The Stench of Hatred

I don't usually let it get me down.  I normally choose to ignore it.  Having been on Twitter nearly four years I realise not everybody is obnoxious and rude.  However, lately I've found the stench of hatred becoming increasingly disheartening.

In the past few weeks I've put up with comments ranging from laughably ridiculous, such as calling me a 'soldier of satan' due to my lack of religion, through to more spiteful outbursts including wishing cancer upon me and telling me to die because I dared to disagree with a certain viewpoint or approach to debate.

I wouldn't call myself particularly controversial or any more opinionated than the majority of people I follow.  Like most people however, I do have opinions on issues that matter to me.  From time to time, in amongst my more inane ramblings, I choose to share them with my Twitter friends.  When I do express opinions, I like to think I'm fairly consistent.  I try my best to express those views in a relatively respectful fashion, making sure I'm able to back up what I say with facts rather than simply directing irrational and unhelpful anger at people I've never even met.  I'm also generally happy to discuss my viewpoint if people want me to.  I'm even open to changing my mind should somebody present me with a relevant point I hadn't previously considered.  If there's one thing I've learned in my study of Philosophy it's about changing one's mind in response to a well thought-out argument.  Taking this into account, I appreciate that I may be more conscious than some people of the need to keep calm and stick to the facts in order to facilitate constructive debate.  However, surely a lack of understanding of the basic rules of debate can't be an excuse for some of the hateful vitriol that some people spout?

It would be naive and unrealistic to want for everyone to get along and agree all the time and I'm certainly not asking for that.  What I would really like though, is for people to find a better way to address others who don't entirely agree with them than with insult, anger, or aggression.  I don't recall anyone ever winning someone over to their point of view by being nasty to them.  Granted, I'm sure some of history's dictators may choose to disagree with me but there's a stark difference between getting somebody to see your point of view and making them suppress their voice simply in order to avoid personal attack.  I know it's 'only Twitter' and that it's 'not real life'.  But Twitter is and can be an incredibly useful place to meet and discuss matters with a huge network of people, often who we wouldn't normally come into contact with through the course of our real lives.  One could even argue that if all you want from Twitter is to connect with people who agree with you or who reinforce your world view, you're probably missing the point.

I doubt very much that my writing of this blog post will change anything much.  I know I'm not the first person to write about it and I'm pretty certain I won't be the last.  I know there'll always be people who are angry and who find it hard to contain their anger or to express themselves constructively.  However, if I could achieve one thing by sharing my thoughts on the matter it would be that at least some people think about the potential effect hostile words can have.  If every single one of us were to shut down any opposing views with aggression rather than engaging in discussion there'd be little point in any of us bothering with the conversation at all.  And at the end of the day, if Twitter isn't about conversation any more then really, what is the point?