I checked my blog stats this morning to discover a plethora of traffic from an unfamiliar site. As I am always excited to encounter new readers and see how and why they chose to visit, I excitedly clicked on the source link…
…only to discover the blog of an extremely racist expat who is currently residing in Korea, using one of my various commentaries on Korean society and distorting it convey his belief that Koreans are fat, ugly, good-for-nothing beings whose “kimchi breath” makes him want to hurl.
After taking a deep breath, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Who knows? Maybe he had a bad day.
So I read on, and became disheartened to learn that the rest of his blog was filled with similar hate-filled speech, not only against Koreans but to women as well, consistently referring to the fairer sex as “b*tches” and “c*nts.”
My first instinct after browsing through the first few pages (don’t ask me why I got so far…it was like watching the horrible scene of an accident) was to contact the writer, or at least leave a comment asking him to remove the link to this blog.
But then I realized: what I write here is in plain sight of everyone who has access to the internet. In other words, it is free fodder for all. And just like there will always be readers who misinterpret my often-well-intentioned ramblings to take offense at my thoughts, there will always be those who will use it for malicious purposes as well.
(source)
Similarly, I know that while most people will look at pictures of Claire and see just a baby, a few will find them erotic and have perverted thoughts about my firstborn. :shudder:
As much as I would like to see a stop to actions and thought processes such as these, I can’t. I cannot control how others feel. I cannot control how others act or react. And I have found from experience that if anything, my fighting back usually results in riling anger and unwanted attention.
So I usually just ignore.
What would you do if your content were linked to from an unsavory site? Would you ask to have it removed, or would you just ignore it?
Is this yet another reason why so many bloggers choose not to get so personal on their public spaces on the web?
