The Sheen of Stupid

(February 20, 2007)

Yesterday's rant is embarrassing. Probably I'll take actual names out of it later today, and replace that text with asterisks and a note explaining the asterisks. See? I can't even be personally abusive online even to people that have pushed me so far to the fucking edge that it squeezes the C word out of me; how can those message board fuckers do it so breezily, and enjoy it so much?

The whole time that "Lexi is an empty shallow putrid cunt" thread was happening on that message board, I was being reminded of something and couldn't quite put my finger on it. Not the attack itself, but the army of people insisting that attacking is what you're supposed to do online, and that everyone is supposed to know that it's meaningless. (As previously discussed, I missed that memo).

Today I figured out what it was reminding me of; the image in my head of so many people gleefully sitting in front of their computer screens reveling in the "fun" of personally attacking others. It was reminding me of serial killers. (Warning: evidence of my minor in Criminology rearing in 5, 4, 3, 2...). Many times the serial killer (or spree killer) psychosis starts to manifest in adolescence, often from feeling inadequate, often from outright abuse. You'll often read about so-and-so having abused animals as a child, then growing up to eventually start killing people. When a kid is found abusing animals, it is an early sign these days, for parents and psychologists. Usually it's more than just abusing animals, though. Sometimes it's starting fires, sometimes it's sexual deviance. This is all oversimplifying, but my point is this: a "lesser" crime (ugh, it is hard to voice that torture of a bird or cat or dog is "lesser," but one has to admit that it is not a human) leads to more, bigger, sicker crimes later. In other words, if a person starts off microwaving a cat, such a person is building up to be mentally and emotionally capable of torture and murder.

No, I'm not saying the people on the message board who were calling me names are killers.

I'm saying that their cheerleaders insist that constantly acting like an asshole on a message board isn't the same as really being an asshole in real life. I say that if you're capable of such awful asshole-ery, then you, my friend, are an asshole.

I guess some of them could think themselves terribly clever and funny. Like "I'm not an asshole, I'm hilarious." Plenty of successful comedy acts are built around such "asshole" characters. But I don't know, I don't see it as the same thing. If you are Robby Roadsteamer or Howard Stern or Lisa Lampanelli or some other actual comedian with an "act" that you've cultivated and worked on, it's pretty obvious. Denis Leary, for example, comes off as a complete and total asshole. He wants it that way.

It's a question of two things: Who is saying it, and in what context. Andrew Dice Clay saying the same racist things Michael Richards said would be taken differently. And, you watch the Friar's Club Roasts? Hilarious. "Hey Shatner, sit here while a dais of your friends bust your balls for an hour." That's funny; that's the same thing as when you bust your friends' balls. If you're friends with me, you can totally call me on my shit...that's different. Joe calls me a nerd all the time.

I LOVE Robby Roadsteamer. The 'Steamer has been ruthlessly cruel while in character. Rob, however, the actual guy behind the character, is a total sweetheart. Is it really hard to tell the difference? What is WRONG with everybody.

Feh.

That's enough of that. On to other things.

Uncle Bob's rant about stupid shit inspired me; I'll do one next.