these entirely imaginary people.
I'd like to agree, but I just can't bring myself to give up Bugs Bunny.
I didn't quite mean to convey the image that I was in a snit because people disagreed with, or even disliked me. Goodness knows, I've been walking the earth for 30 years from now. Hell, I'm a free market advocate living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Jane knows from argument. However, wading through a long stream graphic suggestions for my rape, death, and dismemberment, peppered by the inevitable implications that I was the kind of person who is likely to invade the Sudetanland any day now got me down. Actually, that's not right. It got me mad. And since I couldn't think of anything polite to say, I didn't say anything at all. That is what my Victorian grandmother calls "being a lady".
Well, the deluge of goodwill I've gotten has far outweighed the nastiness, although several of my correspondents couldn't help coming back for an encore (and may I suggest you might want to take your act back to Buffalo and get some new material before you try the big time again?). I'm overwhelmed. I tried to email you all back, but I didn't even come close, particularly after my hotmail choked. So for anyone who didn't get an email -- THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!! I can't think of any adequate way to express how lovely it was to get your note, so I'll say it was inexpressably lovely, and leave it at that. As for those of you who hit the tip jar -- you shouldn't have done it, and you're mad, and thank you very, very much.
The other thing I wanted to say is that there's no call for the mail I got. For a lot of reasons. It's pretty clear that a lot of people hadn't bothered to read what I actually wrote, or skimmed it to see if some keywords confirmed their belief that every march is Selma, 1964, and the right wing is full of Bull Connors waiting with the firehose. That's just embarassing. Nor were the ones in the comment section willing to correct the error when it became apparent that they had misread it -- instead they started parsing the writing like those people who count every seventeenth word in the Bible to get the special, secret message Jesus left for them.
Nor should I have gotten email screaming names. What the hell's the point? I mean, if you wanted to make me feel bad, I guess you did, but only at the expense of making yourself look like a drooling idiot whose vocabulary is limited to four-letter words. If you wanted to convince me that I'm wrong, none of these is the correct strategy:
a) Suggesting that multiple people should commit felony murder on my person.
b) Chastising me for things I did not write.
c) Using sentences that start off with "All you people. . . "
d) Indiscriminate use of profanity. The only thing that this convinces me of is that the world of the left is filled with copulating inanimate objects with poor bowel control.
e) Telling me that I need to go sit in a corner and think about what I said as if I were two. Judging from the email headers, I was on the left for longer than some of the people who suggested this, and who seemed to believe that adopting a patronizing tone would make them sound all grown up. This only works on your little sister, child. To the rest of us it screams "pompous fool!"
f) Repeating over and over that I am stupid. Now, I have a fairly good sense of how smart I am. I am not 20, and it is no longer a crushing blow to my ego to learn that I am not actually the smartest person on the planet. But I've spent enough time at work and school to be fairly well assured that -- well, let's just say, I'm competitive. Calling me stupid doesn't make any more impression on me than calling me short1.
g) Telling me I'm a member of a secret cabal involving radio and television personalities you don't like. Think about this. If it's not true, I think "hmmm. . . what a jerk this writer is." And if it is true, I have my goon squad kill you. This one is just never a win.
h) Telling me that when the revolution comes, I'll be the first one with my back against the wall. For one thing, you sound silly making this argument in the context of a peace march. And for another, the revolution has now been supposed to arrive for 150 years, and hasn't even called to say it's stuck in traffic. I just can't get worried.
i) Calling me a fascist or Nazi. I do not subscribe to either fascism, or its German variant, and calling me either of these terms has as much rhetorical effect as accusing me of promulgating the Albigensian heresy. What little effect it might have is deadened by my suspicion that few of my correspondents could muster even a rudimentary definition of fascism beyond its penchant for uniforms and genocide, and that most of them do not know that the genocide is not actually central to the original political philosophy. In general, people should not be called either of these terms, nor should they be called communist, unless they are actual adherents of those political traditions. Otherwise, it just conveys the message that you have no imagination and nothing interesting to say.
j) Comparing me to various historical figures whose behavior you do not like. For example, no one should be compared to Osama Bin Laden unless they are the head of a shadowy terror network and plotting the death of thousands. Comparisons to Hitler are particularly fraught, because so many of the comparisons seem to center around his moustache, or the goose-step, which conveys the impression that what you really object to is his embrace of the Prussian military tradition, and his barber. This does not improve your standing in the eyes of the beholder.
k) Stating that my writings evince deep-seated psychological problems caused by my relationship with my parents, my romantic attachments, or the lack thereof. None of the writers seemed to be a psychologist or marriage counselor. Moreover, just as I do not wish my auto mechanic to diagnose my car trouble over the phone, I do not seek therapy from people who have never met me and who, frankly, seem to have some issues of their own to work through.
l) Misspelling key words. Certainly, I make typos all the time, and I have a couple of words, such as independent, that I misspell repeatedly. But when monosyllabic words are repeatedly misspelled, it does not enhance your chances of being heard.
m) Grammar counts. If you have difficulty constructing complex sentences, stick with your old friend the subject-verb-object construction. If you don't know how to get out of a clause, don't get in. You should not end your sentence before you have a subject and verb appropriately placed, nor jam all your sentences together with commas. The semi-colon is there to be used, not abused. If you opened your letter with "You [expletive deleted] right-wing [censored]. All you are a bunch of fascist [expurgated]. . . " I am probably already looking for an excuse to stop reading. If you think you have an important point to make later on, don't let your appalling grammar and limited vocabulary be that excuse.
You not only failed to convince me that I was wrong, you ensured that I was in no mood to read any sensible emails that came by. In the comments, you offered several thousand people a belly laugh at your expense -- was that the point? Are you trying to win other, non-me, people to your side? "You are one stupid right-wing [deleted]" isn't going to get you there, and a lot of my interlocutors went off-line. Were you just trying to make yourself feel better? Honey, don't they have girls where you come from?
Now, there is no idiocy on the left, except the worship of Stalin, that is not mirrored on the right. I know that people on the left get the same kind of nastiness, and they shouldn't. No one should get these kinds of emails. They make it impossible for the rest of us. How can I convince someone that free markets are a good thing if you've been peppering their inbox with nastygrams in the name of capitalism? They're also juvenile. We all like to blow off steam, but tht's what your like-minded friends are for. Sending off bile-laden missives to your political opponents poisons discourse, makes you look like a jerk, and gives them the evidence they're looking for that your side is just a bunch of evil, potty-mouthed fanatics who haven't had a new idea since the Jurassic. So if you're my reader, and you want to make my day, pause for a minute before you send off that mail to Atrios, delete the contentless insults, and see if you can engage him in an actual argument instead. If you're posting in my comments section, don't say things like "liberals are idiots" or "liberals are all the same" or "you're an idiot." Make fun of their ideas, and mine. Heap as much scorn on foolish thought and weak logic as you like. But hold off on the personal invective. If nothing else, you'll have the adult pleasure of occupying the high moral ground.
1 I am six foot, two inches tall.
Posted by Jane Galt at February 21, 2003 8:16 AM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound linksJane: Glad you're back to posting. Two comments:
1) Your line about making sure that, if you use a 4-letter word in an e-mail, that the word actually contains 4 letters is very funny. (Ha!)
2) You have a city days removed from the highest level of terror alert and still at a state of anxiety over a possible attack. This is the place where anti-war demonstraters choose as their locale, using up scarce and precious police manhours? Am I the only one puzzled that they haven't been called on this blatant irresponsibility? What is wrong with demonstrating in New Brunswick, for Christ's sake? Put in this light, your remark about 2x4s is right on.
Great site Jane - keep up the great work! You have a gift of articulating REASON in a pond full of left-wing bullshit.
Welcome back. Your blog is consistently one of the high points of my day, and I feared that your hiatus would be much longer.
Thank you for the consistently interesting and thought provoking writing.
Welcome back! Your latest post, with its characteristic intelligence, wit and courage, reminds me of how glad I am you are going into the Foreign Service. You will make one great ambassador for the USA.
Jane:
Can I cancel the order of 2 x 4's? So glad you are back. It seemed my mornings were off. Coffee? Check. Glasses? Check. Noncaffeinated brain stimulant? Negative.
So you see, you have become part of my morning ritual and I suffered greatly during your break...no splitting headaches but tough none the less!
My undying love to anyone who can use "the Albigensian heresy" intelligently in a blog.
Yikes, a lot of heavy lifting combined with compostion and content recommendations.
Look forward to the next blowout. You should have plenty of material. I certainly didn't know that libertarians were subject to such abuse.
One question which was not answered, six foot two eyes of ______________?
Jane:
Welcome back. Maybe we can devise a WOM device with handler that recognizes hatemail.
In case you're not much of a dweeb, WOM = Write Only Memory.
On the other hand, it might be fun to hold up some of that material for ridicule. But that wouldn't be sporting, I guess.
Jane,
Welcome back. Glad to see the illegitimi have not gotten to your carborundum. [I'm sure Dr. Weevil will chastise me for this post.]
Megan,
It's wonderful to see you back. I sent you one of those (hopefully) encouraging emails. I'm sure you've been inundated by both supportive messages and, ahem, the other kind so you may have just skimmed over it. The suggestion I'd like to put forward once again is to reinstate the comments header you had back in your Live from the WTC days: "Have at it boys and girls, but keep it clean." It may not help, but it can't hurt either.
At the risk of being unoriginal, welcome back. :-)
*does the "Jane Galt is back!" dance*
It looks really spastic when I do it, so I won't demonstrate. Just trust when I say that it's joy at your return and not a seizure that's causing me to do this.
Welcome back! The National Hardwood Lumber Association is, I'm sure, happy, too.
Nice to have you back. You had me worried there for a while.
A woodpecker was drumming on my home's siding today, which made me wonder: What are the ethical considerations of taking pre-emptive action against avian vandals, with a 2x4, sling shot, or pellet gun? Must the feathered foe be allowed to damage my abode prior to my instituting superior physical force? Or may I launch my attack pior to the winged anarchist's impementation of chaos? What is the correct amount of force to apply to such soaring, sharp-beaked, menaces? A mere deadly threat, in the form of a inanimate owl? Will the bird-brains perceive this bluff for what it is, a mere empty threat? Or is actual violence legitmate in such instances, in the face of destructive assault by insect-seeking looters? The world wonders.........
A belated welcome back.
You had me worried there, Jane.
Almost sent out the dog to track you down.
Forward!
I suspected you'd not be long away. Welcome back, and keep up the good work.
I was impressed with the Albigensian Heresy thing, too. Now I'm waiting for the compare-and-contrast with the Manichean Heresy.
Megan, thank God you're back. Where would enlightened discource online be if you weren't?
gotta disagree about using invective. It's good to insult your enemies, and it feels good as well. Not all of us can craft well couched and finely seasoned essays, but we're still fighting for what's right. We do what we're equipped to do for what we believe. Call us stupid, fine. We are, and proud of it. But don't become an Ivory tower btch, eh? Trolls against Iraqi oppression!
You need us as much as we need you. We'll fight in the trenches, and you launch the cruise missiles. OK? At least our trolls are at about the same intelligence level as their leaders. And at least we don't form up in mindless chanting mobs to attack individuals. Too boring. We'd rather fight ten to one odds against us. But it seems the peacenicks have studied up on the ancient art of fatwa... how typical. And they're testing it on you, and others. Heartening that you brushed it off so soon.
But don't be an appeaser, Meg. That's what you're doing by calling for moderation amongst your friendly neighborhood trolls. We're the ones who climb into their foxholes in the night and gut their failed philosophies. We are the ones who know they will never be convinced, these blind idealogues who disregard the facts in favor of their own private fantasies. We're the ones on the front line. Support your front-line trolls.
Well said. I don't necessarily agree with everything you write/say, all the time, but you make a point and present it well. It's always interesting reading, and I usually learn something. Don't let the occasional twerp who has a go at you, get you down too much.
I'm surprised you bother to read our comments.
Comments of any stripe, appreciative or insulting.
DenBeste of USS Clueless got so fatigued by his
comment board he closed it down. DeLong
rather testily steps into his own comments
section, from time to time, to clean up the trash and declare fatwa against the apostates.
In any case, I'm pleased you have not let the
comments deprive you of the pleasures of writing,
nor deprive us of the pleasures of reading.
Carry on!
wntr: Invective has only the most limited possible uses and should be dispensed with the greatest of caution. A person who derives pleasure from slopping it around liberally has issues, to put it bluntly, and is not going to be of much help in what should be a rational discourse. We're trying to run a civilization here, after all.
Anony-mouse: First, don't be a party pooper. Second, like the lefty trolls are ever going to stop coming if you appease them? Third, we all have issues. Fourth, people like me built your civilization. Last, take your well-tuned arguments up against a Chomskyite... you can't win beceause they'll never admit defeat, all they do is evade, evade, evade, dropping smoke-bombs like rabbit-turds. Better to just whop them upside the head with a 2 x 4 and call their mother out. Funner too.
When you realize your opponent has no qualms, what should you do? I oppose retreat.
Delighted to have you back. Don't go away again! ;-)
Megan
I rarely comment, although I check your blog almost daily - guess that makes me a "lurker".
Anyhow, so glad you came back.
Should you become so upset again, just remove the comments feature - keep on posting, please.
Hurrah, Jane and Megan are back. The sun can shine again.
A hearty "Bravo!"...and heck, I'm on the other side.
Welcome back.
I just starting this blogging thing about three weeks ago and I'm already starting to see a lot of the things you're talking about. It's not totally a left-wing problem; there are certainly some conservatives who rant and rave. Still, it does seem the other side is more prone to this for whatever reason.
It always strikes me how few people can muster a decent argument, resorting instead to ad hominem attacks, ranting and raving, vulgar comments, and other such idiocy. I'm never sure what it is they expect to accomplish with those tactics. I don't expect that anything I write here or post as comments on other blogs will change die-hard liberals into Bush loving, Saddam hating conservatives in one bold stroke--although there is always hope. But I hope people at least reflect on the rationale behind their own positions a bit. Personal attacks, name-calling, and other similar techniques simply cause people to be defensive and refuse to listen.
A friend of mine used to say "Profanity is the last resort of the inarticulate motherfucker", which I always felt struck the right self-referential tone.
The point about having like-minded friends to gripe with is very well taken. Not everything one wants to say is really best said out where the world can see it. And besides, if your friends are good, they'll help you find better invective. :)
Welcome back, and keep up the good work/writing. If it's as enjoyable for you to write, as it is for the rest of us to read, please don't let what garbage is thrown your way stop you. If you enjoy doing it, don't let anyone stop you.
It is a great pleasure to read your prose. I agree with you about the need for civility if the crazies on both sides are not to dominate. However, I have noticed that the leftists I meet (everywhere here in Ann Arbor) assume three things when you disagree with them:
1. You are stupid
2. You are mis-informed
3. You are evil
or all of the above. When you attempt to introduce facts and logic or (heaven forbid)history into the discussion the slander begins.
Keep up the good work. Edmund Burke would have loved you (higher praise does not exist).
There's a lot of liberals out there who don't like their cosy little worldview disturbed by actual criticism of their pet theories. Witness all the communist sympathizers going "It's a great theory!" and completely ignoring that the implementation of the theory has killed millions upon millions.
Reality doesn't give a whit about theory. You, dear Jane, seem to have a good grasp of both and know when it's appropriate to assign blame or credit to each.
(Oh, hell. My sentences are getting too complex. I'd better stick to subject-verb-object, like you suggested.)
Jane, you rock.
I'm glad you're back.
J.
There's a lot of liberals out there who don't like their cosy little worldview disturbed by actual criticism of their pet theories. Witness all the communist sympathizers going "It's a great theory!" and completely ignoring that the implementation of the theory has killed millions upon millions.
Reality doesn't give a whit about theory. You, dear Jane, seem to have a good grasp of both and know when it's appropriate to assign blame or credit to each.
(Oh, hell. My sentences are getting too complex. I'd better stick to subject-verb-object, like you suggested.)
Jane, you rock.
I'm glad you're back.
J.
Whoops. I'm very sorry for the double-tap, Jane. Could you please delete one, and this to boot?
J.
Welcome back Megan. You are my favorite blogger by a country mile. In fact, it was you who inspired me to start my own blog. Keep fighting the good fight.
Corection:
Jane Galt is five foot fourteen inches tall.
If a) through m) were representative of the "nasty" emails you got (which no one else has ever seen), they were all spot on. Too bad you can't admit that...
Sorry you're back - more moronic wingnut noise that we don't need.
SENILITY PRAYER:
God grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones that I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.
Dave: Do you file your teeth? How's it feel?
I'd like to spelunk your cesspool, if you'll provide a link, as I'm a student of anthropology. Oh wait, forgot you are a hive-minded fatwa poser, one of freedom's termites. Oops.
wntr: Do what you will, it's a free country and we're both posting on someone else's bandwidth. But don't be surprised if that approach costs your side of the debate some credibility. Trolls will come and go, but they tend to stick around and become more virulent when given regular feedings.
What? You're not the smartest person in the world? Coulda fooled me. Glad you're back anyway!
Comments are Closed.