Monday, March 1, 2010

A Tiiiiny Rant

Scenario: Somewhere in blog-land, someone says, with genuine curiosity, "Y'know, I just don't get ___.  Can someone explain it to me?"  The first half-dozen replies are either, "Me either!" or "Here's my opinion, but to each his own." 

AND THEN.

Some ravening pseudo-intellectual turns from monitoring all the OTHER regions of blog-land to sniff, "You know what I just hate?  Elitism.  I just cannot abide people who think that no one else's opinions, experiences, or thoughts matter.  It's just this (food-snob/Calvinist/seminary-educated/white/yuppie/middle-class/Western/xenophobic) hegemony that I cannot stand, where people think that their views come down from heaven written by the finger of God.  Ugh.  Judgmentalism!"  And then they go back to trolling at all the other foodie/natural-birth/theology/whatever blogs on which they misuse vocabulary from their Word-of-the-Day calendars.

I saw this today on a fun foodie message board I frequent, in which someone said they didn't get the concept of drinking a certain kind of beverage with dinner.  Everything is going along fine until some snark starts dropping passive-aggressive crap like "that doesn't make you the Ultimate Critic" and "running screaming to the judgment booth".

What kind of idiots are we if we can't respond to a legitimate question without resorting to rhetoric like this?  And what kind of idiots are we if we take the bait? 

2 comments:

Angus said...

"What kind of idiots are we if we can't respond to a legitimate question without resorting to rhetoric like this? And what kind of idiots are we if we take the bait?"

You're just displaying the typical traits of someone who was brought up with the "born to rule" mentality. NOT ALL OF US ARE WHITE MIDDLE CLASS, LAURA. Well, I am... but that's why it's SO IMPORTANT for people like to me to stand up to bigotry. You might not like it, but sister, I'm saying get your asbestos umbrella out because it's about to rain fiery judgement! Who made you the person who decides what people comment on, huh? DON'T PLAY GOD, LAURA. Jeez. Cut the world some slack. Not everyone can live up to your high standards (and there's no way you could live up to my impossibly high standards, I would point out). Also, can I mention yuppies, Western consumerism, polar bears, televangelists, the lack of hybrid cars on the road, and the need for a new political system.

OH and can I just say that this whole post was reminisicent of Berlin circa 1933-1939, re book burning, Nuremberg rallies, and, of course, Hitler.

PPS, I'm going to stop reading this and go read blogs where they APPRECIATE intelligent opinions.

PPPS, actually, I'll keep reading here because I'm dying to see the responses to my amazingly insightful comment.

Laura said...

Dear Angus,

Win.

Sincerely,
Laura