NOTE: As much as I would like to apologize for not making a lot of posts, I’d be wasting your time and mine. So, my posts are going to be infrequent but important to me. So, here we go.
Earlier today, I was reading an article online about Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat, and it was a very enlightening read. I would link to it, but they don’t need my publicity – such as it were. That wasn’t much of the problem; the problem came when I decided to read further into the comments section. That’s when I began to immediately lose what little faith I had in society. Some of the comments really rankled my nerves; then, I had to stop and take stock in what I was reading.
The greatest joy of the internet is also the greatest burden; it’s (supposed) anonymity. Someone can create a free E-Mail account, then create a free account on a news site, and spam away with all the hatred and fire of a thousand suns. There’s not much that can be done about it except to ban the user, but that doesn’t matter when there is a veritable cornucopia of sites that offer free E-Mail accounts. Even still, there are those who cry foul at silencing someone; they like to say their freedom of speech was impugned upon…or something to that effect. I’m not gonna go into my whole rigmarole about freedom of speech; suffice it to say, if you want to read it, it’s still on this blog.
This isn’t a new phenomenon; for as long as the internet has existed, there have been comment sections. Hell, there’s even gonna be (a very little used) one at the end of this post. The problem is, people say such mean-spirited things without taking into account the feelings of the person they’re saying these things to. I’m not one to scream political correctness, but I do think that the thoughts of others isn’t such a bad thing to take into consideration from time to time. Saying you don’t like a politician is one thing; saying you wish said politician would pitch himself into the sun is something entirely different*.
It’s okay to disagree on things; no one likes mindless sheep. It’s something altogether different to spew such hate-filled vitriol on someone who doesn’t agree with you. That’s depressing, and it really shows how disconnected we are from other people. Going back to the beginning of this post, I like Doctor Who; I liked most of this season, with Flatline being the lone exception – and that was only because I couldn’t stomach the premise. Remember, kids; Mr. Joseph doesn’t do horror. That being said, I won’t say that it was the worst season ever; that title belongs to Series Six for me, because that one was all over the place! I also don’t think as highly as others do about post-Ninth Doctor Rose Tyler, Amy Pond halfway through Series Five until the end of her run, Neil Gaiman’s first episode (The Doctor’s Wife), and the way Moff writes women in general. I also loved Martha Jones, Clara Oswald, Neil Gaiman’s second episode (Nightmare in Silver), and Series Seven as a whole. I’m sure people would disagree with me on all of those, and that’s fine.
Just don’t insult me or my intelligence.
Do better, folks.
* I don’t endorse pitching anyone into the sun under any circumstances…well, except for Paul Bryant, Jr. and Finis St. John IV; they’re just a bunch of jerkasses. Just kidding; I don’t want them dead. I just want them to respect the University of Alabama at Birmingham and everything the university does for the state.