This is sort of Day 37.2 or 38.1, depending on how you look at it. I mostly just want to focus on how the bat is not in my house now. There’s more business there, like looking into getting a new lair perhaps (which is a thought that horrifies me because of all such a step would entail). Let’s not talk about that now, though.

It’s been a tumultuous week for everyone, I think. The world got a good deal darker this past Monday with Robin Williams’ passing, that’s for certain. Most people I know seem to be running into their own problems. I just had a goddamn bat in my house, among other things.

My focus here is that every single day everyone is fighting their own battles, and every day there seems to be at least one asshole who is actively trying to make someone else’s life more difficult. Let it be known I was really on the fence about this post, but I feel like it’s something that needs to be said. 

Day 37.2/38.1 – Live not the troll life

I’m fully aware this could wind up being my equivalent to the “leave Britney (Spears) alone” video, but that’s not really the full scope of this post anyway. Thanks to the internet, I found out about how people are apparently monstrous enough to have contacted Zelda Williams with horrible images of, and comments regarding, her father. What the actual hell, people? There’s no real good excuse for this sort of behavior at all, ever.

A while back, I posted about my personal philosophies (which are to spread awesome and not be an asshole). Those aren’t very difficult things to accomplish. I promise. I speak as someone who is a mostly-reformed asshole. Let me clarify: I joke around with people, but all in good fun. I may sometimes offend, but I always make it a point to not cross any lines intentionally. This goes back to the mentality that everyone is fighting their own battles on a daily basis. Why add to those? It’s why it vexes me that people think it’s okay to say shit like telling a person “kill yourself”. What an absolutely and truly goddamn monstrous thing to ever even think about doing, much less actually doing.

Life’s honestly far too short for shit like this. I realize this is wishful thinking, but why not use the internet as a means of spreading things we’re all passionate about, staying informed, and just communicating with one another? Think of all the barriers that could be torn down if people online weren’t so eager to act like great big bags of shit towards their fellow human beings.

In regards to Zelda Williams: it’s ridiculous that she had to delete her online presence on Twitter and Instagram. Let’s consider for a moment that she’s actually another person, who has a life beyond people watching everything she does. I’m aware, yes, that celebrity results in a greater level of being in the public eye. That doesn’t  excuse the actions of the people who chose to harass her in a horrible time for her and her family, nor does it mean that her posts should be used as some sort of weird, twisted platform for being a bunch of morally bankrupt assclowns. Any celebrity is another human being, just like the rest of us, fighting their own battles each day. I’m not tagging her, or any of her family, in this post out of respect and because that feels tacky. My point remains: who the actual hell thinks there is anything okay about being shitty to another person, especially someone who just lost a loved one?

This is coming from someone who dealt with bullying for years and years, and it was awful. It took me to dark places, and is probably a contributing factor in why I had to seek out therapy. I’m okay with admitting that, because I consider myself fortunate to have the support system that I have. My family is wonderful, and my friends are terrific as well. Not everyone is so lucky, however, and that’s a big part of why I feel like more people should strive to help one another. Spread awesome. Help make another person’s day a little less awful. I’m also not sorry if this seems soapboxy, because this sort of shit shouldn’t be happening. I, like many others, still deal with people who elect to be complete jackasses, and it’s truly frustrating.

We all have our fair, and sometimes far more than fair, share of difficulties in life, so how about we all take a step back, think, and reconsider some of the generally awful things we do under the mask of internet anonymity. Tomorrow/today’s post will be related (it’s about some ways I’ve found are helpful for being your own champion, essentially). End tirade.

Sixty-two days remaining.