I've stopped posting on Brooke Adam's "The Plural Life" blog, for a number of reasons.
And now, I have stopped even reading it.
First and foremost, I stopped posting because of the personal toll the constant barage of meanness and hatred was taking on me. I was finding myself getting really depressed and unable to perform the functions of my own job in a way that adequately served parents and families. I was too distracted and upset.
Secondly, posters were personalizing their attacks more and more, with a vicious, "I want to hurt you, personally" tone. I find that repugnant. In my worst battles, with the most difficult of adversaries, I never see it as personal. It is idealogical. It is philosophical. It is plain old unrelenting loyalty to old ideas. It is many things, but it is never personal. And at the change of topic, or the end of the meeting, it is always cordial.
The posters on Brooke's blog fail to follow the most basic rules of civil discourse. Too often I found myself sinking to their level. Of either wanting to, or actually, attacking another poster, on a personal level.
I don't like that behavior. I abhor that behavior in myself.
And my third reason for leaving is the new "regulars". They seem to have appeared from out of the blue with no purpose save to attack the FLDS. They do not want to engage in discussion. They do not want to share ideas. They want to bash, slam, villify, and spread hate and ugly rumors. And worst of all they take unabshed pleasure inthe pain of the people of the FLDS faith. I find them to be the worst kind of internet "trolls". Some call them the "Kindred Spirits" because they seem to know one another from another place on the net and have banded together to be ugly and hurtful toward the FLDS, all the while chit-chatting with one another and sharing recipes, etc.. All as though their behavior is prefectly fine and acceptable. I want nothing to do with them.
The old group has always had posters on all sides of the issues raised. And some considerable ugliness, at times, but never this kind of abject hatred and total disregard for the feelings of those reading. Ron, Laurie, and Txbluesman, at their worst, cannot hold a candle to these creeps!
The final straw in deciding to not only not post, but to not even bother reading, is the kinds of blogs Brooke has been writing since her return from vacation. Brooke has developed a reputation as a reporter who deliberately tries to show the FLDS fairly, and has not joined the mob of journalists who play to the sensational. For that reason, Brooke has begun to enjoy the trust of the people in the FLDS community. Her blogs were basically unbiased and often showed a very human side of the FLDS people that regular news stories are not able to.
Many members of the community follow Brooke's blog. Some post to it. Some regularly. Not anymore.
When the personal writings of Warren Jeffs were made public, I wrote to Brooke and told her how disturbing this public viewing of what they consider very private writings of their Prophet is, to them. I know others conveyed the same sentiment to her. One by one the members of the FLDS community have dropped away from her blog. Yet Brooke continues to post items that are sensational and hurtful to people she claims to care for. I imagine she hasn't even noticed that she has lost Pliggy, Cheese, yuthehay, Rose, and others.
She has made no attempt to write anything about the sentiments of the FLDS people on this topic. She has made no appology for her topic choices. She has done nothing to mitigate the hurt she is furthering.
She has lost my respect, and following, for this, and the above reasons. I'll check in, from time to time, hoping she changes. But I'm not holding out any hope!
9 years ago
