When the grit hits the fan...

So t'other day in my post on not being a slave cos of the terrible sandals (there are other downsides too) where I linked to the lovely list of advice that authors should stop giving others here I mentioned I particularly liked anti-advice number 4 (Watch What You Say on the Internet). Honestly folks there are two reasons I can think of why it doesn't matter. One is that no one is listening/reading/watching in the first place (sorry but this does happen - if a tree falls in the forest etc...etc...etc...) and the second is that you don't have to say anything indecent, illicit, objectionable, questionable, or inflammatory for people to decide they dislike you and hurl great steaming gobs of vitriol your way. So whatever you say, they are capable of saying much, much, worse and not being punished or called out for it. I read this post here at an Awfully Big Blog Adventure with increasing horror. I'd already checked out Nicola Morgan's post here on the copyright furore over The Tobermory Cat (which was very interesting and a bit of an education in copyright and trademarking), but I was astounded that such things as hate blogs existed. Bullies are everywhere and I am shocked at the amount of vile, spleen and outright hatred they are full of. Scary, scary (and sad) stuff. Being successful and/or famous seems to be the main reason people become targets (well that'll keep me safe then won't it). Whatever happened to the concept of saying nothing at all if you couldn't think of something nice to say? I guess my point is, there's an extra layer to that bit of advice in number 4. As long as you are being yourself on the internet you will be able to defend, justify or apologize with sincerity for your actions when the grit hits the fan. That's all you can do. People can form crazy batshit opinions about you whether you do or say anything bad or not. You can't protect yourself by being squeaky clean and conservative so best to stick with your own truths and values and know that you can live with yourself no matter what happens.