I’m at War with the Commenter Class

I’m a good leader, I’m a good follower. I can be a worker bee. I can hold the clipboard. I can grab the coffee. I can “write that down for next week”. I can “put together the plan”. I can “sketch out what that will look like if things go well”. I’ve done some great assisting work in my life. I’ve done some great leading in my life. I love a great leader, I love a great follower. And when I say great follower I don’t mean some human carbon copy situation where the person just rubber stamps the thoughts of the leader. No, a follower is someone who helps reach POINT B with innovation and ingenuity, but in collaboration with the leader. In fact, that’s what a leader is too. Here’s what I’m not about, the ever budding, ever growing and utterly useless COMMENTER CLASS.

I mainly see the Comment Class in the Star Tribune comment section. There are a handful of good people in the comment sections in general, but they are mostly outgunned by the laptop mafia who shout out directions and misspelled missives to people who most likely don’t read the god damn comment section anyway. If you’ve made a comment on an article in your life you are not immediately placed into my detested group of the commenter class. If you have a clever commenting name that doesn’t easily connect someone with your given name. . .you are in the commenter class. If that name is vaguely sexist, racist or just kind of. . . .gross. . .you are in the commenter class. There’s been a recalibration during my lifetime where suddenly the commenter class. . .matters? They don’t. It’s a fiction that deserves correcting. They are the 2023 version of the town mutterer. I don’t mean the commenters don’t matter cause their life stories don’t matter, or that they don’t deserve love and a positive home life. What I mean is that you should derive very little credit or clout from just jumping on what someone else wrote and repeating your stump speech over and over again. Naw, that’s not right. If you are just the peanut gallery and you don’t campaign, you just shoot out ideas with no sweat equity, no effort. If it’s easy, it’s usually pointless. These comments are pointless. You think you’re a leader in waiting, you think you’re a follower just waiting for the right leader. Nope, you’re a Commenter and your life is a bummer.

I also think the phenomenon of the Commenter Class is related to some of where we are struggling as a planet at the moment. There’s an epidemic of people who think the most important thing they can do is “chime in with their thoughts”. What a crock. Your thoughts matter, but if you aren’t leading, and you aren’t following, I don’t know what to do with those thoughts. Period. Can I show them to the OZONE Layer? Can I show them to folks struggling without strong schools in their zip codes? No. And again, thoughts matter. Inarguably, thoughts are the centerpiece of progress. BUT COMMENTS? Comments can kiss my ass. If what you think you are bringing to this world is a skeptical tone of judgment to articles you had not part in making, can you at least admit that it is making no difference? You might as well enjoy something else. Try gardening. Why are you fake helping? Probably cause gardening takes effort, takes forethought, takes responsibility. You stick to commenting.

There is work to be done, and we all have to play a role. But I don’t think anyone is recruiting for the role of “prime commenter”. Start a conversation, bring your thoughts, borrow a work ethic, study leaders, start following, start leading, stop commenting. It’s not productive.