The Internet is full of Jackholes

Every once in a while, I'm reminded of something that somehow, I've managed to allow myself to forget. That no matter how civilly you try to keep a debate, no matter how many facts you have to back up your side, and how open you are to validating the opinions of others, and no matter how non-personal you try to keep things ...

... some jackhole who thinks that he's not only entitled to his uninformed opinion, but that he's entitled to foist it off on everyone.

It's times like this that I wish that the barriers to entry were a little higher, like they used to be. The quality of debate on the Internet has dropped precipitously in the past few years, even the editorials section of the newspaper has become a wasteland since they started accepting submissions by e-mail. AOL is indeed "so easy to use, no wonder it's #1", but at the same time, making the Internet so accessible has made the entire process require so little thought, that browsing the Internet a relatively passive activity, and the act of conversing with others fairly thoughtless. Much of the spam I get is from FAMILY, and no offense meant to them, but when I get a message from you, I want it to be one that is personal, and means something, and makes me want to respond and open a dialogue with you. Nothing is more disappointing to get an e-mail from a family member that I haven't talked to in a while, and find that it is nothing more than a message forwarded to me and everyone else on thier address list.

Internet communication is so fast, people put no thought into it anymore. There is no cost, like a postage stamp, to make people think about whether it's important enough to them to send that message. The time it used to take to write a letter, edit it to make sure it says what you wanted it to say, put it in an envelope and address it, affix the proper postage, and walk your ass out to the mailbox used to be enough to get most people to keep their uninformed opinions to themselves, and to leave their junk mail in the trash instead of forwarding it to someone you love.

Without those barriers to entry, you now have hundreds of people who all think that because they have the "right to free speech", that means they have the right to say anything they want, without the repercussions that saying it in a true public venue would have. I've got news for you. With every post you make, Free Speech becomes meaningless. We live in a time where our civil liberties are eroding, and people out there are unwittingly helping it along. Free Speech is meaningless if you don't say anything worth hearing. "Your favorite product sucks" is NOT worth hearing. You now have people who forward every joke they get on to those that love them, and we don't even get the chance to say, "Wait, I've heard that one before."

Challenge yourselves to think before you post. Count to ten and reread your message before you click "Send". Ask yourself if your egotistical need to be heard is worth possibly losing your right to say it over. Not that one has a causal reference to the other, but I think we could all deal with taking these things a little more seriously.

"I have an opinion, and I have a right to say it" is true. But it doesn't mean that you have to, or that you even should. We have an important election coming up, and I think we all need to raise the level of public debate in our country over the mudslinging and flamewars and into something more intelligent, something that makes us all better off for having read it. Make your loved ones aware that you loved them by sending them something thoughtful and personal, and not just the random stuff you came across that day.

I'm sure I'm going to get flamed all to hell over this, but hey ... that's apparently what the Internet is for ...