The internet is hard on my head lately. I'm usually pretty good at participating in online discussions, but more often than not right now I seem to be too angry or bewildered to form constructive responses. I haven't been able to figure out how to talk to someone who is defending Rush Limbaugh's most recent assault on humanity, for example, because I was under the impression that anyone with a shred of decency and respect for women understood that it was an abomination. (The general argument seems to be that yes, he shouldn't have said it, but the real problem here is that everyone's making a big deal out of the words as an excuse to ignore his message. Well, (1) his "message" was inaccurate garbage, and (2) do people really not know that when you speak to the public for a living, your delivery actually does kind of matter? His choice of words makes a statement, and his use of offensive misogynistic words is absolutely deserving of attention.)
I just can't even count anymore the times I've read a comment, tried to respond, and ended up deleting everything I wrote. Am I losing my ability to analyze a statement? Is it just that these comments are based on such faulty "logic" that analysis isn't useful anyway? I really think it's some of both. In any case, I'm getting tired of feeling like an idiot because I can't put a decent response together.
I was considering another internet fast anyway, or at least an internet diet of some sort. I think I'm going to have to impose some kind of no-reading-the-comments kind of rule if I want to be able to keep up on the blogs... And I'll probably have to just avoid Facebook entirely (since there isn't really a way to avoid the comments there). It'll be nice to focus on things like book reviews again for a while, which I think is what I ended up doing the last time I did an internet fast. Pinterest and Goodreads okay... Feminist websites not. Blogging okay, Facebook not. Reading blogs okay, reading comments not.
Yeah, actually, this is sounding really good. I think I'll start tomorrow.
Miri, I have a mantra I try to remember when I hit that wall of being unable to even formulate a coherent response: Never argue with an idiot; they drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience. Some people just simply aren't interested in meaningful open dialogue. Those are the people that leave you hitting your head on the desk, and they aren't worth it! <3 <3
ReplyDeleteUgh, I know! You are very right. This is why I feel like I need to take a break, so I can get myself to disengage. I've been seeing so many comments that are just so ridiculous, inaccurate, offensive, sexist, and/or just plain idiotic, and the past few days it's been especially difficult for me to kill the urge to respond to them. I can't do it productively, though, so I need to get out of debate mode and hopefully get rid of that urge.
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