Slow simmer

Yep, I’ll admit it. One of my chief character flaws is the inability to let go of a hurt or an insult, although I am light years away from how I was at that when I was in my teens and twenties! I tend to take the time to think and ponder now instead of rant and rave. Hopefully when I hit my 50s I’ll be able to just pray about it and be done with it.

Nonetheless some wounds go deeper than others and I’ll probably take today to address some of the issues my troll from the other night brought up. For example this one: You are completely convinced that you are always right

Well on my blog when I am supporting an issue, or making a comment on another blog, I am convinced I am right. Why on earth would anyone make a comment or support a cause that they are unsure of? While I am open to the art of debate on these topics, (and on AOL met some fine debators that really had me checking facts and refining my argument – interestingly they were mostly women about my age or older) my experience with blogging has been commenters 1) post anonymously so you never get a clear understanding or picture of who that person is, 2) the discussion descends into the personal attack or strawman fallacy before the issue has been thoroughly examined.

I’ve followed this blog for a while. Jill feels very strongly about liberal causes, abortion, women’s rights, contraception etc. Obviously she feels she is always right on those issues as well. That’s fine. It’s her blog. It would be ridiculous for her to support something she didn’t believe in. I may think she is wrong and we can debate it, and the debate itself, its structure and whether it is compelling and persuasive should be what the reader judges by.

Interestingly a nice blog like the Two Sleeping Mommies felt it necessary to put this in their comments section: “We don’t play rough here. We don’t like profanity, blasphemy, flaming, personal attacks on anyone, or general incivility. We may edit or delete offending comments — or ban offending commenters — at our discretion.”

Obviously they’ve been hassled and trolled a few times too. Probably for taking a conservative pro-Catholic stand on something with confidence, and being shot down for thinking they were “always right.”

I think the problem is confusing confidence with arrogance. I heard such accusations against the President during the campaign too, and in a more gentle way, against the pope. Do people want leaders, writers, bloggers who wet their finger and stick it in the air to see which way the popular POV is before they opine? If, as my trollish friend says, “diversity enhances discussion” then why isn’t a point of view on a blog that is decidedly Catholic, conservative, middle aged and homeschooling in its approach accepted for what it is instead of being criticized for what it is not?

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