It’s 2024, and the blogosphere has been passé for over a decade*, so I don’t get a ton of comments here anymore. One type of comment I do still sometimes get is the drive-by-snipe. Typically, someone will look at a book review from a decade ago (if not earlier) and snark that I got something “wrong” in it, while in fact just using the comment as a springboard to spout something racist, sexist, or otherwise hateful.
For example, today I got one that managed to be racist and tried to bait me into opining on immigration in the UK, as a “comment” on an old Christopher Priest novel. (This one.)
I dutifully wrote a comment back and posted it, explaining how the bigoted commenter was wrong and stupid and a fearmonger.
Except… engaging with nimrods like this doesn’t work. They don’t learn, because they don’t listen or care to discover that reality defies their expectations. So, anyway, I’ve just deleted the comment, and will be doing the same with any future nonsense in the comments section. I have no obligation to provide a soapbox for jackasses, and I’m not so desperate for comments that I’m collecting them from bigoted idiots.
* Well, except in the OSR. Elfgame blogs continued to limp on, past the collapse of the blogosphere and past the ending of G+, and they limp on even today, long may they limp.