Don’t Vibe Check Me, Bro; Or How To Deal With Comments In An Era Filled With Post-Factual Nazis

Techdirt

from the we-write-what-we-want dept

A whole lot of bad faith arguing continues [and is amplified!] now that Donald Trump has somehow regained his position as The Person Most Likely To Abuse His Power While Serving As The Most Powerful Man In The World. [Cut to yearbook photo of an 18-year-old Donald Trump with a magnificent head of hair and a half-smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.]

Stolen valor even then.

Let that image burn its way into your psyche as I head off to rant and rail against the irritants in the commentary flow, who not only fuck shit up for the rest of us, but also think (one way or the other) that facts shouldn’t mean as much as their personal feelings.

Those of you who tune in regularly know that I don’t care for Trump. Never have. Never will. And I am not only flabbergasted he’s managed to be elected twice, but consider this unwelcome second coming to be a leading indicator of this nation’s willingness to go fascist on main, rather than just another anomaly we’ll hopefully soon be footnoting in American history.

The weird thing is that my extremely caustic takes on Trump have provoked two equally strident and stupid responses.

On the more persistent end, there’s a commenter out there who seems to believe I’m cutting Trump a blank check on rights violations by referring to his current term as an “administration,” rather than a regime.

Well, if I may be so bold (and who’s going to stop me!), fuck right off. I’ll call it a “regime” on the regular if Trump somehow manages to get the nation’s top court to approve of a third term, which would probably result in Franklin Roosevelt rolling over in his grave, if only he weren’t so incapacitated by his presumably lingering polio.

Speaking of polio, let’s not forget Mr. Measles, the guy currently running the Dept. of Health and Human Services into the deeper, darker parts of worldwide life expectancy charts. Hey, hitting 80 is no longer an expected outcome in the Free World. If you’re lucky, you’ll die of rape-related pregnancy complications in the Federal Republic of Texas as doctors do nothing they can to prevent a child from being born into abject poverty and abuse, even if it means killing the mother to give this kid a shot at shooting up his school.

On the other hand, I have commenters complaining I’m “too biased” when I cover issues related to the hateful ratfucking bigots currently running this country.

Please enjoy my apology to these weirdos, who seem to think encroaching fascism should be covered “fairly” — something composed and performed by punkish victims of every housing crisis over the last 20 years, Japanther:

And that’s the weird thing about this so-called “discourse.” Some people want you to be angrier. Other people want you to be less angry.

But they’re both wrong. You can’t always get what you want, as every cover band has ever said when covering the Rolling Stones past 11 pm. (The “Satisfaction” crowd has already left to drive home the babysitter. The crowd that remains may still want some crowd-pleasers, but just as equally they want the stuff that makes them feel bad.)

You get this instead, sickos:

And that’s how it goes here at Techdirt. You may be pleased by certain posts — or perhaps all posts. But your pleasure isn’t the impetus for the post’s creation. We obviously hope you’ll be pleased by our posts (a hopefulness that covers everyone from the other Tim to Mike to Karl to Glyn to Cathy to every other writer who allows us to publish their stuff under the Techdirt logo), but your personal pleasure is not what drives the creation of content, despite the fervent belief of certain commenters.

What we do is what we want to do. And while I’m always willing to accept criticism over factual and/or legal inaccuracies in my posts (how else would I learn?!), I’m extremely opposed to vibes-based criticism of my work. If you have facts, bring them. But don’t expect any writer here to neuter their posts just because it didn’t appeal to people who think other terms should be used just so they might feel a little more comfortable reading the content.

That’s the way it works here. We don’t write because we want to please everyone. We write because WE HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY. If you want “both sides” writing, you’ve got everything from the NYT editorial board to the back of mayonnaise packets to give you what you want. But if you’re showing up here specifically to bitch about perceived biases, you’re in the wrong place. The bias exists. And it is SPECTACULAR.

Don’t bring vibes to a fact fight. Get in or get out, but don’t expect Techdirt to bend a writer’s will to satisfy particularly lazy and argumentative commenters. We write what WE BELIEVE. For everything else, there’s… I don’t know… most of the rest of internet?

Don’t be these people, whether you’ve bought into the Krassensteins or the weird concept that reporting on events that affect your life should be an affect-less drone you can tune out until you feel like adding your particular bitching to a site’s comment section. Either way, you’re just performative but somehow feel you’re justified in attacking people who have been doing this for real for years before it even mattered to you.

Filed Under: comments, shut the fuck up, vibes