It worries me that much of South Africa’s reason and intelligence has been replaced with hate.

The easiest place to witness this is in comment sections, especially on bigger media websites such as News24 where I sometime post. It was once so bizarre that a woman made an emotional, 100% statement in agreement with me… except, in her mind, without realising it, she had replaced the word ‘ DA’ with ‘ANC’ i.e. she’d meant exactly the opposite but, maybe, hadn’t conceived that a white person would write what I had.

I mention “white” because it’s very much white people saying the most horrid and stupid things online.  I’m also totally aware of reverse racism on the streets and through BEE (which I’m against) but this blog is about those online commentators.

Locally, people sometimes make disagreeable comments on a Facebook link without clicking the link and reading the article. And some send me emotional, non-factual emails that amount to the DA being allowed to commit crimes because they hate and fear the ANC. It’s a nonsense attitude that does not only find our misnamed Rainbow Nation guilty of failure but blocks our future.

There’s more bias and racism now than at any stage I’ve experienced since 1994. Comments such as these belong to people who have no desire to build solutions:

• In response to a coloured women’s second language spelling and the fact that she’d agreed with me about increasing crime, a white male belittled her: “But what does this mean? I tried Google Translate and it just turned blue in the face before defecating on the lounge carpet?” Criticising a person’s 2nd or 3rd language mistakes is something that happens far too often. It’s bullying.

And towards me:

• “You’re a c*nt.”
• “Change your photo. The reason I for one don’t read your posts is because your appearance is off putting.” [At least he found the time to comment]
• “This is from an ANC supporter!!!! I know this man.” The most typical response is to not argue a point but simply label me as ANC ( which i’m definitely not) because i dared to say something against the DA (i’ve even been accused of betraying my race). A small-minded yet sometimes deliberate way to diminish the effect of an article.

I have deleted much worse than the above.

I think about the degeneration of our humanity on a daily basis but write about this now after receiving another of those nonsense emails after I’d banned a biased person (who wouldn’t stay on topic) on my Facebook. She decided to threateningly remind me that I live in a small town and that people I similarly blocked would talk to one another. Sure, small-town gossip can be vicious but it was still a silly thing to say. I’m sure that I already know that I live in a small town. Maybe, even, I experience the consequences of that more than most but a better response would’ve been to come back with a counter-argument on topic.

I choose not to hide who I am or what I do. I choose not to be duplicitous. I choose to back up my thoughts. I choose to hate bias. I choose to think for myself.

I choose to despise the ANC nationally for their monumental greed and racist policies but I choose also to despise the DA who are in power in Knysna, my home town, where they have shattered their election promises and blocked us from participating in the most important decisions affecting our lives.

I choose not to ignore people who stab repeatedly without substantiation. I choose not to ignore the history of commentators with hidden agendas. I choose not to ignore commentators who refuse to stay on topic because they think playing me somehow wins an argument. I choose not to fear threats and small-town gossip.

I choose not to be intimidated by old school thought that encourages hate and no solution. I choose to hate conservatism that ensures the same system that has repeatedly let us down is kept on a pedestal as a fake barrier between us and our fears.

I choose not to be a sheep.

PS: Understand why the public do what they do (or don’t) by reading ‘Willful Ignorance: Why You Are Destroying South Africa’.