Why wrestle with pigs in the mud?

A brief note about insistent narcissistic comments that sometimes appear here.

So, every now and then I receive these weirdly attention-seeking comments. You probably know the ones, if you’re a blogger yourself: people who accuse me of something bad and try to make it seem as though they’re “only offering a perspective” or “oh, only noticing a thing here, why the fuss”.

In fact, if we’re being 100% honest, they’re attention-seekers. They’re not REALLY trying to have a conversation. Let’s not be naive. Were you born yesterday? Yeah, exactly, neither was I, so put those braincells to work, please and thank you.

Look. If you want to disagree with me on anything, feel free. Really, it’s okay. As long as it’s in good faith, and not in a manner that is trying to drag me into a never-ending “wrestling” match where I somehow owe you explanations for why I wrote what I wrote, or “ought to” disprove your insults disguised as concern. Last time I checked, I didn’t sign-up to get into a contest for any random person’s approval, so why exactly am I supposed to tolerate provocations out of nowhere? It’s quite obvious that these are long-time “secret admirers” who have an old grudge. Real strangers wouldn’t spend so much energy trying to get a reaction out of me.

Honestly, just grow up already. Or, if you don’t wanna, the exit button is on the top right corner. Is anyone being forced, held at gunpoint, to agree with any of my points here? No. Objectively. No. So, let’s stop this childish behaviour once and for all, because as long as it keeps going, I’ll just keep reinforcing my boundary. I don’t care what you’re used to outside of my blog, but HERE you must obey my rules of conduct. HERE, I want people to be mature and respectful — which means, whether they disagree or not, they shouldn’t assume from the get go that I or anyone else is “guilty [of your chosen sin here] until proven innocent”. This is a bad-faith arguing strategy. It’s no better than cheap fallacies like ad hominems.

I know this is the Internet, and we’re on a free blog (really, I don’t charge for any of my articles), but just because it’s for free, it doesn’t mean there aren’t house rules.

I’ll link to this every time the idiots come, not for them to read (they’re unlikely to cooperate), but for OTHERS to know that yes I moderate this space, and yes I’ll keep doing it to create an environment where good-faith commenter are free to share and don’t have to see trolling.

Thank you.