Joe Rogan is a wise man. [Or... Perspectives on online BS]

blog.myspace.com/talkingmonkey:

"I know a lot of people have some sort of ideas about how people in the public eye are supposed to respond to people that are not, but the way I look at it is this: I'm just a person, and when another person acts like an asshole to me, I reserve the right to be an asshole right back. I'm not defending my actions, but I am explaining how I think about it, or at least thought about it at the time. People say, 'You're the asshole picking on some 20 year old college student.' To which I say, absolutely. That was what I was going for. He was insulting me, so I decided to insult him right back. I was most certainly being an asshole, but I was being one to someone that was insulting me. If someone is nice to me I go out of my way to be nice to him or her, but if you're going to be a dick, I reserve the right to be a dick right back.

The bottom line is that anyone that would email someone that they don't know, and tell them something to try to piss them off or hurt their feelings is being a fuck head.
If you don't like me, like I've said, that's fine and dandy with me, but only an asshole goes around insulting people for no reason.

The internet has created a way for people to be screened and protected from the consequences of being shitty to other people.
Before the internet, this gateway was only available to writers and critics, but now, everyone can say whatever they want to say to someone with no consequences, especially if that person makes themselves as accessible as I am.
If there were no written word and no method of long distance communication, we would be forced to say the things we think about people to their face, which is the way humans are designed to communicate.

Now, when you remove the social cues you get from two people standing in front of each other talking face to face, it's a whole lot easier to be an asshole.
Could you imagine if you were just going about your day, and someone you don't know walked up to you and said "I hate you, you're not funny?" Because that's exactly the same thing someone is doing by sending that in an email.
How can you defend that behavior?

"Well, as a person in the public eye, you've got to expect that."

As a person that thinks that a good percentage of the people on this planet suck, I do expect it. It doesn't mean that I have to be nice to them.

..."You're such a fucking loser, you think that making money and being on some dumb show is any real accomplishment?"

Well, when you're bickering back and forth like this, basically you're playing a very low level social game. You're trying to "win."
When someone insinuates that you've never accomplished anything, and you just happen to be a guy that's made some money and been on some tv shows, wouldn't you bring that up?
You're not supposed to say that? Why not? It's just a fact. Why can't you state a fact? What kind of a weird taboo is that? It's bragging?
Why? Just because that fact doesn't apply to your life and it makes you uncomfortable?
Because it sounds gross when people talk about how much money that they make?
I think in the context that it was said, it was reasonable to bring that up.
I'm not saying I'm a better person than anyone that hasn't done what I've done, but when someone is saying that I'm going to work for the family hardware store because my career is over, I think I'm allowed to say "let's compare lives."

It's not like I'm having a serious conversation with someone whose opinion I respect, and when the subject of "have you accomplished anything in your life" comes up.
No, it's a shit-talking contest between two jackasses that have never even fucking met each other.
If I were seriously going to be honest about what I think my accomplishments are, it would be a far different answer."