Introducing McMahon's Law

Here, for the first time anywhere, I present to you McMahon's Law:

Whenever a blogger posts at length about a hateful e-mail he has received instead of responding to the legitimate arguments advanced by the other side, that blogger has lost the debate.

Here's a generalized example of how I have seen this played out over and over on the web:

1. The Blogger asserts His Viewpoint on The Issue of the Day.
2. The Opposition responds, and the usual back-and-forth ensues for a couple of rounds.
3. The Blogger is unable to respond to the strongest points made by The Opposition, and is starting to lose the debate.
4. It will be at this point that The Blogger will reveal in a very lengthy post that he has received hateful e-mails from members of The Opposition. Generally, these hateful e-mails will disparage The Blogger's puppy, sick child, or dead beloved parent/grandparent.
5. Immediately The Supporters of The Blogger will flood the post with comments about what a Wonderful Person The Blogger is, and how Evil the members of The Opposition are.
6. The Blogger will then respond in kind, telling The Supporters what Wonderful People they are, and then revealing some heretofore unmentioned Wonderful Quality about the Puppy, Sick Child, or Dead Grandmother.
7. Immediately The Supporters of The Blogger will flood the post with another round of comments about what a Wonderful Person The Blogger is, and how Evil the members of The Opposition are.
8. The Blogger will then mention how traumatized he has been by the hateful e-mail sent by The Opposition.
9. The Supporters will then offer ritual forgiveness of The Opposition, admonishing them with some biblical phrase about Not Judging People.
10. If a member of The Opposition attempts to re-start the debate, this is immediately trumped by comments of the "Haven't You People Done Enough Already To The Poor, Traumatized Blogger?" variety.
11. The whole thing winds down, with The Supporters pleased at what Wonderful People they are. The arguments advanced by The Opposition are never addressed.

Sound familiar? What a bunch of crud. If You Can't Stand The Heat, Stay Out Of The Kitchen. Weird, odd, or hateful e-mails and comments are just part of the territory when you blog on controversial topics -- I get that kind of stuff all the time. Everybody does. It's like comment spam or offers from Nigerian banks. It's the stuff you brush off, not something you use when you don't have an effective rebuttal. And from this point on, anyone who does this will have forfeited their debate to their opposition. Clear enough?

Comments

[Erik]

Hahhah. Interesting. It kind of sounds like the entire culture war in a nutshell, too. McMahon's Law. Has a nice ring to it!

[joel]

hey i love your blog. no hateful responses over here.
stuck you in my bloglines too. ^_^