Intimidation

The experience of blogging has been generally interesting if not, at times, taxing.
I have noted in the past that sometimes individuals who have tried to blog seriously and frequently have become tired of the energy it requires to just mount a few daily thoughts.
Often blogggers are subject to barrages of criticism (not just spam) and sometimes it seems orchestrated. That is not to say that bloggers should not be critiqued and/or criticised.
If you put your opinion out there then you should be prepared to have it challenged.
And I do.
What I don't like, and I think what has disheartened some others, is when critique passes into intimidation. Often it is people who are most outrageous and outspoken themselves who seem to want to intimidate those who offer another point of view.
Personally I would have thought that encouraging debate and discussion is a good thing.
I am writing this, of course, because I have been subject in the last year to at least two different attempts to tell me to "shut up". Not mind you to discuss what I have been saying but really just to rant and rave, to threaten, insult...and so on. Some of this has been from people who would declare themselves to be champions of free speech!
One example of this flared up again over the weekend.
And I sort of want to say....get a life.