Drive-by Tweeting

I received my first negative response to anything I’ve ever written and published to the internet.  Of all things, it was a tweet.  In response to Governor Chris Christie’s veto of the marriage rights law passed the other day by the New Jersey legislature, I tweeted, “Gov. Christie is an embarrassment to New Jerseyans everywhere.  Override that veto!” In response, I received this tweet from an obviously ill-informed (and very angry) individual:

Leaving aside the rudeness of this response, I was more surprised by the poor fact-checking displayed by this individual than anything else.  According to a CNN article by David Ariosto, “Fifty-two percent of state voters approve the measure, the first time the figures have crossed the 50% threshold, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll.”  In fact, it was reading that article which inspired my tweet.  Luckily, I was far more amused than upset by the tweet I received from @PCtypesCanSukit, a person who happily describes himself as a young military veteran sick of America being destroyed by Liberals, Muslims, Gays, and illegal Mexicans whose solution is to fix America one ass kicking at a time.  I suspect that Mr. CanSukit is used to baiting and browbeating those with whom he disagrees.

Initially, I wondered how to respond to his personal and scurrilous attack (I am a smartass, not a dumbass): whether to tweet back or ignore him.  I decided not to reply back to his tweet because I was confident that directly confronting this person would not engender constructive debate.  Besides, anyone whose Twitter handle ends in “CanSukit”, and is obsessed with gay issues, seems to need a little time for private introspection.

On the other hand, I decided to write this post because ignoring him felt equivalent to condoning his remarks.  Furthermore, I believe that engaging in a polite and respectful discussion of the issues of marriage rights or internet etiquette with fellow bloggers and interested readers can hopefully encourage others to express their opinions free from the fear of anonymous reprisals.