Friday’s PSA

I’m dedicating today/this Friday to a Public Service Announcement. Here we go:

I just witnessed a “debate” among certain bloggers not of the political genre. It’s fucking hilarious! On one side we have a gent who likes to use big words, oftentimes erroneously (notice my big word used correctly?). On the other side we see a fella who likes to use..Well, I’m not sure what kind of language he uses. But that’s not the point. The gent to whom I refer has consistently admonished commenters for their, um, lack of intelligence and lauded his own superior language skills. This is hilarious, because the gent is obviously trying too hard to impress. Firstly, pretty much everyone knows that the very first sign of a poor debate is ad hominem attack. The first person to use one has officially lost and the debate is over. Well, most intelligent people know this. Ok, well, I guess you can be intelligent and not know this (for whatever reason maybe you’ve not gone to college or taken debate in high school or even engaged in honest debate online). Anyway, the gent doesn’t get far into much of anything before he throws out such gems as “sub-neanderthal”. Huh? Poor form, man, poor form.

Of course, the fella on the other side resorts to physical threats. Huh? You’re going to kick who’s ass through the computer screen? C’mon now! That’s not even remotely amusing. Ok, so maybe there are folks that would honestly seek someone’s true identity, their home address, and/or their telephone number for the specific purpose of hunting them down. But, um, that’s pretty rare. So, saying “I will kick your ass” is just asinine. Ok? Everyone knows that you’re not going to go through all that work to find someone so that you can spend however many dollars to travel to wherever they live so you can fight them. This, of course, causes the fella to lose the argument too. Can we say “juvenile” anyone? However, the fella gets more points because he admits that he’s not intellectually superior to anyone, that he’s a basic instinctual type of guy who is happiest with a big steak, a cold beer, and a nice hot slut. The gent gains nothing with his pseudo-intellect because, well, really smart people know that he’s full of shit. Very simple.

Here’s a clue if you ever find yourself in an online debate/argument. Don’t resort to ad hominems. This just defeats your argument for you. And don’t make physical threats. First off, if someone does take you seriously you can get into a lot of trouble, but the most likely scenario will be much laughter from the peanut gallery. What’s the point? Stick to the facts, show off your brain, give them a verbal slapdown in a mature way. Don’t know any big dollar words? Pick up a dictionary and then, this is very important here, learn the proper way to use them. (”I mock you to scorn…” is not the proper way to use “scorn” and makes you look like an illiterate wannabe/has been. Walk away from the thesaurus, please.)

The reason I’m ranting about this is, well, I’m used to reading serious intellectuals debate on political/science blogs. Most people think that poli blogs are filled with anger and vitriol, but there is some serious debate on many of them (I don’t visit blogs that promote violence or intolerance- even against differing ideologies). It’s fun and interesting to watch two/three/four/etc really smart people argue and, omg, use large words correctly and effectively. I’d say some pseudo-intellectual bloggers should visit some and learn the actual art of word play.

I mean honestly, eventually there’s going to be someone smarter than you crossing your path and then what? “Marshmallow-head” just won’t cut it at that point. Really. Practice with the big boys and then try again on your own. Maybe next time the neanderthal from down the way won’t look so much better than you.

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