{"id":1081,"date":"2006-10-10T17:57:50","date_gmt":"2006-10-11T01:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artesianmedia.com\/blog\/2006\/10\/10\/tiger-by-the-tail-hot-button-issue-propels-blogger-into-limelight\/"},"modified":"2006-10-10T17:57:50","modified_gmt":"2006-10-11T01:57:50","slug":"tiger-by-the-tail-hot-button-issue-propels-blogger-into-limelight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artesianmedia.com\/blog\/tiger-by-the-tail-hot-button-issue-propels-blogger-into-limelight\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiger by the Tail – Hot-button Issue Propels Blogger into Limelight"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Ground Zero of the Polarized Political Screamwars<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m not sure this is the way any sane person would choose to drive traffic to their blog, but … <\/strong><\/p>\n

Out of curiosity, I checked on the Blogpulse list of hot blogs for the day.<\/a> Got the expected roster of usual suspects – Kos<\/a>, Malkin,<\/a> Techcrunch,<\/a> Gizmodo<\/a> – and then this one which just kind of made me go huh? <\/p>\n

Den of the Biting Beaver? <\/a>What the hell? Is this an NSFW that’ll bring down the IT weasels on my head?  Hmmm.  <\/p>\n

Come to find out that it’s a blog written by the poor – well, maybe make that "unfairly abused and scorned and derided" – woman who blipped up in the news a while back because she went for the morning after pill and got a faceful of attitude from some religio-wacko pharmacist. <\/p>\n

Well, the story keeps taking darker and darker turns.  Now it’s turned out that she is, indeed, pregnant.  And hats off, folks.  She’s blogging about it.  Wow.  I’d say that take balls like churchbells, but obviously I need to come up with some kind of female-oriented metaphor to vividly denote "having exceptional courage." <\/p>\n

Here’s some of the raw, revealing stuff: <\/p>\n

\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve asked myself countless times why I even mentioned this entire
\nthing on the blog. What was I thinking? Where the fuck was my head? I
\nchide myself and condemn myself for opening this seeming can of worms.
\nI self-blame, telling myself that I shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t complain about the hatred
\nbecause, after all, I put it out there.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Apparently, this woman’s story has sparked an avalanche of hatred from the semi-literate Bible-banging wingnutosphere – she’s gotten charming stuff like this: <\/p>\n

\n

Anyway, after writing about the EC thing I saw another area of feminism
\nthat I had not previously seen on anything more than a superficial
\nlevel. I saw hatred and misogyny that was every bit as vile and
\nhorrible as the standard stuff I get all the time. People left
\ncomments, many, many helpful and wonderful comments. People also got
\nangry with me and acted in ways that were abhorrent, cruel and
\ndehumanizing. <\/p>\n

I was told that the people who wrote such
\nhorrible woman-hating sentiments were simply \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbeing jerks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. It was
\nsuggested that there is a number of people out there who just get off
\non being assholes. It was also suggested that some of these commenters
\nwere even pro-choice but that they just enjoyed and thought it funny to
\nrandomly attack people. <\/p>\n

I called bullshit then and I stand by
\nthat now. Quite frankly if there exists people in this world who truly
\nhave no stance on a topic, or even who support that topic, who say
\nthese sorts of things to other people just for giggles then this world
\nis a far sicker place than I ever imagined. It has been suggested that
\nsome of the commenters were \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcjust people who get off on this sort of
\nthing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, and it has been argued that these same people just \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcget off\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 on
\ninsulting, threatening and debasing all others \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcjust for fun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. It has
\neven been alluded to that these same people may even be pro-choice but
\njust enjoy cruelty, debasement and degradation for the sheer enjoyment
\nof it. <\/p>\n

If this is true, then what it boils down to is this:
\nThese people get off on cruelty for the sake of cruelty. They need no
\nagenda; they just get off on kicking people who are down. People who
\nare in pain, or scared or people who just plain care about something. <\/p>\n

I
\ncannot think of a more terrifying individual to be around. I cannot, in
\nmy wildest dreams, imagine a person who agrees with abortion telling
\nanother person that they are worthy of death just to be cruel<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Apologies for doing the old cut&paste on so much of this woman’s material.  But I felt that the more I (re-)print the more likely it is that you’ll actually click thru and read this woman’s blog.  Which is worth it, for no other reason than to get a sense of what it feels like to have the big klieg lights of attention focused on you and your problems these days.  Way, way back when, Ken Kesey, in a great essay on the death of John Lennon, wrote that the glare of public attention carries with it a crosshairs too … and that for all the people who love you or who pay attention to you, there are some sick fucking assholes that want to hurt you, debase you, abuse you just for the sheer kick of it, just to feed that black hole in the centers of their souls… <\/p>\n

Here are some of the joyful and loving excerpts generated by the freaks whipped up into a hating frenzy by their enablers in the pulpits and on AM talk radio: <\/p>\n

\n

you dumb slut<\/em><\/p>\n

you fucking retard<\/em><\/p>\n

Ha ha, you’re a dirty whore<\/em><\/p>\n

YOU DESERVED IT, YOU SLUTTY LITTLE WHORE<\/em><\/p>\n

SHUT YOUR GODDAMN FUCKING MOUTH, CUNT<\/em><\/p>\n

Your life is fucking worthless you goddamn slut<\/em><\/p>\n

Please kill yourself now bitch<\/em><\/p>\n

I hope you feel good about murdering your kid whore<\/em><\/p>\n

Tough shit slut<\/em><\/p>\n

You are a disgusting little shit of a woman<\/em><\/p>\n

If I ever met you I’d fucking kill you like you murdered your baby, fucking whore<\/em><\/p>\n

Die you fucking slut<\/em><\/p>\n

Why don’t you just kill yourself now. People like you don’t deserve to live<\/em><\/p>\n

Stupid
\nwhore. You spread your legs and now you want to murder a baby. I hope
\nyou get raped and murdered. Maybe then you’ll feel what that innocent
\nlife felt<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you’ve ever spent any time dredging through the filth and insane fury that spews out in the Yahoo news message boards, this kind of thing will feel unfortunately very familiar.  Racial epithets, hate, threats, obscenity, insults – wow.  <\/p>\n

So I guess the fact that Blogpulse has put her firmly in the top 10 blogs for the day shows that there are a lot of people – presumably on both sides of the political divide – linking to her site.  I hope that the level of discourse goes up a bit.<\/p>\n

\n          \"Blink<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"blinkbits\"<\/a>  \"BlinkList\"<\/a> \"blogmarks\"<\/a> \"co.mments\"<\/a>   \"connotea\"<\/a> \"del.icio.us\"<\/a> \"De.lirio.us\"<\/a> \"digg\"<\/a> \"Fark\"<\/a> \"feedmelinks\"<\/a> \"Furl\"<\/a>  \"LinkaGoGo\"<\/a> \"Ma.gnolia\"<\/a> \"NewsVine\"<\/a> \"Netvouz\"<\/a>
\"RawSugar\"<\/a> \"Reddit\"<\/a> \"scuttle\"<\/a> \"Shadows\"<\/a> \"Simpy\"<\/a> \"Smarking\"<\/a> \"Spurl\"<\/a> \"TailRank\"<\/a> \"Wists\"<\/a> \"YahooMyWeb\"<\/a> \"Digg!\"
\n<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n