The leftward and other blatherings of Span (now with Snaps!)

Friday, July 22, 2005

an explanation of absence

lots of little reasons like health, civ III entering the house, harry potter entering the house, etc.

but mainly the constant negativity from many who comment on the political blogs. although I haven't had many problems here with Those People (no idea why), the lies and the nastiness around the blogosphere have been really getting to me. I've been involved in politics for nearly 10 years now and I'm used to the face to face stuff, I'm even used to the media stuff, but the level of personal attack that some are using on the blogs is just unacceptable. And yes I really do observe that it is mostly by people who identify as right. Millsy, who was one of the few left wingers who got nasty, seems to have largely calmed down or disappeared. But the likes of tim barclay, spooks and Cathy Odgers continue.

It's like some of you are forgetting that everyone who writes a post, or a comment, is actually a human being. Smarten up your act folks or this is going to end up like news groups all over again.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well I'm pleased you're back, for one. :-) I think you're right about people forgetting that it's human beings on the other end they are abusing. I've seen things written in comments thread, and had things addressed to me, that I have no doubt whatsoever that the commenters would never dare to say face to face. I think the triple membrane of two computer screens and cyberspace in the middle can tend to break down people's sense of propriety and decency. Jordan especially seems to cop way more than his fair share. Anyway, I'm rambling. Welcome back.

Nigel Kearney said...

Civ 3 can have that effect.

I managed not to get hooked when it first came out because the ridiculous corruption rate made it no fun. Then I read somewhere how you can play on the higher difficulty levels without high corruption. Several weeks were utterly wasted as a result.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I'm hooked on Civ 3 as well. I agree that blogging is quite nasty, it's one of the reasons that I stopped blogging, there is no reason why someone should put themselves up to that level of crap.

Good luck in campaigning.

Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling said...

Welcome back,

I have to ask Spanner, what nation do you play as? What attributes do you select?

Apathy Jack said...

"constant negativity"

Yeah, this remind me of John Gabriels Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory, as shown here:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php?date=2004-03-19

Anonymous said...

Hey there, Im still around. Yeah, Ive eased back on the keyboard in the past few week, namely because its getting me nowhere expect all fired up and not only taking it out on the keyboard, but on the people I know, so I thought I would ease up on things, and just stick to my own blog. The comments I have seen by right wing bloggers, posters and commentators, really get to me, and I cannot belive they hold these opinions, and I get angry, and let fly with my opinions.

But, I would agree, the right is the origin of nastyness. The blogoshere is nothing compared to the Xtra News Community(http://groups.msn.com/XtraNewsCommunity2/), which is little more than a hotbed of hatred and intolerance (though, if you were a rich capitalist, farmer or businessman, you are an alright person). The people on there are the kind of people who would compare Sid Holland and Keith Holyoake with Stalin and Kruschev just because they supported universal health care. You want nastyness? You go there, youll get it with interest. It is from there I adopted the tactic of fighting fire with fire - its the only thing these people understand.

It sickens me that people like them are out there, running our shops and business, driving our trucks, teaching in our schools, treating our sick, building our houses, etc...I mean, who would want to get a job working for Tim Barclay knowing what he has said about unions??

Idiot/Savant said...

BerlinBear: yeah, that and some of them are simply arseholes.

There seems to be a specific faction of right-wing wankers who want to make things as nasty and vicious as possible. This both discourages people from blogging and drives out sane commenters who can't be bothered with that sort of shit - which is, I suspect, the point. If you can't win the argument, shout the house down...

In case this wasn't clear, this is irritating me somewhat. Once upon a time I rather enjoyed Jordan's comments. Now they're pretty much unusuable.

Span said...

in regard to Civ 3, I haven't really played enough yet to work out which nation I prefer. I'm not really very good at it to be honest, but I get quite obsessive. I just want to know what will happen next. And I just want to finish doing this and that. in the end with Civ 2 we had to "store" the disk at my parents. I think I'll get sick of Civ 3 once I've done the different endings though. I'm having a romper stomper of a game at the moment as England.

Span said...

I/S I often wonder if it is a deliberate strategy or just a coincidence of arseholes (which is of course the correct group noun for them). Certainly the way that Jordan, and Michael Wood to a lesser degree, have been targeted suggests some deliberation about trying to drive out the Labour bloggers.