Power ranking responses to NBA Power Rankings

10. Insult the NBA Power Rankings writer’s friends and family

I’m limiting this to the scope of online interactions. This is already multiple steps too far, and I’d very much like to assume no one reading this would go any further.

Now that that’s said, don’t do this! It’s unnecessary and hostile! It’s something a bad person would do! Stop!

Sometimes when someone says something you don’t like about something you really care about, it can be taken personally. When we’re hurt on a personal level, maybe it feels right to react personally.

This goes a step beyond, though. This is not just a knee-jerk reaction to someone doing something you don’t like. This is a conscious decision to take things out of a context that was already made overly personal and maligning someone who had nothing to do with it. That doesn’t have an excuse, not even a poor one. When this happens, someone has made a decision; they haven’t just reacted.

Pain makes people stupid, but this is informed stupid. Personal relationships are a lot more important than parasocial ones with one’s fandom. Anonymous-ish interactions on the internet do not give one the benefit of the doubt. There is no explanation to bringing in friends and family that doesn’t amount to “not only am I angry, but I’m cruel as well.”

Luckily, there are other ways to react to a ranking. At least nine of them, by my count, and none of the other ones cross this line. Not all of them are ones you want to do, but at least you can avoid being an inexcusably awful person.