As a result of my job with Qvisory I traffic through a lot of blogs. I read the posts, read the comments, write comments of my own, and just generally roll around in the great dog-pile that is the blogosphere.

One of the funniest things I see (and I see it a lot) is when people mistake the anonymity of the Internet as a license to be a complete jerk. I notice this a lot on mom blogs, where moms tear each other apart for perceived injustices or mistakes. I’ve never understood the point of that because, since these women neither know nor care what these strangers think of their parenting skills, the advice generally goes nowhere. As I’ve made my stance on unsolicited advice rather clear, I’ll leave it at that.

I came across an interesting blog post today and one of the comments nearly made me choke on my Cheerios. It was a prime example of how the Internet helped someone completely lose touch with reality.

This woman called the blog author all sorts of names, told her she thought she probably overpaid for something and had therefore made an uneducated decision, and then offered her services as a mortgage broker. I’m not certain, but something tells me that woman won’t be getting a call back.

I also came across another gem this morning, this one from a commenter who is the epitome of the soapbox speaker who is speaking into the wrong end of the bullhorn. The post is about gender stereotypes and how men and women get perceived differently than men.

This woman responded with the especial vitriol usually found in feminists who have reason to hate the men-folk. Her response went something like this:

“Even in this day and age, women are expected to be pure and brainless. I am an activist who has been fighting for women for the Fair Pay Act! One of my senators inthe state in which I live, and she’s a woman voted against it. Has she been paid off to vote against it or is she one of those who believes in “Wives, submit to your husbands” ideology? Even in 2008, you would think our society has evolved. It seems people are going backwards insteadd of forward. He’s childless? We know who gets stuck taking care of the brat and it’s not him. Men are just trying to suck the life out of us while they claim they are too tired. Oh that’s okay! I know sh will cook dinner as office work is easier than physical work. I believe that we are still looking for our voice in this present time. It’s there and up front. We have to make our voices louder ladies!!”

In my mind, the only thing she convinced me to do was avoid feminists. I’d like to think her motives were good but they really got lost in translation. I don’t think anyone is served by calling children brats and stating that men are trying to suck the life out of us all.

Everyone knows, if you’re trying to convince people to change, you probably shouldn’t accuse them of life-sucking. She’s not trying to convince women to change their perceptions, she’s trying to convince men and no man I know was ever persuaded after a speech like that.

I could be wrong, though. Was anyone rallied by her comment?