Comment Harpies
Every so often I moderate a comment, and the commenter objects: "You're censoring me!" (Most of the time I just nuke it, and that's the last I hear.) Granted, it isn't often, though it's happening more and more over time. I'm discussing it today because of an interesting phenomenon that other bloggers may have seen, one I call comment harpies. It works like this: Some whackjob swoops in and tries to post a nasty comment on Contra, generally to an entry that happened months or even years ago. I've never seen the poster before. The comment is invariably angry, often insulting, and sometimes obscene. The general impression I get, however, is one of out-of-control desperation.
I picture a person awash in cortisol sitting at a machine, googling topics that the harpy's tribe disagrees with, plowing through long lists of blog hits with shaking hands and attempting to post condemnations anywhere the blogs will let them. This is the terminal state of the "someone, somewhere on the Internet is wrong" psychology. Disagreement used to be a learning opportunity. Then it became insult. Now it appears to be declaration of total war.
Sad, sad.
I moderate all comments from newcomers, and I pay attention to everything said by everyone. I began moderation to throttle comment spam, which tries to come in five or six times a day, sometimes more. You've probably seen these slightly surreal cookie-cutter posts on unmoderated blogs, invariably accompanied by one or more links:
"It is of nothing enjoyed to be better apart than reading insights of distinction sourced with your sight. Links are of to be permitted, yes? I make a mind out to return of oftener."
Links are of to be permitted, no. Lost, get apart now forever and my sight out of.
The harpies are different. The English is good, and the posts generally pertain to whatever topic the target entry discusses. There's rarely any link. Though usually short, there's an occasional multi-hundred-word rant. As a general policy I delete them immediately. Now and then the indignant harpy emails me and demands an explanation. When asked, I answer: "I don't allow angry/abusive/obscene comments." End of story, usually. Sometimes the cortisol-tripper reponds again, claiming that I'm engaging in censorship. At that point, their having crossed the bright line into delusional, I delete and forget them.
Some comments fall into a gray area. A year or two ago, when I began talking about my research into ice ages for my caveman novel, I got a one-liner:
"Don't be an idiot. There will never be another ice age."
This is less angry than most, and I've certainly been called worse. With faint hope that he/she might have something interesting to say, I wrote back and suggested a politer comment with factual content, links permitted. The email address (which was qwertygargle and suspicious to begin with) turned out to be fake.
So what can we make of this? Some of my friends have suggested that posts like these are paid compaigns intended to discredit the blogger or the topic the blogger is discussing. That seems unlikely to me. Anger and insult won't change anybody's mind except perhaps in the direction opposite the harpy's intent. And when someone calls you a "Foux News watcher," what else can you do but giggle? I wonder if these people have any least idea how utterly pathetic they make themselves and their ideologies look.
Are they bored? Unemployed? Crazy? Are they crawling with toxoplasma gondii? As with all manifestations of tribal fury, the comment harpy phenomenon probably has deep roots in our primate past, where the addled tribal footsoldiers throw poop at each other while their alphas live the good life at their expense. If you have any better explanations, I'll certainly hear them.