What a screwed-up week it has been!
When I signed on Monday morning we were midway through the Phaedrus-accuses-Gaudere-of being-most-of-the-rest-of-the-board crisis. Snark was in the process of reverting to lurker because he didn’t want 4,000 other people reading his thoughts. Libertarian and Edlyn were getting raked over the coals because they believed they had seen the stuff of an Urban Legend. Two days ago, Melin was accused of homophobia by SqrlCub.
Hello? Anybody ever hear the words “online community”? Anybody got a clue what they mean?
In my book, people are what matter most. Facts and categories, theories and beliefs, are all well and good, but where the start being used to hurt people, that’s where they need to be put down. I’ve posted my beef that “the Bible has no handles” – it’s not supposed to be used to hit people over the head. That goes for secular knowledge as well.
You know what? I don’t have a clue what Phaedrus had for “evidence” that Gaudere was actually Andros and Clark K. I think nobody does except Phaedrus himself and maybe Ed Zotti. And I don’t give a rat’s ass what it was. Gaudere has been my friend since shortly after I signed on this board. And like everybody else, I “took her side” in the Phaedrus War. And I would again in a minute.
But you know what? We’re not in third grade any more. There doesn’t need to be “sides” that we take. And there are a lot of people hurting from this past week:
[list][li]A lady in Chicago who posts as Gaudere was injured by the accusation that she was trolling under assumed names.[/li][li]Two other posters, Andros and Clark K., were accused of being her. And nobody that I’ve noticed has posted about their feelings. I haven’t seen a post from either in several days. Maybe they deserve some compassion too.[/li][li]A lady lawyer from southern California with one of the most open and kindly personae I’ve run into (albeit she can hold her own in an argument) was misunderstood as being anti-gay, and was badly hurt by it.[/li][li]A gentleman from Texas now working in D.C. who has let us know how he was hurt as an openly gay teenager felt, first, that he and other gays were being slammed, and I hope that we have headed off him feeling jumped by all the people coming to Melin’s defense.[/li][li]A regular poster and his fiancee probably feel like they were told to stick an Urban Legend somewhere. Where? Hint: It’s the title of an active thread on the subject in Great Debates.[/li][li]A man from Ohio who, on the testimony of things he’s posted, has been through some tough experiences, was driven off the board by what has every mark of being the cyber-equivalent of a lynch mob. Yeah, us. Lynch mob. And I was part of it. Don’t like it? Live with it. I was, and you were. Over in MPSIMS I posted the following about Phaedrus:[/li]
He’s a moderately successful lawyer, or maybe an experimental mycologist. Or something else. He has only himself to blame that we don’t know who he was. Playing online head games is easy. Being a real person online is harder. JBenz and I are the sole survivors here of a 1989 online community. People who cared about intelligent exchange, and about each other. Phaedrus doesn’t need my pity, and I would presume has more pride than to want it. But maybe he needs our compassion.
Why did he do what he did? I don’t have a clue. It may be jealousy. Gaudere is liked to an extent matched by no other Great Debater. Everybody on that board, of whatever metaphysical or political temperament, seems to enjoy their exchanges with her. It may be misinterpretation of some posts – if there is anybody on this board who hasn’t been on one side or another of a misinterpreted words situation, just wait a few days; you will be. It may be something else. I don’t much care.
When people sign on this board, they get welcomed warmly and share in a lot of intellectual and sometimes emotional give-and-take. And that’s what makes a community. Except for a few. They post hatred or stupidity. What do we call them? Hint: it begins with T…
Hello? The derivation of “troll” was the one Jon gave a while ago…somebody fishing for an answer he wants, not being intellectually honest. It started as a verb, “trolling” and then became a noun for a post that trolls.
Do you notice what we’ve done? It’s become an epithet for people whose posts troll. Hey, folks, unless you have concrete proof that this poster lives under a bridge, has green skin and warts on his nose, and a principal item in his diet is billy goats gruff, he or she’s not a troll. If he’s being an idiot, show him how. If he’s naive, or misinformed, or has an erroneous worldview, correct it. If he won’t listen, shake the dust of his posts off your heels and give up. But give him a chance first.
I sincerely hope Edlyn and SqrlCub and Melin and Andros and Clark K. and Gaudere and Libertarian and Snark and Phaedrus and whoever else has hurt feelings will not find it occasion to leave. And I hope we can all learn a lesson from all this horseshit. I know I have.
The truth is a defensive weapon. And given half a chance, it will win out. Don’t be assaulting people with it. The only thing you’ll hurt, in the long run, is the dreams you have.
End of rant.