That is, the internet. My friend wrote those words to me (with slightly different punctuation) after my last blog post which you can read here, if you didn’t catch it. It went viral… or the equivalent of viral in my tiny corner of the blogging world. I was surprised by both the positive and negative attention it got. It gave me a taste of what really popular bloggers get on a daily basis, to say nothing of what serious activists must face! It was a post about what I saw as inequality and sexism in the Vienna music scene, and the vitriol spewed at me from some people (mostly men) when it was shared on Slipped Disc, (click on the link to read the comments) a classical music site, was quite astounding. I had a couple of similar comments on my own site, too.
The experience was depressing and surprisingly hurtful. These people don’t know me and I don’t know them, yet I found myself feeling momentarily diminished by what they wrote. For a minute I weighed their criticism and wondered if it had value, but I quickly realized their comments were so extreme and/or petty that I couldn’t give them any credence. Am I going to stop believing that the Vienna Philharmonic and other institutions with similar (written or unwritten) policies should change those policies, now that some mad trolls have raved at me to “Quit whining?” Not likely. If that’s the way you’re going to “discuss” things with me, you don’t have a chance, I’m afraid.
The odd thing is that I was simply pointing out what I assumed must be obvious to anyone, and felt a bit silly doing it since it seemed like such old news. However, given the reaction to my post I guess it’s not so obvious to some people and I’m glad I didn’t pass up the opportunity to mention it. I suspect the violence of some of the reaction indicates that it comes from a place of fear. Fear of losing the comfort of the status quo. Lashing out verbally and anonymously seems to be the only weapon in their arsenal and they use it wantonly and without mercy, using the most hurtful words they can think of. Fortunately, by the time the trolls had moved on to the next opinion piece and I had a chance to evaluate the experience I realized their comments had a hollow “doth protest too much” quality to them, which made me think my piece had more value than had they commented in a more civilized manner.
As a friend wondered in this site’s comment section, how do people (whether trolls or just regular people) forget that their awful dross is directed at another thinking, feeling person? Where did civilized discourse, gentle persuasion and thoughtful discussion go? Oh, and where’s all the punctuation, spelling and grammar? Is it all lost in the same black hole somewhere? It’s all okay because it’s anonymous, like yelling obscenities at other drivers from the safety of your own car; only in the case of the internet, the windows are down and people can hear you.
Now I’m realizing that the trolls have perhaps succeeded in their purpose, if their purpose was to distract, or create a digression away from the original subject of my post. I was certainly distracted for several days and I’m digressing now, but this is my personal blog and I felt compelled to write about this experience, and that’s my prerogative. However, I’ll come back to the subject of inequality in one or more of its forms at some point, no doubt; it’s not going anywhere, more’s the pity.
I’ll end this little follow-up post by saying thank you to the many people who read my last post and commented in support, either on the blog or in person, and especially to those who wrote comments in reply to the trolls. I was very touched by that support and loved some of the witty arguments you came up with.
I love to hear from you!