Comment Type #27

THE FRISCH

Recent events in the blogosphere have prompted this comment type to be laid down for posterity. Dr Deborah Frisch, using a variety of names (but the same IP, the same computer) began to post on the blog Protein Wisdom. She posted deliberately provocative and insulting material, which was not particularly new or interesting and began lowering the bar more and more. She finally became so shockingly offensive and horrific that she crossed the line from awful, insulting internet troll to a new class of loathesome person altogether. Some lowlights:

I’d like to hear more about your “tyke” by the way. Girl? Boy? Toddler? Teen? Are you still married to the woman you ephed to give birth to the tyke?

Tell all, bro!

[...] as I said elsewhere, if I woke up tomorrow and learned that someone else had shot you and your “tyke” it wouldn’t slow me down one iota. You aren’t “human” to me.

Ooh. Two year old boy. Sounds hot. You live in Colorado, I see. Hope no one Jon-Benets your baby.

Are you still married to the woman you humped to produce the toddler?

The Blackfive blog has more, if you can stomach it. While Michelle Malkin (caution, very obscene language) has had to put up with this kind of hateful even bigoted commentary before, this time there's a name and person connected with it. She's a professor at the University of Arizona (formerly University of Oregon), although she claims to have resigned due to the furor as of the point of this posting.

Jeff Goldstein, the blogger at Protein Wisdom, predicted this woman would become a new internet noun for her over-the-top insanity and offensive nature. She revealed a distinctly unstable mind and tendency to fixate on a topic to a chilling, lunatic degree, then laugh it off as if nothing had happened, calling it a "learning opportunity."

A Frisch comment is one that is not simply offensive, but deliberately and calculatedly personal and horrific to the point of disgust by even those who would ordinarily support the commenter's positions. It is marked with insanity and repetition, pushing the envelope more and more with a deliberate intent on being banned.

The Frisch is not welcome anywhere, at any time, even in jest, because it is so overwhelmingly awful and repugnant. This is the kind of comment that crosses the line between ordinary internet banter and actionable, if not criminal behavior. It has been with us for a long time, from personal direct threats against people to attacks against a person so cruel, personal, and extraordinary that they can only be the result of a truly sick mind.

Never, ever, no matter how mad you get, or how deserving the target of abuse ever stoop this low. No one will defend you.

Note: Protein Wisdom has undergone repeated Denial of Service (DOS) attacks - hackers trying to keep anyone from reaching his site - due to his bringing to public attention and banning this loathesome slug. So apparently at least one person might defend you, if your political bend is radical enough, no matter how hateful and evil you may be.

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