Online Comments

I love reading the comments section of online news stories, particularly from local news sources. Granted I feel slightly dumber after reading them than I did before, but they are entertaining nonetheless. Part of me is proud to see so many individuals taking the time to practice literacy and debate, two cornerstones of a thriving democracy with free press, but there are times when I seriously doubt the level of literacy ability and whether debate is merely a means of soapboxing.

I have come to the conclusion that the "participants" of my state are a mostly embarassing self-selected group. I am still amazed that Indiana swung to the blue side almost a year ago, not that you could ever tell by the comments posted on any given news story. It seems quite often that the comments are spewed hatred of President Obama, illegal immigrants, welfare recipients, Congress, China/India/Iraq/North Korea/Mexico/etc, any multi-million/billion dollar business and other such "destroyers of the American way". Now mind you these topics often have very little to do with the actual story but commentors connect them regardless, usually in some argument contrived on a conspiracy theory to stick it to the little guy. Needless to say, sarcasm abounds....as well as blatant disregard for proper English language usage.

Occasionally I contribute my two cents (but only if I can do so anonymously - I have no patience to be setting up user accounts willy-nilly) in some thoughtful fashion to stir debate but I do realize in the end nothing is throughtfully debated.

But I feel better afterwards, soapbox or not, and perhaps that is the ultimate purpose of such a "section".