Bad Ideas, And The Mocking Of Those In Favor Of Them

This is the most fun I've had all week. About as satisfying as beating up a ten year old, and somewhat juvenile, I suppose, but amusing as hell nonetheless.

(A slight explanation, since I refuse to link to this man's actual blog because I'd feel dirty: This is the comments section of a post in which he argues that we should detonate a nuclear bomb on the moon as a warning to terrorists. No, I'm not joking. And neither, judging by his rather irate responses, is he. )


Update: There are some people that it is simply best to let be; while it may initially be fun to provoke them so as to laugh at their inevitably ludicrous responses, such amusement -- for me at least -- only lasts so long before it fades to disgust, then to contempt, then to pity.

In retrospect, I find my whole conversation with this man distasteful in the extreme.

I like arguing with people who think differently than I do. It's fun and, usually, educational - to one degree or another. Even when such an argument turns vicious, I'm more than happy to go round after round.

But when someone unabashedly acts in a manner that most people find repulsively juvenile, it is impossible to continue to engage them and not look foolish yourself.

It's somewhat like arguing with a young child: nothing you say makes the slightest bit of difference, their responses do not change, they unselfconciously hurl insults that you would demean yourself to return or even acknowledge, and you look bad for simply participating in the first place.

I decided to end my initially amusing game of tweak-the-lunatic when he posted a response that, were it not for the photo of himself he has displayed on his site, I would not credit to someone older than 12 - and that is likely an insult to most twelve year olds. As cliche as it is to call childish someone who disagrees with you...well, read it if you like. All I could do was laugh at the ridiculousness of it- and then I grew embarrassed, the way one feels embarrassed for someone who does something humiliating but doesn't seem to have the sense to realize it.

But fuck it. I can't help feeling sorry for someone who's so unhappy that such pettiness makes him think himself anything but laughable to the vast majority of people - but that doesn't mean I have to talk to or about him again.

Anyway, the overall point is, I apologize for this post - as I've said, I initially thought it was quite funny to see the outlandish responses to a bit of firm disagreement and thinly-veiled contempt, but eventually it simply became disagreeable.

Live and learn, I guess. That applies to the blogosphere as well as anything else, it seems.