“Cowards can never be moral”

“Hiding behind that oh-so-generic, lacking in character, identifier (or really non-identifier), the anonymous person exemplifies the very worst of the Internet in terms of interpersonal relating. Believing that no one can tell who she/he is, anonymous persists in behaving badly — spewing nastiness everywhere. Somehow, the only sort of connection this poor fool can make is that sort of bully-in-the-school-yard swagger that insists on its own correctness, but doesn’t have the self-confidence to own those viewpoints in legitimate, mature, give and take conversation.
I’m sure the anonymous person believes that the arrows that he/she lets fly somehow lodge in my heart and mind and cause me great distress. It just isn’t so. Mostly, I find myself bemused at the mindlessness, narrowness, sadness of the volleys that come from that quarter now and then. It never changes. Never grows. Never explores beyond the tight confines of self-righteousness. A whole world where the anonymous one obviously paces back and forth like some caged animal, longing perhaps for the same freedom and joy that so irritates when manifest in my life.

And so, tonight, in the ebbing of the latest onslaught from “anonymous,” mostly, all I feel is compassion for a person whose life is so constrained that their excitement and pleasure consists in poking at me every now and then.”
~swan

Well she is far nicer than I am. But perhaps I’m jaded. ;-)

I get my fair share of anonymous comments. I am insulted six ways from Sunday in most of those anonymous comments. I think I deal with them a heck of a lot better than I used to. I’m pretty secure in myself and my life these days to give them much more than a skim and a chuckle.

I have theories about anonymous comments, and theories are all they are because I don’t ever leave anonymous comments. If I have, it was an oversight, a failure to log in or whatever, because I stand by what I say. I’m not ashamed of what I say or what I think, even if I’m wrong or told off for it.

I suspect that a number of the anonymous comments that I get come from people who otherwise leave lovely comments with their name attached. I can’t think of any other reason why someone would bother getting here through anonymous search engines, why they would go to such trouble to mask their IP. (And if you had any idea how laughable it is that I would know what to do with your IP number, or understand that I don’t care enough about your IP, you’d not bother.) I suppose that could make me all kinds of paranoid, left to wonder who’s the backstabbing bitch and who can I trust – but honestly, who has that kind of time? I give my trust where I give it and if I’m wrong about someone, so what?

I’ve considered disabling anonymous comments but haven’t. I probably won’t. Not only does Master think it’s “silly”, I also consider my own preferences when I go to leave a comment elsewhere. I loathe having to sign in anywhere simply to leave a comment. I hate it. I always sign my name, but I rarely go through the process of leaving links and email addresses and passwords, etc. I just hate the time it consumes and often, when I would otherwise leave a comment and I’m faced with having to recall that particular log-in name, password, and those hateful word-verify screens? I’ll skip it. So I prefer not to put that sort of inconvenience, slight as it is, upon anyone reading or wishing to comment here. Which, unfortunately, leaves me an open target for pithy anonymous gems.

Occasionally I delete one, though I haven’t even bothered with that in ages. I went through a period of thinking that I was going to “keep my garden purty” by deleting anything that wasn’t sweet as roses- after all it is my “yard” to care for- but I gave that up. Seemed like a lot of work, yanno? Besides, sometimes some pretty nifty conversations and posts bloom up around the shit. It’s like fertilizer!

What I do find amusing though, is that often by the time I even get to read the insult, there will have been several nicer people who will have commented back, either in my defense or to simply point out the error of the anonymous person’s judgement, yet, without fail I will be accused of “calling in my followers” to fight my battles for me. (btw, I don’t know if you all know this, but you have names. Let’s see, you have been “kaya’s cheerleaders”, kaya’s cronies”, “fanslaves” -oh there’s more but they escape me at the moment) I have never once asked anyone to comment in my defense. Ever. Never ever ever. In fact, I happen to think I can be pithy enough on my own, tyvm!

I suppose in a perfect world, everyone would have the conviction (and the balls) to proudly stand behind their words. If you mean what you say, open yourself up to the debate and the disagreement. I do.

~~*~~

In other news: Moose Drool is beer. I forgot to answer that. There is also one that has butt or butz or snot or something like that in the name. Master is a strange, strange man. :-)

I think there were other questions, but if so, I can’t find them.

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