In which David's feelings are hurt

NOTE: What follows is super navel-gaze-y and whiny and for that I apologize. Think of it less as a blog post and more as something I would be telling you about over a beer were I physically proximate enough to do so.

Although I am a heavy consumer of blogs, I rarely, rarely comment (except here, of course). There are a few reasons, but the main one is that blog comment sections are dens of logical and rhetorical iniquity, places where lonely, angry people are given free rein to verbally assault other lonely, angry people that they may never meet. Trying to insert one's carefully crafted opinion into a comment section is like dropping a bottle of Purel into an outhouse.

It's not that I don't read comment sections occasionally and desire to jump in as well. It's just that I know that no matter what I say, no matter how limited in scope or tentatively put it may be, if there is an ounce of provocation or debate in it, someone will jump up and down on my e-balls like a crazed baboon.

The relevant example: yesterday, a friend of mine changed his Facebook status to

"To all those who "liked" the page "DEAR LORD, THIS YEAR YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTOR, PATRICK SWAYZIE. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTRESS, FARAH FAWCETT. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE SINGER, MICHAEL JACKSON. I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW, MY FAVORITE PRESIDENT IS BARACK OBAMA. AMEN." need to explain to me why calling on the death of a sitting US president (who isn't even liberal, let alone a socialist) is ok..."

He's a liberal dude who is originally from Northern Florida and was in a frat, so I doubt he posted it without expecting some kind of response. And of course he did.

A sampler:

"he is a socialist, communist, super leftie who sucks at his job...and what, these jokes were never around for other presidents...chill out chevo!"

"Fritz has a point. The 2008 election had a record number of extremely uneducated voters who turned up at the polls for "hope" and "change". (read: clever marketing). They didn't know the issues then, they don't know them now. All that goes on in their heads is "Obama = god, people who don't like Obama = idiot right wing extremists who don't know what they're talking about". Nothing has changed in America, except the fact that now China basically owns us..."

"...So why are they raising taxes on nearly everything AND proposing this God awful VAT? Maybe so they can continue to fund the support of the 47% of the US populace that does not pay any income tax. Make sure the plebes have their bread and circus and Rome can continue. It isn't that hard."

Against my better judgment, I posted a response:

1. What does "rated as the most liberal senator" mean, exactly? Not only are those ratings usually pulled together by thinktanks with thinly veiled political intent, how do you rate someone as "the most liberal"? What is "the most liberal" thing I could do?

2. "Maybe so they can continue to fund the support of the 47% of the US populace that does not pay any income tax." This is horribly misleading. This number refers to federal income tax only. There's a whole array of other state and federal-level taxes that are being paid, like state income tax or payroll taxes (3/4 of American households pay more in payroll taxes than incomes taxes anyway). In reality, the number of people who pay no net federal taxes is around 10%. Beyond that, states taxes are mad regressive, so whatever benefit the "plebes", as you put it, may acquire from exemptions on federal income taxes are lost.

3. Where is the evidence that "some of the most uneducated people voted in this election"? Is that provable? Does Rush Limbaugh own an apartment in your brain, or just rent?

Here's the entirety of what I got back:

Oh look at the clever liberal. I don't like Obama's policies, so I must be a Rush Limbaugh listener. Fail logic sir. I don't watch FOXnews either, I know, how can that be possible! Doesn't like Obama AND doesn't like conservative talk radio/TV?

I'm a fiscal conservative. Everything Obama is doing to the country goes against what I believe fiscally. Nothing good will come from spending this kind of money on programs with limited foreseeable benefit. I think the Bank Bailouts proved that beyond a doubt, have you seen the unemployment numbers? Money well spent? Not in this life, buddy.

That's it.

Now, to be fair, there were a number of people who posted (30 long, long comments) and both the tone and the intelligence level varied a lot. But c'mon! I put forward a series of points, and the only response I get focuses entirely on a line of snark I nailed on to the end before wandering back into the land of fact-free irrelevance. It's almost like the dude scrupulously avoided reading or thinking about any of what I wrote that didn't offend him.

Anyway, I could go on, but I shouldn't. The point of this post is that while I find the internet a great place to find and study information and opinions, it really is a horrible place to have an actual conversation. Am I alone in thinking this?