Haley Joel Osment has nothing on me.  His experience in The Sixth Sense with seeing dead people everywhere just can’t compare with the stupidity seen in the blogosphere.

I abhor blog wars.  That’s basically where bloggers get a corn cob stuck up their asses and go after each other with vehement and abominable personal attacks.  Instead of debating an issue with reason and intelligence, they eventually stoop to the level of humanity that is most common: threaten, attack, insult, and threaten some more.  That’s one reason I don’t allow flaming in the comments here.  I don’t mind passionate arguments, but I very much mind attacking someone instead of their position.  I get enough hate mail and block enough of those comments to know it’s a useful policy.

When it comes to blog wars, I stay out of such things.  I have no time for the silliness and ignorance.  Not only that, but the cynic in me sees it as nothing more than supporting evidence for my extreme dislike of people in general.  Humans are an ugly bunch and easily get riled up about the dumbest of things, and when they get riled up, their animal nature furiously boils to the surface and they come out snapping and clawing and generally being dicks striving to do as much harm as possible.

One such war recently started over a really senseless thing where one blogger wearing her sensibilities on her shoulders took great offense when another blogger spoke about his views on pseudonymity (handling internet activities under a pseudonym).  Now, a lot of people do this for a great many reasons.  One, prospective employers (and even current employers) are more and more using Google and other search engines to do name searches in an attempt to see what their employees or employment candidates are doing online.  Two, stalkers and other cruel inhuman assholes do online searches for people in hope of identifying and locating new prey.  Three, there are plenty of creeps trolling the internet looking to pick a fight with anyone who says something with which they disagree, and in starting a fight they are looking to inflict as much harm as possible; this has even gone as far as contacting someone’s employer and leveling all sorts of accusations or pointing out whatever questionable thing they said with the specific intent of getting that person fired.  Four, people are too evil to leave online activities online, so they take their grudges into the real world and inflict whatever damage and hurt they can come up with.  And the list goes on.

There are also many bad reasons people use pseudonyms for their online activities.  The most obvious and, I think, most likely is that they don’t want to be associated with what they’re saying and doing.  That often stems from it revealing intense bigotry or hatred or very unpopular points of view, not to mention being used in an attempt to cover up illegal activity.  It’s also done when people don’t have the guts to stand behind the convictions they proclaim online (i.e., they can talk a good game but have no intention of living up to the expectations they set for others).

All of that said, one of the reasons I moved my blog to this domain was to create a certain level of pseudonymity for my own online activities.  Let’s be clear about this: I’m not hiding from anyone.  In fact, it’s rather simple for even an internet novice to find out who I really am if they take a few minutes and know enough about the web to do some research.  But at least my name isn’t glaring at the world in a blatant display akin to internet neon lights.  Cursory searches of the web should no longer lead people to this blog.

So anyway, this war was taking place where one person took great offense at another blogger for casually mentioning on his own blog that he understood why some people used pseudonyms but still thought it was worth considering the use of real names as a sign of standing behind and believing in what was being said.  He at no time named anyone or pointed fingers or even said pseudonyms were wrong and evil and used only by those who were up to no good.  Nevertheless, another blogger took it as a personal attack and levied some harsh criticism back at the person, and then they promptly severed all ties and ended their friendship.  It was all because she blogged under a pseudonym and didn’t like the fact that anyone had a contrary opinion on the practice.

Yes, her own selfishness blinded her to the realization that it was not personal, wasn’t even aimed at her, and was offered with the caveat that it was understandable why some people would do it, and it even included mention that he probably didn’t understand all of the considerations for the practice.  But the damage was done and one of the bloggers got her panties in a twist and huffed and puffed and created a firestorm.

In response, a third blogger got involved and, again for no apparent reason, also got her knickers too tight in the crotch and promptly began threatening to “out” the pseudonimous blogger who originally made a big deal out of it.

Needless to say, it was all rather obtuse and the two female bloggers were both guilty of wearing their sensibilities on their shoulders and taking offense with anyone who voiced a contrary position, even if the mention of that position had absolutely nothing to do with them specifically.  I couldn’t have cared less because, as I said, I stay out of the blog wars (a) to keep myself safe from that kind of online violence that can lead to offline offenses, and (b) to save myself the unnecessary involvement in childish activities that demonstrate nothing more than selfish hate and immaturity.

And then it turned back on the original blogger whose innocent post seemed to have been a catalyst for all this drama.  I was confused how he got dragged back into it given his original post had nothing to do with the two parties involved.  Despite that, the two women came at him with teeth and claws ready to inflict harm, and he found himself backed into a corner trying to make clear he was just expressing an opinion and had admitted several times it was based on his own experience and didn’t include all the possible considerations.  Um, hello!  ALL BLOGGERS DO THE SAME THING (even I do it), and that’s sorta the point: it’s my blog, it’s my journal, and I can ramble as much as I want about whatever I want; if someone disagrees, let’s debate it and discuss it, and even if that conversation gets heated, let’s not make it personal and take it so far as to become threatening.

Yet that’s precisely where this one went.  Before anyone knew what was happening, a commenter came to the defense of the female blogger who’d gone batshit crazy over a post that had nothing whatsoever to do with her specifically.  That commenter said the following on the original bloggers post (editorial marks omitted for clarity since there’d be so many; I’ve also redacted all names).  Note “[this blogger]” is in reference to the female blogger who flew off the handle in the first place:

You contiburted to [this blogger] leaving her blog, you suck. You think it’ss so great to blog under your real name, how about if I come by [your city] and cut your dog’s fucking throoat? How would you feel? It’s easy enough to find you.

How pathetic.  Obviously written by someone with pre-kindergarten English skills and no humanity whatsoever, this one threat lead to the shutdown of one of my favorite blogs: Creek Running North by Chris Clarke.  When you go to his site now, the message you get is this:

After family discussion regarding a commenter’s threat of violence against our dog, Creek Running North has been taken offline.

Who can blame him?  I certainly don’t.  His dog Zeke (yes, the same Zeke I’ve mentioned here many times) was dragged into a senseless online scuffle by a mindless asshole who was “standing up” for a blogger who’d taken an unrelated post and turned it into a personal attack against herself, and with that she started the whole mess.  It was all so very stupid and lame.

So now two inconsequential people enabled some creep to hunt down Chris’s location and start threatening his dog with violence.  Those same two bloggers couldn’t see beyond their own “the world revolves around me” mentalities long enough to realize the damage they were doing or the insanity they were empowering.  I hold them personally responsible for what has happened to Chris.

This is why I stay out of blog wars.  One, they’re childish.  Two, I’ll only respond to people who want to discuss something, not those who want to level threats and accusations and personal attacks simply because they don’t agree with me (hence the comment rule about flaming).  Three, they’re a waste of time and energy and thought.  Four, I don’t need the hassle of people trying to hunt me down in the real world so they can fulfill their violent and selfish fantasies.  Five, the stomping of feet and throwing of fits tends to be a waste of time.

It’s a very dumb tragedy.  I really liked Chris’s writing and the vast majority of his views.

It’s funny that all of this proved his original point: people hide behind pseudonyms and do things they absolutely wouldn’t do if their real identity was known.  Despite the two women turning it into a personal thing and causing a nuclear exchange on the internet, I suspect the irony of it all is lost on them.

Let me finish this by adding a bit of personal information.  I get a lot of tasteless e-mail, some of which is threatening, but most of which is nothing more than infantile ranting by people unable to string together a few words into a proper sentence.  It’s useless to engage them since their idea of a discussion is to insult me in whatever way their empty heads can imagine.  Oh, and most of that isn’t even funny or entertaining, otherwise I’d be apt to post it for your enjoyment.  I also get quite a few comments submitted that are flames against me or The Kids or my friends or my family or other elementary school premises for argument.  I block them because I don’t allow flaming here when it’s personal.  On that note, the one time I did allow three high school wenches to do it, they went overboard with demonstrating how truly sorry our public education system is and why, as members of their school’s debate team, we can be certain they’ll never win.  I’ve since redacted all but one of those comments to keep them in line with my rules and to show that, failing some level of maturity, I’m going to make you look like an ass (you can see those comments on this post).  I didn’t delete them because I’d already approved them and responded to them before I realized I wasn’t going to let anyone slide by on the no-flaming thing.

In the future, I’ll continue deleting flame comments and anything I deem inappropriate.  Again, I’m all for debate and even heated argument, but I don’t want nor will I allow personal attacks or threats.  Sure, you can flame politicians or movie stars or anyone like that, but I get to decide where the line is drawn and when someone crosses it.  I can assure that will always include my family, my friends, me, my cats, and other commenters.