Meta: Why I’m Such a Bitch

You know, comments are simultaneously the best and the worst thing about blogging. The immediate feedback is gratifying, often educational, and (at least around here) usually fun. I love getting to “know” the regular readers of the blog who participate (though I don’t forget about you lurkers, either), and I’ve even developed a few real-life [...]

Troll logic

Hey all, I just wanted to share this stunning new information that I learned from reading the moderation queue:
The reason that obesity is equated with unhealthy is because except for a few rare cases, people who are obese are more unhealthy than normal weight people
Did you hear that? The reason people think obesity is unhealthy [...]

Hostility

The elevators in my building, like all elevators everywhere, have a little plaque saying “Capacity 2600 lbs.” The other day, I noticed that in the far lefthand elevator, someone had scratched this out and written “PIGGY MOO.”
I can’t really imagine what was going on here. Did they think 2600 pounds was the weight [...]

QOTD: Troll Psychology

It’s not about fat, but this quote from my fave advice columnist Carolyn Hax’s live online chat is just startlingly accurate. Especially on a week when the whole fatosphere has been seeing increased troll activity (including just oodles of hate speech here that you guys thankfully never have to see), I think it’s worth [...]

I am Spartacus!

Reader Arashi-san alerted us in comments that an astute and worthy opponent had finally unearthed the dark secret of this blog:
Kate, I was actually mistaken for you today while engaged in an argument…!
I took it as a complement, though what the commenter actually said to me was, “Arashi-san, We know you are that Kate Harding [...]

Douchehoundz!!! Special Savage Edition

Please enjoy the first three (and so far, only) trolls who arrived here via the Slog.
1) Author : Demonchild
Comment:
[Edited to add: Several people have pointed out that everything in the following comment -- which I've quoted verbatim as it came to my inbox -- is taken from the recent Violent Acres post about Joy [...]

Stop me if you’ve heard this one

We had a brief douchehound visit yesterday from a fellow whose incisive commentary on the Obligatory Beauty post amounted to “hur hur, British people have bad teeth.” When called on the fact that this was a) stupid and b) kind of exactly what we were railing against, he took a familiar stance: “Oh, you [...]

Everyone’s an expert, and nobody’s right

In this week’s column, Dan Savage revealed that his infamous recent advice to a man who was turned off by his wife’s fat was totally not his fault, dude. It turns out he was throwing a passive-aggressive little hissy about readers criticizing his advice to a gay man in the same situation:
Readers—mostly female readers—were [...]

Douchehound of the Day

So, what with the recent influx of trolls, I turned on the feature that sends comments to moderation if the poster hasn’t had an approved comment before. Now, all the new trolls go straight to my inbox, where their words usually die an unremarkable death. (Pleasant newbies go there, too, so I apologize if it [...]

And Now We’re a Threat to National Security

So, Al’s got this friend who reads the blog but doesn’t comment, because when he did comment here, I tended to yell at him a lot. I like him, and he’s ridiculously smart, but he’s one of those guys who enjoys arguing for the sake of it — or, more specifically, for the sake of [...]