The votes, both in the comments section and on Facebook, are overwhelmingly in favor of my deleting our friend Marty’s comments and blocking him altogether.
Following are some of the Facebook responses.
My girl Erika: i think it’s crass and gross, both of which are fine in some circumstances (namely, when you know someone well and feel mutually comfortable making crass and gross comments together) . . . but not here. with this. i say you block him, like, forever. some random dude doesn’t get to freely, on a whim, make my friend feel uncomfortable.
I agree, definitely, with the first part, the part about knowing someone and feeling mutually comfortable being crass and gross. Excellent point, and thanks to her for articulating that distinction.
BUT this is the internet. I’m choosing to put my stuff out there for the world to see—and comment on. It’s Marty’s right to read and respond and, indeed, freely, on a whim, make me feel uncomfortable.
My BOYFRIEND added: Can you mark those comments as spam? Akismet may be able to learn that his comments are spam and block him based on the username alone. Otherwise, I can go through your server logs this weekend and see if we can’t figure out which IP to blacklist. pwnd.
And his IT compadre added: You might consider blocking the MAC address too while you’re at it.
…which are total fix-it answers, but don’t address my question of whether I should delete/block The Maggot. You guys are such guys! “Here, lemme fix it fer ya!” Ha ha. (For the record, I don’t know what a MAC address is.)
From my friend Sam: yah, I agree. The maggot must go.
And my homeboy from elementary school: The Great… and Powerful… Avidbruxist… has spoken… (while fumbling to find the hole in your curtain to duck into)…I say bounce him….
Everybody in the comments section voted ‘bounce’ too.
And Deborah made this point: Let me put it this way: if Marty were leaving these messages on your phone, wouldn’t you have him blocked? If he were walking past your house all the time, wouldn’t you shut and lock the door? Why let someone abuse you and your friends just because you’re too nice to say ADIOS ASSHOLE!
Am I (or are we) being abused? I don’t know. Margo said she’s always been uncomfortable with his comments, so maybe it is abuse.
In any case, I’m definitely not “too nice” to tell him to fuck off. I just—
Marty, is there anything you’d like to say? And I don’t mean that in the now-is-when-you-say-you’re-sorry way. I mean, really, I’m interested. What was the point of that last comment? To be funny? To shock? To make me all squirmy?
If it wasn’t to make me uncomfortable, does the fact that it did change anything for you?