I think internet flaming is more simple than you say. It doesn’t
involve that deceptive trapping, you just jump on something somebody said
innocently and hammer them about it and get personally insulting. Something
like there is a discussion on oh, the late great Shirley Temple (joking,
couldn’t abide her), and maybe you would say such and such was your favorite
movie and out of nowhere somebody says that is the crappiest movie that ever
existed and anybody who thought it was any good is an idiot and a traitor and
probably a pederast.
I had something like that happen to me maybe five years ago where a
friend of a friend on fb wrote that she was going to Texas, and I used to live
there and I recommended that she bring back some Wolf chili and smoked beans,
because these were things I loved when I lived there. Then some friend of hers
somehow took this as an insult, like I was calling her some kind of hillbilly or
something, and wrote something really insulting about me. I think I wrote
something back trying to be both a bit humorous and conciliatory, but she took
that as another insult and flamed me twice as hard about that. Eventually I
think the woman who was going to Texas just took the whole thing off the
page.
But what was strange about it, was even though I had no idea what
kind of person my flamer was, but surely she was unhinged, and not worthy of my
time, but I was seething. I knew better, but I was seething. If a perfectly
sane, calm person like myself can be so affected, what about all those Tom,
Dick, and Harry’s out there?
You know there are some people out there who like to seethe, and so
I guess the internet is a place where they can seethe to their hearts consent.
Going along with your original definition of flaming, I can think of something I
sometimes do.
Sometimes these seethers are pretty normal in most respects, but
there is something that just sets them off. I think even reasonable folks like
you and me have things that set us off, and I certainly am not going to tell you
what sets me off.
But anyway, a guy walks into the bar and you know he hates, oh
Shirley Temple, and you know this, and you are a little bored, so you just
casually mention, “Boy that Shirley Temple, some great little hoofer, huh?” And
now you have some entertainment for awhile. Oh it’s a mean thing to do, but
sometimes a guy gets bored.
Here’s the thing about your everybody votes thing. This country is
full of people who won’t even let their kids get vaccinated for diseases that
can kill them and you think they are going to let Dr Beagles put a chip into
their bodies? Hmm. Maybe we could flip a little switch on the chip so that
this subliminal message “Guns suck,” would be directed to their subconscious,
that would be a pretty good idea.
Here’s another thing, and here is something I wonder. How come we
can run all our commerce, stuff gets bought, stuff gets sold, on the internet,
yet we can’t vote on it? I suppose it has something to do with trust.
We all know that ballot boxes disappear, then reappear with
everybody signing in with the same handwriting in the same color of ink, in
alphabetical order, and this is a terrible thing of course. But at least there
are paper ballots, at least there is something solid there, at least it takes a
lot of work. But I think it’s the specter of the guy who manufactures the
voting machines, the guy with the curling moustache and the sinister cat in his
lap, accepting a sack full of money from a commie, a dem, a rep, whoever, and
laughing his sinister laugh and flipping a switch. Hey for an extra ten bucks
can you flip the switch on the chip in Beagle’s head and make him quack like a
duck? No prob.
Still another thing is what would be the mechanism? Would there be
a congress that would make laws and then the people would vote on them? Or
could anybody present a law and that would be voted on? How about I propose a
law at three in the morning after the super bowl when most of the country is
sleeping it off, that gay pet marriage become mandatory in all freeholds that
begin with the letter B?
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