Mar 26, 2013 Blogs and Bloggers
Pissing Matches with Skunks
©By Vijaya Sundaram
March 26th, 2013
I made an error of judgement.
I inadvertently ended up engaging in a “pissing match with a skunk,” to invoke a vividly apt image used by someone I know well. The skunk in question thinks it won. In a sense, yes, it won. Not because it was right, but because it simply stank so much, I had to leave. How can one make someone see sense, if that person simply turns around and accuses one of something horrible?
The context was this: Someone who “followed” my blog, (and hence, curious, I “followed” his), made a controversial post. I won’t bother going into it, because I don’t actually want to use my blog to have a controversy; I use it to write poems, stories, musings, journal entries. I prefer to leave my deeply held beliefs out of it. They are private.
Unfortunately, not remembering this policy of mine, I responded to the blogger whom I follow, after waiting for a day or so, and then deciding that it was worth a shot to respond to his post.
The blogger to whose post I was responding, was gentlemanly and gracious, which I liked. Although he clung to his opinion, he welcomed that of others. Clearly, he likes debate, and was courteous with those who disagreed vehemently with his stance.
However, along came a strange, trollish, insulting, boorish, misogynistic person, who flung insults at me about what I had posted in my response — whereupon, I replied (big mistake!) to this newcomer saying that I did not wish to engage in dialogue with someone who sought to insult me. The next thing I know, this person says that I insulted him (possibly because I refused to be drawn into his juvenile taunting and invalid arguments. He basically shouted at me online and because of that, he thought his remarks carried more weight and logic. He added that I had therefore shut down the argument with my remarks, which, in his view, was “typical feminist claptrap.”
He also exulted, yes, exulted (how puerile is that?) in thinking that he had “won” the argument.
Alas, he’s not a very intelligent person, I’m afraid. He’s someone who appears belligerent, and trolls people’s blogs, seeking to fight.
So, yes, the insulting misogynist whose blog I don’t read and don’t follow, sort of won — because, after that, I quit following the first blogger whose work I had been responding to. This was in part because I really didn’t like the boorish mentality of some of the people who were responding, and it wasn’t worth my while to engage in dialogue with them.
It didn’t matter to me that the skunk-troll was “winning.” It clearly mattered to him that he “won.”
Poor, poor skunk. Someone must have caused him great mental anguish, some woman, who probably didn’t care for his deeply hateful attitude towards their right to choose.
He has my pity. However, I won’t go anywhere near him. I value my right to lead a skunk-free existence.
Thanks for reading!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tags: insults online and the like, Other People's Blogs, pissing matches with skunks, Trolls, Unsolicited opinions
Mar 26, 2013 Awake in Real Time: Coffee-induced Meditations and Journal Entries
I don’t have an original poem or story today. Instead, I have some favorite poems to share with you:
The World is Too Much With Us, by William Wordsworth
Picnic, Lightning, by Billy Collins
Here’s a painting that always moves me, because the painter, Peter Brueghel (one of my favorites) depicts the fall of Icarus in the most undramatic (and because of the understated nature of the image, doubly dramatic), and bucolic setting possible.
Of all the Greek myths, I find the myths of Icarus and Daedalus, of Orpheus and Eurydice, and of Eros and Psyche to be among the most compelling. They captured my heart when I was a pre-teen. As an adult, I wrote the lyrics and composed the music for two songs about Icarus and Daedalus back in the 1990s, and recorded them. (I still rather enjoy listening to them, after all these years — one of these days, I’ll put it on YouTube, and provide a link on my blog.)
Back to Icarus and Daedalus. Here’s the poem Musee Des Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden which is about the Brueghel painting and the story of Icarus. Then, there’s Landscape With The Fall of Icarus by William Carlos Williams about the same painting.
So, this is what I’ll do on the days I have too much other work. I’ll share the works of my favorite poets and painters, and musicians and thinkers with you.
On days when I have time, I might actually write some essays about artists, musicians, writers, et al. Those are yet to come.
Thanks for looking in!
Love,
Dreamer of Dreams
Tags: Icarus and Daedalus, Kubla Khan by Coleridge, Landscape of the Fall of Icarus by William Carlos Williams, Lightning by Billy Collins, Musee Des Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden, Peter Brueghel, Picnic, William Wordsworth