One reason I do not tweet, text, use Facebook or Instagram, and only wield a mobile when a landline is unavailable, is that all of the above gadgets are free of anything that resembles a credible spoken word emanating from a disease-free brain. The mind-numbing gobbledygook that billions send back and forth constitutes a sort of tenth circle of Dante’s Inferno: oxygen-deprived brains, with their imaginations up their backsides, are strung out on their own solipsism; benighted, boring and brain-jolting in their braggadocio. Whew, I finally got that off my chest.
When I founded the American Conservative in 2002, and Takimag some time later, I became aware of the vast sea of envious discontents who spend their waking hours (about three to four) spouting hate against anyone and everyone they disagree with, be it in the area of politics, sport, or even favourite movies or cartoons. The first editor of Takimag ran comments that claimed I murdered babies in their cribs, had obviously killed my mother and father, and was the illegitimate son of a one-night stand between Stalin and Hitler. ‘It’s the sacrosanct right of reply,’ said the idiot when I gave him his marching orders. Ditto the second one. I finally had to resort to my own daughter, who filters some of the really bad ones.
What is it that makes nerds the world over accuse their betters (which they invariably are) of unspeakable crimes and perversions, and use language that would embarrass a lavatory attendant in a gay underground New York nightclub in the Seventies? Well, recently the good guys had a win, and for once I will not be magnanimous in victory but pray that the Harvard nerd that got caught will pay through the nose and then some.
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