Having been away from my YouTube account for a while, I had not seen the reply I got from one "JigglesJingle", who apparently objected to my comment on last year's Big Blue Test video. Here's what he (I assume this is a guy, but it could just as easily be a woman) had to say:
Reply to your comment on: 2010 BiG Blue Test: World Diabetes Day
@PlattHamb Platt - It's because you get a generation of lazy uneducated parents who eat all this crap .. divulge in chocolate and what ever else, and it genetically alters them and unfortunately the children are then left with the problems the family has passed down to them. Diabetes isn't spontaneous, it's called lack of excersize, poor diet, and ignorance.
I was, of course, angry when I read this, and my first impulse was to go back and say something equally nasty to this person. But upon rereading it, I realized... it just made me sad. Sad that someone is so full of self-loathing and meanness as to want to slam someone — a person they don't know, and a child, for heaven's sake — for having a disease. Also sad that the level of ignorance about diabetes translates to hostility toward those who have it (or, in this case, the parent of the child who has it). Sad that our science education in this country is so poor that at least one individual thinks that chocolate causes genetic mutations. As an aside... if that were the case, yours truly would have six eyes and green hair, because chocolate is my primary substance of abuse. And sad, also, that the culture of "blame the victim" is alive and well in America (not that this is news to anyone).
I did reply to JigglesJingle. My reply was a great deal more courteous and far less angry (though not lacking in anger completely):
Having just seen your comment about my Big Blue Test post, I have to say one thing: you would do better to learn more about the subject you're commenting on before you hit the "post" button. My son's condition, Type 1 diabetes, is an autoimmune disease. It's not caused by diet. He had a normal toddler's diet -- pureed vegetables and mother's milk, mostly -- and still got sick. By spewing vitriol at me, you simply expose your ignorance and utter lack of compassion to the universe.
I wonder if that will get the message across. I somehow doubt it. But I had to try.