The State of Comments on the Internet

But we don’t stop [at simply being disappointed]…we need to express it. Vent it. Hiss it and spit it and hurl it like fistfuls of mental manure at the great wall of hey, screw you.

You have but to take a peek in the comments section below…any column, any article on this or any news site whatsoever, to see just how mean and nasty we have become. It does not matter what the piece might be about. Obama’s speech. High speed rail. Popular dog breeds. Your grandmother’s cookies. [It] will be so crammed with bile and bickering, accusation and pule, hatred and sneer you can’t help but feel violently disappointed by the shocking lack of basic human kindness and respect, much less a sense of positivism or perspective.

Morford doesn’t come to any grand conclusions or offer any fixes here, but that’s one heck of a apt, well-written critique of the general state of additional commentary online. The internet has at once connected much of the world, and unearthed our latent desire to vomit all our personal opinions and loathing at anyone, or at no one. 

I hate the internet. I love the internet. My name is Joshua, and I’ve just started to ignore 95% of comments on 95% of websites.