Ankle Deep in Vitriol

This is my face on the internet. 

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Or rather, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment. Part of my work writing jokes for The Project on Channel 10 involves replying to messages on their official page. It's a nice little insight into a side of Australia that I'm not usually connected with. But apart from the comments praising or censuring panellists for things they have or have not said, and people asking for things from the program that are not within my capacity to deliver, there are also a lot of angry people saying angry things. 

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I've specifically said before that I'm lucky not to have many trolls in my life. If I have a brand, it's for making nuanced arguments, which doesn't hugely lend itself to trolling. Also I'm neither sexy enough nor unusual looking enough that I get much of the 'hideous pig/I'd fuck that' comments, both of which are sides of the same nasty coin. I also go out of my way to be accessible in a way that involves a little friction. I don't read the comments on my articles, so if someone wants to hunt me down on twitter or email me, they can, but it will take a few steps. 

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So I am exposed to a few personal attacks, but nowhere near as many as many of my friends and colleagues. Nowhere near as many as the panellists on The Project.

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But recently I've been wading in some of the stickier, ickier parts of the internet. The last three weeks of my regular friday SBS articles have included an article on the recent Red Pill movie censorship debate, one about the place of women in the new Alt Right, which my editors decided to call The Alt Right and how they are All Wrong, and one called What Can We Learn From The Comments Section.

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Man it's depressing. So many angry people, so many people gleefully wallowing in tribalism, hack-eugenics, genuine loathing and disdain for people of other cultures or races or sexes. People who still use 'jew' as an insult. It makes me sad to walk down the street and not be able to stop thinking of how many people I pass who don't think of me as a real person. 

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I don't know what the solution is, but I'm going to ask my editor if the next comedy article I write can involve something that doesn't mean research into forums where people are genuinely debating whether if you had the choice, you'd kill all Jews or all Muslims.

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I mean, it's all words. But words is the world I live in. I live in a world where I believe words can change the world, or at least how we see the world. So, there's that.