The Striped Blattidaen Returns

Posted on March 5, 2003 in Roach-B-Gone

For the amusement of my friends and for the encouragement of those who have stopped blogging or disabled their comments because of roaches:

An old roach came back in a new form. 64.42.94.101 (64-42-94-101.atgi.net) is his current site of origin. He was upset that I corrected him for misusing the term “ad hominem” on Karen’s blog. I guess he hopes that my readers who won’t read him there might read him here. It’s my cachet, I suppose.

I find roaches interesting from a clinical perspective. The behavior is so clearly obsessive compulsive: they run from liberal blog to liberal blog, rebutting everything, and they do so take umbrage at the suggestion that they might be suffering from a mental disorder! Self-examination is not a trait of such people. And they do so hate to be reminded of it.

Literacy seems to be another problem of roaches. Those who comment see this:

Notice: If you crave anonymity so much that you won’t leave a valid email address where you can be reached, your comment will be deleted. Use of false email addresses or abusive comments directed at me or other contributors will be reported to your provider as a violation of your terms of service. I can find you, block you. Anti-spam additions (e.g. charithearmadillo@NOSPAMalsirat.com) are acceptable.

Nospam.com is not a valid email address by this definition, no matter how it is wormed.

Is it personal? Absolutely. The comments I make are specific to the person. A few conservatives have come on and left comments that I have not deleted. They observed the rules of decorum and argued within reason. We exchanged facts, not insults. Things did not whirl out of control because the other guy just couldn’t stop lading answer upon answer in response. Views were stated. And left at that. It was clear that though we disagreed on things, that the person at the other end wasn’t projecting his personality disorders on others.

That’s my take. Only a propagandist who cringes at facing the truth about him/herself would dare to call me dishonest!

(To make the argument work, the roach would have to show that I:

• Did not mean it personally
• Did not believe her/him/it to suffer from a mental illness
  
• Did not apply my own rule.)

This isn’t an invitation. You can whine about it all you wish on your own blog. I support that freedom for you and everyone else.

I reserve for my blog the right of the living room: if you exhibit behavior that I would find offensive when done in my living room, I throw you off this blog. As I did once before in this case, for the subject’s patently antagonistic attitudes towards Muslims.

Thanks for thinking me very important, Eric. I can’t say that I think the same of you. That’s why I don’t post to your blog.

And, yes, your message was deleted and email has been sent to your provider describing our little history. I keep my promises.

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Another personal note to some people who have either quit blogging or disabled their comments:

Remember that when a roach scuttles out to attack you, it is a good indication that what you have said is important. They fear you. So treat each incursion as a victory: they are reading you and spreading the word that you exist to others! The more they mock you, the more people will come to your blog to find out what you are saying. Others know too well that these folks suffer from untreated disorders and they yearn for your sanity.

It is fair play to set out the rules for your own blog and enforce them. The InterNet Information Highway is free just as the streets of our cities are free for all to pass (except in gated communities like Dove Canyon). The doors along those streets may be locked and you may choose to lock your blog against these people. It is no more unreasonable to keep rude, disruptive people from posting comments than it is to evict a boor from a party you hold for friends. Don’t let them con you into saying that you oppose freedom of speech by saying that they can’t mock you and your friends in your own house.

By the same token, don’t go to their blogs. If you meet them on other ground, such as Karen Zipdrive’s blog — where the owner has stainless steel innards and can mock better than they are mocked — don’t speak to them, but feel free to speak of them in support of others. Just enough to make your point once.

I could name names, but I love the ones to which this is addressed very much and I would not subject them to incursions by new blattidaens by pointing them out. If the problem is that you lack a means of blocking roaches (such as Movable Type), I am more than happy to grant you space here — as my friend.

My roach list is your list, my friends. We strive together.