Kate Harding's readership is mainly made up of overweight people, so most of her feedback on this post was positive. But as happens with many feedback sections, the flame wars increase in intensity the further down you scroll, as (presumably thin) people weigh in against the notion that "feel good" rhetoric is a substitute for improving one's physical health. It reminded us of this equally contentious feedback in a recent New York Times article.
Anyone who's used Craiglist for sex (ahem) has seen that, at least in the world of Casual Encounters, being highly specific about your racial and ethnic preferences is a-okay. A blog post on Racialicious takes the debate out of the lonely, dimly lit apartment and into the blogosphere, where, as usual, everyone has a strong opinion.
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38. "STD All-Stars" Oct '07
Hooksexup tried to get an interview with this girl during the fallout from her blog, but she never responded to our request. Obviously she expected a more supportive outpouring when she anonymously posted the name and photo of the guy who she thinks gave her herpes during a one-night stand. Instead, everyone from Gawker on down railed against her stupid self-victimization. The original blog, STD All-Stars, is sadly no more, but these posts about it give you a glimpse of her attempted martyrdom.
37. "Which terrorists support which Democratic presidential candidate?" 4/22/08
Don't worry, we won't make you go to Michelle Malkin's website. Suffice it to say, this post links Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to every unsavory organization from the Weather Underground to Hamas — with copious, unimpeachable hard evidence, of course.
36. "How the Angelina Jolie Birth Rumor Got Started: Blame the Blogs" 6/5/08
"Breaking! Angelina and Brad had their twins!" This was the news that arrived on May 26 from famousbabesblog.blogspot.com, a source deemed credible enough to send the fake news swirling through the blogosphere in minutes, straight on up to Entertainment Tonight, which publicized the announcement without so much as a factcheck. The show then refused to admit it was wrong (despite the fact that Jolie was still visibly pregnant), until finally, clumsily, fessing up. The original blog post is lost to us forever, but Jossip has a good rundown of how one schmo's homemade blog post fooled an entire scoop-hungry "news" cycle and made ET look completely incompetent.
35. "The Top 100 Guitarists According to Rolling Stone" 8/28/03
Want to make the whole world despise you? Make a "Top 100" list (yes, we see the irony — shush) about the best guitar players who ever lived, and toss it to the hungry wolves who comprise the Rolling Stone readership. This blog post isn't even the original RS post. It's only a link to it. And it still managed to garner over 3,300 comments, virtually all of them screaming for blood. From "This is bullshit. Fuck this sucks," to "WHAT THE FUCK IS JOHN FRUSCIANTE DOING ON THAT LIST!!!!!!" The feedback thread has been getting new comments for five straight years; the most recent was posted just last week, summing it up nicely: "This list is bloody fucked up."
34. "A picture is worth a thousand posts" 6/26/07
Rosie, Rosie, Rosie. You must have known this wasn't going to go over well. Trying to make a point about gun control by draping your daughter in bullets just gets people . . . well, confused, as at least one commenter put it: "Not sure of the 'message' you are trying to send with that pic of Viv, but I guarantee many are not going to get it . . . what are u thinking?"
33. "Redbook Shatters Our Faith In, Well, Not Publishing, But Maybe God" 7/16/07
Jezebel brilliantly catches Redbook red-handed, going crazy with the Photoshop. In this post, they show us step-by-step how the magazine glossied up Faith Hill, to the point she looked nothing like her original photo, which they somehow got ahold of. It outraged everyone from Women's Voices for Change to TMZ.
32. "'Cross in the Dirt' story stolen from Solzhenitsyn" 8/17/08
Did John McCain lie about one of the most notable anecdotes from his time as a POW? This post from the liberal political blog Daily Kos indicates that he did. If this news, published just a couple weeks ago, gains traction, it could amount to a Sarah Palin-sized cannonball into the already roiling waters of this campaign season.
31. "Confessions: The Meanest Thing Gizmodo Did at CES" 1/10/08
With this prank, Gizmodo pissed off a lot of computer nerds, not to mention companies that paid big money to present at CES only to see their TV screens go black during their exhibition. The debate over whether Gizmodo's prank was funny or just mean — since it embarrassed the worker bees more than the suits — is a rare instance of compassion in a blog feedback section.
40. "Don't You Realize Fat Is Unhealthy?" 6/20/07
39. "Craigslist Personals: Desperately Seeking Diversity Training" 5/17/07
37. "Which terrorists support which Democratic presidential candidate?" 4/22/08
36. "How the Angelina Jolie Birth Rumor Got Started: Blame the Blogs" 6/5/08
35. "The Top 100 Guitarists According to Rolling Stone" 8/28/03
34. "A picture is worth a thousand posts" 6/26/07
33. "Redbook Shatters Our Faith In, Well, Not Publishing, But Maybe God" 7/16/07
32. "'Cross in the Dirt' story stolen from Solzhenitsyn" 8/17/08
31. "Confessions: The Meanest Thing Gizmodo Did at CES" 1/10/08
