insults and the interwebs

I have found myself reading posts several times over the past year that are posted because things get out of hand on a previous post they may have wrote.

Is it because it is the internet that people don't think that they need to be accountable for what they say. But would they say that same thing to the person's face. I think know they wouldn't.

The most recent happened at one of my favorite blogs Derfwad Manor which is written by the fabulous Mrs. G (and I do mean fabulous... I wish she was my Aunt.) I can't link to the original post because it was taken down immediately after the comments got completely out of hand. Jenn at Juggling Life wrote  two eloquent posts about the situation. Found here and here.

The hardest part for me to swallow is that someone used the 'n' word in the comments.  If this were to be a discussion in person would that person have used that as their word of choice. I'm not sure seeing as I don't know them personally but I would like to believe that they wouldn't.

Another example of the insults on the interwebs took place in the form of an email that was sent to the author of another one of my favorite blogs, NieNie Dialogues. The author, Stephanie Nielson, whose story along with her husband's was featured on Oprah. The long story short is that Stephanie and her husband, Christian, were in a plane crash in which Stephanie received burns on over 80% of her body.

It has been just over three years since the horrific accident and Stephanie and Christian have come so far on their journey. Stephanie blogs about their day to day life and how she is dealing with the changes in their life since the accident - including surgeries, medications, and how it is to once again be parents to the 4 young children that they had together before the accident. They have also recently found out that they are pregnant (!) with their 5th child and Stephanie has been openly honest with how hard this pregnancy has been for her and that while she is grateful for the opportunity to have another child it is wreaking havoc with her body.

Now that you know a little back story here is a little bit of what someone emailed Stephanie

While I am very happy for you that you are having another little one, I really wish you'd stop complaining about it so much. ... You have been through some very challenging times in your life and I'm not downplaying that, but I feel like a lot of your blog is dedicated to complaining and it's not very fun to read.

My thought towards that person is why do you have to send a nasty little email. Why can't you just stop reading. To me it is as simple as that.  And while Stephanie apologized for calling the author of the email out publicly it seems to me that the original author of the email still owes an apology for writing such mean and hurtful things. 

So essentially what I'm saying is be nice. Be kind. Don't be a hater. If you don't like what the author is writing don't follow their blog. There are millions of blogs out there. I can guarantee that there is one that you won't have to be hating on.

And finally if a certain Mrs. G has An Unconventional Request make sure to call her an evil whore and tell the hussy to quit whining because it is in honor of her late Aunt.

Please note: The last sentence is only acceptable if one has asked to be insulted in honor of their late Aunt's birthday. If you do it any other time then you are not considered a nice person. Because nice people aren't mean - even when they aren't face to face with those whom they are being mean to.