u/CPSux

Maybe I’m just old school, but I have always reserved blocking for the rare group of users with a blatant pattern of harassment, trolling or other abusive tendencies.

As a Redditor of over a decade, I’ve noticed that in the last couple of years, instead of being a feature to protect against harassment, blocking has become a tool to silence others for arbitrary reasons. Far too many Redditors are blocking others to either win an argument, fortify their echo chamber or simply because they dislike another user personally.

Sometimes I’ll come across the dreaded “[deleted] – [unavailable]” comment and then, out of curiosity, I’ll switch to another browser to read it. More often than not, it’s a username I don’t recognize and have likely never even interacted with before. Yet they’ve blocked me because… ?????

Other times I’ll be having a conversation with someone and we will disagree on a topic, never disrespectfully or anything, but then out of nowhere they will block me to get the last word in.

It’s just really weird behavior and it makes this site a worse experience for those of us who are trying to engage in good faith discussions.

Like everyone else, Michael’s death was one of those pivotal moments where I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. It was the first celebrity death that actually affected me personally. As time went on, I never stopped listening to his music, but haven’t thought about him on a deep level in over a decade.

But ever since the movie came out, my algorithm has been flooded with Michael Jackson content.

Now, over the past few days I’ve been rewatching all of his videos, interviews and really studying how the lifelong ridicule tortured his soul. At the same time, I’ve had a chance to once again appreciate his creative genius.

All of this (especially watching his final rehearsal of ‘Earth Song’ on June 24, 2009) has triggered an immense feeling of sorrow and grief in me that I can’t quite explain.

I guess it’s a realization that a man who brought so much joy to the world and touched the hearts of billions suffered so much personally and lost his life far too early. Then there’s the understanding that a once in eternity talent whose work transcended every man-made social construct on earth is no longer with us, when his work would matter today more than ever.

I don’t know. All I can say is, even 17 years later, Michael’s loss feels like a tragedy and I’m so sorry he’s gone.