(Click to enlarge.)
It’s really easy to deride the folly and blatant hypocrisy of this unmerciful servant.
But how many of us, if we examined ourselves honestly and accurately, could escape pleading guilty to the charge of having a double standard, judging others while hoping to escape judgment ourselves, or, at least, to be treated with a charity that we deny to others?
Since slanderous and unjust online accusations against me have been on my mind a bit of late, I want to explicitly extend this to online commenting: Are we harshly judgmental of others, severely condemning, in a way that would cause us deep pain and grief — or, at a minimum, that would damage our public reputations — if it were done to us? Do we sometimes forget that public figures, or people online, are actual human beings, with families and personal lives? My suspicion is that many people who comment on websites and message boards and in response to online newspaper and magazine articles do forget. (I hope that they don’t behave so badly in real life, face to face with those they assault.) But it should not be forgotten.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In