One thing that astounds me is how feminists and their allies have actually managed to make an issue out of blog comments. The other day, Jezebel made an entire article over Walking in Hell’s comment about not having children with white women, which I simply took to be a sort of “what if” fantasy, or maybe even a bit tongue in cheek. In any event, I didn’t take it too seriously, because white women are not going to be bred out of existence. Sometimes, when comments are a bit off the wall it’s kind of funny; sometimes there’s a actually a grain of truth in them. The only time I really care about them is when they are clearly intentional attempts to stir up trouble amongst readers, and even then I’m pretty tolerant (perhaps too much so).
One reason I never took comments seriously is that I live in Seattle, and read local blogs and the online paper regularly. I also happened to grow up Catholic, and although I have my reservations about the Catholic Church, I also know quite well that it does a lot of very positive, helpful things in the community, and most priests and parishioners are quite sincere about not only their religion, but being decent people.
Nevertheless, comments in local, “respectable” publications about Catholics and the Catholic Church are regularly hateful, vile and vindictive. Jesus is routinely disparaged, Catholics are called pedophiles, there are frequent calls to tax the church, and even talk about shutting it down entirely as a “foreign entity.” I’ve grown used to this, so I don’t really care, and don’t make an effort to hold the publications responsible for these kinds of petty attacks. I figure the people who make these comments are simply saying these things because they are anonymous, and want to get back at the Catholic church for opposing some of their favorite activities, which I assume are sexual in nature. People are rarely more vicious than when defending their favorite vices.
However, it isn’t only Catholics who come in for a bashing, but any conservatives at all. Rural whites are regularly called “inbred rednecks,” “troglodytes,” “retarded” — you name it. Whenever a story about the Duggars or another conservative, large family comes up there is an avalanche of abuse, with fecund, faithful wives being compared to dogs whelping pups and the like.
Of course, whenever there’s a story about black crime, blacks are condemned as a whole. Arabs come in for abuse, too. So do Jews, Chinese, and any other ethnic group you could think of. Nobody has a monopoly on hatred.
However, it seems to me that nobody complains as much about people saying things as a certain variety of leftist, and feminists are among the worst. Even so, it still really surprises me that blog comments, of all things, have somehow become a burning issue for them. I would assume that if I tried to make a career – or even a blog – out of highlighting silly comments, I’d be laughed away.
But just to make a point, I’ll highlight a couple comments from the Seattle Times about the Catholic Church on an article about the church’s plan to sue over Obama’s healthcare mandate that they buy birth control for their students and employees, presumably including priests and nuns:
Priests are all pedophiles…
Chaz Linburger says:
If too many people use birth control, the supply of virgin boys will drop, and priests will have a real crisis on their hands…
Catholics are “cannibals”
snowball3 says:
The really sick part is that the pope toured AIDs ravaged Africa and said they couldn’t use condoms! Add to that the Catholic practice of cannibalism (drinking the blood and eating the flesh of Christ) and it’s impossible to find these oddballs credible or deserving of respect!
More pedophilia…
nwoceanlover:
Doesnt the Catholic Church have better things to do, like buggering altar boys behind the curtains?
Christians are stupid…
sportsdudeseattle:
Oh well whatever as the majority of these poeple still think the Universe is only 6000 years old, Jesus rode a pet dinosaur to school and having 19 kids is good for a women’s health
Search any article about the Catholic Church in the Seattle Times and you’ll find lots more of the same, even though the Seattle Times regularly moderates its comments. And the Times is considered the most prestigious newspaper in the Pacific Northwest…
So where’s the outrage? Where’s the condemnation from left-wing “civil rights” groups? I suppose people could try to get their attention, but quite frankly they don’t seem to have much of a problem when an organization they oppose is being unfairly subjected to abusive comments.
But really, who gives a damn. They’re just comments, people…
