Althouse: "Your most recent post is idiotic."

February 14, 2016

"Your most recent post is idiotic."

In the email some time in the last few days.

30 comments:

mezzrow said...: (suggested response)

And some wonder how I find the idiots...

Thanks for the feedback!; 2/14/16, 8:28 AM
David Begley said...: That email is idiotic.

Don't worry about it. It's the Internet, Ann.; 2/14/16, 8:33 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: Haiku is 5 syllables / 7 syllables / 5 syllables.

"Your most recent post" would function adequately as a first line.

"is idiotic" is 2 syllables short of the necessary 7 for line two.

And there is no third line at all.

Who is the Idiot now?

I am Laslo.; 2/14/16, 8:44 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: Haiku for Althouse:

Thoughts made into words
Words made of zeroes and ones
Cruelly Neutral.

I am Laslo.; 2/14/16, 8:49 AM
Phil 314 said...: Was it Trump?; 2/14/16, 8:49 AM
rhhardin said...: TO HELL WITH YOU STOP OFFENSIVE LETTER FOLLOWS; 2/14/16, 8:56 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Don't worry about it."

Don't worry, I don't worry about it. I think it's funny that someone would email me to say just that. Why not comment? Why email? It's so pathetic to write to someone to say, especially, that their last post is idiotic. Such isolated disapproval.

Amusingly the post the man found idiotic poked some fun around Marco Rubio, and the email had a link to follow him on Twitter. I clicked out of curiosity and saw a big banner with a smiling face of Marco Rubio and the words "I'm with Rubio."; 2/14/16, 8:58 AM
Bob Ellison said...: Well, it was rather ignorant.; 2/14/16, 9:01 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: An idea: make haikus using only Althouse tags

Fleeting expletives
Religion and Government
Insect politics

I am Laslo.; 2/14/16, 9:03 AM
David said...: Kind of a rolling commentary, wasn't it? Saves the commenter the trouble of sending more emails, and you the trouble of reading them.; 2/14/16, 9:08 AM
Bob Ellison said...: The methods of one-to-one and one-to-many communication change quickly. I couldn't fault a guy for calling me an idiot over email or in a comment. It's just the way it goes. But it pays to think about the medium of communication that you are using. For example, in an email, he probably wanted to keep his comment private, between you and him. And now you have made it public. That's a bit of a violation of the means of communication.; 2/14/16, 9:10 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: food as medicine
children reading non-fiction
F. Scott Fitzgerald

I am Laslo.; 2/14/16, 9:19 AM
Meade said...: "For example, in an email, he probably wanted to keep his comment private, between you and him. And now you have made it public. That's a bit of a violation of the means of communication."

It's not as if her IP address or server or name has been published.

*Hillary*; 2/14/16, 9:30 AM
Anonymous said...: It was probably a colleague. Tell them you'll take it up with them in the faculty lounge.; 2/14/16, 9:35 AM
Triangle Man said...: the faculty lounge

Is there a faculty lounge at UW? How decadent!; 2/14/16, 9:46 AM
traditionalguy said...: It's The Althouse Blog, Jake.

Bold impetuosity on a private email???; 2/14/16, 9:49 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: Charming bad logic
Diversity politics
Obama eats dog

I am Laslo.; 2/14/16, 9:51 AM
MaxedOutMama said...: Nothing to say why the post was idiotic?

More amusing than anything else!!! I bet you laughed.

Why not simply post a comment to that effect? You wouldn't delete it.; 2/14/16, 9:54 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: gender difference
I'm tired of saying it
genitalia

I am Laslo.; 2/14/16, 10:05 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: race and pop culture
political correctness
douche-iness douchebags

I am Laslo.; 2/14/16, 10:11 AM
Oso Negro said...: Professor, I think you have long since earned the Blogger Merit Badge for toleration of dissent and disagreement, with special merit for tolerating rudeness. Shouting Thomas' posts alone make me wonder what it takes to cross your lines.; 2/14/16, 10:20 AM
BrianE said...: So-- we're supposed to guess which post?

I nominate Rubio and the pussy speech. It was rather tortured logic.

It's difficult to shield our children from the perverse crudity of what currently passes for culture, when it spills over to table talk, it's worthy of condemnation. Think Bill Clinton and the blowjob speech. Suddenly fellatio is no longer sex to a generation of kids.

Things like that.

But it's not even that. Your derivation of pussy as relating to cats was sufficiently exposed and deserves a big red wrong tag plastered across that thought.; 2/14/16, 12:18 PM
FullMoon said...: AA is one tough cookie, and classy. She could publish the person's email address and allowed the old fashioned chivalrous crazies among us to track him down and beat him to a bloody pulp. Referenced email aside, she leaves herself open to anonymous attack from any student and/or Madison crazy via comments here. Hell, she walks among them!

Shouting Thomas can be interesting when rational.
There is a particular word that will get your comment deleted. A variation of "Negro"; 2/14/16, 12:23 PM
Anonymous said...: AA: Don't worry, I don't worry about it. I think it's funny that someone would email me to say just that. Why not comment? Why email?

That's what I assumed. It's so pompous!

People post variants of "AA, that post was idiotic" here all the time, and I've yet to see you care.

Maybe this person thought that his (her?) thinking that your post was idiotic was too vital a matter (for you!) to just be left in the stream of comments? After all, you might overlook it there, and remain unchastened and unedified.; 2/14/16, 1:03 PM
jg said...: timeless; 2/14/16, 2:50 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "People post variants of "AA, that post was idiotic" here all the time, and I've yet to see you care."

If I were vulnerable about getting called stupid, it would wreck my writing. I'd have to write in a way that you wouldn't want to read. And it would bore me so much I wouldn't want to write it anyway. The lack of this particular vulnerability is my superpower.; 2/14/16, 3:21 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: If you reply quickly enough to that sort of email, you can send, "Your most recent email is lame."; 2/14/16, 3:34 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: So Althouse Haiku was a non-starter.

Whimsy is a relative thing.

I am Laslo.; 2/14/16, 7:04 PM
wildswan said...: To Shouting Thomas
Your most recent comment is calm

To Lazlo
Your most recent comment is shampoo

To ARM
Your most recent comment is devoid; 2/14/16, 7:58 PM
Static Ping said...: "Is idiotic"
Welcome to the Internet
We're all dumb here; 2/14/16, 8:36 PM