Biglaw, Law Schools

Deranged Cranks With Law School Degrees And Too Much Time On Their Hands Find A Home

This is, unfortunately, why we can't have comment sections.

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If you haven’t been hanging out in the comments section at the ABA Journal then… well, we wouldn’t blame you at all actually. The reporters over there put out consistently top-notch legal industry news and there’s not much more one can expect to learn from some JD with enough time on their hands to hang out for hours on a chat board regaling an audience of literally tens.

But if you have hopped into the ABA Journal’s comments lately, you might notice some pure unfiltered wackiness slipping into the discussion. Like the first comment on a post about Trump’s border policy being “This invasion must be stopped.” Or a recent article about Michael Cohen where the comments started off with an interesting discussion about the procedural requirements of an impeachment trial… before a crazed rant from a Dinesh D’Souza acolyte named “Hope” trying to make the “Democrats are the real racists” trope hunt.

At least the other side is more civil:

You’re not tired of sucking Osama Bin Laden’s dead dick, Hope. You are a fuccing America-hating scumbag!

Hooboy. Seems like everything’s nice and normal down in the bowels of the comments.

Somehow, we here at Above the Law can’t help but feel somewhat responsible. After all, it was our decision to finally pull the plug on comments that likely sent some of these people ABA Journal’s way. It’s been nearly three years since we closed the comments, a forum that was once witty, subversive, and insightful before devolving into 20-40 disgruntled attorneys making the same racist jokes over and over. At the time, we discussed the possibility of stepping up comment moderation as an alternative to killing off the forum, but as the ABA Journal may be learning, moderation can never be perfect and ultimately it just steals resources from reporting and writing for the millions to cater to a paltry circle-jerk. It’s just not worth it.

And it’s sad to shut down a forum for a website’s most ardent readers, but at a certain point it’s important to realize that the readers who really want to constructively engage can do so in a million other ways. They can reach out through third-party social media or set up their own managed boards to discuss the content. In many ways, just removing the thrill that the trolls can see their name on a website with millions of clicks is all it takes to let the substantive commentary reassert itself.

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And that’s the saddest part of the ABA Journal’s comments — there are the beginnings of smart, relevant discussions in there that can’t help but get sidetracked into a back and forth with conspiracy mongers about how “the left” is trying to abolish ICE so they can force everyone into a Pizzagate sex cult.

In the end, lawyers like to think better of ourselves. We like to believe that an open forum of smart people can only elevate any discussion. But we need to remember that no matter how much you admire and respect your peers in the profession, the worst person from your 1L Torts class also became a lawyer, and that’s why we just can’t have nice things.

Earlier: A Farewell To Comments

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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