== Death by moron = By Mark Morford

[madokie]

Has anonymous commenting destroyed meaningful online dialogue? Oh, hell yes

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/02/13/notes021309.DTL&nl=fix

Here is my strange confession: I miss my hate mail.

It's an odd thing to admit, but in a perverse sort of way, I actually miss the wretched river, the rancid flow of puerile, nasty, sickeningly homophobic email I used to receive on a regular basis from the ultra-right and the Christian right and the Mormon right and the Bush-impaired whenever I would post a friendly, pointed column full of tangy liberal attitude. Which is, of course, all of them.

Oh, I miss all the lovely and positive email too, which outpaced the nasty stuff by a huge margin. But the hate mail was (and still is, what dribble I now get) very special indeed, great fodder for live readings, for the reaction of horrified disbelief of anyone who saw it, for the charming reminder of just how ugly and violent and grammatically challenged the human animal can be.

(FYI: the best of the worst of my hate mail -- about 50 truly stunning examples -- will be published in my upcoming mega-compendium of a book, "The Daring Spectacle." Get on my personal newsletter to find out more). ...