Public Nuisance |
|
|
Random commentary and senseless acts of blogging.
The first Republican president once said, "While the people retain their virtue and their vigilance, no administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can seriously injure the government in the short space of four years." If Mr. Lincoln could see what's happened in these last three-and-a-half years, he might hedge a little on that statement. Blog critics Gryffindor House Slytherin House Ravenclaw House House Elves Beth Jacob Prisoners of Azkaban Muggles
Party Animals:
Jewish Bloggers Join >>  
|
Friday, July 19, 2002
Out For a Troll Brendan O'Neill recently wrote a now-notorious troll denouncing bloggers, calling for, among other things, a 'sub-editor' for the blogosphere, and listing various rules we illiterate and unedited bloggers should follow so that we might one day advance to the superior level he automatically holds as somebody who gets paid to do this. Here's one rule he forgot: If you write about something you are massively ignorant about, try not to make it obvious. Maybe a sub-editor would help with that, but it doesn't seem to have helped Brendan in this commentary on the letter to the Iranian People recently published on numerous blogs:
[Bloggers] can send no diplomats or troops to help you - which is a shame, because they really believe that American diplomats and troops are just what you need as you are clearly incapable of running your own affairs. Silly little Arabs that you are.
Free clue: Iranians are not Arabs. Technically some are, since Arabs are in fact one of the country's numerous ethnic minorities. But they are a small minority of the population. Over 90% of Iranians are not Arabs, and will explain this point to you quite emphatically, not always politely, if you are foolish enough to make this mistake in their presence.
The piece doesn't get much better from there. Pejman takes it down in detail, more detail than is really needed for a piece that starts out with such a howling error, but I'm sure he enjoyed doing it.
As supercilious and often obnoxious as he can be, O'Neill isn't as totally clueless as some think. This piece on the echo effect of the blogosphere (the second of two pieces with one permalink) does make a valid point.
|
