Trolls, not of the "Treasure" Variety

I felt the need to post this because I feel like I've lost a little part of my innocence here. I found the online knitting blog community through my mom, and that has been such a friendly, welcoming group. And then, there was Ed. Ed is a particularly vicious troll. He's also apparently not bright. He went to Mom's blog and left a comment about how boring her life must be if she's blogging about yarn. Never mind the fact that Mom is an avid knitter. Never mind that it makes perfect sense for a craftswoman to be excited over getting new materials. He just felt the need to criticize. There's a difference between disagreeing, and being a jerk. This guy sure does fall into the second category.

Call me naive, call me foolish, but I was raised to believe that politeness matters and that being nice counts. I was not raised to be a pushover, nor to be cloying. I firmly support freedom of speech. However, freedom of speech does not guarantee you the right to be an asshole whenever and to whomever you please. It also does not guarantee you protection from getting your butt kickedif you're offensive, or from being told you're downright unpleasant. I am not making threats, I am not throwing stones. "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" (The Friends of Voltaire, 1906). Everyone has the right to express their opinion. Everyone also must live with the consequences of his or her actions.

At any rate, what you put out comes back to you in this world. Maybe not in this lifetime, and maybe not in ways we see or understand right away, but it all comes back to you. If you spew negativity out, then negativity is what you will get back. Nature loves balance. This seems so common-sense, but I guess maybe it isn't. Or maybe we've just gotten to the point where we've forgotten that nice matters. I don't think that's entirely true, either. Look at all the people out there who leave encouraging, friendly comments. Ah, well. I'll just stick to making my corner of the world and the net a happy, friendly, or at the very least, civil place. Sorry to rant at you all, unneccecary jerk-itude always pisses me off.