Now in my defence…
The other day I received the first piece of negative feedback for OurRant.ca. The writer takes issue with portions of Adolf Kafka’s Tired Tirade rant, and my using this website to hide my obvious lack of intelligence. Because this is our first piece of negative feedback, I felt compelled to first reprint it, and then comment on it.
—–Original Message—–
From: D. King [mailto:citizen__king@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 6:20 PM
To: feedback@ourrant.ca
Subject: FeedbackWow. When I first heard about your site, words such as “sexist”, “racist”, and “idiotic” were used to describe it. But I didn’t think it could be THAT bad. Congratulations on proving me wrong.
Adolf Kafka generalizes all Israelis as nazis (had the USA done this, he would have been up in arms.) I would be interested to hear his logic in that. There are no facts in his arguments, only conspiracy-theory ideas. He sees the United States as a great wrong-doer, but I challenge him to look at the history of any other country – including his own. Condemnation can only come after self-reflection. And maybe not even then.
It was probably Dr. Gonzo who offended me the most, however. When I saw his name, I was pleased to see someone who also enjoys Hunter S. Thompson. However, after reading Fear and Loathing on Rememberance Day, I realize that Dr. Gonzo is nothing more than someone who tries really hard to be smart. He isn’t actually smart, but he pretends. In order to make himself feel smarter, he made a website to show off his…well…I’m not sure exactly what it is that he’s showing off. He has no idea what Thompson meant when he wrote about fear and loathing.
It’s sites such as these that make me wonder if the laws of freedom of speech should be repealed.
What can I say? I do try to be smart, and I’m embarrassed and sorry. I’m embarrassed by the fact that you, and hordes like you don’t try, and it shows. You say that I offend you because you feel that I like to make myself feel smarter by creating this website. I’m the one that should be offended, and not because you called me out by questioning my intelligence. I’m offended because you make spurious comments about my intelligence without maintaining an ounce of your own. If you did, you probably never would have written your email, and then I wouldn’t be bored to tears writing this rebuttal.
The simple fact of the matter is that you undermine your opinions of myself, this website, and Adolf Kafka’s writings. You do so by being unable to read, let alone understand the subtext of Adolf’s Tired Tirade. Where you think he is generalizing all Israelis as Nazis, he in fact mentions Israel, which in the context of his rant, refers to the state of Israel and it’s policies towards the Palestinian people. Any mention of Israelis is therefore only implied, and then only insofar as implying Israelis that support these policies. Out of graciousness, Adolf has chosen to clear-up any confusion by going into greater detail on the subject here.
I said earlier that I was sorry, not for myself, but for you. I’m sorry that you can’t read. I’m sorry you feel that anyone that has decided to co-opt the name of one of Hunter Thompson’s characters, should write exactly like Thompson. I’m sorry that you thought Fear and Loathing on Remembrance Day was going to be a tale about broken promises and shattered dreams that can sometimes swallow you whole if you let them. I’m sorry you feel that your’s is the one and true interpretation of Hunter S Thompson’s body of work.
But mostly I’m sorry that your’s had to be the first negative feedback we’ve received. I had hoped for far better.