by Kent Sterling
This is the only selfie I will ever post or send anyone. I’m dumb, but not that dumb.
A tsunami of comments flooded kentsterling.com early today, and because I try to reply to even the wackiest of thoughts, I was very busy this morning.
I was called names and referred to as a hypocrite enough times that I should have suspected something, but I was typing so furiously I never looked at the URLs of the comments, which were all identical.
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That these comments were all in response to my post three days ago on the supposed catfishing of Paul George is a sadly or hilariously ironic truth that makes my shame in being duped all the greater.
It’s odd that some random guy would block out an entire morning to engage in a fictitious debate with someone like me. Maybe I should take it as praise, but this morning’s lesson will remain with me for years and may save me a lot of time and trouble down the road.
The content of the comments was bizarre. Normally, because I respond to almost every reasonable comment made here, the commenter and I tend to find common ground, and even the most cantankerous dissenter learns that I’m not nearly the kook he or she believes me to be. Today, the people became more and more outraged – to the point where they began referring to me as a racist – without rationale.
I’ve never been called a racist, so I was mildly concerned despite having done nothing to warrant that characterization. That dozens of others suddenly echoed those beliefs gave me reason for pause because the sheer tonnage of the people who were offended had to be considered.
Never wavering, I continued to reply again and again to the accusation. I was truly baffled by this strident and odd collection of people as each comment I wrote was used against me in a way that defied logic. There was a supposed HR expert who pleaded me to stop replying, and 42 people who called me a hypocrite.
After working at a news/talk radio station for 15 years answering the somewhat delusional rantings of those who disagreed with a message from a host, I grew thick skin and saw the complainers as challenges. There were very few people who called my office that I couldn’t bring back to rationality, but this was a vat of 42 lunatics that could not be reasoned with.
I began to think that there was something institutionally wrong with NBA fans. Maybe they are collectively nuts and beyond reason, but I’ll be damned if I wasn’t going to try, so I continued to tilt against this windmill of discontent with endless comments offering well-reasoned explanation.
Finally, out of compassion, pity, or both, the guy came clean and apologized. I suppose I should be angry, but I’m not. My day could have been spent more constructively than by sparring with the same guy for hours as he masqueraded as 42 different people, but overall it was a reasonably funny execution that I completely fell for. Hard to blame anyone but myself for not checking the URL.
Why someone would take the time to try to trick me in this way is a great question, but I learned something through this, and my level of frustration during a crisis was severely tested, and I never became a haywire flamethrower. At one point, I wrote that a commenter was insane, but I changed it before it was posted. Good for me, I suppose.
The irony that being catfished as a result of writing a post about the evils of catfishing and how the media fails in reporting the results of catfishing is not lost on me.
All I have to be proud of is that through the entire ordeal I never posted a nude selfie.
NICE POST!!!
WHO WOULD DO SUCH A THING??
YOU HANDLED IT WELL MY FRIEND
OH THE IRONY OF WRITING A PIECE ON A SUBJECT ONLY TO FIND YOUR SELF DEEPLY ENTRENCHED IN IT
CHEERS
I AM BLOCKED FROM RESPONDING TO YOUR POST
COME ON MAN
BE WELL ANYWAY
CHEERS
I didn’t block anyone from responding to anything. Not sure what would cause that.
MY MISTAKE COMMENTS ARE POSTED
CHEERS
Yes, I didn’t delete them, as they provide answers to the people who read the comments yesterday, and will be entertained by the reveal.
LAST THING I PROMISE
THE ASSUMPTION THAT I AM SOME “RANDOM GUY” IS PUZZLING.
YOU ARE SO MATTER OF FACT THAT I AM “RANDOM” AND DO NOT KNOW OUTSIDE OF A CYBER EXISTENCE.
HALF OF THE WORLDS POPULATION IS FEMALE. YOUR ASSUMPTION THAT I AM A GUY SEEMS OFF BASE
CHEERS
Guy for me is a non gender specific term as in “You guys should come over tonight.” You are random in that your identity is not specifically known, and your actions yesterday were randomly applied to my website by your own description.
I LIKE YOU. YOU ARE A LIGHTHEARTED INDIVIDUAL. WELL VERSED. I AM ABSOLUTELY CAPTIVATED WITH SCIENCE AND ULTIMATE KNOWLEDGE. GREATER TRUTHS YET TO BE UNCOVERED FASCINATE ME. I FALSELY STIGMATIZE PEOPLES FASCINATION OF SPORTING ACHIEVEMENT. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE RATIONALE OF THOSE CAPTIVATED BY ATHLETIC PROWESS. YOUR WRITING SUGGESTS THAT YOU EXHIBIT A GRASP OF LANGUAGE AND INTELLIGENCE. SO I HAVE BUT ONE QUESTION THAT CONFOUNDS ME. I ASK YOU OF ALL THE CAREER PATHS A BRIGHT INDIVIDUAL CAN UNDERTAKE, WHAT LED YOU TO SPORTS COVERAGE?? MY INQUISITION MAY SEEM CONDESCENDING, BUT I ASSURE YOU IT IS TRULY INQUISITIVE. IT COMES WITH AN AFOREMENTIONED ASSERTION THAT I FIND YOU TO BE AN INTELLIGENT INDIVIDUAL. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE CULTURE OF SPORTING CELEBRITY. IT SEEMS TO BE ENVELOPED WITH A MINDSET OF A CHILDHOOD PLAYGROUND MENTALITY. I ASK THIS WITH SINCERITY. PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME YOUR FASCINATION WITH SPORT???
My road to covering sports ran through radio management, but sports is not dissimilar from any business. Life is about the ability of people to overcome adversity in its many forms, and sports is no different. There are millions with the raw talent to compete successfully at various sports, but very few are able to win the battle with tedious and repetitious work required to polish talent into excellence.
The fascination I have is with people, not the events themselves, and certainly not the marketing of athletes as superheroes. What a cashier does with his or her free time is no less interesting than what LeBron James does with his. How LeBron James became enormously wealthy, but didn’t stop working with tenacity to win back-to-back championships is quite interesting to me.
I also enjoy the mental game of employing strategies that best utilize the resources available with accomplish victory. Again, sports, business, and politics interest me similarly in that regard. All are measured with metrics that lend to an easy to follow context – score for sports, revenue for business, and votes for politics.
I APPRECIATE YOUR WILLINGNESS TO EXPLAIN YOUR FASCINATION WITH SPORTS. I MUST FREELY ADMIT I AM DISINTERESTED IN BUSINESS, POLITICS AND SPORTS. AFTER GRADUATING MEDICAL SCHOOL, I PURPOSELY PURSUED A CAREER IN RESEARCH BECAUSE I DID NOT ENJOY INTERACTING WITH PATIENTS(PEOPLE). I APPRECIATE HUMANITY BUT QUICKLY BECOME DISINTERESTED IN INDIVIDUAL PROGRESS. NERD TO THE NERD SQUARED POWER. I WANT YOU TO KNOW I DID NOT MALICIOUSLY TARGET YOU. I AM AS YOU WOULD SAY RANDOM. I DO NOT KNOW YOU, SO DO NOT WONDER IF YOU WERE PART OF SOME ELABORATE RUSE BY ONE OF YOUR BUDDIES. I JUST MOVED TO INDIANAPOLIS AND SAW AN ARTICLE ABOUT PAUL GEORGE BEING CATFISHED. I HAD NO IDEA WHO PAUL GEORGE WAS, AGAIN SUPER NERD. I GOOGLED PAUL GEORGE CATFISH TO ASCERTAIN MORE INFORMATION ABOUT WHO HE WAS AND WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED. THE MAGICAL POWERS OF A SEARCH ENGINE LED ME TO YOUR SITE. IT WAS THE TOP HIT OR AT LEAST IT WAS THE TIME I GOOGLED IT. I READ YOUR POST AND WONDERED HOW EASY THIS WAS TO ACCOMPLISH. AS YOU HAVE POINTED OUT I USED THE SAME URL, SO I WAS HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT. I SINCERELY APOLOGIZE IF I CAUSED YOU ANGUISH. IT SOUNDS LIKE I DID RUIN YOUR MORNING, WHETHER OR NOT YOU LEARNED SOME GREATER LESSON AS YOU SAY. IT WAS A DICK MOVE. I WAS READING YOUR POST AND WONDERED HOW PEOPLE GET CAUGHT UP IN THESE SITUATIONS. IT MUST HAVE BEEN EITHER THE NERDY SCIENTIST WANTING TO EXPERIMENT, OR ME JUST BEING A JERK. I HAVE STATED BEFORE THAT YOU HANDLED IT WITH CLASS. I DID KNOW WHILE I WAS DOING IT THAT YOU HAD THE POWER TO DELETE QUICK TRIGGER RESPONSES THUS “SOMEWHAT” ENSURING NO LASTING DAMAGE. I WILL SAY IT AGAIN THOUGH, A DICK MOVE. I HONESTLY COULD NOT BELIEVE I WAS ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH THIS SO CALLED CATFISH. I HAVE MENTIONED THAT BY READING YOUR POSTS, I BELIEVE YOU ARE AN INTELLIGENT PERSON. IN MY HUMBLE OPINION, I THINK WE WANT TO BELIEVE PEOPLE ARE GENUINE AND THEIR POINT OF VIEW OR BLOG RESPONSES IN THIS CASE COME FROM AN HONEST MINDSET. I SPENT HOURS TORMENTING YOU AND HAD YOU EVEN QUESTION WHETHER NBA FANS WERE INSANE. BY MY PREVIOUS COMMENTS I WOULD AGREE WITH THE LATTER. HA KIDDING I JUST DO NOT LIKE SPORTS. COMIC CON OVER THE NBA FINALS ANYDAY. IF ONLY COMIC CON HAD CHEERLEADERS. I APOLOGIZE FOR INCONVENIENCING YOU. I WAS A JERK AND IMMATURE
No worries. It’s given me some laughs over the past day. I don’t mind being the goat now and then. There was no anguish or panic. I’m self-employed, so I answer only to myself for my own stupidity. I could have spent my time more productively Tuesday morning, but it was a solid challenge to keep up with your wacky comments. Hope you enjoy Indianapolis. It’s a good city filled with trusting and genuine people – in your world, a target rich environment.