Anonymous Blog Commentators: Keeping the "Mexican Crab" Story Alive

 By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon

When I first started my blog, I allowed people to leave comments on my posts. I very quickly decided that was a bad idea and I removed the option to leave comments on my posts altogether. If you visit the Facebook version of the Beacon, you can leave a comment, but you'd have to use a fake Facebook profile to leave a nasty comment — you can't simply leave one as an "Anonymous" commenter.

I have made no secret of the fact I think Jerry McHale, Juan Montoya, and Jim Barton are the preeminent bloggers in the Brownsville Blogosphere. I have never pretended to be a professional journalist. My degree is not a degree in journalism. I have never worked for a legitimate news publication.

I recently published an article discussing a scenario where Downtown Brownsville could have been a thriving, bustling city center if the University of Texas System had decided to make UT Brownsville a legitimate university rather than a hollowed out shell in a lopsided partnership with Edinburg as the lesser-half of UTRGV. 

I have told several stories of my grandfather and how I would often times steal his copy of El Rocinante to read. I have also written about meeting Jerry McHale and how I am flattered and humbled that one of the Blogfathers would even think to repost some of the articles I publish.

Apparently the article I wrote about Downtown's demise made its way through the Brownsville Blogosphere and was referenced in an article written by one of the other big-name bloggers in town. He allows "anonymous" people to leave comments in his articles. 

I am mentioned in the comments. I wish I could say I was spoken of favorably. I wasn't. Between being called a "f**king loser," a clown, and a wannabe writer, my article is actually not being accurately spoken of. In the blog, the author writes, "Should Brownsville be blamed, then, for the state of downtown and the fact that the UT System isn't here?"

If my critics would actually bother to read the article I wrote, rather than automatically resort to name-calling, they'd see my article clearly says, "It isn't the fault of local business owners. It isn't the fault of the public. It isn't even the fault of the local politicians." I go on to blame the demise of the area squarely on the shoulders of the UT System, not Brownsville.

But therein lies the rub.

It's much easier to yell obscenities from the cheap seats and the peanut gallery rather than actually reading something and trying to understand it. It's much easier to join a lynch mob and try and dispense a quick judgment rather than trying to figure something out on your own. Or, simply put, it's easier to tear something down than it is to build it up.

Things are destroyed far easier than they're created.

When I first began blogging, I was told I would have to have a thick skin. I was told not to let the anonymous negative comments get to me. It is a lesson that I am still struggling with.

When I allowed anonymous comments to be posted on the blog, I was ridiculed in every way imaginable. Even the classic homophobic slurs were thrown my way. Apparently my ideas and my opinions made me a homosexual for some reason.

Whenever I decide to peruse the anonymous comments of some of the local bloggers, I'm reminded of a story that I was told a very long time ago.

There was a man who was crabbing off the coast. I watched him from afar as he would pluck the crabs from his traps. He would get them, inspect them closely, and he would put separate them into two groups. One group of crabs would be put in a covered bucket, and the other would be put into an uncovered bucket. 

Not being an expert in sea life, I wondered why he was separating what appeared to be nearly identical crabs. After watching him separate his catch for a while, I approached him and decided to ask him what he was doing.

'Excuse me, sir, but why are you separating these crabs into two groups?" I asked.

Without looking up from what he was doing, he said, "Well, I have to put the white crabs in the covered bucket, and I put the Mexican crabs in this uncovered bucket."

"What's the difference between the two?" I asked with a puzzled look on my face. "They look the same."

The man grinned and he said, "Well, they might look the same, but they're different. The white crabs will try to crawl on top of each other and will eventually make their way out of the bucket." He turned to drop another crab in the uncovered bucket. "I can leave these Mexican crabs uncovered. You see, every time one of them gets close to crawling out of the bucket, one will reach up from the bottom and pull him right back down."

If you can learn how to ignore all the negativity in your life, you'll be better off than us talentless, clownish f**king loser bloggers, I suppose.

Good luck in doing so.