GET OVER IT*
Ilyka Damen has an amusing and insightful piece on blogwars, especially the personal variety. This observation is especially worth noting:
Complaining isn’t zero-sum. If I say I am hungry because I haven’t eaten in ten hours, my saying that does not diminish the hunger you have from not having eaten in two days–nor does it diminish my own hunger for you to point out to me that you’ve gone longer without food than I have. It’s true that objectively, you are more in need of food than I am, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t eat something myself. In short–there is always plenty of bitching to go around. No one needs to have a Will the Real Martyr Please Stand Up? contest; there is no winner.
Heh. Indeed. Go read the whole thing.
*With apologies to the contestant in the Worst Songs contest who thinks that Eagles tune one of the worst ever. I’m especially partial to the line, “I’d like to find your inner child and kick his little ass.”
(Hat tips: Stephen Green and Meryl Yourish)
I did come this close to having a “Will the Real Martyr Please Stand Up?” contest, though.
Update (1540): Apparently, Jacob Levy and Matthew Yglesias didn’t get the memo on this one. Theirs is rather good-natured, though.
