Commentroversy: The Loneliness Of The Philly.com Comments Section Moderator
If you’ve been watching MSNBC at all this week, you know that — thanks to the Deathers, and to a slightly lesser extent, the Birthers — much of the discourse in Thinking America right now is about how bad the state of discourse in Dumb America is right now. Now, the Deathers really dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s on this by shouting down nationwide anyone who even wanted to talk about health care/killing all the old people. But the conversation has really been devolving for a while now. Anecdotally, we here at Philebrity are shutting down more first-time commenters than ever before — trust us, you want to thank us for this — and in general, the Dumb is just in the air now. While we’ve been thinking about this (as well as the plight of people like us who have to moderate/wade through this river of shit), we came across this blog post entitled “Everything Old Is Dumb Again.” Its author is anonymous, so we cannot ascertain that he is in fact a moderator at Philly.com, but by gum, we sure hope he is.
Or how about the ongoing annoyance that is “moderating” the comment section of a local newspaper Web site. And by moderating I mean deleting all comments that people report to me, and wrathfully banning people for little to no reason on Fridays. Hey, today’s Friday! Well at least there’s that. See ya guy, your particular brand of unhinged wingnuttery has worn thin. I can’t wait to get a call from you telling me I am oppressing your first amendment rights, while doing abortions. Don’t worry though, there are still plenty of places online where you can talk about fake birth certificates and how terms like “unhinged wingnuttery” are racist.
I would provide an example, but frankly we are all better off without it. In all seriousness: Comments on local newspaper sites are clear indicatives of how terrible most discourse is, in America. As recently as the 1990s these conversations were confined to people’s private homes, and street corners. Maybe you would overhear something at a Cracker Barrel about “negroes” or “liberals” but you could always just move to another table, or chew your Country Dinner Plate louder. Not to mention you got what you deserved for going to a Cracker Barrel.
Well said, anonymous friend. Please pass the biscuits and gravy. Amen.
August 12th, 2009 at 11:41 am
USA! USA! USA!
Wait, what was the question?
August 12th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Seriously, can you blame them? It’s one of the rougher jobs we’ve got, and we all share it.
August 12th, 2009 at 11:53 am
@Wendy: We cannot blame them. At all!
August 12th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Something I read earlier this week summing up the week, and perhaps the whole summer. (I think it was over at Atrios’.)
“It’s the stupid, stupid.”
August 12th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
I just knew I could count on you to get it wrong.
The reason people have been reduced to spewing vitriolic hate is because Americans have been disenfranchised by their government. For far too long, American citizens have been marginalized out of the process. Bush,Clinton,return of the Bush and now Nobama, want absolute control and authority over the populace. Never before has anyone been so open about it as Nobama who is trying to disassemble 200+ years of freedom and turn this country into a nation of 3rd world squatters.
Finally, everyday Americans have swallowed so much shit, they are puking it back up. The tolerable limit has been exceeded. What you are seeing is nothing less than a revolution. It is a revolt to return the country back the principles of the founding fathers. Or put another way, quite simply the average American wants government out of their lives and off their backs and out of their wallets and most certainly does not want government rationing their health care.
At this moment, I am proud to be an American, proud that average Joe’s are shouting down politicians and hope that now that we have them on the run, we keep going until we put a stake through the heart of big government.
August 12th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
@ jburnside
Wordy comment and so incorrect. Why aren’t you on Fox?
August 12th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
actually, jburnside, what the average American wants is free or at least cheap health care.
August 12th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
“the average American wants government out of their lives and off their backs and out of their wallets”
So you don’t want police, firemen, emergency services, social security, medicare, meidcade, your streets paved, street lights, stop signs/lights, waste treatment, water treatment, etc, etc, etc, etc? Please stop with the rash statements. You realize if you got what you wanted we’d be living in anarchy.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Isn’t burnie’s use of the moniker “Nobama” rather cute in a quaint, Williamsburg, VA kind of way? I mean, how 2008 can you get? Today’s trolls have long since moved on to other forms of embarrassing puns and word play to denigrate the President, yet there’s our burnie….like an eternal flame of stupidity, clinging to the candle of an election he lost.
August 12th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
This is just making teabaggin’ look classy.