One of my snappy retorts to commenters here when they lose connection to reality is that Reddit called and wants them back. This, of course, is a swipe at Reddit, a website built of insular communities that tend to have a specific issue focus.

It was once the paradigm of the internet, the wild west, self-policing its content and members. Cross a line, such as dox (reveal the identity of) another commenter and be banned. Moderators were chosen from its more involved and respected members. While some of this has changed, as Reddit became touchy-feely over purported misogyny and subjects that gave some people the willies (often with good cause, but that’s just my sensibilities), it still provides a forum for like-minded folks to discuss matters of interest.

This is good. And terrible. And helpful in a damning sort of way.

At a subreddit called “Bad Cop, No Donut,” a mod who went by the handle FritzMuffKnuckle started having some doubts. He reached out to me. He had an issue with a poster there, a guy who said he was a lawyer, who appeared to be knowledgeable about the law, and who was schooling others about the “meaning” of stories posted. He asked me whether this commenter was for real, knew what he was talking about.  

As it happened, I knew who the person was. He was a lawyer, but not a criminal defense lawyer. He was very interested in criminal law, but lacked any knowledge or experience in it. And he had an ax to grind, for reasons I didn’t know, that compelled him to manufacture a pseudo-legal “explanation” for why every cop was evil, every situation violated the Constitution, every post represented a travesty of injustice. He lorded his lawyer-license over the other commenters and, as happens in small, insular communities, became the authoritative voice of the law.

There was a problem, of course. Most of what he wrote was wrong. Some was utterly idiotic. None was entirely accurate. And yet, the community crowned the one-eyed lawyer king.

Fritz and I became friendly, and Fritz would send me links daily. Sometimes, many times a day. And he would take SJ posts and put them up on BCND. That would cause people in the BCND community to stray to SJ, and they began commenting here. Eventually, the one-eyed lawyer did too, pontificating as he had on Reddit. He was not warmly received here. In fact, most of the commenters from BCND found SJ inhospitable.

Eventually, I asked Fritz to stop linking SJ posts at BCND. Most blawgers appreciated the links, as it brought eyeballs. I took a different view. I wanted eyeballs, sure, but only the ones that, in my view, contributed to interesting and illuminating thought. Wild-eyed ignorant rants of the sort that predominated on BCND were neither desired nor appreciated. At Reddit, such stupidity was applauded and validated. Here, not so much.

Fritz eventually moved on to other interests, and I haven’t heard from him in a couple years. That’s one of the weird things about the internet. People come. People go. People are suddenly in your face out of nowhere, and then they disappear. Poof. No clue why. I sometimes wonder if they’re okay, if perhaps they got cancer or were in a car accident. Sometimes, I ask and find out. Other times, I never hear back.

There is a subreddit, r/lawyers, which is supposed to be for us lawyers to talk amongst ourselves. One of the things you see when you have/run a blog is incoming links. This tells you that a post has been linked elsewhere, and people are being sent to your post to read. Awesome, right?

I saw an incoming link from r/lawyers* at Fault Lines a couple days ago, with almost 100 hits, so I decided to take a look and see what was happening. It made me cringe.  The comments bore a passing resemblance to the language of lawyers, even the occasional case citation, but it had the depth of a puddle. Lawyers, I supposed, who didn’t understand what they were talking about, but had plenty to say.

There was a weird tendency for someone to take a wrong turn from the path, head off in some other direction, and others would follow. They would question the post based on these tangents, maybe even attack the writer for not dealing with whatever tangential issue popped into someone’s head. And it would all happen in the insular community of lawyers at r/lawyers, where the only answers to their questions came from inside the group. It reminded me of asking a group of first graders to explain quantum mechanics.

For a brief moment, there was an urge to jump into the fray, to explain where they made a wrong turn, to answer their questions, to address their complaints. For the most part, these didn’t require complicated responses, as the s/law comments were fairly simplistic and went astray in obvious ways.  But then, I realized that they weren’t seeking answers or explanations, but just enjoying some kibitzing within their own community.

Why? If they wanted to know what a writer was thinking, was trying to say, they would ask the writer rather than ask their pals in a subreddit.  When people only talk among themselves, it’s because they don’t want to learn, they don’t want to know. They want to talk.

Fritz hasn’t been heard from in a couple years. I’ve reached out to him, but no response. The last time I heard from him, he told me he had to go underground, thanked me for my help and friendship, but told me it was unlikely we would talk again. His name is still listed as a mod at Bad Cop, No Donut, but he hasn’t been there either. He disappeared.

If Fritz reads this, I hope he knows that I learned from him as much as he learned from me. To the extent I can exert any control over information on the internets, it’s limited to here. There may be subreddits for lawyers, but they aren’t interested in what an old lawyer has to say. It’s just a bunch of people shooting the shit, lying to each other, enjoying the camaraderie of the community that developed. I wish them well, and it’s just as well that they have a place like r/lawyers to hang out, where the one-eyed lawyers can be kings.

*There is also a subreddit, r/law, which supposedly exists so that lawyers and non-lawyers can discuss the law. It is, well, shallow, which reflects far more on the laziness and superficial grasp of lawyers who post at reddit than anyone else.