Is Chat my only strength?

Posted on July 10, 2002 in IRC/Chat Reflections

One reason why I’ve never liked being part of a “movement” is that it is so easy to have one’s energies co-opted and one’s individuality stifled. The late crises in #news_garden and the regular life in Dalnet #politics has me wondering if that’s happened yet again.

To be quite frank, I get rather tired of seeing my friends in views falling for the same bait every time. Instead of discussing what might be done, they spend their time fighting the same fights with the same people. You can parcel out most #politics debates among these subjects: the Middle East, the nature of God, taxes, gun control, abortion, and Clinton’s penis.

I use /ignore a lot. One reason I do this is as a hedge against my own cruelty. It can be tempting when someone gets his dander up to keep probing his words for absurdities, throwing in the occasional flame to make them act even more shamefully than they have thus far. This often means that they get control.

I’ve develop the habit of speaking my mind once, succinctly, and then moving on. When someone says something stupid, I state exactly why I think it is so and them set them to /ignore, maybe for an hour, maybe for good. I know that I can deliver stiletto like responses, crushing to egos, if I let it go on for too long. The rage builds up, slamming my insides like the rocker arms of some coal-powered Victorian stamping mill. When I am “just a chatter”, I don’t have to hear every comment. Nor do I wish to.

Feeling charged to answer every riposte made by those blinded by the right isn’t my idea of enjoying life. Chat invigorates me when I can devote the time to exploring ideas with friends or addressing new concerns without feeling the need to lambast the right. /ignore gives me the space in which to use my mind for these better things. The funny thing is that those who tell me that they think writing for a blog would be “too much work” often seem to me to derive perhaps a little too much pleasure from seeing their opponents squirm. I’ve always worried about the sadistic angle. They say that they won’t use /ignore because they believe that they want to give every person a fair hearing. When I leave /ignore off, I feel like I am on guard duty for the Left. Whatever energies I have soon get sucked up by answering the repetitions of the right. Best, I think, to laugh it off and then courageously go on creating.