Blog-fights

Bar-fight is something we all are familiar with these days . There is a new kind of fight doing rounds these days.. its the blog-fights. This is how the fights travel in the blogosphere. Say Mr.A writes a certain post.. expressing his ‘opinion’ on a controversial subject – political party’s decision – religion based ideas ( these are the hot spots).. and in the process of ‘expressing’ his ‘opinion’ he resorts to name-calling towards a particular group of people – organization-political party – religious groups etc ( again ..”hot spots”). Now.. with so much of name calling ( in a bid to justfy his post and vent out his anger / disgust) in the posts.. its not practically possible for every visitor who stumbles upon this Mr.A’s post to accept whatever Mr.A has to offer.

One such person will be Mr.B ( rarely they identify themselves… they usually use the Anonymous option to place their comments.. when they dot agree with the post author) Mr.B puts in a comment ( with equal amount of name calling and usage of abusive words towards the same sector whom Mr.A seems to be sympathetic to).. and Mr.B may call upon his friends to “support his cause”, so does Mr.A.. Finally the post is bombarded with comments with each group calling names at each other and fishing out the most abusive terms in the(ir) dictionary.

One day the post author ( ie our Mr.A) decides to ban any further comments..With no platform to continue the fight.. the immediate reaction of Mr.B is to have a post at his blog conveying his “Opinion” and attempt at outsmarting at Mr.A in name-calling and abusive vocabulary.

So.. what is wrong with posting one’s individual opinion.. after-all we all have the freedom of thought and freedom of expression. But what went wrong in the above case is.. somewhere along the line of discussion both parties lost track of the actual issue ( which was being scrutinized) and the only thing that remained was name-calling and gathering the most abusive adjectives.. If all these abuses are “beeped” out from the post – comments .. there was indeed a very intelligent argument hidden within.

We are under no obligation to accepted everything we read / hear. When an opportunity shows up.. we must express our opinions .. and speak of the subject matter only. How productive would a debate be.. if the debatees are attack each other personally. Isn’t it not the cardinal rule of social etiquette that you donot disagree with a person… but disagree with the idea in question

Believe me.. I speak from experience. Its perfectly possible to have an argument between two people with opposing views , each of them committed to their own perception of the same subject.. without using any kind of adjectives (..ie nothing that might indicate goodness or badness).I have had my share of abuses at my comments section. But when if confront the person with an open invitation for a debate.. under the singular condition that he / she shall not indulge and any kind of name-calling & abusive / flattering adjectives… then that’s the last time I see him /her at my blog.

Your thoughts and ideas are as important as your vocabulary. If you can roll out abuses at the drop of a hat.. how much importance do expect your readers / listeners to attach to your genuine ideas. It doesnot hurt to be polite and your words make a greater impact.. when you direct them towards the subject of debate rather than the person whom you are debating with. A little decency will not harm… it will make people sit straight and see your perspective ..( that’s the idea isn’t it ? ? ? )