Imagine you’re in the checkout line at your local grocery store. You’ve selected your purchases, and placed them on the conveyor belt. Just as you’re about to pay, the clerk walks around the counter and kicks you squarely in the teeth. What’s your next move? Do you hand over your hard earned dollars and complete the transaction? If not, why do webmasters continue to buy from the vendors who insist on spouting distasteful hate on the message boards?
The Internet provides an excellent forum to Speak Your Mind (pun intended), allowing a community of webmasters and interested parties from around the globe to come together and shoot the shit. Sometimes we talk about topics relevant to the entire industry. Other times, we swap fart jokes. A new trend is emerging, however, that threatens the very sense of community that brought most of us to the forums. I’m writing, of course, about the hate-mongering that has been slung onto the walls of our beloved message boards.
Comments range from simple ignorance such as “The propaganda level in States is similar to one in the USSR” to outright hate in the form of “The word intelligence used by a republican such as yourself, is as meaningless as the word security used by micorsoft [sic].” Other sterling examples include, “What a sick idiot you have for president,” “So go play with your guns, and shoot yourself while you're at it, and help make the world a better place,” “As for my redneck white trash theory, it’s based on the electoral map; so if you studied it, you would see that there is a correlation,” “Your [sic] a sick fuck then, and that's all I got to say about it!” and self-proclaimed hate like “I don’t mean to be an ass here; I just hate republicans.”
It’s almost unbelievable that someone could post things of this nature, but the proof is in the pudding, “The Bush Administration planed [sic], funded, and carried out the attacks on 9/11.”
Some of the comments actually extend to the willful executions of Americans. This type of trash is truly appalling. Examples include, “I am pro-uprising! The Iraqi’s should fight back against a military dictatorship that has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians going back to Iraq War Part 1. The atrocities our government has inflicted on the civilian population is far worse than anything Saddam ever did,” and, in reference to the video of the beheading of an American, “i want to see it.. where's it @,” followed by a smug smiling face. It turns my stomach to read comments such as “We can be defeated if the people band together and take up arms against our illegal occupation. I am rooting for that, and it is just beginning,” and near-hysteria seeming to allude to the assassination or direct harm to the President of the United States, like “Sure it’s never going to happen, but this guy needs to go down in a ball of flames so there is NEVER another President BUSH!! EVER!!!” and “GWB AND HIS POSSE OF EXTREMEST REPUBLICANS MUST GO AT ANY COSTS!!!”
Other hateful comments include, “I would prefere [sic] it if fundamentalist like you wouldn't waste your time voting,” “Us [sic] army sucks, Bush is a motherfucker,” “That's a really great reason to start the WAR. True American way,” “During WWII Nazi were killing each 5th citizen of Russian villages for each killed German soldier. Seems Bush like such a practice,” “I stayed away from this thread because I knew it would be full of rednecks,” "We really need the USA because we are adult webmasters. There is no secret that 90% of our sales are being generated by American wankers," "weak America -> poor US wankers -> drop in my sales," and “No one here is interested in weak America and beggary US wankers.”
It’s certainly acceptable for each and every person to form their own opinions and express them freely. Doing business with these hate mongers, however, indicates your acceptance of their attempts to destroy the sense of community and fellowship many forum veterans here have worked to foster. I sincerely hope that the next time you consider a purchase or the support of a new program, you check to see whether the individuals behind it are respectful and measured in their expression, or if they simply spread hate and discord.
The choice is yours.