The internet can be wonderful

Or not.  Like most things made by humans, it can be used for good or bad.  Or in some cases, to avoid thinking.  Most of the time, I appreciate the comments.  Really.  Even if they disagree with me or tell me I’m wrong.  I might not admit it at the time, but it will give me something to think about.  I absolutely want to be in a place where people say I’m wrong.  If not, I might fall into the trap of being wrong and never knowing it.  Which is why I’ll never ban people simply for holding ideas with which I disagree.

Nonetheless, sometimes the comments are a little beyond the strange.  There’s  a tendency across the Internet for some people to say things that are, well, goofy?  Loony?  Out in left field?  A denial of reality?  So there was a fellow who commented on my post about the NBA punishing North Carolina for not conforming to liberal tolerance.  Several disagreed.  Fair enough.  Ultimately these things come down to the moral absolutes we cling to and wish to impose on others.  It’s a human thing.

But one wag fired back at me that I was lying, the game was going to happen.  The story was that the NBA was pulling the All Star Game from Charlotte in retribution for HB2.  Nobody, not those who disagreed with my assessment, argued about the facts of the story.  The game wouldn’t be in Charlotte.  It would be somewhere else.  It was in reaction to HB2.  Those were the facts.

Except for the fellow who would have none of it.  I was lying because there would be a game.  Of course, I said, just not in Charlotte, thereby harming Charlotte, removing it from the local economy and fan base who would not have it nearby.  Doing harm to make a point.  And yet he persisted.  There still would be a game!  Yes, I said.  There would be, somewhere else.  A thousand miles away.  Not in Charlotte and not in a way that would help Charlotte or the local population.  No, he said.  I’m lying.  There would still be the game.  It would still be played.

Befuddled, I tried again.  Nobody else had a problem with this.  The entire media debate understood it.  And yet the individual in my comments section wasn’t the least bit interested in what anyone had to say.  There would still be a game.  Period.  I was lying.   Finally, after another attempt to explain the difference between a game in my home town versus a game not in my home town, the fellow called me a liar, and said he wouldn’t visit my blog anymore because I was a liar.  There was going to be a game.  Period.

Oy vey.  I’m sure the Internet doesn’t invent this sort of thing; there were probably people who debated like that for eons.  And yet, when it happens, it’s like seeing the Loch Ness Monster.  You’ve heard rumors, but you’re not prepared for it when it finally happens.