Fairly recently Jon over at Jon Versus Sports Blog recently posted about venom and the internet. He’s spot on. As he said “The worst offenders are ESPN and You Tube. I dare you find a single comment section on You Tube that does not include a F bomb, an ad hominem attack, or a misspelled word.”. As I’ve said before, when I’m feeling good about the world I just have to simply go to YouTube (or pretty much any other website), read comments, and I’m back to feeling like the world is going down the tubes (pun intended) again.
It was talk radio before, now it’s talk radio and the internet. They’re places where people “tell the truth”, otherwise known as verbal attacks. It’s not enough to disagree with something, you have to add insulting language. It’s not enough to dislike something, you have to hate it.
In sports circles the venom falls the most on the officials. It’s rare where people say that they think the wrong call was made and stop there. It almost always next goes to insulting the official (say’s he/she is the “worst ever”, is an idiot, etc). Of course that’s not enough, it goes to even saying the official should be fired.
This is why my rule is generally I don’t talk about officiating. I’m fully capable of talking about officiating without crossing the line (not insulting them), but there’s enough people out talking about it as it is. When I’m at the game I may say to the person next to me that I thought “they made the wrong call”, but that’s the farthest I will go. Once the game is over officiating doesn’t cross my mind much. Instead it’s more along the lines of “if UMD’s power-play was better they could have won the game”.
The officials may get the most of the bile, but quite obviously they don’t get all of it. Probably the next group to get it is the team that the individual “dislikes” the most. Sometimes it’s a rival of their favorite team. Sometimes it’s not just the team that gets the bile. It’s their fans as well. Again, it’s not enough to dislike the team, but they must be hated. Again, insults are thrown at the team and their fans.
Anyone know knows me knows that the team that I always cheer against is the University of Minnesota Gophers. I cheer against them, but I try and refrain from crossing the line. I won’t attack anyone for going to a particular school or liking a particular team. There are times myself where I’ve probably crossed the line and insulted a team or fans and I’m sorry that I did so, so I clearly can’t criticize people who slip up and cross the line, but clearly those people are in the minority.
It’d be nice if people would stop the bile. It’s just a game after all.