Right. I am going to come off as a complete hypocrite now.
Reading through blogland, I often bounce from blog to blog. I see a comment I enjoyed reading, and I go to that user’s blog.
This morning, I found a blog whose name I don’t want to mention because I don’t want to give the author the satisfaction of rising through the ranks, which is (in my opinion) what they so clearly crave.
This blog talks about how other blogs have nothing of value, are shallow and fake, and unoriginal. Referring to people who have posted on the subject of mental illness:
Yet every post is either a poor attempt at the most puerile humour imaginable or whingeing and self-pitying confessions of writers splashing around in the crocodile tears of their own alleged illnesses or sufferings.
By all means, take things with a pinch or two of salt, but to condemn bloggers who write about their problems as being “self-pitying” and suggesting their problems are not real is not very tolerant.
This is the service which has been given the Sisyphean task of looking after and ministering to those of our society who have chosen a career of emotional and mental debility to avoid making any contribution to the services from which it takes so much and to which it gives so little,
“…chosen a career…to avoid making any contribution…”?! What planet are you on? I do not dispute that there are some people who abuse the system, but how offensive do you want to be? Somebody commented:
I have some mental health "issues" - does that really interfere with wanting to make light of things.......?!
A valid point, that you chose to ignore and instead tried to belittle the poster.
As one of other people who posted a comment said, you don’t have to read the blogs that offend your sensibilities. And the response that person received?
Why should I follow your advice?
By all means, ignore it, but why should you then go on to complain about things you have subjected yourself to? (Hypocrisy from me again! Gah!)
Not everyone receives a negative response:
I'm not sure (but flattered) why you wrote on this particular post as you don't fall into the category of 'bloggers' I am needling at all.
However, it appears from your introductory post that your campaign for “self awareness” and “honest self appraisal” and to defeat the evils of “sloppy thinking, fake sincerity, illiteracy and self-delusion” is levelled at the blog community as a whole, and I am clearly not the only one who sees it that way. I take it quite personally that you think that the posts of other bloggers (and quite possibly myself) are so pathetic as to merit such harsh criticism, not only of the posts themselves but also of their authors.
I cannot believe that the owner of the blog has the audacity to pass judgement on the writing of others when their own blog says nothing “original”, and seems to merely court controversy. And in such an underhand manner that it is not overtly clear who they are writing about.
To the author of the blog in question, I would like to say that I am truly sorry that some blogs do not reach the intellectual standards that you have set, but perhaps that is because they are too high. Why should people only write what others think is worthy? Why can’t people use blogs as diaries, social planners, places to share images and ideas, places to talk about the weekend, places to discuss the news, places to discuss the weather, whatever the fuck they want? Who are you to call people illiterate because they might make a few spelling or grammatical errors when writing their blogs? Just because somebody doesn’t check everything they write doesn’t mean they are illiterate. And it is entirely possible that some of the people out their writing blogs might NOT be able to spell properly, what does it matter as long as their feelings/point of view/whatever is out there? I am sure that with your vast intelligence you will be able to decipher their poor illiterate scrawling.
I will finish by saying that I appreciate honesty and am all for people expressing an opinion, but it is not fair to do it in such a veiled way. If you have a problem, spit it out, don’t cover it with a layer of slime and sit smugly while people tell you how great you are for “saying it like it is”. Because you are not. Name and shame these awful bloggers who GASP! write what they want to write, even if it is (in some (probably very small) circles) considered humourless, attention seeking, self aggrandising and neurotic, and they have little regard for the truth, an inflated opinion of their own worth and importance. That way, everybody can see that this is a fuss over nothing, and you are merely causing trouble for trouble’s sake to try to get yourself higher up the ratings because nobody would care enough to comment otherwise.
My blog might not contain much substance, but it is mine and I will write what I like. The blogs of other people contain what they want to put in them. Live and let live.
In an attempt to get round the huge hypocrisy of ranting about a blogger not being open about who they are talking about without being open about it myself (?), if you want to know who I am talking about, I will tell you in a private post or something. But I really suggest you don’t bother.
I intend to take the “advice” that this person has ignored.
(Incidentally, “whingeing”? Pot, kettle, black? And for more reasons than one.)
