Withholding Credit Where Credit Is Due Part I

THE INTERNET is not known as a bastian of magnanimity. Quite the opposite. Half of it is pornography, the other half, seemingly, misinformation, conspiracy theories, insults and slanders. On Facebook I tend to hang out with cat lovers, Trump haters,and sports fans. My beloved Yankees, my beloved Razorbacks. So, in walks a bunch of Boston Red Sox fans,poclaiming their hatred of the Yankees, long the arch rivals of the Red Sox. I hate the Yankees, the Yankees suck,seemed to be the extent of their baseball knowledge and vocabulary. I wanted something a bit more intelletually ambitious, and although I was skeptical about my chances of getting it, nevertheless thought I would try anyway. I offered as how since I love baseball it seems senseless to me to hate baseball teams,even teams that are my opponents. Without opponents there are no games. Wanting to win needn't involve hatred of any sort, I offered to the Boston smear merchants.Yankees still sucked. So, I typed in that I have been a Yankees fan for sixty years, and have admired and respected the Red Sox the entire time, and respect their organization, their tough competition, and their fine tradition. The posts about the Yenkees and their sucking only got louder and more colorful, so I pointed out that yes, the Yankees suck this year, but have had a winning record for thirty years in a row, the only team in baseball that can make that claim. Also, I mentioned,over the past thirty years the Yankees ahve won five world championships, more than any otehr team,and that, throughout the entire history of baseball, they have won twenty seven world championships, far more than any other team. That, I said,certainly does not suck. Their response? "just a lot of money". True enough, I said,but there are thirty major league baseball teams,owned by thirty billionaires. The Yankees don't even have the highest payroll in baseball anymore. Other teams have caught up,, and joined the spending spree party. No response, I was beginning ot figure out these people had no interest in hearing the truth, nor in responding to it, nor in enjoying a pleasant, intelligent conversation with a fellow baseball fan. The Yankees suck,seemed to be their only rejoinder. I was tempted to hand them a dictionary, but refrained, thinking it would likely do no good. I again congratuated the intellectually limited folks on their fine basball team, but heard noting further, which I now see as a blessing A salient fact about human nature is that when people are determined to incite conflict with insults, any show of kindness and generosity of spirit is intolerable, becuase it prevents them from achieving their objective, which is conflict. My pride is inact, knowing that I defeated them in their petty pursuit of reaching the bottom of their very shallow,least magnanimous selves.