Tea at Trianon: Online Hate

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Online Hate

From The Crescat:

Most hate mail I simply dismiss. You’re free to write me and bless me out all the live long day if it’s going to make you feel better to get it all out, but know, I rarely reply. The few times I’ve actually responded where when I got a sense the sender actually wanted to dialogue further, once they got all the name calling out of the way.

I do find hate mail upsetting, but probably not in the way the sender intended. I am not moved or upset at the actual words themselves. What’s disturbing is witnessing someone being so controlled by their own anger and pain that they are helpless to stop themselves from lashing out.

Trolls in comment boxes are one thing. That’s usually just your every day, garden variety sarcasm mixed in with a dash bullheadedness. It’s helps to remember behind every trollish comment is a real, live human being who has taken the time to read (however incorrectly interpreted) what you’ve written and felt compelled enough to respond. They may be looking for actually dialogue or just to vent. I won’t begrudge anyone that.

But when the comments, and in this instance hateful emails, exhibit a twisted underlying darkness it’s helpful to again recognize behind those words is a very real, live human being in obvious pain.

Don’t reply to the words. Respond to the person.

I met newly ordained Fr. Eric Sundrup, who writes for the Jesuit Post, a few weeks ago at the Catholic Media Conference. During a panel discussion we were asked how we handle trolls and vitriol we encounter online. How do we not let it infect us and disrupt our spiritual well being.

Fr. Sundrup was the one that reminded us that it’s a human being we are encountering online, not just some automatically generated words floating at us on a computer screen. Someone put them there. And it’s always best to respond to those particular someones carefully. (Read more.)