From time to time I respond to emails so that you may enjoy, as I do, the wonderful, often enlightening, occasionally thrilling, usually insulting, things people have to say to me.  Why should I suffer alone?

Since you’ve asked a two-part question, I’ll give you a two-part answer.  The reason he’s so popular is that Crazy Joe appeals to the base prejudice and anger of the masses.  It doesn’t make you a bad person.  Well, yes it does, but it doesn’t make you special.

As to part two of your question, wrong.  A federal grand jury has been convened to consider “accusations that Arpaio has abused his law enforcement power with criminal investigations of critics and political foes.”  In response, Crazy Joe “denied [that he had] knowledge.”  Finally, a statement we can all agree with.

You’re right, but forgive me for taking your points out of order.  I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you have to say.  Why in the world would I follow you?  I have no idea why people follow me, except that some of them think there’s an outside chance that I will watch them on their dorm cam or might be suddenly overcome with a need for search engine optimization.  As for the rest of them, I’m befuddled.

Some people believe that there’s an obligation to follow back anyone who follows you.  I don’t.  In fact, I don’t think there’s any obligation involved in twitter at all.  A lot of really stupid stuff has developed around twitter, ranging form the cutsie language, right tweeples, to the forced friendliness with people you don’t know who write insipid twits.  I’ve been called bad names by people because I prefer the word “twit” to “tweet”.  What brutally empty life do these people lead to find this to be a problem?  Are people who care about how many followers they have any better?

And you, my erstwhile follower, are hurt that I have not shown you twitter-love (twove?) by following you back.  I have enough on my plate reading the twits of the people I actually know and already follow, and I can’t stand the noise whenever a new twit comes along.  If you’ve got something to twit to me, you’re welcome to send it directly.  But I have no plans on following anyone else unless I absolutely must, no matter how many times you follow/unfollow me.  If it makes you feel any better, I’ve never twitted anything worth reading anyway, so it’s not like you missed anything.

Mean and nasty?  Tannebaum?  Are you sure you’ve got the right guy?  Carolyn Elefant interviewed Brian at length about his efforts to serve his fellow lawyer.  She called him, “even handed, and thoughtful. Even compassionate.”  This makes Tannebaum the criminal defense lawyer equivalent of Mother Teresa (a particularly low threshold with the qualifier).  

Most lawyers online feel compelled to be nice so that people will like them.  Being “liked” is critically important, according to marketers, if you want to get business, and that’s the purpose of most lawyers online, getting business.  Being nice, however, means that lawyers suspend the normal, critical scrutiny, being far more concerned that others perceive them as good guys than who these purported gurus, the ones who seem to have all the followers, all the answers, all the friends,  

Brian Tannebaum does what he does for himself and the rest of us.  He looks.  He checks.  And, unfortunately, he finds a pervasive thread through these one-time lawyers cum social media gurus and marketers of far more spin than honesty.  By sacrificing his own “nice guy” persona in favor of a little accuracy and transparency, Tannebaum allows you to go one trying to play friend to everyone, yet still learn who is lying through their teeth. 

If anything, you owe Tannebaum a huge debt of gratitude for doing the dirty work that you avoid at all costs. You should send him a bottle of wine.  He prefers the type with screw-off tops. And nothing over $10.

Mr. Greenfield,

You are cordially invited to attend The Commonwealth Regional Law Conference 2010, which will focus on “21st Century Lawyer: Present Challenges & Future Skill.”  The conference will be held in Abuja, Nigeria.  Would you like us to make reservations for you?

No.