Here’s to Sam, our not-so-friendly-neighborhood online Forum commenter! In the nine weeks that I’ve been writing these op-ed ditties and paying attention to the goings-on in the world of campus news for the first time in my NU career, I’ve discovered that good ol’ online specter Sam is the one unwavering constant. I’m pleased and astonished to see that every day he summons up new insults from his seemingly bottomless well of disgust for amateur writers spouting silly, indefensible, 600-word opinions in between full-time classes and part-time jobs. He’s called my writing and that of my peers “inanity,” “childish,” “asinine,” and more. A brief survey of his comments betrays a marked intelligence, but, more often than not, it carries with it a tone of smug condescension.
Now, you may be saying, why waste your breath on this fellow? And the answer is, because that’s all I’ve done for the last nine weeks, waste my breath on him, so I might as well do it directly. He, and those like him-who would rather sling empty slurs (or compliments!) than sharing ideas-seem to be the only people even remotely interested in having a public discussion about what we think and value. The few real debates that are sparked by Daily writing emerge on the comment boards with he and others like him talking at each other, mixing ad hominem with a dash of actual argument. And so he and they are why I’m done with the media. Because I cannot waste my time, energy, and mental capacity in an empty forum.
The New Oxford American definition of ‘forum’ is so splendid I have to repeat it verbatim: “a place, meeting, or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged.” What a beautiful word! That concept of exchange is why I signed up to do this in the first place. I had a vision of starting up fiery debates on controversial and often-little-discussed subjects, of getting people to think and argue with their friends about their most cherished values. I suppose I was deluded.
On nearly every one of my preface videos I asked for your opinion, to carry on the conversation, but got nothing back. Maybe my topics were boring, maybe you’re too busy, but that’s not true, especially if someone was fired up enough to call them stupid. Maybe somewhere out there someone is thinking about and discussing what I’ve written, but my sense is that Sam is the barometer. If he, the one who seems most engaged in what we Dailyers have to say, takes time out of his precious waking hours simply to call our writing childish or inane, I don’t expect that anyone else does much more.
After the Daily experience, it’s a small wonder to me that most get their news and values from Jon Stewart or Bill O’Reilly, or Keith Olbermann or Glenn Beck. For whatever reason, insulting the “stupid” or claiming the sinister “evil” of someone you disagree with is now the perfect substitute for making any substantive rebuttal at all. I guess this is what the whole Stewart/Colbert rally was supposed to be about, but that just continues the cycle rather than breaking it. The best solution I can think of is just to turn it off, click away, ignore the news. The real exchange of ideas cannot be found in the media, and the more we let it feed our vision of the world, the more it will and does infect the real forums – the lunch table, the couch, the classroom. Let’s stop yelling out opinions, let’s just stop and sit and think and then look each other in the eyes and only then open our mouths.
Jamie Weissmann is a Weinberg senior. He can be reached at [email protected].
