It's a sad sad story

Here's something to add to the list of things I hate but am drawn to and then regret, like political discussions, marinated olives, or expensive porn:
The comment sections available below the article on so many websites.

I'm all for free speech and differing opinions, but letting any jackass with a keyboard they can half use weigh in anonymously whenever the heck they want... it never seems to ends well.

Just today, for example, I was reading a lovely little feel-good blurb about it snowing in Baghdad for the first time in living memory. Residents emerged in wonder having only ever read about snow or seen it in film, calling their friends and family members in joy and amazement. The guns fell silent for the few hours the dusting lasted. And had I stopped reading there, I would have smiled to myself and that would be that.

But of course my eyes wandered to the damned comment section. About 3 comments in, someone criticized the fluff piece - who cares about snow when people are dying? The fifth comment decried the hoax that is global warming, as proven by the snow. The eighth comment blamed the snow on Bush without irony. And somewhere in there was a profane generalization of Muslims. The next round of comments focused heavily on insulting all the previous commentators.

It was maddening, as it always is, and yet I couldn't pull myself away. My mind boggles at the vast volume of uninformed vitriol people happily spew. Beyond raising my blood pressure, I'm not sure what purpose is served in providing a forum for people to voice all these opinions when it almost always devolves quite rapidly into ignorant and hate-filled rant.

People suck.