The Biggest Obstacle to Blogging
Megan McArdle reports that she has had a fourth bicycle stolen since moving to DC, all of them locked, all of them at her home, the most recent inside a stockade fence. In frustration, she observes, “I think I’m done with bike commuting. I’d rather just hand out $100 bills to random people on the street; at least I wouldn’t be rewarding theft.”
This is followed by a remarkably heated exchange in the comments section, numbering 60 as of this writing, wherein readers lambaste Megan for being a dingbat and each other for various transgressions.
Freddy Mercury and company offer some related thoughts:
Presumably, some of the comments have been to the effect that if DC allowed concealed carry there would be less bicycle theft.
Not among the first 60 which, surprisingly, were even more insipid than that!
I stopped reading Megan’s blog because of the weirdos stalking her in the comments. No one reasonable would want to be associated that pack.
I do think she sometimes takes a narrow view, or perhaps makes an argument in the adversarial sense, knowing it is weak … but in the hue and cry the thread of actual content is rapidly lost.
(I notice that bike theft correlates pretty well to bike ridership. There is, very unfortunately a critical mass, when enough people are riding the crime becomes profitable. I do think plagued cities should stop it somehow.)
Did any of the insipid commenters call her a slow learner?
Personally, I think twice might do me. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…won’t get fooled again!”