People Who Comment Without Reading

Recently I vented a bit about the cesspool of online comments. Today I saw a commentary on NPR's Web site about people who furiously pass along and madly debate and flame an article without reading it first ("How to Tell Who Hasn't Read the New 'Atlantic' Cover Story by Gene Demby). It is both sad and hilarious.

Normally I would lump it in the category that people don't read such a story because of the fear and shame and anger at the merest mention of the ultimate American Scar (or a wound that continues to fester?), ie, slavery and racism. Unfortunately, it is not just slavery and racism that get furiously and nonsensically debated without thought or reading. Nowadays it is nearly everything. It seems that the majority of online commenters comment just to fill up a void in their own mental and emotional space. The majority of comments have nothing to do with what the commented article says or related issues. Commenting is just a distraction to forget about a widening black hole of loneliness.

What is more lonely than talking right past each other on and on, never once locking eyes or hearing each other?