So, I kinda blew up at someone on Twitter today. (It sounds completely childish when I put it that way.)
I believe that sometimes, people just have to be told how it is. I’m all about fairness, and being a bully (especially behind somebody’s back on Twitter) is certainly unfair. I was bullied a lot in Elementary school, so I have very little tolerance for bullies as an adult.
It’s often that I feel that I should say something to someone on Twitter about something said that I don’t agree with, but I normally keep it to myself because I believe that everyone has the right to his or her own opinion. It becomes more difficult if I see that somebody is disparaging someone or a group who can’t (by ignorance or lack of will) defend themselves. Especially when that person tends to have a holier-than-thou attitude in general (a hallmark of bullies).
I realize bullies should be pitied, and striking back brings myself down. My normal weapon in such a situation is the “Unfollow” button, but sometimes people say things that I just will not stand for. And now that I do have the wherewithal to stand up to bullies, sometimes that is exactly what I do.
To date, I believe I’ve only really “blown up” on Twitter twice: once to @JaredBrickman (who ended up blocking me, unfollowing a bunch of people, and then taking over Naked City’s Twitter account and changing its name back to @JaredBrickman, oddly enough) and then tonight to @ictjennifer.
Jennifer made a disparaging remark about an obese doctor, which I took offense to. I’m overweight. I also work out, am relatively strong, and consider myself a healthy person. Jennifer’s remark inferred (as is common belief) that if you are overweight, it is impossible to be healthy, and that, as such, this person didn’t deserve to be a physician. Assuming the doctor was overweight solely based on her eating habits, you can’t automatically decide she’s unhealthy. (This is ignoring the fact that obesity can be caused by a great many factors, including medication, genetics, endocrine disorders, cessation of smoking, etcetera.) I took great offense to her comment, we exchanged barbs a few times, and then it was over. After she tweeted the hashtag #hyperdefensive, I knew I had her on the run, and I tweeted back at her “Are you getting defensive because you feel like a horse’s ass for getting called out on your elitist bullshit?” Looking back, this was likely a step over the line from defensive to bullying, and I regret the statement. I regret none of the rest of it, though.
I stop myself (maybe too often, maybe not often enough) from “calling people on their shit” because I don’t want to become that guy on Twitter who thinks he’s better than everyone else. I probably sound that way right now. It’s not my intent - I just believe there are people in this world that deserve to be defended, and people who deserve to be defended against. It’s probably not my job, but I take it all the same.
As a sidenote: both times, I got several DMs and @replies congratulating me for doing the right thing. People always say “I wish I could say those things.” Why don’t they?
tl;dr Don’t mess with me on Twitter.
