The week twitter turned my stomach

I'll be one of the first to admit I'm a twitter addict. I don't tweet everyday, and a lot of what I do is re-tweeting when I come across a comment or article that someone else has written, because I find it valid, or interesting, or just plain funny. I've met some great people on twitter, the kind you just want to sit back and chat with. No agenda, no issues.

But this week... Man, this week left me with a truly sick feeling. There's a lot of sad, vicious little trolls out there that use stuff that happens in the world to push an agenda.

It started when Japan beat the USA in a football match. I lost count of the number of people screaming about Pearl Harbour. What the bloody hell a sports game has to do with a war event that happened before most of the morons tweeting about it were born escapes me.

Then the horrific shooting in Norway, where every right wing racist came out waving their banner about the Muslim danger. The fact that fundamentalist terrorists don't live or abide by the rules of Islam doesn't fit it with their own agenda's, so is casually ignored. Of course when it turned out the guy responsible appears to be a flaming right wing racist himself, the sound of rapid braking nearly drowned out the news. Hate to tell you this guys - it doesn't make him less of a terrorist. Look up the definition, since I'm too cursed grumpy and disgusted to do it for you right now.

Then yesterday Amy Winehouse was discovered dead. Once again, the trolls came out to play.

For me, when someone dies, no matter who or what they are, it should be a tragedy. All of their potential futures in this world are lost. No matter what they did in the past, are doing in the present - a loss of a life is a loss of the future. Keep in mind that right now, nobody knows what killed her. Everyone assumes it was an overdose, but hey - we've been wrong before.

Amy Winehouse was famous because she was one of the finest singers to come to light in years. There was nothing manufactured about her voice or her music. I avoided reading about her personal issues and the whole drug thing, because for me they were the least interesting thing about her.

At the same  time, she was one of many people struggling with a dark place. Her family, and the survivors in Norway have to try to find their way around the fact that a loved one is irrevocably gone. Your mind stumbles over that for a long, long time, and it hurts. It will always hurt.

 Something the twitter trolls seem unable or unwilling to understand. These people have the moral fiber and ethics of a rabid jackal. The difference is I pity the jackal, which after all never asked to go crazy and infect anything it contacts.

Les Floyd wrote in his blog about it being a psychic virus, which is the best way of putting it I've ever heard.

This week, the virus came close to making me physically ill.