Dodging Digital Dunces

The way I see it, in a debate, there are two scenarios in which you can't formulate a "come-back:" you lost fair and square or your opponent devolves into personal attacks.
The second one isn't too common on a debate stage or even in person. However, it is the accepted norm on the Internet.

A few days ago, I posted on my band's Facebook page and was almost immediately confronted with an angry comment suggesting that I move to Afghanistan if I hated the US so much.
This is a far right slogan I've heard too many times, and always have the same response for. Dissension is the greatest form of patriotism. It's because I love my country that I work to make it better. I then thanked him for commenting (hey, it's more hits on my band page), and went about my day.
Apparently, he didn't like my response.
After just those two comments, the rest of the 20 or so comments focused on personal, violent attacks: I hope you die, you deserve to be raped, suck this, eat that, go to hell, you're a piece of shit, etc. etc. Another one chimed in to bolster the behemoth display of dumb-assery, liking each others posts and re-iterating previous comments.
I watched this all unfold - after all, what would I say?
It was clear that any form of intellectual discourse was lost on these buffoons so why bother? I wasn't about to stoop to their level so after a while, I simply banned them from the page, reported it to Facebook and went on debating and discussing with those who had posted logical and valid points.

But it got me thinking, also because this wasn't the first time this has happened. Just a month or so ago, I commented on someone else's post only to be barraged by violent personal attacks. I've also had psycho stalkers on YouTube who began with death wishes and wrapped up with date requests.
Having grown a thick skin, I mostly just shake it off and continue on.
It's certainly not enough to shut me up, but should it be enough to make me pause?

And that's what I'm doing now.
It seems far too frequent and abundant, these digital dunces who troll the Internet armed with a full arsenal of expletives and an empty head.
And while we can't weed out all of them, or even always stop them from posting - could we trade the desensitization for awareness and not allow our entire interactive paradigm to retard to this shit-slinging level?

Because - imagine, if we begin to accept this as the norm - where does that end?
Can you picture it: once eloquent speakers meeting to debate but instead engaging in an epically grotesque and juvenile cut-down contest? Complete with foundation-less, factually inaccurate, juvenile, threatening verbal vomit?
....Scary to think that might already be happening...

If we continue to accept this as our 21st century digital discourse, we will continue to see more of these cretinous commentators and less intellectual dialog. People will cling to ideologies without the ability or even the need to back them up in any social setting. It will be black and white, good and evil. Compromise will be considered weak and any opposition to a viewpoint will be met with a slew of personal attacks instead of knowledgeable debate.
Sitting in the comfy confines, safe behind your computer, is apparently not just to avoid physical interaction, but also intellectual.

We don't need to agree on everything - what a boring and mono-faceted world it would be if we did. But if someone puts forth a point in a respectful, valid way, we have to learn and/or continue to debate it in the same fashion.
And we can't learn to accept those who don't.
Free speech is one thing, but threats and violent verbal attacks are another. 
Deleting comments, reporting abuse - these are options - but is there anything else we can do? Not just to curb this behaviour but to bolster the behaviour of intellectual debate?

(*Please note, if you have a comment on this post that has anything to do with me dying, getting raped, or getting the shit kicked out of me - stop. Go away. Come back when you have something useful to say.)

Fast Blast: News 1.27.11

Hello all, here's the latest and greatest (or worst) from around the world:

-CNN gets dirty: CNN received exclusive information on the dirty inner workings of the FBI, including severe misconduct by agents and supervisors. For example, an FBI agent sharing top secret information with his news reporter girlfriend then threatening to release a sex tape they made...a supervisor masturbating and downloading porn, a "leadership position" employee using the FBI database to check up on two exotic dancers, then inviting to his office after hours. By the way, none of these people were fired, they received suspensions because, as Director Candice Will said, "You know, our employees are human, as we all are. We all make mistakes. So, our discipline is intended to reflect that" Maybe some philanthropic psychiatrist (say that 10 times fast) could explain to me why so many high up government officials are sexually deviant. Could it be that our stiff (pun intended), self righteous, corporately religious facade is just that? That the bulk of our government officials are overpaid, corrupt puppets of a corpotacracy controlling our country? Just a thought...

-WikiLeaks fire-side twitter chats: WikiLeaks announced that they will begin public discussions on Tuesday February 1st via email and twitter. If you have a question, you can contact them on Twitter (tag: #wlquest) or twlrt@mail.be. They haven't disclosed who will be answering the questions or for how long but email questions close at 6.00pm GMT on Saturday January 29th and the first conference will begin video recording for broadcast at at 11.30am GMT on Tuesday February 1st. Also, if you happen to have a media outlet and are feeling a little adventurous: "WikiLeaks is looking for the most reliable and trustworthy organisations to collaborate with on our upcoming releases. If you would like to register your interest please fill out the form below [on website]. Should an appropriate collaboration opportunity present itself we will be in touch." Looks like the underground monster wants to come out and play in the sunlight...this will be very interesting to see...

-Obama-tube: Since we're on the subject of online chats (not the FBI kind), Obama will be on YouTube at 2:30 pm ET today answering questions about the State of the Union speech, and just the state of our union in general. The event is a part of the White House's attempt to reach out to young Americans.

-No surprise: America's war on terror is failing miserably. A member of the independent Brooklyn based news organization, Vice, traveled to Pakistan to report on the growing violence. The reporter spoke to Pakistanis who complained that our war in neighbouring Afghanistan has taken a horrific toll on their society: a never-ending stream of refugees, weapons, militants, and randomly, heroin. The devastation caused by our dick stick foreign policy is the catalyst for suicide bombings and heightened terrorist activity. No longer are the new members of Al Qaeda fighting for extremist Islamic law. They have abandoned it. The young, angry members now seek revenge for the trespasses against their people and their country. As Shabir Ahmed Khan, the Peshawar secretary of Jamaat-i-Islami fumed to the reporter, "If Westerners are going to kill and murder us, then we will have to fight back. No one has the right to dictate over a free country. They force their political and social policies on us, which they have no right to."

-Afghan's new US parliament: on the cozy subject of the middle east, Afghanistan inaugurated the new parliament yesterday, after a standoff between Karzai and the incoming parliament. Karzai had refused to seat the new parliament due to complaints of horrendous fraud at the elections four months ago. But, as per usual, under the watchful eye of Big Uncle Sam, the new parliament was seated and the White House proudly hails it as "a significant milestone." And another one bites the dust.

One minute mission

Here's the link for the newest video...trying something a little different...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThYXgHScDEc


*I won't be posting videos here until the issue is solved, so look on youtube till then. Sorry for the inconvenience

Videos!!!

So, apparently blogspot has their heads up their ass and the videos won't play.
Please go to my youtube and type in "Rooftop Revolutionaries" and it should get you to the videos.
Sorry for the trouble and happy viewing.

Here are the urls for the two videos that are up. From now on, I'll post the urls along with the video blog entry, just to make sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmSGsb995uI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZUfwuh1Slk