If you ever get particularly bored, I highly recommend that you surf over to Yahoo.com, click on any news article (no matter the topic), and scroll down to the comments section. There you will find what is, without doubt, the very worst that humanity has to offer. You might be thinking, “Come on…you must be exaggerating.” Just read it…you’ll be convinced. For example, there’s a story about the typhoon that hit Australia. One of the comments reads, “I bet that selfish piece of ---- Al Gore is blaming this on global warming!!” And of course, even if the article is about a little girl saving a homeless kitten, there will be without exception at least 50 to 100 comments along the lines of, “good think (sic) Obama didn’t find the cat, he would have painted the communist symbol on its back, put a muslim head thing on its head and paid for its health care with my money!” But perhaps the worst comment I’ve seen was this one…quoted word for word from the comment section of an article on HIV/AIDS research…
“The fact that aids is more prevalent in black communities (and population) in America and that Africa has more aids cases than any other nation ... proves that the black race is the most irresponsible and that they are more careless than any race on the planet. Their lack of civility and their "I'll do as I please" attitude would seem to be universal among them. They create crime, disease, and poverty and then expect someone else to take care of the consequences of their actions.” – Anonymous poster
Frankly, this gives me chills and leaves me speechless. Putting aside the gross inaccuracies (Africa is a nation??), the overall sentiment literally churns my stomach.
I hate stupidity. I hate bigotry. I hate cowardice. It’s so hard to always take the high road when you feel as if you’re always fighting an uphill, losing battle. Will the anonymity and impersonality of the internet be our civilization’s downfall? Will we be able to breed such contempt for each other behind the safety of our computer identities that we will eventually tear each other apart? Maybe I’m too sensitive, as nothing that anyone posts on an anonymous forum has any real impact beyond stoking anger and hostility, but I know this affects me on a visceral level. My default setting now tends to be, “I don’t like you until you prove to me that you don’t think like this (see above).” I really hate that I have to be that way, but it’s getting to that point. Ah, the glories of the internet…
Maybe complete obliviousness is the best medicine.
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