An Annoyance of Mine

I have been thinking of something that annoys me. It's not a recent thing. Or rather, there hasn't been anything recent to spark this. It's just something that's been in and out of my head pretty much since I started blogging here. Which is: I get annoyed when people I like, often bloggers themselves, say something like "Don't you wish [this fan] would put that kind of energy into something productive?"

I mean, for one thing, it's hypocritical. We're BLOGGERS. COMIC bloggers. And one of the prerequisites for being a comic blogger, I believe, is the capacity to vent our spleens on figurative paper on command about things that don't matter. I can't think of a single blogger who hasn't done this at some point or another. The guy who'll write three paragraphs on how Wolverine could take out Batman in a fight has no right to tell someone ranting about fishnet stockings that they're taking the hobby too seriously or putting too much energy into it.

Or, okay, they have the right to say it. But they're still full of shit.

It's one thing to say "You're wrong, and this is why..." than it is to say "Can't you put your energy into something more productive?" The latter is just plain rude. And it doesn't matter if the other person is a flipping idiot, you've lost any argument right there.

For another thing, not a single one of us really knows what's going on in another person's life. Even those of you that I've met or hung out with personally...I don't know everything you do every day, and likewise you don't know everything I do. We don't know that the girl ranting about how some creator or another's incompetence in 1986 led to the downfall of some character isn't also putting that energy into some real world causes as well. Blogging and commenting do not make up the totality of a person's life.

For a third, it's kind of ignoring the fact that blogs (and comment sections of blogs) are pretty much MADE for people to rant, bitch, or blow off steam. And while, I admit, I've been annoyed enough by a few long essayed comment-based rants/discussions that I felt were tiresome or counter-productive enough to whack my comment policy on people, I also understand that it's the opposite side of having a subject that we feel so strongly about.

When you love something, you have strong emotions about it. When you have strong emotions, sometimes you just have to let fly with them. There's nothing wrong with that, and in fact, there's everything right about it. It's a good thing to care about your hobbies. And it's a good thing to get excited about them. It's fine to put time and effort into them and to be able to remember details and talk about them. And provided you're not letting it interfere with living a healthy, happy life otherwise, it's perfectly fine to get angry/upset about them too.

Let's not belittle each other for indulging our passion. It's something we all do. It's something we like to do. And there's no reason to mock one another for doing so.

Of course mocking someone because they're WRONG, well, that's perfectly reasonable. :-P