I'm A Hater

TOO SUBTLE FOR MY OWN GOOD

The other day I happened to post a comment on another blog that I enjoy visiting (a way more popular and famous one than this, naturally) -- a comment that satirized another, prior commenter for his obvious bigotry and special pleading.

My mistake was putting it in the form of a sarcastic faux-agreement. Those of you who have read some of my older posts here may have noticed that even when I'm joking I tend to still wear the straight man's hat; I flattered myself that my comment was amusing and rather witty, but I guess the humor was a little too dry -- the blog owner clearly took my comment at face value and thought I was really agreeing with the hate-poster. So of course I needed to clarify my position, so as not to go down in internet history as a hater myself.

It so happened that in the meantime the jerk commenter had put up another diatribe in the same vein (I think he also must have thought I was really agreeing with him, and was encouraged thereby... oy), so by way of an explanation I posted a second comment twitting him again, and made sure that this time the sarcasm was a little more obvious.

Or so I thought -- whaddayaknow, apparently I was still being too subtle -- or perhaps the initial misunderstanding had so tainted the blog owner's impression of me that it was now poisoning his interpretation of everything I said, because his reaction was even more openly negative.

(EDIT: For those that are curious, what I had said at this point was "...That is why... if we happen to witness a crime in progress, we never report it to the police unless that crime is much worse than any that we ourselves have committed. That way, there is no risk of losing face"; at which the blog owner retorted "That is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard"; Looking back, I find it amazing the man didn't realize I was only joking; but as I said, once having decided I was a rat jerk, he was now unable to consider my remarks in an unprejudiced manner -- see how important it is to create a positive first impression?)

So, somewhat desperately, I posted an explanation (a literal one this time) of what I really meant by my earlier remarks (I hate having to explain a joke -- but whaddayagonnado), and to my relief, this time he got the message, responding with a good-natured apology and an admission that I had 'got him' -- whew!^ ^ Not that I set out deliberately to say 'Punk'd!' in the first place...

Oh well, it's not like this is the first time my mouth got me in trouble...