Jake Lodwick’s Blog

I created this badge to clarify what sort of Tumblr user I am.

In the past, I have initiated and responded to personal attacks. I have always felt bad about it, as if I let a vicious, primitive beast take control of me. Posting this badge is my way of apologizing for those mistakes, and for making clear one of my core beliefs: that online discourse should be civil.

I will be personally attacked forever. This is no attempt to protect myself. This is the clearest possible way of telling such people, “I’m not playing your little game.” — and, in doing so, separating those who actually want to have a conversation, from those who simply enjoy hurting people.

Tumblr users will always have the capacity to hurt one another. The only measure one can take — your best defense — is to refuse to engage. If you react to an online personal attack you are handing the attacker a gift: you are sanctioning a premise buried under the details of the attack: that it has some validity. Don’t bite the bait, don’t “get them back”, don’t “set them straight”. By ignoring them, you will separate them into a distinct existential category: Troll.

I wear the badge as an icon of strength, of my dedication to my conviction that some forms of online interaction are simply not for me.