Spam insults

Recently, I have been receiving highly critical spam comments. Here is one typical example:

What a waste of time. You’re [sic] poor english [sic] made this article hard to read. Learn to write.

I have to admit I am puzzled by the psychology of this. One form that spam comments take is to give an effusive but generic compliment (“Your blog is great!”), presumably to flatter me so that I won’t delete it. It never works but I can understand the strategy.

But I am totally baffled by what the spammer hopes to achieve with an insult.

Backhanded recommendations

This website highlights ambiguous sentences from letters of recommendation.

  • You will be lucky to get this person to work for you
  • I cannot recommend this person too highly
  • I recommend this candidate with no qualifications
  • Waste no time hiring this person
  • He was fired with enthusiasm
  • Nobody is better than this man
  • I found myself frequently raving about her work
  • I would place his research on the cutting edge
  • I would place this student in a class by herself
  • He has made immeasurable contributions to our firm

The Despicable John McCain

His disgusting weasel-worded campaign against giving gays their rights deservedly gets hammered on The Daily Show. The last bit It Gets Worse, based on Dan Savage’s It Gets Better campaign, is a thing of beauty because it is absolutely true. People who are on the wrong side of the fight for equal rights for marginalized groups always, always end up being despised.

<td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'It Gets Worse PSA
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