Twitter Bares the Soul
One of the cool things about twitter is its honesty. While a blog post is often meticulously shaped to present a desired image a comment sent to twitter is more likely to be an unedited view of the writer’s opinions.
In a recent post on scripting.com Dave Winer wrote:
To equate geography with intellect is as wrong as to equate it with race, ethnicity, gender or age.
Later on twitter, however, Winer goes on one of his nonsensical rants:
I have no relatives in Pennsylvania, and I don’t care what they think about guns, bibles and their bigotries don’t interest me. (link)
I live in California, and I’m elitist, and dammit, I’m proud of it. (link)
Some on twitter were offended and spoke out against Winer’s bigotry. They will learn, as I have, to better pick their battles. Born and raised in the South, I’ve seen my share of bigotry. Too many times I’ve wasted energy fighting it; speaking out against it. Discussion is only worthwhile if change is possible; if the participants are open-minded and capable of listening to opposing views.
Dave Winer is a bitter old man with outdated ideas; in the big picture, irrelevant. His ignorance, thankfully, will pass on when he does*.
*Although in fairness I never know if Winer believes what he writes or is just trolling for attention.
For more entertainment don’t miss Winer’s hatred of all religion.
And yes, I find Dave Winer entertaining and harmless. What I find troubling is the number of people who would follow a guy that recently said:
Oh geez, Obama and Clinton on the same stage. I was kind of hoping Obama would spit on her.
Though I have no doubt many follow him because they can’t tear themselves away from a train wreck. He’s the crazy uncle the kids wind up to hear him blabber.
