{"id":4155,"date":"2010-12-06T10:11:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T10:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2010\/12\/an-observation-from-a-nigerian-tragedy.html"},"modified":"2010-12-06T10:11:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T10:11:00","slug":"an-observation-from-a-nigerian-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2010\/12\/an-observation-from-a-nigerian-tragedy.html","title":{"rendered":"An observation from a Nigerian tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>Apparently <a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/ap\/20101205\/ap_on_bi_ge\/af_nigeria_oil_unrest\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Nigerian soldiers have killed civilians<\/a>.\u00a0 That, of course, is a tragedy and should be treated as such.\u00a0\u00a0Normally, such an event, tragic though it is, doesn\u2019t\u00a0fall within the scope of my overall emphasis, so I wouldn\u2019t post a story like this.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t really a \u2018down with America\u2019, or \u2018Christianity sucks\u2019 or \u2018the Catholic Church is evil\u2019 spin being put on the actual killings.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>But then I just glanced down at the comments.\u00a0 When I did, I suddenly reflected on the whole \u2018Internet makes you smarter\u2019 spiel that is all the rage nowadays.\u00a0 If it makes us smarter, then those who\u00a0have been so elevated must have refrained from commenting on this story.\u00a0 Look at the comments.\u00a0 One particular comment jumped out at me.\u00a0 Sometimes I wonder if, in the anonymous \u2018say what I would never say face to face\u2019 world of the Internet if this fellow is real, or a fellow faking an identity to make a viewpoint he disagrees with look bad:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cLet them fight. Population control. Also less undesirable 3rd world immigrants moving to civilized nations.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The commenter labels himself \u2018conservative\u2019.\u00a0 So, is he really?\u00a0 Does someone really think that?\u00a0 Or is he trying to make the \u2018other side\u2019 look bad?\u00a0 If it is just a ploy, then obviously it sheds light on one of the problems of the Internet: the dehumanizing anonymity behind it all.\u00a0 If not, it sure demonstrates that, no Virginia, the Internet does <em>not<\/em> make us smarter.\u00a0 Either way it\u2019s food for thought, and perhaps a good enough reason to stop assuming that with the Internet necessarily comes salvation.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apparently Nigerian soldiers have killed civilians.\u00a0 That, of course, is a tragedy and should be treated as such.\u00a0\u00a0Normally, such an event, tragic though it is, doesn\u2019t\u00a0fall within the scope of my overall emphasis, so I wouldn\u2019t post a story like this.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t really a \u2018down with America\u2019, or \u2018Christianity sucks\u2019 or \u2018the Catholic Church [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>An observation from a Nigerian tragedy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Apparently Nigerian soldiers have killed civilians.&nbsp; That, of course, is a tragedy and should be treated as such.&nbsp;&nbsp;Normally, such an event,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2010\/12\/an-observation-from-a-nigerian-tragedy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An observation from a Nigerian tragedy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Apparently Nigerian soldiers have killed civilians.&nbsp; That, of course, is a tragedy and should be treated as such.&nbsp;&nbsp;Normally, such an event,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2010\/12\/an-observation-from-a-nigerian-tragedy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daffey Thoughts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-06T10:11:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dave Griffey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dave Griffey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2010\/12\/an-observation-from-a-nigerian-tragedy.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2010\/12\/an-observation-from-a-nigerian-tragedy.html\",\"name\":\"An observation from a Nigerian tragedy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-12-06T10:11:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-12-06T10:11:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#\/schema\/person\/9de3f33a0818ebc53727444b649c82a7\"},\"description\":\"Apparently Nigerian soldiers have killed civilians.&nbsp; 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