6/15/2007 8:51 PM Bob wrote:
Why not point fingers at the fat parole violator. Maybe she should take better care of her fat self and her fat family. Did you see those fatties on TV?

This comment was left by somebody who gave only the name “Bob” in reaction to my story of the execution of Edith Rodriguez.  My first reaction was to delete the comment.  Since this is my blawg, I can do that.  But that smelled of censorship, and that cuts against my grain.  My next thought was to respond to it.  But what exactly is the right response to a comment like this?  Do I ridicule Bob for the suggestion that fat people are unworthy of living?  Do I tell him what a truly sick person he is?

I decided to sleep on it and take another look in the morning.  So here it is, morning, and the comment is as ugly and ignorant as it was last night.  Ah, there’s nothing like the anonymity of the internet to let the true ugliness come out.

And then it came to me.  This comment is important.  It is important that people who read this blawg know that there are people out there who actually think this way.  That there are people who would actually put something like this in writing.  Because we know nothing more about “Bob”, no one will ever be able to tell who, exactly, this Bob is, and he will never be held accountable for this comment.  The anonymity of the internet is the most potent truth serum there is.  Bob has let out his deepest, darkest prejudice and hatred, something I doubt he would do if he was standing face to face with another person.  But online, he can say it straight out and chuckle about it afterward.  “Ha!  I sure told them fatties!”

I post Bob’s comment here as demonstrable evidence that people like Bob exist.  There is no voir dire question that will elicit this response, showing the depth of his anger and ignorance and prejudice.  But fair minded people, even those who tend to disagree politically, have trouble believing that people like this really exist.  Well friends, Bob exists and he’s walking amongst us right now.  Never forget it.