Hissy-Glitches

I could be a real pisser and exclaim "Hey-suse-H-Christ, there are some really sick beeches out there and I fell into their garbage pit and it rattled my sheltered little cage - oh my, woe is moi!"

Not gonna happen. I tend to tell stories - slow-like - that drives ADD (or "Type A") people crazy.

Part I: The Bully-Puppet

Rather than simply write, “People can be mean and that’s just how it is ” and be done with it, I’m compelled to flog mean and petty people for being what and who they are. Perhaps I’ll be mean along the way, placing myself in the middle of the quicksand one finds one’s self sucked into when sinking to the level of lashing back at people and/or circumstances that have, in one way or another, slapped us in the face.

In this case, the platform is the internet where one can be an anonymous terror, cackling like a witch or seething like a bitch while ripping to shreds another individual based on deeply repressed anger; bitterness over life’s unfairness; missing out on the Nordstrom or Wal-Mart shoe sale of the month; or just having a bad day…that may last a lifetime. For others, it might be that the angelic persona they exhibit at their jobs, with their families and neighbors, may hide a dark side for which a seemingly benign outlet is the best answer to the alien entity called “hate” festering within.

In April 2009 I fell into a rabbit hole of hatred, paranoia, multiple identities, bullying and infectious malevolence which made Alice’s experience down her rabbit hole where the “off with their heads” Queen seemed like a lovely little bump in the fright. On a gossip site slid I, unknowingly crashing a little clique-ish party of women who loathed a certain puffy-lipped actress and her paramour. I was astounded by the hatred I was reading in the “Comments” section. It was as if the actress had personally thrown red wine on their lily-white wedding dresses. Worse yet, had taken their husband for a kinky ride inside the local brothel.

I had never posted on a blog or forum until falling down that hole. I had read a few touchy back-and-forths on political sites, and once or twice read comments under a frothy celebrity headline, noticing how crass some of the commentators could be with one another; however, nothing had prepared me for my plunge into a sordid little world where I placed myself into an ethernet of flashbacks from my mixed-review childhood.

I began the unfortunate participation with the crow's nest of pious judgmentals with a curious mind, initially questioning the "hate" while concurrently sensing that something "smelled" with that particular site's owner. Time bore out my first instincts, although I admit I did try to find a  middle ground after having the hook lodged into my jaw. But that's another part of the story....

After I began posting and providing TMI about myself via lures I couldn't resist from a Big Bully-On-The-Spot, not only was I scrutinized, bashed, insidiously cornered by the brash, sad creature who I discovered was holding reign in this small corner of the interwebs, I also realized how she thrived on ensuring that anyone who disagreed or attempted to align with her on media credentials, was in for a roasting. Passive cohorts followed her rule as she held court with claims of superior education, dedication to educating the world of the actress in question's deplorable morals - and to this day continues to repeat these accusations on site after site, blog after blog.

This example of hatred bragged to have worked for the BBC and graduated from Oxford. She claimed to have proven her credentials to other posters in a private blog. Skype or hype? Oh well. The issue here is actually way beyond this woman who is known throughout a subculture as having more than one or two loose marbles, but that she is indicative of the rabid hating posters who lurk within the sewers of the interwebs, causing discord, and, until recently, creating tremendous site "hits" in high numbers by getting under the skin of those who are not like her in any shape or form. In her world, in fact, there is no one in this world who has ever been like her.

Which, by the way, leads me to the question of is she really real? I've now become so suspicious of posters on many sites that it could be she was hired to pump-up a flagging blog's readership with her outlandish, sadistic, behaviour. Until I met the likes of her and others in that environment, the idea of having paid writers to post on websites, blogs and forums to increase traffic, as well as legit PR firms to counter unflattering perceptions of their clients, never crossed my mind. Now, after a bit of research, I realize that paid posters are a reality.

The indecent aspect to this story is that the blog's owner, a somewhat well-known bottom-feeder in the publishing and TV celeb-show rounds, encouraged her demeaning posts. She was so disliked and stepped on too many toes, that a mass exodus from the blog created a topic on another message board against her, garnering thousand upon thousand's of views and posters coming forth with their own stories of victimization. Eventually she became a focus of ridicule and humour, instead of the Towering Flower of her blog master as she continued to tell the world how beloved and special she was, and how the demonic wicked-witch-of-the-world had hacked into her personal email. Say what?

At this point, one may deduce that such a person is ill, deserves empathy, should be ignored, or treated with love rather than disdain. Rational people felt this way. Critical people rolled their eyes. There was, and still is, no way to reach this creature, and I use that term "creature" because I still cannot fathom that she is real, or that she is capable of hearing, accepting, or considering that, if real, she may have a problem. Such people on the internet can be ignored and forgotten. Soon, she will be. Until then, I have to admit that the flogging she imposed on many decent people (tho' she did have ugly detractors slamming her every which way though not enough to knock her off her self-imposed throne) were truly "had" by her and to this day many will no longer post on any site where she may be a focus or participant.

Moving on from the Bully-Puppet, the main focus is not this sorry poster typing away her real or paid vitriol, it's actually the overall atmosphere of what happens when the pack mentality feeds on each other. The Big Bully aside, most of the women on these gossip sites are mothers, wives, and often in caretaker-based professions. There is always something going on with their health or families. If not, they deem to be so far above the focus of their criticisms that should an innocuous poster question their motives and stance, they are either thrashed with the handiest whip, or are written/spoken to in condescending language. Upholding their superior point of view, many will base their hatred/disgust/lurid fascination, and suggest that said celebrity had sex with a plant; engages in incest with their children; and, in general, is evil incarnate...all the while patting each other on the back for their wisdom and bravery in exposing such a slut.

The saddest part of this fairly mild example of hatred is that these mothers and wives have an unusually perverse fascination with their object of hate's professed and suggested perversions. Shivers abound.

Mirror, anyone?


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