Once upon a time, when he was still at SM, Manish wanted to disable comments under his posts because the effort required to moderate them was significant and the "return" he/we were getting via the discusssion didn't merit the hours he poured in to managing chaos.
I was his most passionate opponent during that lusty but good-hearted debate, because I loved our comment threads and thought they were the best thing ever about SM. Now I grok his contentions...and that makes me sad.
I am so sick of being misrepresented by a small but non-trivial number of readers who, unfortunately, are vocal and toxic enough to create a detrimental effect. I don't have fawning supporters, as some of them love to claim. I have readers who don't know me from Adam, who speak up or call things out when they see fit. The fact that some choose to conflate those disparate groups says volumes about the intentions and outlook of those who are conflatin'.
I'm not smug. I don't think I'm better than you. I don't think my parents are better than yours, though I do think that they are awe-inspiring, phenomenal people who were 100x stronger and wiser than I will ever be; I will never be skilled or eloquent enough to write their sacrifices justice.
I'm sick of certain people feeling like just because I write the "personal" or "fluffy" posts on Sepia Mutiny, that it's okay to attack me, make up shit about me or otherwise behave in obnoxious ways they wouldn't dare replicate if we were face-to-face.
The majority of our readers are lurkers. So many of them write emails to me instead of commenting publically, and they are so gratified to read pieces that they relate to on several levels. Meanwhile, my detractors accuse me of finding myself excessively unique and reminding them of it often. Feel my frustration: I'm trying to tell people, "you're not alone, I feel ___, too"...and that is the polar opposite of "look at me, I'm so different from the rest of you!". It's exhausting to be required to explain oneself, constantly, to always have the worst intentions assigned to my best.
Contemplating motive is a depressing exercise. One of the people who persists with this wholly unnecessary drama explains his defensive, anti-Christian attitude by recalling that as a child, he was isolated and tormented by his Christian classmates for being Hindu. The irony is, so was I. That's what makes the target on my ass that much more undeserved. All Christians are not Hindu-bashing elitist pricks, but apparently if some of us are, the rest of us will suffer for it.
/end vent