The Scene and Herd

Working for BlogTo has been tons of fun. I get to go out to eat cake at least once a week. Plus, I get to take Alyssa with me. We have a good time. There’s just this one problem with the whole BlogTo experience – the comment section. People can be so mean. It’s demoralizing. Rather, it used to be demoralizing. I’ve become desensitized to stupid comments and this is of concern, because it makes it difficult for me to discern which comments are legitimate. Some of them are completely worth my while to read. In short, a few shifty comments are making it difficult for real comments to be heard.

Word on the street is Jason Kenney has the same problem with Canada’s refugee system. Apparently there are so few restrictions on who can claim refugee status, that a number of Mexicans have been taking advantage of it and making illegitimate claims. Then they get to hang out in Canada while their case is sorted out. The system is so overwhelmed by the fake refugees that the real refugees can’t get their case heard in a timely manner.

So Kenney has decided to slap Visa restrictions on Mexico and the Czech Republic. I disagree with this move, to say the least. It’s already hard enough for those guys to get out of Mexico alive. But the system is broken and Kenney is trying to fix it. Aside from making the system more of a priority (i.e. hire more people), I can’t offer any solid ideas.

Thankfully, most news reports have wide-open comment sections, where regular people can offer their own solutions to the refugee problem. “Let’s expand the visa requirement to anyone seeking refugee or immigrant status and refuse entry to anyone with improper documents,” suggests one lofty individual, who obviously doesn’t even really understand what a refugee is. Someone else proposes we put them “on the next plane home if they don’t pass even basic muster.”

I appreciate this last guy’s optimism. I have no idea who he is is, but I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and call his idea well thought out. In fact, I think we should apply his solution to all comment sections. Before someone may leave a comment, they have thirty seconds to explain why they deserve to leave a comment. If they have too much to say or get nervous or can’t articulate or have just had a really bad day and can’t think straight then tough luck. They don’t get to make a comment. They get to bring their cursor to the upper left hand corner of their browser window and click “back” to the page they came from.