An Update on the Blogger Wars by an Autie Come Lately

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Clarissa

September 8, 2011

So I just discovered that I had managed to make myself a center of two controversies over this past weekend (and not just one, like I thought until half an hour ago). One was provoked by the most recent post on circumcision and the other one by my post on the MLK memorial. What normally happens is that I don’t spend a lot of time on other people’s blogs unless these are the blogs I truly love. I never leave more than one comment per topic on blogs of which I’m not a passionate fan and never go back to see how the discussion evolved. I spend too much time on my own blog as it is, so I really have no time to spend elsewhere.

And then it turned out that two kind, nice bloggers went to those discussions I unwittingly provoked by my posts, tried participating and got aggressively dumped on by weird folks. In the meanwhile, I’ve been sitting here unaware of all that, wondering why I was suddenly being assaulted by spammers who tried leaving strange acronyms and links to Twitter feeds on my blog. Trust an autistic always to be out of it.

I’m now more popular as a blogger than I was before, so I see my modest popularity as a sort of Internet capital. If I am to come to a person’s blog often and promote it by leaving links to it on mine, I’m only ready to do that if it’s a blog I really like. I’m not going to expend my capital on people and blogs I dislike. When people I don’t know come here and leave a link saying, “Come and see what we’ve been saying about you”, I always just delete the comment without following the link or giving it a second thought.

I love an intelligent, passionate discussion as much as the next person. But as a greedy Jew that I am, I won’t waste my capital and promote blogs I don’t approve of by visiting them or posting comments.

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10 responses to “An Update on the Blogger Wars by an Autie Come Lately”

Jamie

September 8, 2011

“But as a greedy Jew that I am, I won’t waste my capital and promote blogs I don’t approve of by visiting them or posting comments.”

XD

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bloggerclarissa

September 8, 2011

What does XD stand for?

What is it with people and acronyms lately? I keep feeling confused.

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1. Helena Suess
  
  September 8, 2011
  
  It’s a face with squinty eyes and a big smile. Rotate 90 degrees clockwise.
  
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  1. bloggerclarissa
    
    September 8, 2011
    
    Oh, thanks! Funny. 🙂
    
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    1. Jamie
      
      September 8, 2011
      
      Yeah, as Helena said. Me and my silly (online) teenage idioms, sorry.
      
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Rimi

September 9, 2011

So… you like and approve of my blog? Good to know. Especially since your blog brought me back to writing. Now if only we could have half as fun conversations on my posts as we have on yours, I’d consider myself in possession of all the internet capital I need.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  September 9, 2011
  
  I love your blog and am super happy you went back to blogging! When you write about India, it’s very enlightening. I studied the literature of the subcontinent for years (it was my PhD minor) and I hate all the silly stereotypes about India that are floating around.
  
  Also, your perspective on the US politics and culture is priceless.
  
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  1. Rimi
    
    September 9, 2011
    
    “your perspective on the US politics and culture is priceless.” — goodness, is it? Thank you 🙂
    
    I was just recently told my writing is “not accessible by the average blog reader”, because I “show off” my education by using “too many big words and long sentences”. This person opined starting a blog again was a really bad idea because I didn’t know how to “successfully write for the public”.
    
    Given that at one point my blog was in the top fifteen Indian blogs (according to a rating system based on number of visitors), I found this a very condescending assessment of the average blog reader. Your own readership confirms this. All the same, it’s rather nice to be told I’m actually readable, and not a pompous show-off 😉
    
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    1. bloggerclarissa
      
      September 9, 2011
      
      I now know that there are many extremely intelligent, educated, and knowledgeable blog readers who can’t find enough blogs to read that would be intellectually stimulating enough for them to read. I wouldn’t dismiss blog readers as a crowd that is only interested in gossip. The kind of blogging that’s all about the new Twilight movie and Angelina Jolie’s new child are dying out. But the audience of intellectual blogs is growing because people everywhere become more and more disillusioned with the swill fed to them by the corporate media.
      
      Your writing is crystal-clear and you have a fantastic sense of humor. I love sarcasm and biting wit. Even when it’s addressed at me (as you did in one of your posts), I always appreciate good, well-written, angry criticism. yesterday, for example, some blogger criticized my blog because “Clarissa sounds like a name for a hair care product.” I fail to be inspired by this kind of critique. Criticize me, tell my writing apart, but do it in a way that will make me want to think about what you say. Many people can’t do that at all, though.
      
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      1. Rimi
        
        September 9, 2011
        
        Thank you so much. I’d tell you how very stimulating your blog (and therefore your mind) is too, but something that could kick me out of my three-year long hibernation surpasses usual adjectives.
        
        This reminds me — I need to publish that post on my new blog because that is something I really feel passionately about, and will continue to differ with you on 🙂
        
        But you’re absolutely, completely right. I would much, MUCH rather be chastised but enlightened, rather than coddled by sycophants or mocked by morons. I learn nothing from the last two groups, and they bore me.
        
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