tiring...

It's old...and it saddens me.

I was going to leave it alone but since my hiatus, I have found some time to catch up on my faves and to do some blog surfing as I sometimes do on the weekends. I lurk semi-consistently on a few, but I was given the "heads up" about a particular "comment square off" that took place earlier in the week. I was determined to not look, but curiosity got the best of me.

I remember participating in a similar debate some years ago...if you would even call it a debate. I remember some commenters picking apart a few of my statements and twisting them around to such a degree that it was unrecognizable to ME that THAT'S what I was saying. I remember some belligerant banter when all intelligent debate was lost...which in my opinion, was lost somewhere around the first or second counter-argument. Not everyone will agree with my views, my lifestyle, or my choices...I know this. And not everyone will like me for one reason or another...I know this. If someone said, "I don't like runnin' with people that wear blue Nikes," I would be cool with that b/c I don't like runnin' with people who don't like runnin' with people with blue Nikes 'cuz I dons mine when I can. And that's it. You stay on your side of the track and I'll stay on mine...or in this case, the blogosphere.

But when you can't even make a statement...I mean TRULY, make a statement without belittling your opponent, that saddens me. Hell, you can't even make an innocent statement without fear of backlash. One commenter went so far as to browse through the other's blog and judge it by how many comments they receive. Is that what this whole thing has come to? I mean, really? Is the blog world about cliques, comments, and cosigns? I know, to some degree, there are a bunch of popularity contests popping off. It just doesn't move me. The conversation doesn't inspire me and if the purpose is to stir up conviction, they haven't even scratched the surface. It does make me rethink this whole blog thing as I have yet to form a consistent relationship with blogging since 2004. I guess that I should keep in mind that when someone logs onto the computer, they can be whoever they want to be. They can have the life that they never experienced offline. And I guess for them, I should be happy. But when I come here, I actually share a portion of my life's story. And to think that someone could take issue with something that I said and decide to browse through my archives in order to beef up their stance by attempting to disparage me in some way or another...it saddens me.

What makes it worse is when I witness someone trying DESPARATELY to be accepted by some people that they don't even know from Adam or Eve. Nobody on this thing takes responsibility for me and mine other than me. FORGET (Lord, it took everything within me to not use the word that I am so well-acquainted with) them...and once again, life goes on. These people aren't feelin' you and they for sure, aren't tryin' to hear you. It's the same as turning up the volume during an in-person argument...it doesn't make it more palatable...it doesn't break it down to the uneducated ear...it's just noise. I do wonder what it would be like for these people to encounter each other face to face JUST SO that I can witness how quickly the "computer bad-a$$edness" dissipates.

Some years ago (and beyond), peeps were making gross generalizations, dressing up stereotypes as statistics, and just plain out displaying their self-righteous attitudes towards anything that wasn't "them"...claiming that holding court on these blogs was one step towards advancing the community. Uh, sure...and my blue Nikes make me run faster. But I guess that that's the only way we know how to act...to shun those that are not like us or do not subscribe to our beliefs. That debate (way back when) was just the regular, run-of-the-mill spinning of wheels (by what might as well been the self-proclaimed moral majority) with no benefit aside from the joy that some commenters might have received from reading their OWN opinions over and over again and patting themselves on the back (or being thrown a cosign or 2 from their inner blog circle), feeling as if "I told them!" **Cue laugh track from Good Times w/ the occasional "Right On!" in the background**

And today? ~SMH~

The same. It's pointless. It's old...and it saddens me.