Please don't say that homophobia exists on the internet. This cannot be! You must be joking! The cake is a lie!
By now, you've probably heard about Tom Daley's 'coming out' video, wherein he says that- although he "still fancies girls"- he is currently dating another man, and he's happy. Now, if the internet has taught us anything (apart from the fact that sneezing pandas are god damn adorable), it's that some people can't bear the idea of someone else being happy, to the point where they feel the need to physically type out their indignation into a 140-character text box. This is dumb. If you are one of these people, you are dumb. Go away.
And yet, as dumb as the situation may be- and it is very dumb- it was hardly unanticipated, was it now? Homophobia, racism and other such unpleasantries are rife on comments pages across the web. Apparently intelligent human beings post blogs about how homosexuality is 'unnatural', or how females should be forever subservient to their 'superior' male counterparts. It's a thing guys.Senseless hatred is a thing.
Of course, all these idiots spewing foul vitriol at Tom Daley are misguided and stupid and terrible and disgusting. The way this guy was born is no reason to insult him. It's abhorrent that people can be so ignorant. Duh. But come on, we knew this would happen- it always does. The sequence is always the same:
1 - Prominent public figure reveals personal revelation,
2 - Stupid people make hateful remarks about said revelation,
3 - Intelligent people make hateful remarks towards the stupid people because they are stupid,
Aaaaaand nothing gets resolved. The public figure is still what they said they are, the stupid people still believe their hateful remarks, and the world's just that little bit angrier at itself. It's an exercise in futility.
Do you remember the advice that teachers always gave you in primary school about bullying? You know, the whole "ignore them and they'll go away" charade that never works? Well, I really think that it's our best shot at dissuading the haters.
Just leave them alone. Leave them in their chatrooms, to shout away at each other until their keyboards are hoarse. Don't waste your time on them- you've got more important things to worry about, like who got knocked out on X Factor or why your hair won't go the way it did last week.
Sure, haters suck. But that doesn't mean you have to give them something to suck on.
[Subject inspired by fellow blogger Floraidh- read her blog here.]