A Coward’s Paradise

“You people just say and do racist things!!! When the BLEEP! comes back at you (supposedly) you whine about being the victims of racism. Pleazzze take yourself and the rest of your whinny, whinny, BLEEP friends to a therapist.”

If someone were to say that to your face, how would you react? I guess a better question would be, how would some of the people you know react? I can think of a few who would get rather miffed to the point of inflicting bodily harm. That’s a nice way of saying, they’d punch the person in the nose.

The quote above is something someone actually said to another person. Just not to their face. Nope. It was a comment someone posted on the internet following a story about the 2012 Presidential race.

But political stories aren’t the only thing that can inspire people to comment. Here is a quote in the comments section on YouTube about Journey’s Escape LP.

“you there william philips 22 you are the BLEEP americans who came over here broke into my and perry`s house and tried to stick your BLEEP heroine addicts and wanted criminals in my band like your BLEEP greg rolie and carlos santans,,, like do you really know what you are talking about in fact saying BLEEP like that will land you in court like i don`t need to hear BLEEP like that from the lost and found box of the inhumane and disgraceful americans especially since you have no land def”

What is this about? Who cares? Frankly, I can’t even tell. With the run-on sentences and complete lack of coherency, the way the person wrote it speaks louder than any point they were trying to make.

Yet, when someone argues with them, instead of logically pointing out their argument, the attacks become more ferocious. But why would anyone feel it’s okay to speak to another human being that way? Let me make a suggestion: because it’s easy.

People who write these types of messages have no fear of retaliation—aside from someone else typing an equally lame post.

As an author, I love the idea that good will win out in the end. Doing the right thing isn’t always easy, especially in the face of peer pressure, but it’s worth it.

To borrow an idea from Star Wars, the “dark side” of the force is powerful, but it’s easy and quick to access. The “good side” of the force is harder to master, but it’s more powerful.

I see a parallel to this and people making comments on the internet. It’s like the filter between what their brain is thinking and what they say is turned off. Granted, I’ve known a few people that speak that way regardless if it’s face to face or on the internet.

In the end, anger builds upon anger in these comments. Speaking for myself, I’d much rather be happy than angry.